civitates

In Wales I'd picture something like you outlined, but now I'm also wondering whether some of the 'civitates' even in the more Romanized areas might have provided the basis of later kingdoms.

Cadafael, King of Gwynedd Carla 2009

"civitates," long after the disappearance of the Celts and the fall of

Belgium From the Roman Invasion to the Present Day Emile Cammaerts 1915

Rick - one possibility is that the fragmentation never really went away during the period of Roman government, and Roman Britain was effectively a series of more or less self-governing civitates, derived from the pre-Roman polities, with a provincial government sitting on top.

Cearl, King of the Mercians Carla 2009

Nominally the civitates were aristocratic elective city states, but perhaps in practice some were 'rotten boroughs' dominated by one family.

Cadafael, King of Gwynedd Carla 2009

I can easily imagine that some civitates persisted as aristocratic republics, more or less, till the level of military insecurity was such that commanders morphed into warlords and then into kings.

Cadafael, King of Gwynedd Carla 2009

Rick - You aren't the first to suggest that some of the civitates may have formed the basis of later kingdoms.

Cadafael, King of Gwynedd Carla 2009

Some of the tribes that later became civitates had pre-Roman centres, like Camulodunum modern Colchester for the Trinovantes, which may have been a bit like the oppida in Gaul on a smaller scale.

Chester in the seventh century: surviving infrastructure Carla 2009

If this is true, these local leaders, who would have been kings in practice and perhaps also in name, might have counted among the civitates of Honorius' letter.

Cadafael, King of Gwynedd Carla 2009

Lusitani, inquit, quorundum civitates adierunt: qui natis statim faeminis naturam consuunt, quoad urinae exitus ne impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium collocant, ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puellae oras ferro interscindere.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Duas civitates duo faciunt amores; Jerusalem facit amor

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007