TheTextoverdi (Common Brittonic: *Textowerdī) were a tribe ofCeltic Britons whose name appears in the upper valley of theRiver South Tyne in present-dayNorthumberland.[1] One scholar calls them one of the “shadowy peoples of Lower Britain.”[2] The Textoverdi may have been a sub-tribe of theBrigantes, but according to Laurence and Berry, they could have been an independent group[2] who originally paid tribute to stronger neighbours but then managed to establish their own independent relationship with theRomans.[2]
In terms of archaeological evidence, there is an “enigmatic”[3] altar of the 2nd or 3rd century that records a dedication toSatiada (Sattada), a local goddess. It was dedicated by the senate of the Textoverdi (curia Textoverdorum).[3][4] The Textoverdi are believed[4] to have been the inhabitants of an area, with their capital atBeltingham near the site ofVindolanda or atCorbridge.[4]
One scholar[who?] states that “both the goddess and the people of the Textoverdi are otherwise unknown; and the exact meaning of curia is unclear, perhaps a latinization of a native British institution.”[3]
Curia may not refer to a local senate, “but, as the Celticcorie, to a local subdivision of the tribe equivalent to apagus. Thus the Textoverdi are perhaps a pagus of the Brigantes.”[5]
The inscription reads: