On this day 68AD Emperor Nero, died a famous death, his dying words were "Qualis artifex pereo," ( "What an artist dies in me!").  Nero was the nephew of Caligula and is infamously known as the Emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned and as an early persecutor of Christians. He was known for having captured Christians to burn them in his garden at night for a source of light.

Nero's significance to Wales   

..

He assumed the throne in AD 54, but although Caratacus had been captured, the tribes of the Siluries and the Ordovicies continued to resist and Nero gave some thought of abandoning the province, but he was determined to conquer the Welsh, as shown by the attack on the Druid stronghold of Anglesey, in AD 60, however at this time, Queen Boudica and the Iceni tribe of the south-east of England staged a revolt, routing a Roman legion and destroying Camulodunum ( Colchester ) and the Roman army was forced to withdraw from Wales, temporarily earning the Welsh tribes a further period of independence.  Nero was deposed in 68 and his reign was followed by the "Year of the Four Emperors", at the end of which saw Vespasian become Emperor and it is under his rule that the Siluries were subjugated and the Ordovices cut to pieces  after fierce resistance, completing the conquest of Wales.

The leek was Nero's favorite vegetable, he consumed it most often in soup and gained the nickname Porophagus (leek eater).

The Roman  attack on Anglesey 60AD

Anglesey’s strategic importance was clearly significant. It was a place of refuge for dissenters, and had considerable agricultural and mineral wealth, but the main incentive for the campaign seems to have been the desire to destroy the druids last major outpost .  The Romans  legions XIV and XX  attacked Mona with a level of brutality and ferocity rarely seen elsewhere in their conquest of Britain, such was their determination to wipe out the druids.  It is thought that the Romans crossed the Menai Strait at low tide when there was only a narrow strip of water between Anglesey and the mainland.  

Although they were initially cowed by their superstitions, urging from their commanders soon led them to inflict a bloody slaughter on the defending Deceangli force, making especially sure to kill the druids, destroy their sacred groves, and cover their altars with the blood and entrails of British captives. Before the victory over the Deceangli can be secured, however, Paulinus is forced to abandon the campaign and rush his troops eastwards to deal with the massive rebellion led by queen Boudicca. 

The attack is documented by Tacitus.

 "Ranks of warriors lined the Anglesey shore, urged on by their women, shrieking like furies, dressed in burial black, while druids, with arms outstretched to heaven, cursed the invaders."

 "The legionaries doffed their clothes and swam naked across the Menai Strait to do battle with the druid-led Celts".  

The Welsh Secondary Schools Rugby Union was established in Cardiff on June 9th 1923.

rertert

rertert

rertert

rertert

rertert

rertert

..

The Laugharne Common Walk is held every three years on Whit Monday, when   the people of the town, led by the Portreeve and the officials of the Court, retrace the town’s ancient boundaries.   The walk, which is between 22 and 24 miles takes in fields, hedges, streams, ditches and a bog, takes eight to nine hours. 

No-one knows when the Laugharne Common Walk began, but t he principle of walking around a town's boundaries goes back to Pagan times when there were no maps or legal documents to define ownership of land.  Later the Romans, who we know were in the Laugharne area due to the discovery of coin hoards, assimilated local customs while also worshipping their own Gods and holding festivals to honour Robigala, their god of boundaries.   Also many of the names of places along the walk, such as Spring Mead, Merry Moor, Beggars Bush, Cuckoo, Kite Rock, Knaves Lane, Mackerel Lake, Moilding Bit and Oaten Cake & Cheese are of Anglo-Saxon origin and the charter of the town dates from  1290, when it received its charter from Sir Guido de Brione.   However, the first written evidence of the walk comes from the Minutes of the Corporation, which date continuously from 1711, and it is known for certain that the walk has been held every three years since then. 

The town of Milford Haven was founded on 9th June 1790 as the result of an application to parliament by Sir William Hamilton. 

The town is named after the natural harbour of Milford Haven, where the shelter it offers was used by the Vikings and was described by Shakespeare in Cymbeline as "blessed Milford". It was used as a staging point for the invasions of Ireland by Henry II in 1171 and Oliver Cromwell in 1649, as well as a landing point for the French reinforcements for the Glyndwr Rising in 1405 and by Henry VII in 1485 prior to his march through Wales to take the English crown.

The town itself was founded in 1790 by Sir William Hamilton, originally as a whaling centre, but by 1800 it was developed by the Royal Navy as a dockyard. When the dockyard was transferred to Pembroke in 1814, Milford Haven then became a commercial dock and a successful fishing port and boat building centre. By the start of the 20th century, Milford was the sixth largest fishing port in the UK, a mail coach operated between London and Hubberston and the railway arrived in 1863.

During the Second World War Milford Haven was a base for approximately 1,000 American military personnel and played a significant role in preparations for D-Day. In 1960, Esso opened an oil refinery near the town, which was followed by others by other chief oil companies, so that by 1974, Milford boasted a trade of 58,554,000 tons of oil, three times the combined trade of all the other ports of Wales and by the early 1980s, Esso's refinery was the second largest in the UK. However in 1996 the area was affected by a substantial oil spill when the oil tanker Sea Empress ran aground.