but the former name lasted on into later times as well as Caere. It was one of the twelve cities of Etruria, and its trade, through its port Pyrgos (q.v.), was of considerable importance. It fought with Rome in the time of Tarquinus Priscus and Servius Tullius, and subsequently became the refuge of the expelled Tarquins. After the invasion of the Gauls in 390 B.C., the vestal virgins and the sacred objects in their custody were conveyed to Caere for safety, and from this fact some ancient authorities derive the word caerimonia, ceremony. A treaty was made between Rome and Caere in the same year. In 353, however, Caere took up arms against Rome out of friendship for Tarquinii, but was defeated, and it is probably at this time that it became partially incorporated with the Roman state, as a community whose members enjoyed only a restricted form of Roman citizenship, without the right to a vote, and which was, further, without internal autonomy. The status is known as the ius Caeritum, and Caere was the first of a class of such municipalities (Th. Mommsen, Römische Staatsrecht, iii. 583). In the First Punic War, Caere furnished Rome with corn and provisions, but otherwise, up till the end of the Republic, we only hear of prodigies being observed at Caere and reported at Rome, the Etruscans being especially expert in augural lore. By the time of Augustus its population had actually fallen behind that of the Aquae Caeretanae (the sulphur springs now known as the Bagni del Sasso, about 5 m. W.), but under either Augustus or Tiberius its prosperity was to a certain extent restored, and inscriptions speak of its municipal officials (the chief of them called dictator) and its town council, which had the title of senatus. In the middle ages, however, it sank in importance, and early in the 13th century, a part of the inhabitants founded Caere novum (mod. Ceri) 3 m. to the east.
The town lay on a hill of tufa, running from N.E. to S.W., isolated except on the N.E., and about 300 ft. above sea-level. The modern town, at the western extremity, probably occupies the site of the acropolis. The line of the city walls, of rectangular blocks of tufa, can be traced, and there seem to have been eight gates in the circuit, which was about 4 m. in length. There are no remains of buildings of importance, except the theatre, in which many inscriptions and statues of emperors were found. The necropolis in the hill to the north-west, known as the Banditaccia, is important. The tomb chambers are either hewn in the rock or covered by mounds. One of the former class was the family tomb of the Tarchna-Tarquinii, perhaps descended from the Roman kings; others are interesting from their architectural and decorative details. One especially, the Grotta dei Bassirilievi, has interesting reliefs cut in the rock and painted, while the walls of another were decorated with painted tiles of terracotta. The most important tomb of all, the Regolini-Galassi tomb (taking its name from its discoverers), which lies S.W. of the ancient city, is a narrow rock-hewn chamber about 60 ft. long, lined with masonry, the sides converging to form the roof. The objects found in it (a chariot, a bed, silver goblets with reliefs, rich gold ornaments, &c.) are now in the Etruscan Museum at the Vatican: they are attributed to about the middle of the 7th century B.C. At a short distance from the modern town on the west, thousands of votive terracottas were found in 1886, some representing divinities, others parts of the human body (Notizie degli Scavi, 1886, 38). They must have belonged to some temple.
See G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, i. 226 seq.; C. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, iii. 1281. (T. As.)
