Corieltauvi | |
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Geography | |
Capital | Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester) |
Location | East Midlands of England |
Rulers | Volisios Dumnocoveros, Dumnovellaunus, Cartivelios |
The Corieltauvi (also the Coritani, and the Corieltavi) were a Celtic tribe living in Britain prior to the Roman conquest, and thereafter a civitas of Roman Britain. Their territory was in what is now the English East Midlands. They were bordered by the Brigantes to the north, the Cornovii to the west, the Dobunni and Catuvellauni to the south, and the Iceni to the east. Their capital was called Ratae Corieltauvorum , known today as Leicester.
The Corieltauvi were a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites or signs of centralised government. They appear to have been a federation of smaller, self-governing tribal groups. From the beginning of the 1st century, they began to produce inscribed coins: almost all featured two names, and one series had three, suggesting they had multiple rulers. The names on the earliest coins are so abbreviated as to be unidentifiable. Later coins feature the name of Volisios, apparently the paramount king of the region, together with names of three presumed sub-kings, Dumnocoveros, Dumnovellaunus and Cartivelios, in three series minted ca. 45 AD. The Corieltauvi had an important mint, and possibly a tribal centre, at Sleaford.
Pale gold stater of the Corieltauvi | |
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O: Horse icon and lettering | R: sheaf-of-wheat icon |
A stater found near Walkington now in the Yorkshire Museum |
The discovery in 2000 of the Hallaton Treasure more than doubled the total number of Corieltauvian coins previously recorded. In 2014 26 gold and silver Corieltauvian coins were found in Reynard's Kitchen Cave in Derbyshire. [1] Coins attributed to the Corieltavi have been unearthed in Llangoed on Anglesey in Wales; fifteen gold staters were found by metal detectorists between July 2021 and March 2022. [2]
There is little evidence that the Corieltauvi offered resistance to Roman rule: Ratae was captured c. AD 44, and it may have had a Roman garrison.[ citation needed ]
The Fosse Way, a Roman road, passed through their territory.
Their name appears as Coritani and Coritavi in Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography. However, the Ravenna Cosmography gives the name of their capital, in apparently corrupt form, as Rate Corion Eltavori, and an inscribed tile found in Churchover calls the administrative district Civitas Corieltauvorum, indicating that the true form should be Corieltauvi. [3] [4]
Manley Pope, author of an early English translation of the Welsh chronicle Brut y Brenhinedd , associated the Coritani of the Roman writers with the magical race called the Coraniaid in the medieval Welsh tale Lludd and Llevelys , [5] however this is not supported by modern historical linguistics.
The name has been adopted by the athletics club, Leicester Coritanian A.C.
A detectorist found a small figure of a woman riding a bull in a field in Barnetby le Wold, Lincolnshire in 2016. The piece was handed over to the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, and experts declared it to be of regional importance. Adam Staples, from Essex Coin Auctions, said it was thought to be the only recorded example of a figure riding a bull and probably dated from the early 1st century AD. [6] The figure was auctioned for £7,800 on 9 November 2022. [7]
Leicester is a city, unitary authority area, unparished area and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a population of 373,399 in 2022. The greater Leicester urban area had a population of 559,017 in 2021, making it the 11th most populous in England, and the 13th most populous in the United Kingdom. A 2023 report ranked Leicester 16th out of the 50 largest UK cities on a range of economic measures, and the first of seven East Midlands cities.
The Iceni or Eceni were an ancient tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the area of the Corieltauvi to the west, and the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes to the south. In the Roman period, their capital was Venta Icenorum at modern-day Caistor St Edmund.
The Catuvellauni were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century.
The Dobunni were one of the Iron Age tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman conquest of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions.
The Regni were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes living in Britain prior to the Roman Conquest, and later a civitas or canton of Roman Britain. They lived in what is now Sussex, as well as small parts of Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, with their tribal heartland at Noviomagus Reginorum.
Prasutagus was king of a British Celtic tribe called the Iceni, who inhabited roughly what is now Norfolk, in the 1st century AD. He is best known as the husband of Boudica.
