There are no written records of the Brigantes
before the Roman conquest of Britain; it is therefore hard to assess
how long they had existed as a political entity prior to that; most
key archaeological sites in the region seem to show continued, undisturbed
occupation from an early date, so their rise to power may have been
gradual rather than a sudden, dramatic conquest, or it may be linked
to the burning of the large hill fort at Castle Hill, Huddersfield,
c.430 BC.
Territorially the largest tribe in Britain, the Brigantes encompassed
several sub-tribes or septs such as the Gabrantovices on the Yorkshire
Coast, the Textoverdi further North near Hadrian's Wall, the Setantii
located on the Lancashire coast and the Lopocares near the River Tyne.
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The Votadini:
The Votadini were a people and civitas of Roman Britain living in what
is now south east Scotland and north east England; their territory extended
south of the Firth of Forth and extended from the Stirling area down
to the English River Tyne, including at its peak what are now the Falkirk,
Lothian and Borders regions of eastern Scotland and Northumberland in
north east England.
In the 1st century the Romans recorded the Votadini
as a British tribe, which came under direct Roman military rule as occupants
of the region between Hadrian's and the Antonine Walls; their capital
was probably the Traprain Law hill fort in East Lothian, until that
was abandoned in the early 400s, and Din Eidyn (Edinburgh) became the
capital.
When the Romans drew back to Hadrian's Wall the Votadini
became a friendly buffer state, getting the rewards of alliance with
Rome without being under its rule, until about 400 when the Romans withdrew
from southern Great Britain.
The Carvetii:
The Carvetii were a people and civitas of Roman Britain living in what
is now Cumbria and North Lancashire in north-west England; they are
known only from inscriptions found in Penrith and Temple Sowerby in
Cumbria; their capital is presumed to have been Luguvalium (Carlisle),
the only walled town known in the region; they may have been part of
the neighbouring Brigantes confederation and some have speculated that
Venutius, husband of the Brigantian queen Cartimandua and later an important
British resistance leader in the 1st century, may have been a Carvetian.
The Parisi
The Parisi tribe inhabited North Humberside and were surrounded to the
north, west and south-west by the Brigantes and on the south by the
Coritani; the burials of the Parisi were quite distinctive; generally
they were without grave-goods, but some have been found with swords
or even chariots; a number of the richer graves are enclosed within
small, rectangular earthworks; these burial practices are mirrored by
the Gallic tribes of the Seine valley, but are very uncommon elsewhere
in Britain; it is possible that Eburacum (York) was originally attributed
to the Parisi, but became detached from Parisian rule by the establishment
of the colonia.
The Cornovii:
The Cornovii appear to have been more of an export tribe than a warring
one, who constructed Hillforts, but offered little or no resistance
to Roman rule; they adopted the urban Roman way when they took over
the ownership of Wroxeter (Viriconium Corniovorum) after the XXth legion
left for Chester (Deva) and kept the city going until the early 6th
century.
The Coritani:
The Coritani, also thought to be called the Corieltauvi and sometimes
referred to as the Corieltavi, were a tribe of people 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, in the
counties of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire,
Rutland and Northamptonshire; 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; they seem
to have offered little or no resistance to Roman rule; Ratae was captured
c. AD 44 and the IX Hispana legion was garrisoned there; the Fosse Way,
a Roman road and the effective early boundary of the Roman province,
passed through their territory.
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; the discovery in 2000 of the Hallaton
Treasure more than doubled the total number of Corieltauvian coins previously
recorded.
The Roman Interaction:
During the Roman invasion, in 47 AD, the governor of Britain, Publius
Ostorius Scapula, was forced to abandon his campaign against the Deceangli
of North Wales because of "disaffection" among the Brigantes, whose
leaders had been allies of Rome; a few of those who had taken up arms
were killed and the rest were pardoned.
In 51, the defeated resistance leader Caratacus sought sanctuary with
the Brigantian queen, Cartimandua, but she showed her loyalty to the
Romans by handing him over in chains; she and her husband Venutius are
described as loyal and "defended by Roman arms", but they later divorced,
Venutius taking up arms first against his ex-wife, then against her
Roman protectors; during the governorship of Aulus Didius Gallus (52
to 57) he gathered an army and invaded her kingdom; the Romans sent
troops to defend Cartimandua and they defeated Venutius' rebellion;
after the divorce, Cartimandua married Venutius' armour-bearer, Vellocatus
and raised him to the kingship.
Venutius staged another rebellion in 69, taking advantage of Roman instability
in the Year of four emperors; this time the Romans were only able to
send auxiliaries, who succeeded in evacuating Cartimandua but left Venutius
and his anti-Roman supporters in control of the kingdom; later on after
the accession of Vespasian, Quintus Petillius Cerialis was appointed
governor of Britain and the conquest of the Brigantes was begun, but
it seems to have taken many decades to complete.
Gnaeus Julius Agricola (governor 78 to 84) appears to have engaged in
warfare in Brigantian territory; the Roman poet Juvenal, writing in
the early 2nd century, depicts a Roman father urging his son to win
glory by destroying the forts of the Brigantes; it is possible that
one of the purposes of Hadrian's Wall was to keep the Brigantes from
making discourse with the tribes in what is now the lowlands of Scotland
on the other side; the emperor Antoninus Pius (138 to 161) is said by
Pausanias to have defeated them after they began an unprovoked war against
Roman allies, perhaps as part of the campaign that led to the building
of the Antonine Wall (142 to 144). |
