Magnae Dobunnorum

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Excavations of the Roman road south of Magnae

Magnae Dobunnorum (Latin for "Magnae of the Dobunni") was a Romano-British town and an important market centre for the British Dobunni tribe, located near modern-day Kenchester in Herefordshire.

The town was shaped as an irregular hexagon, with a single main street along the line of the main Roman road running east–west through the area, and an irregular pattern of side streets with tightly packed buildings leading off it.[1]

A Roman cistern at The Weir Garden in Herefordshire

Name

The Roman town is securely identified with the "Magnis" which appears both in the Antonine Itinerary and Ravenna Cosmography.[2]

The suffix Dobunnorum refers to the local tribe, and distinguished this town from Magnae Carvetiorum ("Magnae of the Carvetii") on Hadrian's Wall. Both names also appear as Magnae or as Magnis; the latter form in the Antonine Itinerary is due to Latin declensions.

The name Magnae has been translated as 'Greats', but with little reason, and Rivet and Smith derive the name from the Celtic word maen meaning 'stone' or 'rock'.[3] The name may apply to the hills visible to the north of Kenchester.[4]

History

The ruins of a Roman temple possibly associated with a high-status Roman villa, which may have connections to Magnae, lie inside the Weir Garden by the River Wye. There is an octagonal cistern filled by a spring, and a ruined buttress by the river. These are the highest standing Roman ruins in Herefordshire.[5][6]

Earthen defences have been found dating from the 2nd century, with later stone defences being built by the 4th century and occupation likely to have continued into the 5th century.[7]

In the Sub-Roman Period, the fort formed a citadel of the British kingdom of Powys.

After Powys and its capital Pengwern were overrun, the town was the base of the Mercian subkingdom of Magonsæte.[8]

Location map

References

  1. "MAGNIS Romano-British Town". roman-britain.org. Togodumnus. Archived from the original on 2009-02-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20090210182900/http://www.roman-britain.org/places/magnis.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-07. 
  2. Burnham; Wacher, J. S. (1990). The Small Towns of Roman Britain. University of California Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-520-07303-6. 
  3. Rivet, A.L.F; Smith, Colin (1979). The Place-Names of Roman Britain. Batsford. p. 407. ISBN 978-0-7134-2077-7. 
  4. Hines, John (2003). The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective. Boydell Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-84383-034-4. 
  5. "Suspected Romano-British Temple, The Weir Gardens". Roman-Britain.org. Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20120130064323/http://www.roman-britain.org/places/weir_gardens.htm. Retrieved 2013-04-04. 
  6. "Roman Riverside Building Complex, The Weir Garden". Herefordshire Monuments Search. http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/htt/smrSearch/Monuments/Monument_Item.aspx?ID=718. Retrieved 2013-04-04. 
  7. National Monuments Record: No. 108086 – Magnis
  8. Kirby, D. P. (2000). The earliest English kings. Routledge. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-415-24210-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=Fzhk_DvzqSkC&pg=PA9. Retrieved 2009-06-07.