Ordovicer
The ordovices (Latin Ordovices ) were one of the Celtic tribes that the British Isles were before the Roman invasion. Their territory was in the north of what is now Wales ; southern neighbors were the Silurians . They were farmers and hunters , but had a strong military tradition and mostly lived in fortified settlements. They were among the few tribes that had withstood the Roman invasion (from 43 AD) under Emperor Claudius . The Ordovieans fought against the Romans and their allies in 51 under the leadership of the Catuvellaunen King Caratacus (or Caradoc), who had fled to them , but were defeated by the governor Ostorius Scapula .
Tacitus reports that the Ordoviči were almost completely destroyed by the Roman governor Gnaeus Iulius Agricola in the second half of the year 77, because they rebelled against the occupation and shortly before Agricola's arrival had almost completely killed an Ala who had been advanced into their area . Claudius Ptolemy proves that the place Bravonium was originally under the rule of the Ordovicer.
The name of the tribe is still used in the place name Dinorwig ("Fort of the Ordovices") in North Wales . In 1879 the name Ordovicium was introduced for a geological period between the Cambrian and the Silurian .
literature
- Walther Sontheimer : Ordovices. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, Col. 334.
Individual evidence
- ^ Tacitus, Agricola 18