The Ordovīcēs (

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic ( cy, Brythoneg; kw, Brythonek; br, Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, was a Celtic language spoken in Britain and Brittany. It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, ...

: *''Ordowīcī'') were one of the Celtic tribes living in Great Britain before the

Roman invasion The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Staneg ...

. Their tribal lands were located in present-day North

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and England, between the Silures to the south and the Deceangli to the north-east. Unlike the latter tribes that appear to have acquiesced to Roman rule with little resistance, the Ordovices fiercely resisted the Romans. They were eventually subjugated by the Roman governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola in the campaign of 77–78CE when the Romans overran their final strongholds on

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

Etymology

The Celtic name could be

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...

with the words for 'hammer': ga, ord, cy, gordd (with a prothetic ''g-'') and br, horzh (with a prothetic ''h-'').

John Edward Lloyd Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian, He was the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (1911). Ano ...

suggested that the name of this tribe is preserved as the element ''-orwig'', ''-orweg'' in the place name
Dinas Dinorwig
("Fort of the Ordovices") in North Wales, though Melville Richards rejected the idea.

Geology

In 1879 the pioneering English geologist Charles Lapworth named the Ordovician geological period after the Ordovices because the rocks he was studying were found in the tribe's former territories in North Wales.

Territory

South of the Brigantes, the geographer

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

reported three tribes whose territories stretched from the Irish Sea to the North Sea. The Ordovices occupied the westward lands and had two noteworthy cities, Branogenium which was located 195 Roman miles from London, and Mediolanium which was located 200 Roman miles from London. Neither has been conclusively located. The boundaries of the tribal territory are also unknown; they have been taken to extend through modern Powys into what is now the English Midlands, or alternatively to be limited to the land north of the rivers Dyfi and Dee.

History

They were among the British tribes that resisted the Roman invasion. The initial resistance was mainly organised by the Celtic leader Caratacus, exiled in their lands after the defeat of his tribe in the Battle of the Medway. Caratacus became a warlord of the Ordovices and neighbouring Silures, and was declared a Roman public enemy in the 50s AD. In Caratacus's last battle, governor

Publius Ostorius Scapula Publius Ostorius Scapula standing at the terrace of the Roman Baths (Bath) Publius Ostorius Scapula (died 52) was a Roman statesman and general who governed Britain from 47 until his death, and was responsible for the defeat and capture of Ca ...

defeated Caratacus and sent him to Rome as a prisoner. In the 70s, the Ordovices rebelled against Roman occupation and destroyed a cavalry squadron. This act of war provoked a strong response from governor Agricola. According to

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

, ''He collected a force of veterans and a small body of auxiliaries; then as the Ordovices would not venture to descend into the plain, he put himself in front of the ranks to inspire all with the same courage against a common danger, and led his troops up a hill. The tribe was all but exterminated.'' Agricola went on rapidly to conquer Anglesey. The location of this battle is unknown but the hill-fort

Dinas Dinorwig Llanddeiniolen (; ; ) is a hamlet and name of a community in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, and is from Cardiff and from London. It comprises the villages of Deiniolen, Bethel, Dinorwig, Rhiwlas, Brynrefail and Penisarwaun, and is the t ...

encloses a hectare of land about 3 km from the Menai Strait.Dinas Dinorwig Hillfort https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/95283/

References

External links