Segontium ( owl, Cair Segeint) is a Roman fort on the outskirts of

Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor i ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County B ...

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...

. The fort, which survived until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, was garrisoned by Roman auxiliaries from present-day

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It was the most important military base and administrative centre in this part of Britain.

Etymology

The fort probably takes its name either directly from the Afon Seiont or from a pre-existing British settlement itself named for the river. The name is a Latinised form of the Brythonic language *seg-ontio, which may be translated as "strong place". There is no evidence that the fort is connected to the

Segontiaci The Segontiaci were a tribe of Iron Age Britain in the first century BCE. They are known only from a brief mention in the writings of Julius Caesar. They may have been one of the four tribes of Kent, represented in Caesar by references to the "f ...

, a British

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

noted by Julius Caesar.

History

Roman

Segontium was founded by Agricola in AD 77 or 78 after he had conquered the Ordovices in

. It was the main Roman fort in the north of Roman Wales and was designed to hold about a thousand auxiliary infantry. It was connected by a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman R ...

to the

Roman legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of t ...

ary base at

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

Deva Victrix Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of the modern city of Chester. The fortress was built by the Legio II ''Adiutrix'' in the 70s AD as the Roman army advanced north ag ...

. Unlike the medieval

Caernarfon Castle Caernarfon Castle ( cy, Castell Caernarfon ) – often anglicised as Carnarvon Castle or Caernarvon Castle – is a medieval fortress in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, north-west Wales cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic envir ...

that was built alongside the Seiont estuary more than a thousand years later, Segontium was situated on higher ground to the east giving a good view of the

Menai Strait The Menai Strait ( cy, Afon Menai, the "river Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales. It varies in width from from Fort Belan to Abermenai Point to from ...

s. The original timber defences were rebuilt in stone in the first half of the 2nd century. In the same period, a large courtyard house (with its own small bathhouse) was built within the fort. The high-status building may have been the residence of an important official who was possibly in charge of regional mineral extraction. Archaeological research shows that, by the year 120, there had been a reduction in the military numbers at the fort. An inscription on an aqueduct from the time of the Emperor

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succ ...

indicates that, by the 3rd century, Segontium was garrisoned by 500 men from the ''Cohors I Sunicorum'', which would have originally been levied among the ''Sunici'' of

Gallia Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany. In 5 ...

. The size of the fort continued to reduce through the 3rd and 4th centuries. At this time Segontium's main role was the defence of the north Wales coast against Irish raiders and pirates. Coins found at Segontium show the fort was still occupied until at least 394.

Medieval

Segontium is generally considered to have been listed among the 28

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

listed in the ''

History of the Britons ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British (Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Bri ...

'' traditionally ascribed to

Nennius Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the '' Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considere ...

().

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classics, classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19 ...

(). ''Historia Brittonum'', VI. Composed after AD 830. Hosted at Latin Wikisource. either as Ford, David Nash.
The 28 Cities of Britain
at Britannia. 2000. or .Newman, John Henry & al
p. 92.">''Lives of the English Saints: St. German, Bishop of Auxerre'', Ch. X: "Britain in 429, A. D.", p. 92.
James Toovey (London), 1844.

Bishop Ussher James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his iden ...

cites another passage in Nennius:On page 20 of Stevenson's 1838 edition of Nennius's works. "Here, says Nennius, Constantius the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( e ...

(the father probably of

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

) died; that is, near the town of Cair Segeint, or Custoient, in

Carnarvonshire , HQ= County Hall, Caernarfon , Map= , Image= Flag , Motto= Cadernid Gwynedd (The strength of Gwynedd) , year_start= , Arms= ''Coat of arms of Caerna ...

". Nennius stated that the emperor's inscribed tomb was still present in his day. Constantius Chlorus actually died at

York York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...

; the Welsh monument might be for Constantine who was the son of Saint Elen, the supposed patron of the Sarn Helen. In the 11th century, the

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. T ...

built a

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively eas ...

nearby, whose settlement formed the nucleus of present-day

. Following the 13th-century Edwardian conquest, the earlier work was replaced by

Present day

Although the

A4085 List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island ...

to Beddgelert cuts through the site, most of the fort's foundations are preserved. Guidebooks can be bought from other Cadw sites, including Caernarfon Castle. The remains of a civilian settlement together with a

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of R ...

Mithras Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (''yazata'') Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linke ...

, the Caernarfon Mithraeum, and a cemetery have been also identified around the fort.

Mythology and fiction

Segontium is referenced in the prose of the ''

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...

'', a collection of early medieval Welsh prose first collated in the 1350s. In '' Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig'' ("The dream of Macsen Wledig")—one of its Four Independent Tales—Macsen (identified with the

Magnus Maximus Magnus Maximus (; cy, Macsen Wledig ; died 8 August 388) was Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian in 383 through negotiation with emperor Theodosius I. He was made emperor in ...

) dreams of a beautiful woman ( Saint Elen) who turns out to be at "the fort at the mouth of the Seiont".

Wallace Breem Wallace Wilfred Swinburne Breem (13 May 1926 – 12 March 1990) was a British librarian and author. He was the ''Librarian and Keeper of Manuscripts'' of the Inner Temple Law Library. His writing included non-fiction pieces, but he is probab ...

's novel '' Eagle in the Snow'' begins and ends in post-Roman Segontium and references its temple of Mithras. The fort also features in ''

The Crystal Cave ''The Crystal Cave'' is a 1970 fantasy novel by Mary Stewart. The first in a quintet of novels covering the Arthurian legend, it is followed by ''The Hollow Hills''. Plot introduction The protagonist of this story is a boy named Myrddin Emrys ...

'' and ''

The Hollow Hills ''The Hollow Hills'' is a novel by Mary Stewart. It is the second in a trilogy of novels covering the Arthurian Legends. This book is preceded by ''The Crystal Cave'' and succeeded by ''The Last Enchantment''. ''The Hollow Hills'' was publ ...

'' of Mary Stewart's ''Merlin'' trilogy.

Gallery

Image:Segontium - Praetorium.jpg, Foundations of the commander's house Image:Segontium - geograph.org.uk - 1212206.jpg, Basement strongroom Image:Segontium - Therme 1.jpg, Remains of bath house Image:Segontium066.jpg, Plaque marking barrack block Image:Segontium067.jpg, Building components unearthed on site

References

* Frances Lynch (1995) ''A guide to ancient and historic Wales: Gwynedd'' (HMSO) * R.E. Mortimer Wheeler (1924) ''Segontium and the Roman occupation of Wales'' (Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion)

External links

* *
Segontium
- National Trust

* Casey, P. John., Evans, J. and Davies, J. L. (1993). Excavations at Segontium (Caernarfon) Roman fort, 1975–79. 1993. https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1075295&recordType=MonographSeries {{authority control Caernarfon Roman fortifications in Gwynedd Archaeological sites in Gwynedd Museums in Gwynedd Archaeological museums in Wales History of Wales Former populated places in Wales Museums of ancient Rome in Wales National Trust properties in Wales 70s establishments in the Roman Empire Articles containing video clips Roman auxiliary forts in Wales