View source for Demetae

{{Short description|Iron Age and Roman-era Celtic people in southwest Wales}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[Image:Wales.pre-Roman.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Tribes of Wales at the time of the Roman invasion. The modern Anglo-Welsh border is also shown, for reference purposes.]]
The '''Demetae''' were a [[Celts|Celtic]] people of [[British Iron Age|Iron Age]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] period, who inhabited modern [[Pembrokeshire]] and [[Carmarthenshire]] in south-west [[Wales]]. The tribe also gave their name to the medieval [[Kingdom of Dyfed]], the modern area and county of [[Dyfed]] and the distinct dialect of Welsh spoken in modern south-west Wales, [[Dyfedeg]].

==Etymology and relationship to Dyfed==
The tribal name Demetae is thought to derive from a [[Celtic languages|Common Celtic]] element related to the [[Welsh language|modern Welsh]] word ''defaid'' (sheep) as well as the [[Common Brittonic|Ancient Brythonic]] word ''defod'' (wealth, property or riches).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Southey |first1=Thomas |title=Observations addressed to the Wool Growers of Australia and Tasmania respecting Improvements in the Breed of Sheep preparing and assorting Wools & c also on the Introduction of other laniferous lanigerous Animals suited to their Climate and Localities and recommended for their Adoption By Thomas Southey Wool Broker 2d edit London Redford and Robins London Road Southwark 1831 |journal=Cambrian and Caledonian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repertory |date=1832 |volume=4 |pages=401–402 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w6M2AAAAMAAJ&dq=defaid&pg=PA401 |publisher=proprietors |language=en}}</ref> This element persists in the name for the area of West Wales that the tribe inhabited, with the [[Sub-Roman Britain|post-Roman]] [[Kingdom of Dyfed]] ([[proto-Celtic]] ''[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/dametos *dametos]'') a clear continuation of the Pre-Roman [[etymon]]. The name even survived the [[Norman conquest of Wales]] and the introduction of the [[Historic counties of Wales|Shire system]], with [[Thomas Morgan (Afanwyson)|Thomas Morgan]] noting that the Welsh inhabitants of [[Pembrokeshire]] still referred to the area as ''Dyfed'' in the nineteenth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=Thomas |title=Handbook of the Origin of Place-names in Wales and Monmouthshire |date=1887 |publisher=H.W. Southey |page=29 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookoriginp00morggoog/page/n37/mode/2up?q=dyfed}}</ref>

This etymology is supported by the tribal area being especially noted for the cultivation of sheep, from which the Demetae would have generated much of their wealth. Even in the modern era, etymologists and antiquarians such as [[William Baxter (scholar)|William Baxter]] noted the names Dyfed and Demetae derived as "a country fit for the pasture of sheep" and that the local people were noted for their cultivation of large numbers of sheep and goats from ancient times.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baxter |first1=William |title=Quasi regio ovibus pascendis apt |journal=Cambrian Register |volume=2 |pages=61–65}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Baxter|first1=Mr|title=The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Reportage|journal=The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Reportage|date=1832|volume=4|page=401|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w6M2AAAAMAAJ&dq=defaid&pg=PA401}}</ref>

==History==
The Demetae are mentioned in [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'', as being west of the [[Silures]]. He mentions two of their towns, [[Moridunum (Carmarthen)|Moridunum]] (modern [[Carmarthen]]) and [[Luentinum]] (identified as the [[Dolaucothi Gold Mines]] near [[Pumsaint]], Carmarthenshire).<ref>[[Ptolemy]], ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/2*.html 2.2]; [http://www.roman-britain.co.uk/tribes/demetae/ Demetae] at [http://www.roman-britain.co.uk Roman-Britain.co.uk]</ref> They are not mentioned in [[Tacitus]]' accounts of Roman warfare in Wales, which concentrate on their neighbours the Silures and [[Ordovices]].

[[Vortiporius]], "tyrant of the Demetae", is one of the kings condemned by [[Gildas]] in his 6th century polemic ''[[De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae]]''.<ref>[[Gildas]], ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'' [[s:The Ruin of Britain#31|31]]</ref> This probably signifies the [[Sub-Roman Britain|sub-Roman]] [[petty kingdom]] of [[Kingdom of Dyfed|Dyfed]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Celtic tribes of Wales}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Dyfed]]
[[Category:History of Pembrokeshire]]
[[Category:Prehistoric Wales]]
[[Category:Celtic Britons]]
[[Category:Historical Celtic peoples]]