Welsh Journals

ROMAN WALES AND THE VOTADINI BY the ninth century, the kings of Gwynedd traced their lineage back to a British tribe called the Votadini, which had been located in Scotland during the Roman period. According to a well-known passage preserved in the collection of documents sometimes referred to as 'Nennius History of the Britons with Appendices' (B.M., Harley 3859), the Votadini, led by a king named Cunedda, migrated to northern Wales at an uncertain date and drove out the Irish.1 Since the Second World War, there has been a general tendency to place the Venedotian2 invasion in the first third of the fifth century.3 By so doing, the Votadini have been brought into contact with the post-Roman government of Britain. Going one step further, John Morris has recently suggested that the movement was part of an initiated policy to secure the borders of Britain from attack.4 Yet there has never been a clear understanding of the nature of the Irish threat, for discussion has concentrated on the literary evidence.5 As a result, due to the many problems which exist in this material, an air of uncertainty remains over the question of when the invasion occurred. This article proposes to take a somewhat different approach, and to concentrate on the archaeological evidence. It is true that, with the possible exception of three inscribed stones, there is nothing in northern Wales which belongs to the invasion period. However, the distribution of Roman6 sites occupied during the fourth century in this area is significant. Once it is understood, for example, why 1 There are three parts to this collection. The most well known is the Historia Brittonum, edited into its pre snt form by Nennius in the ninth century. The standard edition, used here, is Historia Brittonum cum Additamentis Nennii, edited by Mommsen (M.G.H.) and cited throughout as Historia Brittonum. The remaining parts of the manuscript collection will be cited as 'Welsh Genealogies' and 'Annales Cambriae'. The best edition is by E. Phillimore entitled 'Annales Cambriae and Old Welsh Genealogies', Y Cymmrodor, IX (1888), 141-83, although the dates he gives in the annals are two years too early. The reference to the migration occurs in c. 62 of the Historia Brittonum. 1 Venedotian is the adjective of Votadini, the root word from which developed Gwynedd. 3 See, e.g., P. H. Blair, 'Origins of Northumbria', Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, XXV (1947), 34-37; I. A. Richmond in Roman and Native in North Britain (1958), p. 129; John Morris, 'Dark Age Dates' in Britain and Rome, 1965, pp. 162-63. 4 This paper is intended to amplify Morris's thesis (loc. cit.), which is here accepted. Richmond (loc. cit.) does refer to the fifth-century lead coffin at Llangeinwen and the seventh-century inscription commemorating Cadfan of Gwynedd at Llangawaldr. The coffin has no connection-except geographical-with the Votadini. Its closest cultural affinities are with fifth-century Gaul. The inscription is certainly Venedotian, but it is much too late to have anything to do with the invasion period. The word 'Roman' will be used throughout to identify those officials and/or military forces loyal to an imperial authority. The word 'British' will be reserved for the native inhabitant of what is now Wales.