Magnae, sometimes Magnae Dobunnorum[citation needed] (Latin for "The Greats of the Dobunni") to distinguish it from the Magnae of the Carvetii on Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain,[1] was a Romano-British town and an important market centre for the British Dobunni tribe, located near modern-day Kenchester in Herefordshire, England. 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.[2]
Name edit
The Roman town is securely identified with the "Magnis" which appears both in the Antonine Itinerary and Ravenna Cosmography.[3] The town is today sometimes referred to under the name "Magna".[4] However, the town was not a colonia, nor a tribal capital,[5] and Rivet and Smith derive the name from the Celtic word maen meaning 'stone' or 'rock'.[6] The name may apply to the hills visible to the north of Kenchester.[7]
History edit
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.[8][9]
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.[10]
In the Sub-Roman Period, the fort formed a citadel of the British kingdom of Pengwern.
After Pengwern was overrun, the town was the base of the Mercian subkingdom of Magonsaete.[11]
References edit
- ^ Both names are sometimes also given as Magnis, the form under which it appears in the Antonine Itinerary owing to Latin's declensions. It is also sometimes misspelled as singular Magna.
- ^ "MAGNIS Romano-British Town".
- ^ Burnham; Wacher, J. S. (1990). The Small Towns of Roman Britain. University of California Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-520-07303-6.
- ^ Darvill, Timothy; Stamper, Paul; Timby, Jane (2002). England: An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites from Earliest Times to AD 1600. Oxford University Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-19-284101-8.
- ^ Durant, Gladys May (1957). Journey into Roman Britain. W. W. Norton. p. 183.
- ^ Rivet, A.L.F; Smith, Colin (1979). The Place-Names of Roman Britain. Batsford. p. 407. ISBN 978-0-7134-2077-7.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Suspected Romano-British Temple, The Weir Gardens". Roman-Britain.org. Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
- ^ "Roman Riverside Building Complex, The Weir Garden". Herefordshire Monuments Search. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
- ^ "MAGNIS". Pastscape – National Monuments Record. English Heritage. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
- ^ Kirby, D. P. (2000). The earliest English kings. Routledge. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-415-24210-3. Retrieved 7 June 2009.