Isca Augusta
About
Legio II Augusta, one of Claudius's original invasion legions of 43 CE, moved to a new purpose-built fortress at Isca Silurum (Caerleon) in South Wales c. 74-75 CE under governor Sextus Julius Frontinus, replacing timber defenses in stone c. 99-100 CE per a Trajanic building inscription. The legion was still garrisoned there in 117 CE and would remain for roughly two more centuries.
What happened here
A legionary fortress holds five thousand men and is laid out to the same plan everywhere, so a transferred soldier knows his way around on the first day. Two main streets cross at the headquarters building, where the standards and the pay chest are kept in a sunken strongroom under guard. Around it: the commander's house with a courtyard garden, granaries raised on stone piers, a hospital, workshops, and long barrack blocks divided into rooms for eight men who cook and mess together. Training is daily, and building work is constant — soldiers make their own bricks, tiles and boots. A civilian town grows against the walls, with bars, traders and the unofficial families of men who are not legally allowed to marry.
In ancient writing
- Antonine Itinerary, Antonine Itinerary Iter XIV
Records Isca (Legio II Augusta's fortress at Caerleon) as a station on several road routes through Roman Britain, under the name Isca Leg. II Aug.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →