DOBUNI, or BODUNI, an ancient people of Britain, who possessed the territory which now forms the counties of Oxford and Gloucester. Both names seem to have been derived from the low situation of a great part of the country which they inhabited; for both Durn and Bodun signify deep or low in the ancient language of Gaul and Britain. The Dobuni are not mentioned among the British nations who resisted the Romans under Julius Caesar; and before the invasion of Claudius they had been so much oppressed
by the Cattiellauni, that they cheerfully submitted to the Roman yoke. Cogidunus their prince was confirmed by Claudius in the government, and fewer garrisons were stationed in his dominions than in those of the other native princes. Consequently there are comparatively few Roman remains in that part of the country. The Durocornovium of Antoninus, and the Corinium of Ptolemy, are believed to have been the capital of the Dobuni at Cirencester, where there are still many marks of a Roman station. Clevum or Glevum, in the thirteenth iter of Antoninus, stood where the city of Gloucester now stands; and Abone, in the fourteenth iter, was probably situated at Avinton on the Severn.