Editing Silures (section)

==Roman resistance==
{{Unreferenced|section|date=December 2024}}
[[File:Wales.pre-Roman.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.35|Tribes of Wales at the time of the Roman invasion. The modern Welsh border is also shown, for reference purposes.]]
The Silures fiercely resisted Roman conquest about AD 48, with the assistance of [[Caratacus]], a military leader and prince of the [[Catuvellauni]], who had fled from further east after his own tribe was defeated.

The first attack on the Welsh tribes was by the legate [[Publius Ostorius Scapula]] about AD 48. Ostorius first attacked the [[Deceangli]] in the north-east of what is now Wales, however little else is known or recorded of this conflict. He spent several years campaigning against the Silures and the [[Ordovices]]. Their resistance was led by Caratacus, who had fled from the south-east (of what is now England) when it was conquered by the Romans. He first led the Silures, then moved to the territory of the Ordovices, where he was defeated by Ostorius in AD 51.

The Silures were not subdued, however, and waged effective guerrilla warfare against the Roman forces. Ostorius had announced that they posed such a danger that they should be either exterminated or transplanted. His threats only increased the Silures' determination to resist. They surrounded and attacked a large legionary force occupied in building [[Roman fort]]s in their territory; it was rescued by others only with difficulty and considerable loss. The Silures also took Roman prisoners as hostages and distributed them amongst their neighbouring tribes in order to bind them together and encourage resistance.

Ostorius died with the Silures still unconquered. After his death, they defeated the [[Legio II Augusta|Second Legion]]. It remains unclear whether the Silures were militarily defeated or simply agreed to come to terms, but Roman sources suggest rather opaquely that they were eventually subdued by [[Sextus Julius Frontinus]] in a series of campaigns ending about AD 78. The Roman [[Tacitus]] wrote of the Silures: ''non atrocitate, non clementia mutabatur'' – the tribe "was changed neither by cruelty nor by clemency".