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Celtic Tribes of South-West England

• Cornovi : It has been argued that such a tribe existed in the south-west tip of Britain, though not mentioned by Ptolemy, or any other source. In the early Middle Ages Cerniw (Welsh) or Kernow (Cornish) was recognised as the southernmost section of Dumnonia. The name is derived from the Celtic root corn, meaning horn, referring to the south-western peninsula of Britain. The name is reflected in the county name Cornwall, derived from corn + AS wealas (foreigners/Welsh). All the evidence indicates that the tribe of the area was in fact the Dumnonii.
• Dobunni: Lived east of the Silures. Their town was Corinium [Cirencester], which appears in The Ravenna Cosmology as Cironium Dobunorum.^{1Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2; I.A. Richmond and O.G.S. Crawford, The British Section of the Ravenna Cosmography, Archaeologia, vol. 93 (1949) pp.1-50.} This Roman civitas was particularly wealthy: it is notable for the number and size of Roman villas. Corinium was the second largest town in Roman Britain. This civitas capital was of Roman foundation (initially a fort), but nearby in what is now Bagendon was a pre-Roman oppidum (tribal centre) with a mint. Although oppida and coin-production were hallmarks of the Belgae, the Dobunni seem to be on the fringes of their influence and more imitative than innovatory. Their first coin issue about 40 BC was based closely on one of the Atrebates. Within the next decade inscribed coins appear, with those marked Bodvoc centering on Bagedon, while those marked Corio are scattered in the surrounding area. These names are interpreted as those of two kings. Coins of Comus appeared briefly about 1 AD, followed by coins of Catti 1-20 AD, found east and west of the Severn. In the final pre-Roman period coins were issued marked Anted and Eisv, either concurrently or sequentially. The distribution of Dobunnic coins overall shows that these were the people of the Severn Valley and the Cotswolds, extending south to the Mendip Hills prior to the Roman conquest, though differences in pottery may be a clue that those south of the Bristol Avon were distinct in some way.^{2T. Darvill, The land of the Dobunni, and B. Cunliffe, Locating the Dobunni in M. Ecclestone et al. (eds.), The Land of the Dobunni (2003), pp. 2-16; B.Cunliffe, Iron Age Communities in Britain: an account of England, Scotland and Wales from the seventh century BC to the Roman conquest, 3rd edn (1991), pp.170-5.} Under Rome the Dobunni seems to have stretched only as far south as the Avon, since the towns Ischalis [Charterhouse, Somerset] and Hot springs [Bath] were acounted by Ptolomy as those of the Belgae (see below). Cassius Dio records the surrender during the Claudian invasion of a part of the Bodunni, who had come under the hegemony of the Catuvellauni.^{3Cassius Dio, Roman History, 60.20.} If we take Bodunni to be a transliteration error for Dobunni, this surrender could could explain why a part of Dobunnic territory was hived off. If the Dobunni south of the Avon did not surrender, the Romans might well feel that they should be treated differently. Evidence that Dobunni rather than Bodunni was the correct form is found in three references to members of the tribe. The military diploma 105 AD of Lucco, son of Trenus, Dobunnus shows that he served in the Cohors I Britannicae. Verecunda Rufilia was buried in a Roman fort in Yorkshire in the 2nd or 3rd century AD with a tombstone describing her as Dobunna. The last reference to the tribe is on a mid-6th century tombstone from Tavistock in Devon reading DOBUNNI FABRI FILII ENABARRI (Of Dobunnus Fabrus, son of Enabarrus).^{4A.L.Rivet and C.Smith, The Place-Names of Roman Britain (1979), pp.121, 256; RIB 621. M. Russell, Bloodline: The Celtic kings of Roman Britain (2010), pp. 27-8 argues the contrary case.} The Wansdyke was built shortly after Britain left the Roman Empire along the ridge south of the Avon, apparently guarding the British kingdoms to the south. It presumably reflects the civitas boundary of Roman times. This territory is roughly equivalent to the early Saxon Kingdom of the Hwicce, suggesting some degree of continuity with the British polity.^{5J.Manco, Saxon Bath: The Legacy of Rome and the Saxon Rebirth, Bath History vol. 7 (1998), pp. 27-53.} Further reading: M. Ecclestone et al. (eds.), The Land of the Dobunni (2003, revised edn 2009): free download in pdf format. Tom Moore, Iron Age Societies in the Severn-Cotswolds: Developing narratives of social and landscape change, BAR vol. 421 (2006).
