View source for Silures

{{Short description|Celtic tribe of ancient Britain}}
{{about-distinguish|an ancient British tribe|Silurus}}
{{for|the community in Alabama|Siluria, Alabama}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The '''Silures''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|s|ai|'|lj|ʊər|i:|z}} {{Respell|sy|LURE|eez}}, {{IPAc-en|US|'|s|I|l|j|ər|i:|z}} {{Respell|SIL|yər|eez}})<ref>{{cite book|last=Wells|first=John|author-link=John C. Wells|title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary|publisher=Pearson Longman|edition=3rd|date=3 April 2008|isbn=978-1-4058-8118-0}}</ref> were a powerful and warlike tribe or tribal confederation of [[Iron Age Britain|ancient Britain]],<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Silures |volume=25 |page=109 |first=Francis John |last=Haverfield}}</ref> occupying what is now [[south east Wales]] and perhaps some adjoining areas. They were bordered to the north by the [[Ordovices]]; to the east by the [[Dobunni]]; and to the west by the [[Demetae]].
== Origins ==
According to [[Tacitus]]'s biography of [[Gnaeus Julius Agricola|Agricola]], the Silures usually had a dark complexion and curly hair. Due to their appearance, Tacitus believed they had crossed over from Spain at an earlier date.<blockquote>The dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former date crossed over and occupied these parts.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Church|first1=Alfred John|last2=Brodribb|first2=William Jackson|date=1899|title=The Agricola and Germany of Tacitus, and the Dialogue on Oratory|location=London|publisher=Macmillan & Co.|page=11|url=https://archive.org/details/church-and-brodribb-agricola-germany-dialogiae-1899-en/page/11}}</ref></blockquote>
[[Jordanes]], in his [[Getica|Origins and Deeds of the Goths]], describes the Silures.
<blockquote>The Silures have swarthy features and are usually born with curly black hair, but the inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies. They are like the Gauls or the Spaniards.</blockquote>
The [[Iron Age]] [[hillfort]] at [[Llanvair Discoed|Llanmelin]] near [[Caerwent]] has sometimes been suggested as a pre-Roman tribal centre.<ref>[https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/places/llanmelin-wood-hillfort/ Roman-Britain.co.uk on Llanmelin]</ref> But some archaeologists{{who|date=January 2024}} believe that the people who became known as the Silures were a loose network of groups with some shared cultural values, rather than a centralised society.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} Although the most obvious physical remains of the Silures are hillforts such as those at Llanmelin and [[Sudbrook, Monmouthshire|Sudbrook]], there is also archaeological evidence of [[Roundhouse (dwelling)|roundhouses]] at [[Gwehelog]], [[Chepstow|Thornwell (Chepstow)]] and elsewhere, and evidence of lowland occupation notably at [[Goldcliff]].<ref name=gch>[[Miranda Green (academic)|Miranda Aldhouse-Green]] and Ray Howell (eds.), ''Gwent In Prehistory and Early History: The Gwent County History Vol.1'', 2004, {{ISBN|0-7083-1826-6}}</ref>
== Etymology ==
The Latin word {{lang|la|Silures}} is of Celtic origin, perhaps derived from the [[Common Celtic]] root {{lang|cel-x-proto|*sīlo-}}, 'seed'. Words derived from this root in [[Celtic languages]] (for example [[Old Irish]] {{lang|sga|síl}}, [[Welsh language|Welsh]] {{lang|cy|hil}}) are used to mean 'blood-stock, descendants, lineage, offspring', as well as 'seed' in the vegetable sense. Silures might therefore mean 'kindred, stock', perhaps referring to a tribal belief in a descent from an originating ancestor.{{Original research inline|date=August 2009}} [[Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel]] hypothesises that the Silures were originally referred to as {{lang|und|silo-riks|script=Latn}}, 'rich in grain'.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Continental Celtic Word Formation: the Onomastic Data |author=Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel |editor=García Alonso, Juan Luis |year=2014 |publisher=Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca |page=70 }}</ref>
==Silures and Caratacus==
Of the Iron Age tribes who settled in Wales, the tribe best known today were the Welsh pre-Celtic ([[Insular Celts|Goidelic]]) Silures tribe. From 800 BC, they were in the same location for almost a thousand years, many centuries before the Roman invasion. The earliest modern recorded leader of a Welsh tribe was the British leader [[Caratacus]] from the [[Catuvellauni]] tribe. He fled what is now England and joined forces with the Silures tribe against the Romans who had defeated his tribe in battle. But after another defeat in South-East Wales he again fled, and allied himself with the [[Ordovices]] tribe in [[North Wales]]. The Welsh Silures tribe had a home in the [[Malvern Hills]], and built [[British Camp|earthworks]] to defend themselves against [[Publius Ostorius Scapula|Ostorius Scapula]] and the [[Roman army]]. However, during the year 78 AD, the Romans invaded the hillfort and defeated the Silures tribe, the Romans were led by [[Frontinus]] and his army from the Roman fort [[Ariconium]], which they proceeded to inhabit for 300 more years afterwards.<ref>{{cite book| title=Royal Wales| first=Deborah| last=Fisher| chapter=King of Wales |page= |isbn=978 0 7083 2214 7|year=2010|publisher=[[University of Wales Press]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The history of Ewias Harold|url=https://www.ewyaslacy.org.uk/Golden-Valley/Digital-Archive-The-History-of-Ewias-Harold-its-Castle-Priory-and-Church-by-Rev-AT-Bannister-MA/1902/rs_gdv_0172#Chapter1|publisher=Jakeman & Carver|chapter=1|date=1861|first=Arthur Thomas|last=Bannister|pages=2–4, 7<!-- |chapter=2 -->| access-date=4 November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://malvernmuseum.co.uk/prehistoric-malvern/| website=malvernmuseum.co.uk| title=Hill forts on the Malvern hills | access-date=4 November 2024}}</ref> It was [[Clydog]] who emerged as the king in the 5th century.<ref>{{Cite book |author-last=Bartrum |author-first=Peter Clement |author-link=Peter Bartrum|url=https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/printed-material/a-welsh-classical-dictionary |title=A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to about A.D. 1000 |publisher=National Library of Wales |year=1993 |isbn=0907158730|page=150}}</ref>
[[File:Wales.pre-Roman.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.35|Tribes of Wales at the time of the Roman invasion. The modern Welsh border is also shown, for reference purposes.]]
