Where was Valentia Province in Britannia ?

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Graham,

The position of the British provinces is a right puzzle! In his latest book, Roger White positions Britannia Prima in the West, being Cornwall and Wales (following Jones & Mattingly 1990 and Mann 1998). But he also shows 'solutions' of other scholars, who come to a different concusion. See for instance the solution of dr. Ingo Maier, who studied the Notitia Dignitatum, and thought that Valentia would be comparable to modern Wales: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~igmaier/map.htm

I am sure that the positioning of the provinces of Britain is guesswork. The evidence for the positioning is based on information concerning the visit of Christian deleqates to the Council of Aries.

I agree!
Aries? - I guess that's Arles.

Mann then connects these with the four provinces of Britain

I'm not sure if we can deduce that the ecclesiastical organisation of the British diocese would have to follow the civilian organisation of Britain.

Here is the quote which comes from a transcription from documents kept at the Vatican by William S. Davies for Y Cymmrodor, XXX, 1920, page 130

The full text is also online:
http://www.archive.org/stream/ycymmrodo ... t_djvu.txt

Prima was the western part of Britain, Secunda he places in the South-east of England - Kent, Flavia in the Midlands (Mercia) with its capital at London, Maxima had its capital at York, and Valentia beyond the latter in the area of modern day Scotland.
Yes, but how do we know that this 12th-c. edition does indeed go back on some source that accurate lists the provinces, and is not one of the first historical attempts to try and locate these provinces, as we are doing right now? :wink:

The reason why I think Maxima had a consul is because York had become an important military HQ in the later period. London, remember, still had the office of the vicarius.

I disagree. York had it's own importance because of the military command of the Dux Britanniarum, and would not necessarily have been important because of the presence of that military command.