• Dumnonii: Lived west of the Durotriges. Their towns were Voliba, Uxella, Tamara and Isca [Exeter], where the Legion II Augusta was based. Isca was the civitas capital, appearing in the Antonine Itinerary and Peutinger Table as Isca Dumnoniorum.^{6Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2; T. Codrington, The Roman Roads in Britain (1903), introduction.} The Roman civitas of the Dumnonii became the Kingdom of Dumnonia after Britain left the Roman Empire, remaining British long after the Anglo-Saxons had taken over south-eastern Britain, which became known as England. In the 6th century Gildas ranted at its King Constantine, the tyrannical whelp of the unclean lioness of Damnonia, punning on the word Latin word for damnation. A Briton himself, Gildas was convinced that the sinful behaviour of the British had brought down the wrath of God upon them, in the form of Germanic invaders.^{7Gildas, The Ruin of Britain, III.28.} The very fact that he did demonstrates that Christianity had survived from Roman times within British territory. However the British Church had become severed from that of Rome. Aldhelm addressed a letter around 680 to King Geraint of Dumnonia on the differences between British and Roman church practice; Geraint was defeated by Ine of Wessex around 710.^{8The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ed. and trans. M. Swanton (1996), p. 42 and n.1.} By about 813 Dumnonia had shrunk under the inroads of the kings of Wessex to the point where it became known as Cornwall (see Cornovi above.) Dumnonia also absorbed immigrants from Ireland, to judge by a scattering of ogham -inscribed stones. Pressure from both sides no doubt encouraged migration. There was so strong a flow from Britain to north-west Gaul, that the latter gained the name Brittany. Most of this appears to have come from the south-west, for the early medieval kingdom of Domnonia (Breton: Dumnonea) appeared in northern Brittany. A second Britonic settlement in Gallaecia (now Galicia in NW Spain) was known as Britonia.^{9J.T. Koch, Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006), pp. 291,750.} A Latin inscription was found at Vegadeo (Asturias in Galicia) to Nicer, son of Clutosus, of castle Cariaca, of the chief of the Albiones.^{10L'Année épigraphique (1946), 121.} Further reading: Susan M. Pearce, The Kingdom of Dumnonia: Studies in history and tradition in South-Western Britain A.D. 350-1150 (1978).
• Durotriges: Lived east of the Dumnonii, to the west and south of the Belgae. Their town was Dunium.^{11Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, II.2.} The Durotriges had no oppida. Instead they were congregating in hill-forts at the time of Belgic ingression into Britain. That indicates that they were not Belgae, even though they did mint their own coins, but rather defending themselves against Belgae. The Celtic place-name element duno means fort. The massive hill fort Maiden Castle, Dorset is a common suggestion for the identity of Dunium, but the hill fort of Hod Hill, Stourpaine, Dorset is another contender. Both were occupied at the time of the Roman conquest. Hod Hill was apparently captured by the Romans and became the site of a Roman auxiliary fort.^{12M. Aston and J. Bond, The Landscape of Towns (1976), p. 36, fig 4.} The Romano-British town Durnovaria (Dorchester, Dorset) appears in the Antonine Itinerary of the late 2nd century AD and is often supposed to have been the cantonal capital in Roman times, yet Lindinis [Ilchester, Somerset] has a stronger claim to the status. The name occurs in the Ravenna Cosmology and two building stones in Hadrian's Wall are inscribed to record that a section of wall was contributed by the Civitas of the Durotriges at Lendinis.^{13M. Russell, Bloodline: The Celtic kings of Roman Britain (2010), pp. 30-31.} Further reading: Martin Patworth, The Search for the Durotriges: Dorset and the West Country in the Late Iron Age (2011) concentrates on the archaeological record.

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