tribal confederation · British Isles

Ordovices

50 BCE – 78 CE (approx.)

Mountain peoples of north-west Wales who hosted Caratacus' last stand and fought Rome until Agricola crushed them in 77 or 78.

Origins

The Ordovices held the uplands of Snowdonia and much of mid and north Wales, a region of small hillforts, stone-walled roundhouses and pastoral farming. They enter written history through Tacitus, who records that the British leader Caratacus moved his war against Rome into their territory around 51 after leaving the Silures.

Rule and society

No coins, kings or towns are known, and power was probably held by local chiefs controlling upland grazing and fortified settlements. Anglesey, the island of Mona, lay on their borders and was a centre of the druids, whose sanctuary Suetonius Paulinus attacked in 60 before Boudica's revolt recalled him. Their resistance made the region one of the last parts of Wales to be pacified.

Decline and legacy

Around 77 the Ordovices destroyed a Roman cavalry unit. The new governor Agricola answered with a campaign that, Tacitus says, nearly wiped out the people, and then seized Anglesey. Their land was held by forts such as Segontium at Caernarfon, and no civitas of the Ordovices is known in Roman Britain.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ordovices. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ordovices
MLA
“Ordovices.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ordovices. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ordovices.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ordovices.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ordovices’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ordovices (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