The existence of a fort at Cardiff should therefore give us pause for thought about the ‘Saxon Shore’ and what functions we think these bases fulfilled. Cardiff was, after all, located far from any realistic piracy threat from the North Sea. Recent excavations of a part of the interior of Cardiff Castle are currently being analysed, revealing new detail about the history and occupation of this important site. This creates an opportunity to place the late Roman fort at Cardiff in its wider context, and at the same time to consider how it might shape our understanding of the sites traditionally considered as belonging to the Saxon Shore.
The Roman forts at Cardiff
Cardiff’s late third-century fort was in fact the last in a series of Roman bases at this location. Depending on precisely how one reads the archaeological evidence, there was a sequence of either three or four forts here, whose occupation spanned almost the whole Roman period.
The first major occupation was during the Roman conquest of South Wales, which began in AD 47 and continued for several decades. ‘Fort I’ was the largest on the site and is suggested as a vexillation-type base, capable of housing several thousand soldiers. Its lifespan was from the mid-AD 60s to the mid-80s, after which it was replaced by the much smaller ‘Fort II’. At the beginning of the second century, the southern defences of this new fort were subject to major rebuilding, but whether this represents the creation of an entirely new base (‘Fort III’) or simply localized repairs is an open question. Regardless, the occupation of Forts II/III is evidenced through the second and third century.
Finally, in the mid- to later third century, major
