A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



have been observed w^hich distinguished them as the currency of an inde- 

 pendent tribe/ 



We have another interesting trace of this ancient British tribe in the 

 name Icknield Street (anciently Icenhilde Weg),a road w^hich, in pre-Roman 

 as well as Roman times, connected the southern and central parts of the 

 kingdom with the territory of the Iceni. 



Tacitus and Ptolemy, among classical writers, described the Iceni under 

 different designations, and furnish very little definite information as to the 

 extent of the tribe, or the names of its princes or rulers ; but here again we 

 get a little light from such numismatic evidence as is available. The 

 inscriptions antd and anted on ancient British coins are believed to be, 

 contractions for Antedrigus, which, there is reason to suppose, was the name 

 of a prince who originally ruled over the Iceni until the defeat of that tribe, 

 about A.D. 50, by the Romans under the leadership of Ostorius, Coins 

 bearing the inscriptions just given have been found in the west of Britain, 

 and it seems probable that Antedrigus became a prince there, either over 

 some remnant of his people who accompanied him in his flight to the west, 

 or by election over a native British tribe in that district. 



A map of England, marked in such a way as to show the distribution 

 of the various types of ancient British coins, affords ample confirmation of the 

 fact that the tribes inhabiting what was afterwards known as East Anglia 

 were severed from the rest of Britain by something more than mere distance. 

 The predominance of purely local coins over coins from other, but not very 

 distant, districts is, however, shown more clearly in the contents of hoards 

 found at Freckenham and Santon Downham. 



In the former hoard about ninety coins of rather base gold were found 

 in an earthen pot buried in the soil. 



The Santon Downham hoard, which was found in 1869, contained 109 

 coins. Of these twelve bore the inscription ecen ; nineteen the inscription 

 ECE ; four the inscription aesv ; fourteen the inscription anted ; twenty-nine 

 did not show their legends ; the same number (twenty-nine) were 

 uninscribed ; and two were coins of Roman date and make. The identity 

 of the prince or other person or even town represented by the inscription 

 aesv has not been clearly determined. Sir John Evans suggested that it 

 indicated either Asutagus,^ or else some British town of the Iceni.' But the 

 preponderance of coins either (i) bearing legends which may be regarded as 

 indicating the tribe and one of the princes of the Iceni, or (2) of types which 

 are known to be characteristic of this district, is remarkable. 



Numerous individual coins found separately in different parts of Suffolk 

 may also be assigned to the Iceni, either on the ground of inscription or 

 likeness of type. The precise localities are given in the topographical list 

 at the end of this article. 



One interesting coin was found at Newinarket bearing an inscription 

 of Addedomaros, a prince whose dominions probably either joined those of 

 Cunobelinus, or were included within them. 



We should naturally expect to see in the ancient coinage of Suffolk 

 definite traces of the influence of Cunobelinus, a powerful and famous ruler 



' Evans, j4nct. Brit. Coins, 375. ' Numis. Chron. (new ser.), ix, 326. 



' And. Brit. Coins, 386. 



