The reading given above may not be good Latin, but the
names of the rivers are quite plain. Another reading substitutes
_Avonam_ for _Antonam_; but probably Tacitus avoided the use of the
word Avon because it was then a Celtic term for rivers in general, and
confusion would arise between the Avon which joins the Severn at
Tewkesbury and the Avon a little further south which runs into the
Severn estuary at Bristol. To make his meaning quite clear he did
exactly what we do now in speaking of the Stratford Avon (_i.e._,
river) and the Bristol Avon(_i.e._, river) when he prefixed _Antonam_
(_et Sabrinam_) to the word _fluvios_.
If, therefore, we can find a place of importance with the name of
Antona, or a name that may fairly represent it, having regard to
subsequent corruptions, existing also in Roman times on or near the
Avon branch of the Severn, we shall be justified in assuming that this
particular Avon was the river he had in his mind. Such a place is the
area I have described as full of traces of long Roman and pre-Roman
occupation, situated at the junction of two ancient roads, very
important from the military point of view, and within a mile of the
Avon.
On the supposition that Antona and Aldington may be identical, the
present site of the latter is perhaps a quarter of a mile from the
Roman area which I have described, but the original Aldington Mill,
traces of the foundations of which are still to be seen, was actually
on the Roman area.
Pages:
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415