Dumnonii

Territory: in the South-West Country of Britain (Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) Tribal (Roman) Capital: Isca Dumnoniorum (modern Exeter, Devon)

Little is known about the Dumnonii. A Brythonic kingdom, called Dumnonia, occupied the south-west peninsula in sub-Roman times. It probably wasn’t so much a ‘kingdom’ as a collection of sub-kingdoms or even a grouping of small tribes. They didn’t use any coins or have any large settlements.

The Dumnonii do not seem to have been politically centralised: the structure, distribution and construction of Bronze Age and Iron Age hillforts in the southwest shows a number of smaller tribal groups living alongside each other.

They seem to have offered no resistance to the invading Romans and as a result, few garrison forts were placed there. Isca Dumnoniorum was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Britain and the Romans established Isca as the capital of their civitas. Isca Dumnoniorum was also the southern starting point for the Roman Fosse Way.

The Latin name suggests that the city was already a Celtic oppidum (walled town) on the banks on the River Exe before the foundation of the Roman city around 50AD.

The Dumnonii didn’t adopt the Roman way of life fully and carried on in their own lifestyle throughout the occupation. Evidence of this is their style of building during the Roman period. It was wholly native in form with no Romanised features.

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