Precise name uncertain; vide infra
Capital: none
Extent: N. Wales; N. Clwyd & N. Gwynedd.
Notes: No self-governing institutions and no Romanized capital. Probably under military government. Lived mainly in hillforts.
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Tribe: Deciangli / Decangi / Deceangi / Cangi / Ceangi / Ceangli
Precise name uncertain; vide infra Capital: none Extent: N. Wales; N. Clwyd & N. Gwynedd. Notes: No self-governing institutions and no Romanized capital. Probably under military government. Lived mainly in hillforts. |
CANOVIVM (Caerhun, Gwynedd) - Cavalry fort on the Afon Conwy. The minor settlement or vicus outside the fort was possibly the civitas capital of the Deceangi.
The Deceangli had no self-governing institutions and no readily identified Romanized capital. They were probably under military government like their southern neighbours the Ordovices after the initial campaign of Agricola in AD78. The extent of their tribal territories lay in the extreme northern coastal area of Wales; modern north-west and north-east Clwyd and northern Gwynedd.
Like their Ordovician neighbours, the Deceangli lived mainly in hillforts, notably in a chain of settlements dotted along the length of the Clwydian Range in the eastern part of the tribal lands. From Moel Hiraddug near the mouth of the Clwyd they continue in close succession along the eastern bank of the river; Moel y Gaer (Bodfari), Pen y Cloddiau, Moel Arthur, Moel y Gaer (Llanbedr) and Foel Fenlli. Continuing west along the northern Welsh coastline from the mouth of the Clwyd, we find other Deceanglian forts at Pen y Corddyn, Conwy Mountain at the mouth of the Conwy and Pen y Gaer further inland along the Conway valley, also possibly Dinas Dinorwig overlooking the Menai Straits and Mona Insula.
The most famous reference to this Celtic tribe is without doubt, the passage in Cornelius Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome:
"By the Icenian defeat all who were wavering between war and peace were reduced to quietude, and the army was led against the Ceangi. The country was devastated, booty collected everywhere, while the enemy declined to risk a battle, or, if he made a stealthy attempt to harrass the marching columns, found his treachery punished. And now Ostorius was within measurable distance of the sea which looks towards Ireland, when an outbreak of sedition among the Brigantes recalled a leader who was firm in his resolution to attempt new conquests only when he had secured the old." (Tacitus Annales XII,32)
The tribal name Deceangli is phonetically connected with the Tegeingl district of Flintshire. The cantref of Tegeingl was created by Edward I and extended from the Wepre Brook to the River Clwyd. The lead deposits of the Halkyn Hills were certainly known by the Romans before they arrived in the area.
The native villages in Flintshire during the Romano-British period were characterized by collections of circular or rectangular huts with stone footings and thatched roofs surrounded by crudely-built stone enclosure walls. Their preferred location appears to be on or near hill-tops. Many of these sites have been identified; Dinorben above Abergele, Braich-y-Dinas near Penmaenmawr, Tre'r Ceiri in Caernarfonshire, Moel Hiraddug near Rhuddlan, also possibly Moel Arthur in Flintshire and Moel Fenlli and Moel-y-Gaer both on the Flintshire-Denbighshire border.
"The presence of these hill-sites then testifies to the backwardness of the inhabitants of North Wales as compared with South-East Britain, and to the apparently small effect of Roman influence within its borders." (Taylor 1922 pp.63/4)
"As pigs of lead have been unearthed in Cheshire and Staffordshire, inscribed DECEANG or the like, it is presumed that the tribe occupied the lead district of Flintshire. Whether the name was Deceangi or Ceangi depends on the unanswerable question whether, in the inscriptions, DE is a preposition or not. Ptolemy's Καιαγγανων ακρον (II.3,3) tells in favour of the second form." (LOEB footnote)
The most notable export of the Deceangli tribe was lead and silver, which was mined in the form of the ore Galena, most notably at Pentre Flint. Roman mine-workings have also been identified at Halkyn, and a coin of Gordian III found in the lead mines at Talar Goch near Meliden may point to Roman exploitation of lead there. A possible hypocaust reported at Holywell may indicate occupation in connection with lead-mining, perhaps in an administrative or regulatory role. At least two large pigs of lead - useful by-products of silver extraction - have been found at Deva Victrix (Chester), another far to the east along Watling Street near Letocetum (Wall), also a ship-load turned up on the shores of the River Mersey.
Of these, the first two now reside in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, the Watling Street sow is in the British Museum, London, and the lead pigs found in the River Mersey are all lost.
The copper mines on Great Orme's Head were probably administered from CANOVIVM. The more lucrative lead/silver mines may have been within the jurisdiction of the Twentieth Legion based at DEVA (Chester).
