Julius and Aaron
[3][4] The earliest surviving account of Julius and Aaron comes from Gildas, a monk writing in Western Britain during the sixth century.
In the early twelfth century, the church passed into the property of the new Goldcliff Priory, and by 1142 had been renamed in dedication to St Alban as well as Julius and Aaron, reflecting the growing popularity of the former's cult.
By the time of the sixteenth-century English Reformation, when the chapel was abandoned and perhaps converted into a barn, it was solely referred to as a Church of Saint Alban.
[13] There is also the question as to how accurate his information about the events of the Romano-British past was; some of his claims, such as that Hadrian's Wall was built by Septimius Severus, were incorrect.
[15] Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae is the first surviving source to mention them,[16] and he writes that during the Diocletian persecution, "God... kindled up among us bright luminaries of holy martyrs....
Such were St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Julius, citizens of the city of legions and the rest, of both sexes, who in different places stood their ground in the Christian contest.
"[17] Bede, drawing on Gildas, says in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People that in the same persecution during which Alban was martyred, so "suffered Aaron and Julius, citizens of Caerleon, and many others of both sexes throughout the land.
[16] Archaeological excavations at an amphitheatre in Chester have uncovered a structure that may have been used for public executions in the Diocletian period and the possible remains of an early medieval church, which might be related to a Roman martyrdom site.
[22] Bolstering this is the fact that the twelfth-century Book of Llandaff contained a late ninth-century charter that mentions the existence of such a martyrium.
[26] In 1142, the monks of Goldcliff had a confirmation of their property produced which referred to the martyrium as the ecclesiam sanctorum Iulii et Aaron atque Albani.
The monks at Goldcliff may have wanted to connect their chapel to this growing cult in particular because Aaron and Julius were mentioned alongside Alban as Romano-British martyrs in the work of Gildas and Bede.
[29] In 1798 the historian William Coxe described the site as being marked by a yew tree; he added that in 1785 "several stone coffins were discovered in digging for the foundations of a new house".
[29] In 1941, the historian Wilhelm Levison expressed his hope that archaeologists would excavate the site to learn more about the original creation of the martyrium.
[19] In the sixteenth century, knowledge of Aaron and Julius was spread through the publication of printed editions of Gildas' De Excidio (1525) and Bede's Ecclesiastical History (1565).
