Attested: BODVOC appears on at least 25 coins attributed to the Dobunni people with a recently found example shown here.
Where: The core of Dobunni territory was in the modern counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset, with the base of BODVOC possibly at Bagendon, near Cirencester.
Name origin: BODVOC may be only part of this person's name. The oft-repeated claim that the name meant ‘battle crow’ is probably nonsense, for reasons partly explained here. Many other names began with BODV-, including Boduognatus who led the Belgic Nervii against Julius Caesar, BODVOCE (or similar) on Samian ware from France, BODVOGENVS and BODVKVS on metal handles, BODVOCI on a stone in south Wales, plus BODVA, BODVACI, BODVACVS, BODVIAE, and BODVISSVS elsewhere in Europe. The natural interpretation of Bodvoc is bode-voice, giving a meaning something like ‘leader’. It is hard to untangle the PIE roots that compete to explain the first element: *bheudh- ‘to make aware’ is the likely origin of OE bod ‘command’; *bhedh- ‘to dig, pierce’ may have led to Norse bǫð ‘battle’; and *gwhedh- ‘to ask, to pray’ may have led to bid and bede. The -voc part resembles Latin vox from PIE *wekw-.
Notes: Other names on Dobunni coins were CORIO, ANTEDRIG, COMVX, INAMN, EISV, and CATTI.
Last Edited: 20 June 2017