===1st century battles===
The Silures fiercely resisted Roman conquest about AD 48, with the assistance of [[Caratacus]], a military leader and prince of the [[Catuvellauni]], who had fled from further east after his own tribe was defeated.
The first attack on the Welsh tribes was by the legate [[Publius Ostorius Scapula]] about AD 48. Ostorius first attacked the [[Deceangli]] in the north-east of what is now Wales, however little else is known or recorded of this conflict. He spent several years campaigning against the Silures and the [[Ordovices]]. Their resistance was led by Caratacus, who had fled from the south-east (of what is now England) when it was conquered by the Romans. He first led the Silures, then moved to the territory of the Ordovices, where he was defeated by Ostorius in AD 51.
The Silures were not subdued, however, and waged effective guerrilla warfare against the Roman forces. Ostorius had announced that they posed such a danger that they should be either exterminated or transplanted. His threats only increased the Silures' determination to resist. They surrounded and attacked a large legionary force occupied in building [[Roman fort]]s in their territory; it was rescued by others only with difficulty and considerable loss. The Silures also took Roman prisoners as hostages and distributed them amongst their neighbouring tribes in order to bind them together and encourage resistance.
Ostorius died with the Silures still unconquered. After his death, they defeated the [[Legio II Augusta|Second Legion]]. It remains unclear whether the Silures were militarily defeated or simply agreed to come to terms, but Roman sources suggest rather opaquely that they were eventually subdued by [[Sextus Julius Frontinus]] in a series of campaigns ending about AD 78. The Roman [[Tacitus]] wrote of the Silures: ''non atrocitate, non clementia mutabatur'' – the tribe "was changed neither by cruelty nor by clemency".
== Romanization ==
To aid the [[Roman Wales|Roman administration]] in keeping down local opposition, a legionary fortress ([[Isca Silurum|Isca]], later [[Caerleon]]) was planted in the midst of tribal territory.
The town of [[Venta Silurum]] ([[Caerwent]], six miles west of [[Chepstow]]) was established in AD 75. It became a Romanized town, not unlike [[Calleva Atrebatum]] ([[Silchester]]), but smaller.<ref name=EB1911/> An inscription shows that, under the [[Roman Empire]], it was the capital of the Silures, whose ''ordo'' (local council) provided local government for the district.<ref name=EB1911/> Its massive Roman walls still survive, and excavations have revealed a [[Forum (Roman)|forum]], a [[temple]], baths, [[amphitheatre]], shops, and many comfortable houses with mosaic floors, etc.<ref name=EB1911/> In the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, the Silures were given some nominal independence and responsibility for local administration. As was standard practice, as revealed by inscriptions, the Romans matched their deities with local Silurian ones, and the local deity [[Ocelus]] was identified with [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], the Roman god of war.<ref name=gch/>
Caerwent seems to have continued in use in the post-Roman period as a religious centre. The territory of the Silures later developed as the 5th-century Welsh kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Gwent|Gwent]], [[Brycheiniog]], and [[Gwynllwg|Gwynllŵg]]. Some theories concerning [[King Arthur]] make him a leader in this area. There is evidence of cultural continuity throughout the Roman period, from the Silures to the kingdom of Gwent in particular, as shown by leaders of Gwent using the name "[[Caradoc]]" in remembrance of the British hero [[Caratacus]].<ref name=gch/>
==The term "Silurian"==
Reference is occasionally made to this period of [[Celt]]ic history by the use of terms such as "Silurian". The poet [[Henry Vaughan]] called himself a "Silurist", by virtue of his roots in [[South Wales]].
The [[geologic period|geological period]] [[Silurian]] was first described by [[Roderick Murchison]] in rocks located in the original lands of the Silures, hence the name. That period postdates the [[Cambrian]] and [[Ordovician]] periods, whose names are also derived from ancient [[Wales]].
==References==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Silures}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Iron Age tribes in Britain}}
[[Category:Celtic Britons]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Gwent]]
[[Category:History of Monmouthshire]]
[[Category:History of Newport, Wales]]
[[Category:History of Powys]]
[[Category:Prehistoric Wales]]
[[Category:Historical Celtic peoples]]