In Wales I'd picture something like you outlined, but now I'm also wondering whether some of the 'civitates' even in the more Romanized areas might have provided the basis of later kingdoms. ❋ Carla (2009)
"civitates," long after the disappearance of the Celts and the fall of ❋ Emile Cammaerts (1915)
Rick - one possibility is that the fragmentation never really went away during the period of Roman government, and Roman Britain was effectively a series of more or less self-governing civitates, derived from the pre-Roman polities, with a provincial government sitting on top. ❋ Carla (2009)
Nominally the civitates were aristocratic elective city states, but perhaps in practice some were 'rotten boroughs' dominated by one family. ❋ Carla (2009)
I can easily imagine that some civitates persisted as aristocratic republics, more or less, till the level of military insecurity was such that commanders morphed into warlords and then into kings. ❋ Carla (2009)
Rick - You aren't the first to suggest that some of the civitates may have formed the basis of later kingdoms. ❋ Carla (2009)
Some of the tribes that later became civitates had pre-Roman centres, like Camulodunum modern Colchester for the Trinovantes, which may have been a bit like the oppida in Gaul on a smaller scale. ❋ Carla (2009)
If this is true, these local leaders, who would have been kings in practice and perhaps also in name, might have counted among the civitates of Honorius' letter. ❋ Carla (2009)
Lusitani, inquit, quorundum civitates adierunt: qui natis statim faeminis naturam consuunt, quoad urinae exitus ne impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium collocant, ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puellae oras ferro interscindere. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Duas civitates duo faciunt amores; Jerusalem facit amor ❋ Unknown (2007)
Immisso in terrae carceres vento horribiles terrae motus efficiunt, quibus saepe non domus modo et turres, sed civitates integrae et insulae haustae sunt. ❋ Unknown (2007)
There's hardly an undisputed date in the two centuries between the Rescript of Honorius in 410 AD when the then Emperor told the British civitates to look after themselves and the arrival of St Augustine's missionary party from Rome in 597 AD. ❋ Carla (2007)
Sed quoniam omne negotium quod sine libramine rationis et sine vigore consilii fuerit inchoatum non bonum sortitur exitum; postquam hec stolida multitudo pervenit ad partes Ytalie, diffusi sunt et dispersi per civitates et oppida. back ❋ Unknown (2005)
Tum res ad communem utilitatem, quas publicas appellamus, tum conventicula hominum, quae postea civitates nominatae sunt, tum domicilia conjuncta, quas urbes dicamus, invento & divino & humano jure moenibus sepserunt. ❋ Unknown (2006)
Abraham, et emisit Lot e medio subversionis, quando subvertit civitates, in quarum una habitabat Lot. ❋ 1509-1564 (1996)
Et subvertit civitates istas, et omnem planitiem, et omnes habitatores urbium, et germen terrae. ❋ 1509-1564 (1996)
A plurality of separate communities — of civitates et regna — had already in fact taken its place. ❋ ALEXANDER PASSERIN D'ENTR (1968)
Expende quam longum sit iter, Antiochia ad littus Ægæi pelagi se recipere, ibique recta sursmn versus Septentrionem ascendere, et præcipuas civitates in littore sitas usque ad Troadem perlustrare, cum tamen Romanum iter sit destinatum versus occasum. ❋ 1616-1683 (1966)
Hence, saith he, it will follow, sect. 4, that this epistle which was sent, “Ecclesiæ paroikousē Korinthon, non ad unius civitatis ecclesiam, sed ad omnes totius Achaiæ Christianos, per singulas civitates et regiones, sub episcopis aut præfectis suis ubique collocatas missa existimetur.” ❋ 1616-1683 (1966)
