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King Arthur in Caerleon-on-Usk,
Wales.

Caerleon-on-Usk was
King Arthur's court
according to Geoffrey of
Monmouth.
This judgement may have been
because Geoffrey himself came from a few miles north in
Monmouth.
The temptation is to say that
Geoffrey of Monmouth placed King
Arthur close to his own home is great, especially since
subsequent excavations have unearthed nothing which suggests use
of the kind Geoffrey of Monmouth described at any time after the
Roman withdrawal.
The Roman settlement was
Isca Silurum, a legionary fortress. Ruined walls still show
the layout of its buildings, and an amphitheatre can be found
nearby.
The Romans built a fortress
at Caerleon, along about 74 AD. The headquarters were
built in 75 AD and the baths in 85 AD. The latest known
structural work was completed in 255 AD. The fortress was taken
over by civilian personnel and was occupied until about 370 AD.
After that, when the Romans left,
it became a British settlement. It very well could have been the
seat of power for a powerful warlord or perhaps a king, maybe
not in the style of Geoffrey's City of the Legions, but
impressive all the same to the people of the time.
The amphitheatre, designed
to hold 6,000 spectators, was the scene of bloodthirsty
entertainment as well as training. This and the barracks,
currently the only Roman barrack blocks visible in
Europe, are open free to the public all year.
With the departure of the Romans,
Arthurian legend has
it that the fortification then became the
court of King Arthur,
with the Round Table.
Geoffrey of Monmouth was almost certainly retelling popular
legends of the Wales.
The Caerleon of the 12th
century, when Geoffrey of Monmouth was writing, featured remains
of baths, vaults, and even central-heating systems. It was a
population center and an important town. It would have been easy
to believe that such a place, close to Carmarthen, home
of Merlin and one of Arthur's
12 great battles
respectively, could be home to a King Arthur.

Geoffrey of Monmouth's
own account of Caerleon included two famous churches and
college with 200 scholars. And Arthur, after conquering Gaul,
has a tremendous Whitsun ceremony.
Knights engage
in archery and javelin contests and throw dice.
Geoffrey of Monmouth makes no mention of a
Round Table, but Caerleon
has one in the form of the large amphitheatre, which, with a bit
of imagination, could have been a sort of
Round Table, without
the table.
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