Capital: MORIDVNVM
Location: Carmarthen, Dyfed.
Extent: S.W. Dyfed.
Notes: Hillforts influenced by S.W. England.
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Tribe: Demetae
Capital: MORIDVNVM Location: Carmarthen, Dyfed. Extent: S.W. Dyfed. Notes: Hillforts influenced by S.W. England. |
During the Late Pre-Roman Iron-Age the Demetae tribe inhabited a territory roughly equatable with the modern county of Dyfed. There are only two places of note in the Roman administrative district, both of which are attributed to the tribe by Ptolemy (vide infra); the (Flavian?) fort at Moridunum (Carmarthen, Dyfed) and the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
The only Romano-British settlement of note within the demesne of the Demetae was the vicus or roadside settlement outside the fort at Moridunum (Carmarthen, Dyfed). It has been suggested that the administration of the tribe was carried-out from here, under the watchful eyes of the Roman military. The town would thus have been known as Moridunum Demetarum, or the civitas Demetarum, the Romanized civitas capital of the tribe.
Gildas, writing in the mid-6th century, mentions one 'Vortipor, tyrant of the Demetae.' (Ruin of Britain, xxxi.1)
The only industry of note within the territories of the tribe were the gold workings at Luentinum (Dolaucothi, nr. Pumsaint). These mines would have been under tight military control and completely out of the hands of the local tribal magnates whose ancestral lands had been requisitioned by the Roman authorities, probably with little or no compensation.