CAERLEON, an ancient village in the southern parliamentary division of Monmouthshire, England, on the right (west) bank of the Usk, 3 m. N.E. of Newport. Pop. (1901) 1411. Its claim to notice rests on its Roman and British associations. As Isca Silurum, it was one of the three great legionary fortresses of Roman Britain, established either about A.D. 50 (Tacitus, Annals, xii. 32), or perhaps, as coin-finds suggest, about A.D. 74–78 in the governorship of Julius Frontinus, and in either case intended to coerce the wild Silures. It was garrisoned by the Legio II. Augusta from its foundation till near the end of the Roman rule in Britain. Though never seriously excavated, it contains plentiful visible traces of its Roman period—part of the ramparts, the site of an amphitheatre, and many inscriptions, sculptured stones, &c., in the local museum. No civil life or municipality seems, however, to have grown up outside its walls, as at York (Eburācum). Like Chester (see Deva), it remained purely military, and the common notion that it was the seat of a Christian bishopric in the 4th century is unproved and improbable. Its later history is obscure. We do not know when the legion was finally withdrawn, nor what succeeded. But Welsh legend has made the site very famous with tales of Arthur (revived by Tennyson in his Idylls), of Christian martyrs, Aaron and Julius, and of an archbishopric held by St Dubric and shifted to St David’s in the 6th century. Most of these traditions date from Geoffrey of Monmouth (about 1130–1140), and must not be taken for history. The ruins of Caerleon attracted notice in the 12th and following centuries, and gave plain cause for legend-making. There is better, but still slender, reason for the belief that it was here, and not at Chester, that five kings of the Cymry rowed Edgar in a barge as a sign of his sovereignty (A.D. 973). The name Caerleon seems to be derived from the Latin Castra legionum, but it is not peculiar to Caerleon-on-Usk, being often used of Chester and occasionally of Leicester and one or two other places.
(F. J. H.)
CAERPHILLY, a market town of Glamorganshire, Wales, 15214 m. from London by rail via Cardiff, 7 m. from Cardiff, 12 m. from Newport and 6 m. from Pontypridd. The origin of the name is unknown. It was formerly in the ancient parish of Eglwysilan, but from that and Bedwas (Mon.) an ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1850, while the whole of the parishes of Eglwysilan and Llanfabon, with a total acreage of 14,426, were in 1893 constituted into an urban district; its population in 1901 was 15,385, of which 4343 were in the “town” ward. In 1858 was opened the Rhymney railway from Rhymney to Caerphilly and on to Taff’s Well, whence it had running powers over the Taff Vale railway to Cardiff, but in 1871, by means of a tunnel about 2000 yds. long, under Cefn Onn, a direct line was provided from Caerphilly to Cardiff. A branch line, 4 m. long, was opened in 1894 to Senghenydd. The Pontypridd and Newport railway was constructed in 1887, and there is a joint station at Caerphilly for both railways. Some 2 m. eastwards there is a station on the Brecon and Merthyr railway at Bedwas.
The ancient commote of Senghenydd (corresponding to the modern hundred of Caerphilly) comprised the mountainous district extending from the ridge of Cefn Onn on the south to Breconshire on the north, being bounded by the rivers Taff and Rumney on the west and east. Its inhabitants, though nominally subject to the lords of Glamorgan since Fitzhamon’s conquest, enjoyed a large measure of independence and often raided the lowlands. To keep these in check, Gilbert de Clare, during the closing years of the reign of Henry III., built the castle of Caerphilly on the southern edge of this district, in a wide plain between the two rivers. It had probably not been completed, though it was already defensible, when Prince Llewelyn ab Griffith, incensed by its construction and claiming its site as his own, laid siege to it in 1271 and refused to retire except on conditions. Subsequently completed and strengthened it became and still remains (in the words of G. T. Clark) “both the earliest and the most complete example in Britain of a concentric castle of the type known as ‘Edwardian,’ the circle of walls and towers of the outer, inner and middle wards exhibiting the most complete illustration of the most scientific military architecture”. The knoll on which it stood was converted almost into an island by the damming up of an adjacent brook, and the whole enclosed area amounted to 30 acres. The great hall (which is 73 ft. by 35 ft. and about 30 ft. high) is a fine example of Decorated architecture. This and other additions are attributed to Hugh le Despenser (1318–1326). Edward II. visited the castle shortly before his capture in 1326. The defence of the castle was committed by Henry IV. to Constance, Lady Despenser, in September 1403, but it was shortly afterwards taken by Owen Glyndwr, to whose mining operations tradition ascribes the leaning position of a large
