Novia

This name appears to be a modification of the tail-end of Ravenna’s Anderelionuba (68), this fort-name (actually a river-name transferred to the fort) comprising the place-name Anderelion and the river-suffix ba, seen also as bio in Canubio, as bis in Tuerobis and Toesobis, and as bius in Ratostabius and Tobius. The river-suffix, whatever its precise spelling, includes the river-letter b applied by those people who coined place-names in the hill-letter s. Anderelionuba thus simply means the ‘Anderelion river’. Nonetheless, it is the part nuba of the full-name which appears to have survived as the Roman name of the river, this being modified slightly to yield Novia. For other examples of the tail-end of a Romano-British name surviving as, or giving rise to, a river-name, click here on Dunum bay.

[NB. Detailed information as to the different river-letters and as to how they were combined to form compound river-names, together with information as to the four categories of Celtic river-names, is given in Chapter 19: the rivers of Roman Britain. Detailed information as to the different hill-letters is given in Chapter 1 and information as to how the hill-letters were combined to form compound place-names is given in Chapter 2] 

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