Magnis (Kenchester)

Magnis was a Romano-British market town of the Dobunni tribe near present-day Kenchester in Herefordshire, England, built along a single main Roman road with an irregular pattern of side streets forming a roughly hexagonal shape; unlike many Roman towns in Britain it was neither a colonia nor a tribal capital, but a commercial hub, and its name likely derives from a Celtic word for stone or rock, possibly referring to nearby hills. Its defenses developed from earthen ramparts in the 2nd century to stone fortifications by the 4th, with habitation continuing into the 5th century, and after the Battle of Deorham in 577 the area became associated with the Anglo-Saxon Magonsaete sub-kingdom of Mercia.