URPoint Details
The Romans laid out a fortress beside the River Usk about AD 74, as the headquarters of the 2nd Augustan Legion, and it is estimated that some 6,000 lived here.
Excavations have unearthed kitchens, hospital, baths and outside the walls a granary. Perhaps the most remarkable remain here is the amphitheatre, the only one completely excavated in Britain. It is oval, and on an earth bank, quite high and held tiers of wooden seats that could seat several thousand.
According to the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, King Arthur had his court at Caerleon.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1865, stayed at the 16th century Hanbury Arms beside the river while working on his Arthurian poem Idylls of the King.
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