Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/460

 442 BRITANNICAE INSULAE. authoriiies, rather than the trae Caledonian design nations in use among the Caledonians themselves. They maj, in other words, have belonged to Cale- donia, just as Welsh and Wales belong to the Cambro-British principality, i, e. not at all. 2. Between the Clyde and Forth, and the Tyne and Solway, i e. between the two valla, lay the Kovantae, the Selgovae, the Gadeni, the Ottadini, and the Damnii, five in number. This was, after- wards, the chief Pict area. 3. South of the Tyne and Solway, i.e. in the thoroughly Roman Britannia, were Uie Brigantes, the Parisi, the Comavii, the Coritavi, the Caty- •uchlani, the Simeni, the TWnoantes (Trinobantes), the Dobuni, the Atlrebates, the Cantii, the Begni, the Belgae, the i>tfrotriges, the Damnonli, all £ng- lish rather than Welsh; and the Silures, Dimetae, and Ordovices, Welsh rather than English. Total seventeen. All these names apparently belong to one lan- guage, that heing the British branch of the Keltic. The list of Roman cohrUae and numicipia can scarcely be given with ocmfidence. The distinction between them and mere military stations or post- houses is difficult, often impracticable. The specific histories of given towns have nowhere o(mie down to us. The clear and definite prwninence that such cities as Treves and Aries take in the history of Gaul belongs to no town of Britain, and few facts only VlJ ,^, khf^'^ trustworthy Camelodu nnm (^Colchester) was n J^' the earliest municipality: Londinium and Ebora- '•^// **»cura the most important. Then came Verulamium, Glevum ((r/ouce^ter), Venta Belgarum {Win- chester Venta Icenorum (Norvnch)^ Corinium (Cirencester)^ Calleva Attrebatum (Silchester)^ Aquae Solis {Baih Dumovaria (^Dorchester), Reg- num (Chichester t)^ Durovemnm (CcaUerbury)^ Uriconium (Wroxeier Lindum (Lincoln). To tiiese may, probably, be added the more important harbours; such as Rutupae (Richborough), Portus Dubris (Dover Portus Lemanis (LywBne), Portus Adumi (AldrinffUm), all to the south orthe Thames. Of these towns the notices are variously and most irregularly distributed. Some, such as Londinium, Lindum, Eboracum, Camelodunum, Corineum, Aquae Sulis (*T8aTa Ocp^), appear in Ptolemy; whereas the majority are taken from later sources — the Antonine Itinerary and the Notitia. No town, however, throughout the whole length and breadth of Britannia is known to us in respect to its internal histoiy, and the details of its constitution; in other words, there are no notices whatever of the Curt' aleSf the DeatrioneSj the OrdOj or the SeiuUus of any town in Britain. That such existed is a matter of inference — inference of the most legitimate kind, but still only inference. For all the towns above mentioned we have (a) a notice in some Latin or Greek author, (b) an identi- fication of the site, and (c) the existence of Roman remains at the present time; in other words our evi- dence is of the highest and best kind. In the majo- rity of cases, however, there is a great falling off in this respect. Sometimes there is the ancient name, vnthont any definite modem equivalent; sometimes the modem without an ancient one; sometimes Ro- man remains with a name; sometimes a name without remains. Sometimes the name is only partially Roman — being a compound. Such is the case with the forms in -coin (eol4mia) and -Chester (castra). In the Danish part of the island this becomes -caster (An-caster), Even this class is occasionally equir BRIVAS. vocal; since the element -vnchf as in Green-toicA, &c., may either come directly from the Latin vicus or from the Norse vik. Compounds of vUla are in a similar category. They may have come direct from the Latin, or they may simply represent the French ville. The element street, as in Strat-fordf denotes a road rather than a toum. The extent of these complications maybe measured by a comparison of the ancient and modem maps of (e. g.) Norfolk. The localities of which the ancient names are known are four — Brannodunum (Bran-caster), Venta Icenorum, Gariannonum (Burgh Castle), and ad Taum (Taesburg), The spots marked in Mr. Hughes' map of Britannia Romana (vid, Monumenta &ntafmica), as the localities of Roman remains (over and above the four already mentioned) are fifteen — Castle Rising, Sth. Creake, Cromer, Burgh, Oxnead, Castle Acre, Narborough, O^ntrg, Ixburg, Coheg, Wheiacre, Burgh St. Peter, Caistor, Holme, North Elmham — all unnamed, or, ijf capable of being provided with an ancient designation, so provided at the expense of some other locality. Upon the whole, it is not too much to say that the parallel which has firequently been drawn be- tween Britain and Dacia, in respect to the late date of their reduction, and the early date of the loss, holds good in respect to the details of their histoiy during the Roman and ante-Roman period. In each case we have obscurity and uncertainty — names without a corresponding description, some- times without even a geographical positicm; re- mans without a site, and sites without remains to verify them. The chief complementary notices to this article are Cauedonia, Friso, Hiokrnia, Morini, Sax- ONKS, Vallum. (Camden's Britannia ; Horseley's Britannia Romana; Stukely's Stonehenge and Abury; Stuart's Caledonia Romana ; Wilson's iVe- historic Annals of Scotland; Wright, The Kelt, The Romcm, and The Saxon; Kemble's Saxons in England ; Monumenta Britannica.) [R. G. L.] BRITANNL Pliny (iv. 17) places Britanni on the Gallic coast, between a people who belcmg to the pagus of Gesoriacum (Botdogne) and the j/!^bianL They would, therefore, be about the river Canche, >liether this is a blunder of Pliny, or a corraption in his text, or whether there were Britanni on this coast, we have no means of determining. [G.L.] BRIUXA (BplwXa: Eih. BriulUtes), a pUue in Lydia (Strab. p. 650 ; Plin. y. 29), ia the neigh- bourhood of Nysa. Its position is not ]mo¥m, but it may have been near Mastaura, also mentioned in the same sentence by Strnbo, the site of which is known [Mawaura], [G. L.] BRIVA ISARAE (Pontoise), at the bridge of the Isara, is near to the site of Pontoise, which is on the road from Paris to Rouen. As the Isara is the (Hse, Pontoise is manifestly a corruption of Pons Isarae. The Antonine Itin. «id the Table give 15 Gallic leagues as the distance fnnn Briva Isarae to Lutetia (Pam), which distance should probably be estimated from La Cite, the original Lutetia. [G. L.] BRIVAS, a town of the Arveroi, is mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. xxiv. 16): — " Hinc te suscipiet benigna Brivas." The place is Brioude on the Allier. Some autho- rities speak of a Roman bridge there, and say that the old church was built in the time of Con* stantine. The name Brivas indicates the passa^ of a river. [G. L?)