The Textoverdi (

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic ( cy, Brythoneg; kw, Brythonek; br, Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, was a Celtic language spoken in Britain and Brittany. It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, a ...

: *''Textowerdī'') were a tribe of

Celtic Britons The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', la, Britanni), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were people of Celtic language and culture who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age and into the Middle Ages, at which point th ...

whose name appears in the upper valley of the

River South Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wat ...

in present-day

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

.''The Ancient world'', Volume 35, Issues 1-2 (Ares Publishers, 2004), 101. One scholar calls them one of the “shadowy peoples of Lower Britain.”

Ray Laurence Ray Laurence is professor of ancient history at Macquarie University. He has won the Routledge Ancient History Prize for his first book ''Roman Pompeii: Space and Society'', and the Longman-History Today New Generation Prize for his book ''Pomp ...

, Joanne Berry, ''Cultural identity in the Roman Empire''. Classical studies : Archaeology/Ancient History (Psychology Press, 1998), 117. The Textoverdi may have been a sub-tribe of 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 ...

, but according to Laurence and Berry, they could have been an independent group who originally paid tribute to stronger neighbours but then managed to establish their own independent relationship with the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. In terms of archaeological evidence, there is an “enigmatic”Anthony Richard Birley, ''The Roman government of Britain'' (Oxford University Press, 2005), 14. altar of the 2nd or 3rd century that records a dedication to Satiada (Sattada), a local goddess. It was dedicated by the senate of the Textoverdi (''curia Textoverdorum'').Guy De la Bédoyère, ''English heritage book of Roman towns in Britain'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 1992), pp. 101-2. The Textoverdi are believed to have been the inhabitants of an area, with their capital at

Beltingham Beltingham G.M. Miller, ''BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names'' (Oxford UP, 1971), p. 13. is a small village on the River South Tyne in Northumberland, in England. It is situated southeast of Bardon Mill and to the west of Hexham. In t ...

near the site of

Vindolanda Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (''castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word woul ...

or at

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was known to the Romans as something like ''Corstopitum'' or ''Coriosopit ...

. One scholar states that “both the goddess and the people of the Textoverdi are otherwise unknown; and the exact meaning of curia is unclear, perhaps a latinization of a native British institution.” ''Curia'' may not refer to a local senate, “but, as the Celtic ''corie'', to a local subdivision of the tribe equivalent to a ''pagus''. Thus the Textoverdi are perhaps a pagus of the Brigantes.”Peter Salway, ''The Frontier People of Roman Britain''. Cambridge Classical Studies (CUP Archive, 1965), 209. The inscription reads: :DEAE / SAIIADAE / CVRIA TEX / TOVERDORVM / V•S•L•M :"To the goddess Satiada, the council of the Textoverdi willingly and deservedly fulfilled their vow."B. Collingwood and R.P. Wright. ''The Roman Inscriptions of Britain''. Oxford. RIB 1965. Quoted a
www.roman-britain.org

References

{{Celtic tribes of England Celtic Britons Historical Celtic peoples