[NB  This page previously related to the rivers Cunia and Velox, but has now been subdivided. Click on Prev below left to go to the new page for Velox] 

Cunia 

Ravenna takes its readers on a journey clockwise round Britain starting with the river Traxula, the Axe in Devon. Near the end of the list appears the name Raxtomessasenna, the Adur (or possibly the Ouse). West of the Adur comes Ptolemy’s Trisantonis, the Arun, and further west still Ravenna's Velox, the modern river Brit. Logically, then, Ravenna’s Cunia should be a river between the Arun and the Brit. It is not at all clear which river might have been the Cunia. However, it was suggested in Chapter 11: Roman place-names in central southern England that Ravenna’s Onna (40) may have been in the vicinity of Horsebridge on the river Test, and that the name may originally have been Conda or Conva. There are locations in that area which would suit either form and it is just possible that the Romans would have transferred the name of the fort to the river, now the Test, the river-name being given as Cunia in Ravenna. 

[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]

[Navigating tip: simply close this window to return to Chapter 19, if that is where you came from. Click on Next below to go back to the notes for Trisantonis. Click here on Romano-British place-names to go to the Contents page.]