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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 copper mines on Great Orme's Head were probably administered from CANOVIVM. The more lucrative lead/silver mines at Pentre may have been within the jurisdiction of the Twentieth Legion based at DEVA (Chester).
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 tibal terrirories lay in the extreme northern coastal area of Wales; modern north-west and north-east Clwyd and northern Gwynedd.
Again 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, and 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)
Several large pigs of lead - useful by-products of silver extraction - have been found at Chester, and far to the east along Watling Street near Letocetum (Wall), variously stamped;
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.
