bga_241716 - CORIELTAVI - North Esatern Region Statère d'or anépigraphe, “série I”

CORIELTAUVI - North Esatern Region

(1st century BC)

The Corieltauvi (also called the Coritani) were an important Breton people whose territory was in what is now the East Midlands. Their capital was called Ratae Corieltauvorum, known today as Leicester. Their neighbors were the Brigantes to the north, the Catuvellauni and the Icenians to the south. The Corieltauvi are not mentioned in Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, and do not seem to have offered much resistance to Roman conquest. The ethnonym Corieltauvi is confirmed by the discovery of an inscription in 1965. They were one of the first peoples of the island of Britain to use and mint coins, but the coins found were long attributed to their neighbors the powerful Brigantes . In 2000, 5,000 gold and silver coins were discovered near the township of Hallaton, Leicestershire (Hallaton Treasure)..