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Nennius and the Twenty-Eight Cities of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Kenneth Jackson
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Extract

N a recent article in the English Historical Review (vol. LII, pp. 193 ff.) Mr C. E. Stevens has examined the question of the ‘Twenty-Eight Cities of Britain’ which are spoken of by Gildas (‘De Excidio’, chap. III) ; and, on the basis that Gildas knew of some Romano-British Notitia Britanniarum, has attempted with considerable success to discover what cities these must have been. Bede (Hist. Eccl. I, I) and Nennius (Hist. Britt., ed. Mommsen, pp. 147 ff.) both repeat Gildas' remark in much the same words ; and in Section VI of the Historia Brittonum their names are given, with the heading Haec sunt nomina omniurn civitatum quae sunt in tota Brittania, quarurn numerus est xxviii. They are in Old Welsh of about the eighth or ninth centuries, and can therefore be contemporary with the compilation of the Historia Brittonum. Each is described as Cair, the Welsh equivalent of civitas in the late Latin sense. Another version of the Historia Brittonum has made the number into thirty-three, no doubt by misreading XXVIII as XXXIII ; the deficiency is filled up with five extra names also in Old Welsh. Some of the forms are however rather younger than in the first version (e.g. Cair Lion for Cair Legion), and the Expanded List may be a century or so later than the original.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 12 , Issue 45 , March 1938 , pp. 44 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1938

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References

1 In the 12th century ‘Life of GrufFydd ab Cynan’ Carnarvon is called ‘City of Constantine the Emperor, son of Constans the Great’. The tradition arises no doubt out of an early Latin inscription to some Constantinus otherwise unknown, but later equated with Constantine the Great or his son. Cf. Williams, I.,Breuddioyd Maxen(Bangor,1920)p. 19.Google Scholar

2 Since writing the above, Mr O.G.S. Crawford has drawn my atttention to Cott. Vesp. MS A. xiv, f. 93b (Vita S. Carantoci), in istis temporibus Cato et Arthur regnabant in ista patria, habitantes in Dindraithov. Rees’, W.J., notoriously corrupt edition,Lives of the Cambro–British Saints, p.99, reads Dindrarthou; Dr C.E. Wright, of the British Museum, writes ‘After careful consideration I am certain the reading … is Dindraithov’. Din Draithou, ‘Citadel of Draithou’ (Mod. W. Din Draethau* ?) is evidently the same as Cair Draithou; the context shows that it was in Cornwall. Dind Tradui of Cormac's Glossary (s.v. Mugh Erne) is the name of some early Irish settlement in Britain; possibly the same as Din Draithou, but on phonetic grounds the identification is doubtful. To read Din Traithou,* ‘Citadel of the Beaches’, would give sense and help this identification; but din would not cause mutation, and mutation after Cair is not found in spelling in the list.Google Scholar

3 But Mr Stevens is very doubtful whether Maridunum should be included.

4 This makes the equation Cair Teim–Llandaff even more uncertain, though in the later Expanded List the significance of civitas may have been forgotten.

5 Cf. Giraldus Cambrensis on Caerleon, It. Kambr. 1,5.