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Britannia Prima or Britannia I (Latin for "First Roman Britain") was one of the Roman province of the Diocese of "the Roman Britain" created during the Diocletian Reforms at the end of the 3rd century. It was probably created after the defeat of the usurper Allectus by Constantius Chlorus in AD 296 and was mentioned in the Verona List of the Roman provinces. Its position and capital remain uncertain, although it was probably located closer to Rome than Britannia II. At present, most scholars place Britannia I in Wales, Cornwall, and the lands connecting them. On the basis of a recovered inscription, its capital is now usually placed at Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) but some emendations of the list of bishops attending the 315 Council of Arles would place a provincial capital in Isca Augusta (Caerleon) or Deva Victrix (Chester), which were known Roman legions bases.
The placement and capitals of these late British provinces are uncertain, although the late-4th century List of Offices describes the governor of Prima as being equestrian rank ( praeses), making the province unlikely to have been based in Londinium.
Describing the metropolitan sees of the early British church established by SS Saint Fagan and "Saint Duvian", Gerald of Wales placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western Britain,Giraldus Cambriensis Gerald. De Inuectionibus [On Invectives], Vol. II, Ch. I, in Y Cymmrodor: The Magazine of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, Vol. XXX, pp. 130–1. George Simpson & Co. (Devizes), 1920. Gerald of Wales. Translated by W.S. Davies as The Book of Invectives of Giraldus Cambrensis in Y Cymmrodor: The Magazine of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, Vol. XXX, p. 16. George Simpson & Co. (Devizes), 1920. folk etymology its name by reference to the legendary Brutus's first settlements. Modern scholars disregard this gloss but generally agree in placing Britannia Prima in Wales, Cornwall ( Cornubia), and the area connecting them. William Camden placed Prima to the south closest to Rome and this was generally accepted after the appearance of Charles Bertram's highly-influential 1740s literary forgery The Description of Britain, which gave Prima borders south of the Thames River and the Bristol Channel;Hughes, William. The Geography of British History: A Geographical Description of the British Islands at Successive Periods from the Earliest Times to the Present Day: With a Sketch of the Commencement of Colonisation on the Part of the English Nation, p. 87. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green (London), 1863. his work was, however, debunked over the course of the mid-19th century.
Owing to an inscription discovered at Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) which refers to a rector of Britannia Prima named Lucius Septimius, Corinium is generally accounted as the provincial capital. The list of bishops who attended the 314 Council of Arles is patently corrupt but generally assumed to have mimicked the Roman administration: William Camden proposed that Prima was based at London and Secunda at Caerleon and these were the two bishops apart from York. Bishop StillingfleetStillingfleet, Edward. Origines Britannicæ: or, the Antiquities of the British Churches with a Preface, concerning Some Pretended Antiquities Relating to Britain, in Vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph, New Ed., pp. 77 ff. Wm. Straker (London), 1840. and Francis Thackery further proposed that scribal error had produced the bishop de colonia Londinensium ("from London colony") from original notes understood as Civ. Col. Londin. when Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon) was intended.Thackery, Francis. Researches into the Ecclesiastical and Political State of Ancient Britain under the Roman Emperors: with Observations upon the Principal Events and Characters Connected with the Christian Religion, during the First Five Centuries, pp. 272 ff. T. Cadell (London), 1843. (Others place the bishop variously in Lincoln, Chester, and Colchester.)
Legions
The Second Augustan and Twentieth Valerian Roman legion may have still been based at Isca Augusta (Caerleon) and Deva Victrix (Chester), although this is unclear.
Valentia
Ammianus records that in the year 369 Count Theodosius established or refounded the province of Valentia (further attested in the List of Offices) from lands recaptured from "the enemy".Ammianus, XXVIII, iii. Its location is a matter of scholarly debate, but some place it in northwestern Wales with its capital at Deva Victrix (Chester). If so, it was probably intended to counter the extensive Irish piracy and raiding occurring in late antiquity.
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