Durnovaria
Durnovaria in Britain, mentioned in the 12th and 15th Itineraries, and generally admitted to be, place for place, and (to a certain extent) name for name, the modern Dorchester (in the county of Dorset, as opposed to the Oxfordshire Dorchester). The root d-r is a common rather than a proper name, as is suggested by the fact of its re-occurrence. [DUROBRIVAE] Definite remains of the old Roman wall have been noticed by Dr. Stukely as still standing twelve foot thick, made of ragstones, laid side by side and obliquely, then covered over with very strong mortar.
Roman coins, which are often found here, are called Dorn-pennies. Remains of Roman camps, and probable remains of a Roman amphitheatre, attest the importance of the ancient Durnovaria.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.