A recent interpretation of the name Demetae by Andrew Breeze ( 2005) suggests it means 'the supreme cutters-down', alluding to a proficiency with swords and the ostentatious use of weaponry.įigure C: Ptolemy's tribes of Wales (chiefly after Webster 1981, fig. Cunliffe ( 1991) shows the Dobunni occupying south-east Wales east of the Usk, together with parts of Avon and Somerset.

The Cornovii occupied the fringe of north-east Wales, the Borderlands and the Cheshire and Shropshire Plains. While many authors and academics have offered differing views on precise division of territory, it is generally agreed that Wales was occupied by five or six main tribes at the time of the Roman conquest (see detailed discussion in Burnham and Davies 2010, 19-22) the Demetae in the south-west (approximating Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire), the Silures in the south and east (approximately modern Glamorgan and parts of Brecknock to the Wye), the Ordovices in the mid- and north-west of Wales (broadly Anglesey, Gwynedd and much of Powys, and the Deceangli in the north-east (modern Denbighshire and the Clwydian range). For the first time in the prehistory of Wales we have names for some of the people in the landscape (Figure C).

The Roman geographer Ptolemy left us with a generalised but valuable description of the native tribes of Wales. PREVIOUS CONTENTS SUMMARY ISSUE HOME Tribal Map of Wales

Age of tribes