Corionototae
The Corionototae were a group of Ancient Britons apparently inhabiting what is now Northern England about whom very little is known. They were recorded in one Roman ex-voto inscription (now lost) from Corbridge, of uncertain date, which commemorated the victory of a prefect of cavalry, Quintus Calpurnius Concessinius, over them.[1]
Historians tend to categorise them either as a tribe or a sub-tribe of the Brigantes in the absence of any information.[2][3] The name Corionototae appears to contain the Celtic roots *korio- meaning an army (Irish cuire) and *towta- meaning members of a tribe or people, thus it would appear to mean "tribal army" or "people's army" which might suggest rather a military or political formation opposed to Rome; T.M. Charles-Edwards suggests a tribal name based on a proposed deity *Corionos instead.[4] On the basis of the similarity of the names, writers such as Waldman and Mason[5] have suggested a link with the Irish Coriondi while other earlier writers, erroneously linking the name to the Gaelic Cruthin, thought it could refer to the Picts.[6]
References
- ^ Roman Inscriptions of Britain: RIB 1142. Altar dedicated by Quintus Calpurnius Concessinius
- ^ David Shotter, Roman Britain, Routledge (2012)
- ^ Barry Cunliffe, Iron Age Communities in Britain Routledge (2006) p. 189
- ^ Charles-Edwards,Native Political Organisation in Roman Britain and the Origin of Middle Welsh Brenhin in Antiquitates Indogermanicae, M Mayrhofer (ed.) (1994)
- ^ Encyclopedia of European Peoples, Infobase (2006)
- ^ David Mattingly, An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, Penguin (2007)