The
Durotriges were one of the
Celtic tribes living in
Britain prior to the
Roman invasion. The tribe lived in modern
Dorset, south
Wiltshire, south
Somerset and
Devon east of the
River Axe. After the Roman conquest, their main
civitates, or settlement-centred administrative units, were
Durnovaria (modern
Dorchester, "the probable original capital") and
Lindinis (modern
Ilchester, "whose former, unknown status was thereby enhanced"). Their territory was bordered to the west by the
Dumnonii; and to the east by the Belgae. Durotriges were more a tribal confederation than a tribe. They were one of the groups that issued coinage before the Roman conquest, part of the cultural "periphery", as
Barry Cunliffe characterised them, round the "core group" of Britons in the south. These coins were rather simple and had no inscriptions, and thus no names of coin-issuers can be known, let alone evidence about monarchs or rulers. Nevertheless, the Durotriges presented a settled society, based in the farming of lands surrounded and controlled by strong hill forts that were still in use in 43 AD.
Maiden Castle is a preserved example of one of these hill forts.