The Damnonii (also referred to as Damnii) were a Brittonic people of the late 2nd century who lived in what became the Kingdom of Strathclyde by the Early Middle Ages, and is now southern Scotland. They are mentioned briefly in Ptolemy's Geography, where he uses both of the terms "Damnonii" and "Damnii" to describe them, and there is no other historical record of them, except arguably by Gildas three centuries later.[1] Their cultural and linguistic affinity is presumed to be Brythonic. However, there is no unbroken historical record, and a partly Pictish origin is not precluded.
The Romans under Agricola had campaigned in the area in 81, and it was Roman-occupied (at least nominally) between the time that Hadrian's Wall was built (c. 122), through the building of the Antonine Wall (c. 142), until the pullback to Hadrian's Wall in 164. Ptolemy's Geography was written within this timeframe, so his account is contemporary.
^De Excidio 28: inmundae leaenae damnoniae tyrannicus catulus constantinus "Constantine, the tyrannical whelp of the unclean lioness of Damnonia". Gildas' reference is sometimes taken as referring to the Dumnonii of southwestern Britain, but for a northwestern origin argument, see for example Lloyd Laing (1975) The Archaeology of Late Celtic Britain and Ireland c.400-1200 AD, London, p102
The Damnonii (also referred to as Damnii) were a Brittonic people of the late 2nd century who lived in what became the Kingdom of Strathclyde by the Early...
worshiped by the local Damnonii tribe who held the territory which later was to become the Kingdom of Strathclyde. The Damnonii allied themselves with...
emerged during Britain's post-Roman period and may have been founded by the Damnonii people. After the sack of Dumbarton by a Viking army from Dublin in 870...
time inhabited by those Britains whom Solinus called Dunmonii, Ptolomee Damnonii, or (as we find in some other copies) more truly Danmonii. ... . But.....
sometimes encountered, but that spelling is also used for the land of the Damnonii, later part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, in present-day southern Scotland...
Brythonic-speaking Damnonii tribe. It has been suggested that a Damnonii town called Cathures was located there and was the precursor to modern Glasgow. The Damnonii tribe...
time inhabited by those Britans whom Solinus called Dumnonii, Ptolomee Damnonii [...] For their habitation all over this Countrey is somewhat low and in...
to Roman actions against the Selgovae, the territories of the Novantae, Damnonii, and Votadini were not planted with forts, and there is nothing to indicate...
known as Common Brittonic. The occupants of southern Scotland were the Damnonii in the Clyde valley, the Novantae in Galloway, the Selgovae on the south...
more northerly Kingdom of Strathclyde (also called Damnonia after the Damnonii tribe of the area in Romano-British times, and easily confused with Dumnonia/Devon)...
Global Information