Ordovices

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Ordovices. Indigenous British tribe of the Iron Age and Roman periods whose territory covered much of mid-Wales. The Ordovices were the northern neighbours of the Silures and the southern neighbours of the Degeangli. After the Claudian invasion the Ordovices and the Silures were stirred into rebellion by Caratacus. Between ad 47 and 51 the governor P. Ostorius Scapula temporarily subdued the revolting tribes in Wales and elsewhere. His successor Aulus Didius Gallus also struggled against the Welsh tribes. Agricola finally defeated the Ordovices in 77–8. The tribe was incorporated into the province of Britannia and thus became a civitas (tribal administrative district).

Eleanor Scott

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