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Ratae Corieltauvorum


Coordinates: 52°38′06″N 1°08′29″W / 52.6349°N 1.1413°W / 52.6349; -1.1413

Ratae Corieltauvorum or simply Ratae was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Leicester, located in the English county of Leicestershire.

Ratae is a latinate form of the Brittonic word for "ramparts" (cf. Gaelic rath), suggesting the site was an Iron Age oppidum. This generic name was distinguished by ("of the Corieltauvians"), the name of the Celtic tribe whose capital it served as under the Romans. (The town was mistakenly known as Ratae Coritanorum in later records. However, an inscription recovered in 1983 showed that these were corrupt and "Corieltauvorum" was the proper form of the name.)

The native settlement encountered by the Romans at the site seems to have developed in the 2nd or 1st centuries BC. Little is known about this settlement or the condition of the River Soar at this time, although roundhouses from this era have been excavated and seem to have clustered along roughly 8 hectares (20 acres) of the east bank of the Soar above its confluence with the Trent. This area of the Soar was split into two channels: a main stream to the east and a narrower channel on the west, with a presumably marshy island between. The settlement seems to have controlled a ford across the larger channel.


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