The Corionototae were a group of Ancient Britons apparently inhabiting what is now Northern England about whom very little is known. They were recorded in one Roman votary inscription (now lost) from Corbridge, of uncertain date, which commemorated the victory of a prefect of cavalry, Quintus Calpurnius Concessinius, over them.[1]

Scholars tend to categorise them as a sub-group of the Brigantes in the absence of any information.[2][3]

Name

The name Coriono-totae is formed from two roots; either *korio- or *koriono-. from Indo-European *koryo- 'army' and *touta 'tribe, people' ultimately derived from PIE *teutéh₁- ('people', perhaps 'people under arms'; cf. Old Irish túath 'tribe, people', Lithuanian tautà 'people', Gothic þiuda 'folk') Delamarre suggests a root *koriono- 'army-leader'; (cf. Greek koíranos, Old Norse herjann) so that the name would mean people of the chief, people of chiefs .[4]

T.M. Charles-Edwards instead has proposed a tribal name based on an hypothetical deity *Corionos.[5] On the basis of the similarity of the names, writers such as Charles-Edwards, Waldman and Mason have suggested a link with the Irish ethnonym Coriondi,[5][3] while other earlier writers, erroneously linking the name to the Gaelic Cruthin, thought it could refer to the Picts.[6]

Derivation from simply Brittonic *korion-toutas would mean people's army or tribal army and might suggest rather a military or political formation of several clans opposed to Rome rather than a tribal group.

References

  1. ^ Roman Inscriptions of Britain: RIB 1142. Altar dedicated by Quintus Calpurnius Concessinius
  2. ^ Shotter 2012, p. 49: "We hear, too, of the annihilation of a band of Corionototae (possibly a Brigantian sub-group who lived near Corbridge)."
  3. ^ a b Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Infobase Publishing. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-4381-2918-1.
  4. ^ Delamarre 2003, pp. 125–126.
  5. ^ a b Charles-Edwards 1974.
  6. ^ David Mattingly, An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, Penguin (2007)

Bibliography

  • Charles-Edwards, T.M. (1974). "Native Political Organisation in Roman Britain and the Origin of Middle Welsh Brenhin". In Mayrhofer, Manfred (ed.). Antiquitates Indogermanicae. Institute für Sprachwissenschaft der Universitat Innsbruck. pp. 35–45. ISBN 978-3851245202.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Shotter, David (2012). Roman Britain. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-70773-7.
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