Roman Wales (1st–4th centuries)
Wales in the Roman period shared broadly the experience of other parts of highland Britain, but modern archaeological study has tended to moderate the traditional contrast drawn between military and civil zones. Mediterranean culture is best exemplified in southern Wales, where there were important Roman towns at Caerwent and Carmarthen and villas at a number of other sites. Remains elsewhere consist mainly of the roads and forts of a phase of military occupation that lasted to about ad 200. But at Caernarfon (Segontium) there was a continuous well-ordered settlement to about ad 400, and it is likely that civil influences were exerted much more widely than was once thought. Linguistic study suggests that the native language, known to scholars as Brittonic or Brythonic, was infused with Latin terms, though distinction needs to be made between borrowings of the period of Roman rule and the scholarly borrowings of subsequent periods. Early Welsh consciousness of a Roman heritage may owe a great deal to the Latinity sustained in later centuries by the Christian church.
The founding of the kingdoms
The origin of early Welsh political organization must be sought in the period following the cessation of Roman rule in about ad 400. Native leaders, unable to sustain Roman methods of governance, initiated the processes that were to lead to the founding of a number of kingdoms. The Historia Brittonum, an antiquarian compilation dating from the early 9th century, explains the origin of the kingdom of Gwynedd by relating a tradition that Cunedda Wledig migrated from northern Britain to northwestern Wales to expel the Irish who had occupied the area. This may be an example of the origin stories that were current in early medieval Europe, and the Historia also contains an early reference to the Welsh claim to Trojan origin, which was to prove an enduring theme in Welsh historical consciousness. Tradition attributes the names of the various parts of Gwynedd, such as Dunoding and Rhufoniog, to a division of the kingdom said to have been made among Cunedda’s sons after his death, but these may be the names of territories that were gradually incorporated into the kingdom during a long period of growth. Cunedda’s descendants were to rule as kings; a 7th-century representative of the dynasty is commemorated upon an inscribed stone in Anglesey as Catamanus Rex (Cadfan the King).
In southwestern Wales the Irish presence led to the founding of the Irish kingdom of Dyfed, and some Irish influence was felt further afield in the neighbouring lands of Ceredigion, Ystrad Tywi, and Brycheiniog. In the southeast Glywysig and Gwent emerged, to be united, though impermanently, to form Morgannwg. In north-central Wales the kingdom of Powys, originally centred at Pengwern (a place not identified with certainty), was established, and it embraced at least part of the Roman province of the Cornovii, centred at Wroxeter in Shropshire.
Early Christianity
There are indications of a Romano-British Christian church in southeastern Wales, but Christian influence may also have penetrated much deeper into Wales in the Roman period. Inscribed stones, though themselves belonging to the 5th or 6th century, carry terms such as sacerdos (probably meaning bishop) and presbyter (priest), which may reflect a well-established Christian church of early origin. Stones with Irish (or Ogham) inscriptions and Christian symbols in southwestern Wales suggest that the immigrants, if not already Christian upon arrival, were Christianized soon afterward. The extent of the continuity of the early Romano-British church, however, has become the subject of scholarly debate. From the mid-20th century onward historians have argued in favour of discontinuity by stressing the importance of what they considered to be new Gallo-Roman influences exerted on western Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. According to this view Celtic “saints” coming from the Continent reestablished Christianity by their missionary activities along the western seaways. More recently, however, the view held by an earlier generation of historians that the Christian church had a continuous existence from the Romano-British period has regained support. Scholars defending this position argue that much of the evidence for the missionary activity of Celtic saints was derived from the saints’ lives and church dedications of a later date. Basing their arguments on the De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, a work by the 6th-century British monk Gildas that suggests a long-established Christian tradition of Romano-British derivation, they postulate that the trade and cultural contacts along the western seaways may have served not to introduce Christianity or to revitalize a lingering faith but to bring to an existing church a form of monasticism that had proved to be an important influence in the development of the Gallic church.
Support for the argument of a “Celtic church” rests upon the church’s monastic character. A major church (clas, plural clasau) was headed by an abbot and bishop who was responsible for daughter houses. The clas was not a cloistered community, and its head was responsible for the ordination of priests and the pastoral care of the laity in neighbouring areas. But the hereditary succession to office and to ecclesiastical property that developed with time was among traditional practices, and, even though at places like Llanbadarn Fawr there were ecclesiastical families who maintained a Christian learning of a high order, these practices were considered to be contrary to the teaching of the reformed church.