On the Bristol Channel there were forts at Cardiff, and at the mouths of the Neath and the Loughor. Connecting the main roads no doubt were many smaller ones, some of them mere tracks across the mountain passes. The infinite pains which the Romans would take to render even one of these less important ways easy and safe is proved by the marvellous "Roman Steps" which lead over Drws Ardudwy from the coast to the high plateau on which stands Tomen-y-Mur. The question of the extent and durability of Roman influence in Wales is part of the larger question of its extent and durability in Britain as a whole. Whether it persisted right through the English invasions, so that early mediæval institutions can be regarded as having Rome and not the forests of Germany as their home is a question still warmly debated. To what extent Britain, as apart from Wales, had been Romanized it is difficult to determine; for the English invasions were exceedingly destructive, and the invaders {32} little better than savage barbarians. But in Wales the problem assumes a somewhat different form; for the tide of English invasion was stemmed at the foot of the Welsh hills. It was a new Brythonic invasion from the north, as well as the arrival of fugitives from the midlands, that modified the conditions left by the Romans in Wales. Emphasis has been laid by scholars upon the purely military character of the occupation. With the exception of Caerwent and Wroxeter there were no civilian towns; and that most typical product of Roman civilization, the villa, was altogether absent from Wales. On the other hand, it must be pointed out that, although the language remained Celtic, a very large number of words had been borrowed from Latin, and those words by no means confined to the department of warfare. They are words which point clearly to an advance in culture and civilization, in book learning, and in religion. But it is true that political and legal terms remained purely Celtic. It is known that the minerals of Wales were extensively worked by the Romans--copper from Anglesey, gold from Merioneth, and iron from Monmouth. One thing is certain: Wales at the departure of the Romans was a highly civilized land, {33} civilized in its political ideas and in its laws, and Christian in its religion. A love of literature, of art, of independence, and of unity had been so firmly rooted that, despite the welter of lawlessness and bloodshed which the unhappy country had to endure during the succeeding eight hundred years, they persisted through it all. Wales was to enjoy nothing comparable with the tranquillity and the good government of the Roman period until the great Tudor sovereigns began to turn their thoughts to the little land from which they derived the best part of their blood. {34} CHAPTER III SEEKING FOR UNITY