Group 5: Dorset

Once more we return to Moridunum, but the list of names which follows it is obscure. *Boluellaunio, between Moriduno, Sidford(?), and Alauna, Waddon Hill(?) (repeated from 106₉), may have lain in the vicinity of Honiton. Dillemann (1979, 66) argues that the similarity between *Boluellaunio and the Alauna Silua of 106₉ – with the words reversed to make Silua Alauna – means that we should regard it as a doublet. However, given that Rivet and Smith’s (1979, 461) explanation of silua as a corrupt fragment of *Soruioduni, Old Sarum, is so convincing, we may dismiss Dillemann’s suggestion.

Rivet and Smith (1979, 313) connect Colonias with the Colonia at Gloucester and the name Clauinio above at 106₁₂, but this cannot be accepted as certain, and I have argued that Clauinio is unlikely to have been for Gleuum, Gloucester. Colonias therefore may relate to a lost River *Colne/Clun (deriving from British *Colanio->Colonio-: Ekwall 1928, 89) or a site on it. The next names, Aranus and Anicetis, are obscure. The first may be connected with a Celtic root *arno-, taken as the root of the name of the Somerset Earn, a stream which, although now a tributary of the Isle, seems to have been the original name of the latter from their confluence to the point at which it joins the Parrett (Ekwall 1928, 139). Rivet & Smith (1979, 258) dismiss this as unlikely as the Cosmographer’s source would not have depicted a river as small as the Earn; however, the name could have been that of a settlement on or near the river rather than the river itself, so *Arnus might refer to a settlement in southern Somerset. In this case Colonias could have been Ham Hill (perhaps the early fort or a later settlement associated with the quarries) or another place nearby.

The mention of *Iuernio, which must be identified with a place on the River Iwerne (which derives from the same root: Ekwall 1928, 222) (perhaps the early fort at Hod Hill), brings us back to firmer ground. *Meletio, which precedes it, may be connected with Melbury to the north, as *Vindocladia, which follows, is fixed by the Antonine Itinerary Iter XV at the small posting-station at Badbury Rings to the south-east (Rivet & Smith 1979, 178). Melbury is first attested in 956 as Meleburge and meleberig; this has been derived from an Old English *Mæleburh, ‘multicoloured fortified place’ (Mills 1989, 130), a slightly improbable name. If an identification of *Meletio with the first element of Melbury can be allowed, then Anicetis may have lain near Sherborne.