The Corieltauvi (also the Coritani, and the Corieltavi) were a tribe of people living in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

prior to the Roman conquest, and thereafter a ''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

'' of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

. Their territory was in what is now the English

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

. They were bordered by the

Brigantes The Brigantes were Ancient Britons who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England. Their territory, often referred to as Brigantia, was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire. The Greek geogr ...

to the north, the

Cornovii The Cornovii is the name by which two, or three, tribes were known in Roman Britain. One tribe was in the area centred on present-day Shropshire, one was in Caithness in northernmost Scotland, and there was probably one in Cornwall. The name has ...

to the west, the

Dobunni The Dobunni were one of the Iron Age tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman conquest of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions. Various historians and archaeologists have examined ...

and

Catuvellauni The Catuvellauni (Common Brittonic: *''Catu-wellaunī'', "war-chiefs") were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century. The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their ...

to the south, and the

Iceni The Iceni ( , ) or Eceni were a Brittonic tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the area of the Corieltauvi to the we ...

to the east. Their capital was called ''

Ratae Corieltauvorum Ratae Corieltauvorum or simply Ratae was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Leicester, located in the English county of Leicestershire. Name ''Ratae'' is a latinate form of the Brittonic word for "ramparts" (cf. G ...

'', known today as

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

Late Iron Age

The Corieltauvi were a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites or signs of centralised government. They appear to have been a federation of smaller, self-governing tribal groups. From the beginning of the 1st century, they began to produce inscribed coins: almost all featured two names, and one series had three, suggesting they had multiple rulers. The names on the earliest coins are so abbreviated as to be unidentifiable. Later coins feature the name of

Volisios Volisios was a local ruler or king based in the English East Midlands, around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. He is traditionally thought to have been a ruler of the Corieltavi, who inhabited this region in the Roman period and perhaps be ...

, apparently the paramount king of the region, together with names of three presumed sub-kings,

Dumnocoveros Dumnocoveros was a local ruler or king based in the English East Midlands, around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. He is traditionally thought to have been a ruler of the Corieltavi The Corieltauvi (also the Coritani, and the Corieltavi) ...

Dumnovellaunus Dubnovellaunus or Dumnovellaunus was the name of at least one, and possibly several kings of south-eastern Britain in the late 1st century BC/early 1st century AD, known from coin legends and from a mention in the ''Res Gestae Divi Augusti''. *Dubn ...

and

Cartivelios Cartivellaunos was a local ruler or king based in the English East Midlands, around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. He is traditionally thought to have been a ruler of the Corieltavi, who inhabited this region in the Roman period and per ...

, in three series minted ca. 45 AD. The Corieltauvi had an important mint, and possibly a tribal centre, at

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington, Lincolnshire, ...

. The discovery in 2000 of the

Hallaton Treasure The Hallaton Treasure, the largest hoard of British Iron Age coins, was discovered in 2000 near Hallaton in southeast Leicestershire, England, by volunteers from the Hallaton Fieldwork Group. The initial find was made by Ken Wallace on 19 N ...

more than doubled the total number of Corieltauvian coins previously recorded. In 2014 26 gold and silver Corieltauvian coins were found in Reynard's Kitchen Cave in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

Roman times

There is little evidence that the Corieltauvi offered resistance to Roman rule: Ratae was captured c. AD 44, and it may have had a Roman garrison. The Fosse Way, a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

, passed through their territory.

Name

Their name appears as ''Coritani'' and ''Coritavi'' in

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

's 2nd century ''Geography''. However, the

Ravenna Cosmography The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' ( la, Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. Text ...

gives the name of their capital, in apparently corrupt form, as ''Rate Corion Eltavori'', and an inscribed tile found in

Churchover Churchover is a small village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. The population of the parish in the 2001 census was 230, increasing to 251 at the 2011 census. It is located around 4 miles (7 km) north of Rugby, and is administrativel ...

calls the administrative district ''Civitas Corieltauvorum'', indicating that the true form should be ''Corieltauvi''. Manley Pope, author of an early English translation of the Welsh chronicle ''

Brut y Brenhinedd ''Brut y Brenhinedd'' ("Chronicle of the Kings") is a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. About 60 versions survive, with the earliest dating to the mid-13th century. Adaptat ...

'', associated the Coritani of the Roman writers with the magical race called the

Coraniaid The Coraniaid are a race of beings from Welsh mythology. They appear in the Middle Welsh prose tale ''Lludd and Llefelys'', which survives in the ''Mabinogion'' and inserted into several texts of the ''Brut y Brenhinedd'', a Welsh adaptation of Ge ...

in the medieval Welsh tale ''

Lludd and Llevelys ''Lludd and Llefelys'' ( cy, Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys) is a Middle Welsh prose tale written down in the 12th or 13th century; it was included in the ''Mabinogion'' by Lady Charlotte Guest in the 19th century. It tells of the Welsh hero Lludd Llaw ...

'', however this is not supported by modern historical linguistics. The name has been adopted by the athletics club, Leicester Coritanian A.C.

The Barnetby bull rider

A detectorist found a small figure of a woman riding a bull in a field in

Barnetby le Wold Barnetby le Wold is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England, located between Brigg and Immingham. The village is also near Barton-upon-Humber. The population of the parish in the 2001 census was 1,593. This incr ...

, Lincolnshire in 2016. The piece was handed over to the British Museum's

Portable Antiquities Scheme The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme begun in 1997 and now covers ...

, and experts declared it to be of regional importance. Adam Staples, from Essex Coin Auctions, said it was thought to be the only recorded example of a figure riding a bull and probably dated from the early 1st century AD. "It is such a unique piece and begs the question just who was she? Was she a slave, a priestess, a Queen?", he said. Staples suggested that the bull rider would have been fixed to the top of a bowl "that may have been filled with blood during ritual sacrifices." The figure was auctioned for £7,800 on 9 November 2022.

References

{{Iron Age tribes in Britain History of Leicestershire People from Leicestershire Celtic Britons Historical Celtic peoples