tribal confederation · British Isles
Durotriges
Origins
The Durotriges took shape in the late Iron Age across Dorset and neighbouring parts of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, a landscape dominated by great multivallate hillforts. Their harbour at Hengistbury Head traded with Armorica in the 1st century BCE, bringing in Italian wine amphorae and Gaulish pottery in exchange for metals, grain and cattle.
Rule and society
Power seems to have been spread among several centres rather than held by one king, and no ruler's name appears on their coins, which became crude cast and debased silver issues. Hillforts such as Maiden Castle were heavily refortified and stocked with sling stones. The Durotriges buried their dead in crouched inhumations, unlike the cremation rites of the south-east, and Kimmeridge shale was worked into bracelets.
Decline and legacy
In 43 and 44 the future emperor Vespasian, leading the legio II Augusta, took more than twenty strongholds in the south-west according to Suetonius; a Roman fort was built inside Hod Hill. The territory became the civitas of the Durotriges with its centre at Durnovaria, modern Dorchester, within Roman Britain.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Durotriges was conquered by Roman Empire44 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Durotriges. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/durotriges
- MLA
- “Durotriges.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/durotriges. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Durotriges.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/durotriges.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Durotriges’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/durotriges (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