Group 5: Dorset

Morionio

Sidford?

10613 = 1062/1064/1069

Boluelaunio

near Honiton?

10613

Alauna

Waddon Hill?

10614 = 1069

Colonias

Ham Hill?

10614

Aranus

in southern Somerset?

10615

Anicetis

near Sherborne?

10615

Melezo

Melbury ?

10616

Ibernio

Iwerne/Hod Hill

10616

Bindogladia

Badbury Rings

10617

Once more we return to Moridunum, but the list of names which follows it is obscure. *Boluellaunio, between Moriduno, Sidford(?), and Alauna, Waddon Hill(?) (repeated from 1069), may have lain in the vicinity of Honiton. Dillemann (1979, 66) argues that the similarity between *Boluellaunio and the Alauna Silua of 1069 – with the words reversed to make Silua Alauna – means that we should regard it as a doublet. However, given that Rivet and Smith’s (1979, 461) explanation of silua as a corrupt fragment of *Soruioduni, Old Sarum, is so convincing, we may dismiss Dillemann’s suggestion.

Rivet and Smith (1979, 313) connect Colonias with the Colonia at Gloucester and the name Clauinio above at 10612, but this cannot be accepted as certain, and I have argued that Clauinio is unlikely to have been for Gleuum, Gloucester. Colonias therefore may relate to a lost River *Colne/Clun (deriving from British *Colanio->Colonio-: Ekwall 1928, 89) or a site on it. The next names, Aranus and Anicetis, are obscure. The first may be connected with a Celtic root *arno-, taken as the root of the name of the Somerset Earn, a stream which, although now a tributary of the Isle, seems to have been the original name of the latter from their confluence to the point at which it joins the Parrett (Ekwall 1928, 139). Rivet & Smith (1979, 258) dismiss this as unlikely as the Cosmographer’s source would not have depicted a river as small as the Earn; however, the name could have been that of a settlement on or near the river rather than the river itself, so *Arnus might refer to a settlement in southern Somerset. In this case Colonias could have been Ham Hill (perhaps the early fort or a later settlement associated with the quarries) or another place nearby.

The mention of *Iuernio, which must be identified with a place on the River Iwerne (which derives from the same root: Ekwall 1928, 222) (perhaps the early fort at Hod Hill), brings us back to firmer ground. *Meletio, which precedes it, may be connected with Melbury to the north, as *Vindocladia, which follows, is fixed by the Antonine Itinerary Iter XV at the small posting-station at Badbury Rings to the south-east (Rivet & Smith 1979, 178). Melbury is first attested in 956 as Meleburge and meleberig; this has been derived from an Old English *Mæleburh, ‘multicoloured fortified place’ (Mills 1989, 130), a slightly improbable name. If an identification of *Meletio with the first element of Melbury can be allowed, then Anicetis may have lain near Sherborne.