Group 8: South Wales

Having reached South Wales in the previous section, it is now likely that we now move north from Isca, Caerleon, with the epithet of its Legion, II Augusta, attached. This suggests that the Cosmographer’s source antedated the abandonment of Caerleon by the military in the fourth century, when the Legion was transferred to Richborough. The Cosmographer’s eye then moved north on the map source towards Magnis and Branogenium (Kenchester and Leintwardine), places known from the Antonine Itinerary Iter XII, but taking in a branch road on the way. He does this after reaching (Go)bannio, Y Fenni (Abergavenny), and continuing straight to the far end of the road which branches from here, listing places back to the point of departure. Bremia is the fort at Llanio, where the hamlet of Llanddewi Brefi and the stream Afon Brefi preserve the Romano-British name (Ekwall 1928, 50); Alabum will then fit Llanymddyfri (Landovery) and *Cicucio Y Gaer, Brecon (Richmond & Crawford 1949, 6). Beyond Branogenium, which Rivet and Smith (1979, 275) convincingly identify with the <Brauonio> of the Antonine Itinerary Iter XII, Leintwardine, the list is obscure. The two most likely identifications for *Eposessa and *Magalonium are Castle Collen and Caersŵs, the latter on the River Severn, a good candidate for the ‘noble river’ at the root of the name proposed by Sir Ifor Williams (in Richmond & Crawford 1949, 39).