Via Devana is the name given to a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east, through Cambridge in the interior, and on to Chester in the north-west. These were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the main reason the road was constructed was military rather than civilian. The Latin name for Chester is Deva and 'Via Devana' is thus 'The Chester Road'. Colchester was Colonia Victricensis, 'the City of Victory', and lays claim to be the oldest Roman city in Britain. The Via Devana had little civilian rationale and the road eventually fell into disuse as it was not possible to maintain extensive public works following withdrawal of the last Roman legion from Britain in 407. As a result, its route is difficult to find today, especially in its more northern reaches. It is omitted from some historians' maps for this reason but most nowadays accept its existence. The undocumented name Via Devana was coined by Charles Mason, D.D., of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was also rector of Orwell, Cambridgeshire, and Woodwardian Professor of Fossils at Cambridge University from 1734. During his life, Mason compiled a complete map of Cambridgeshire which was later published in 1808, long after his death.
Ratby is a commuter village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England. It is situated to the west of Leicester, and just south of the M1 motorway. The population of the civil parish was measured in the 2011 census as 4,468. Other nearby places include Field Head, Kirby Muxloe, Glenfield and Markfield. The proximity of Ratby to Leicester causes it to form part of the Leicester Urban Area.
Volisios was a local ruler or king based in the English East Midlands, around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. He is traditionally thought to have been a ruler of the Corieltavi, who inhabited this region in the Roman period and perhaps before.
The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by Eric Lawes, a metal detectorist in the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England in 1992. The hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver, and bronze coins and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery. The objects are now in the British Museum in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million.
The Silsden Hoard is an assemblage containing 27 gold coins of late British Iron Age date and a Roman iron finger ring.
Ratae Corieltauvorum or simply Ratae was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Leicester, located in the English county of Leicestershire.
The River Eye is a slender, slow-flowing river in north-eastern Leicestershire, England. The river is known to flood periodically; especially within the town Melton Mowbray. Fine sediments from agricultural fields, the biggest known cause for the floods, have been recognized as a major source to the channel's supply. The river meanders throughout north-east Leicestershire where is it primarily flanked by farmland, and only crosses a handful of villages/towns. The primary wooded area it crosses is the fox covert. The farming in the district is largely made up of pasturing sheep and cows. Stilton and Red Leicester cheeses originally came from the villages and dairy farms in the Eye basin.
The Hallaton Treasure, the largest hoard of British Iron Age coins, was discovered in 2000 near Hallaton in southeast Leicestershire, England, by volunteers from the Hallaton Fieldwork Group. The initial find was made by Ken Wallace on 19 November 2000, when he found about 130 coins with a metal detector.
The West Bagborough Hoard is a hoard of 670 Roman coins and 72 pieces of hacksilver found in October 2001 by metal detectorist James Hawkesworth near West Bagborough in Somerset, England.
The Hallaton Helmet is a decorated iron Roman cavalry parade helmet originally covered in a sheet of silver and decorated in places with gold leaf. It was discovered in 2000 near Hallaton, Leicestershire after Ken Wallace, a member of the Hallaton Fieldwork Group, found coins in the area. Further investigation by professional archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services discovered that the site appeared to have been used as a large-scale Iron Age shrine. Nine years of conservation and restoration have been undertaken by experts from the British Museum, supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £650,000. The helmet is now on permanent display at the Harborough Museum in Market Harborough alongside other artefacts from the Hallaton Treasure hoard.
The identification of Deserted Villages and Lost Places in Leicestershire owes much to the pioneering work of William George Hoskins during his time at the University of Leicester.
The Celtic currency of Britain were the various items and coins used as currency between approximately 200 BC and AD 60. The earliest currency consisted of various forms of iron bars. Coins were first imported in large numbers in around 150 BC and domestic minting began around 100BC. Coin production was largely ended by the Roman conquest of Britain, first by the Claudian invasion of AD 43 and later by the Defeat of Boudica in AD 60 or 61. Cast coins may have been produced for a few more years around Hengistbury Head. Exact dating of coins often changes in the light of new research.
Margidunum was a Roman settlement on the Fosse Way at Castle Hill near present-day Bingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument.
The Cridling Stubbs hoard is a Romano-British hoard of more than 3,300 coins in a large, ceramic jar.