Roman Mining Operations on the Borders of Wales. 295 



SOMAN MINING OPERATIONS ON THE BORDERS 



OF WALES.* 



BY THOMAS WEIGHT, M.A., F.S.A. 



Oue history of the first establishment of the Romans in Britain 

 is very imperfect and very obscure. After a short campaign 

 under Claudius, a.d. 43 and 44, which appears to have been 

 carried on chiefly in the south, we find the Romans exercising a 

 superiority over all the eastern and central States, including 

 that of the Brigantes, and suddenly carrying nearly all their 

 forces to the borders of Wales. When Ostorius Scapula was 

 sent, in the year 50, to take the command of this distant pro- 

 vince, and to suppress the disorders which had arisen in it, he 

 made the Avon the base of his operations, and then marched 

 into the country of the Cangi, who evidently inhabited the 

 districts lying on the northern coast of Wales. Beyond then- 

 territory, the Romans came upon the sea that looked towards 

 the island of Ireland. They were called back from this con- 

 quest, first by a revolt of the Brigantes, and then by the more 

 resolute hostility of the Silures of South Wales, which led to 

 the defeat and capture of Caractacus. Under the government of 

 Suetonius Paulinus, in the year 61, the spirit of insurrection was 

 again active in Britain, and the Romans appear attaching the same 

 importance to that district of the Cangi ; for his grand exploit 

 was the reduction of the island of Anglesey, because it was by 

 the Britons assembled there that the Cangi were continually 

 urged into revolt. The multitude of the Roman troops was 

 still collected in this quarter, and it was from thence that they 

 were taken to repress the more formidable insurrection of 

 Boadicea. 



We might naturally inquire what was the particular cir- 

 cumstance which drew the attention of the Romans, at this 

 early period, so strongly to this distant part of Britain; and 

 a rather curious antiquarian discovery furnishes the reply. In 

 1783, a Roman pig of lead was found in Hampshire, bearing 

 the inscription — 



NEEONIS . AVG . EX . KIAN . IIII . COS . BEIT 



intimating that this lead was taken from the mines in the 

 country of the Kiangi, or Cangi, in the fourth consulate of the 

 Emperor Nero. Now Nero's fourth consulate began in the year 



* Since this article was -written, we learn that Mr. More of Linley Hall has 

 contributed to the International Exhibition a very elaborate model, on a large scale, 

 with plans and sections, of the Shelve mining district, in which all the remains 

 of the Roman mines are shown, and that he will exhibit in the same case the 

 various objects which were found in or in connection with the latter. 



