Julius Caesar called Kent, Cantium, and the pre-Roman local tribe the Cantiaci subsequently become a civitas (unit of local administration) of Roman Britain, based at Durovernum Cantiacorum (modern Canterbury). The Germanic settlers adopted the Romano-British name of Cantium and this lends weight to the idea that civitas passed from British to Germanic (Jutish) hands with its structure essentially intact.Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, Barbara Yorke The civitas territory may only have consisted of East Kent so the origins of the sub-divisions of Kent may thus go back to the Iron Age.
