CANGI
Eth.
CANGI a people of Britain, against whom Ostorius Scapula led his army, after the reduction of the Iceni. Their fields were laid waste; and, when this had been effected, the neighbourhood of the Irish Sea was approached ( “ductus in
Cangos exercitus--vastati agri--jam ventum haud procul maria quod
Hiberniam insulam aspectat,”
Tac. Ann. 12.32).
This was A.D. 50, during the
first (not the Boadicean) war against the Iceni. Ptolemy has a
Cancanorum (
Ganganorum)
Promontorium, and the Geographer of Ravenna a town called
Canca. Lastly, there is a station of the
Notitia called
Concangii. None of these exactly explain the
Cangi of Tacitus. The
Canca civitas is unknown; the
Ganganorum Prom. is a headland of
North Wales; the
Concangii are generally fixed in
Westmoreland. Ptolemy's promontory, however, is the nearest. All that can be said is that the Cangi lay somewhere between the Iceni (East Anglia) and the Irish Sea. The Index of the
Monumenta Britannica places them in
Somerset. North Wales is a likelier locality. For remarks on the value of the different statements of Tacitus in respect to Britain,see
COLONIA [
R.G.L]
