Nidum
NIDUM or NIDUS, a town of Britain, situated according to the Itinerary (p. 484), on the road from Isca Dumnuniorum to Isca Silurum, and consequently in the territory of the Belgae. This site, however, is in all probability false; and it appears rather to have been a town of the Silures, the modern Neath, on the river of that name in Glamorganshire. (Camden, p. 735.) [T.H.D]
The Roman fort discovered in 1949 overlooks the point where the road from Isca (Caerleon) to Moridunum (Carmarthen) crossed the tidal reaches of the Neath. Its area was ca. 2.4 ha. The earlier fort, built in A.D. 75-85, was of earth and timber, and little is known of it. It lay over traces of earlier occupation, perhaps of a temporary character. After a period of abandonment, not precisely dated, a new fort was built on the same site in ca. A.D. 120-125. This fort had stone defenses, and a stone latrine is also known. The pottery evidence suggests that the fort was abandoned ca. A.D. 140, though the mention of Nidum in the Antonine Itinerary implies that a posting station existed in later centuries. Virtually nothing of the fort is now visible. The finds are deposited in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
BIBLIOGRAPHYV. E. Nash-Williams, “The Roman Stations at Neath (Giam.) and Caer Gai (Mer.),” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 13 (1948-50) 239-45; id., “The Roman Station at Neath. Further Discoveries,” ibid. 14 (1950-52) 76-79; B. Heywood in V. E. Nash-Williams, The Roman Frontier in Wales (2d ed. by M. G. Jarrett 1969) 98-101M.
M. G. JARRETT