THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NORTHERN ROMANO-BRITISH GOD VETERES

Map of Castra Vetera (Courtesy https://www.livius.org/pictures/a/maps/map-of-xanten/)

Well, I've spilled a lot of ink over the identify of the Veteres, a god found on Hadrian's Wall.  Several theories have been floated, some of them my own.  But having looked very closely into the military units who served along the Wall for a prototype of Veteres, it would appear I have found a simple solution to this problem.

The Cugerni tribe lived around the Roman city of Castra VETERA (see https://www.livius.org/articles/people/cugerni/, https://www.livius.org/articles/place/xanten/ and https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=cugerni&submit=).  Whitle Vetera in the context of the place-name may mean "old", it may also be a Latinization of a local native word.  

The Cugerni were in Britain and, most importantly, on Hadrian's Wall, being first stationed at Carrawburgh and later at Newcastle.  I would credit them with the introduction of Veteres, probably originally a genius loci or protective spirit of the castle at the confluence of the Rhine and Lippe.  The Cugerni were later absorbed into the Batavian confederacy and we know the Batavi were active along Hadrian's Wall for many years (see https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=Batavi&submit=).  They garrisoned Carrawburgh up to the time of the writing of the Notitia Dignitatum. 

As long ago as 1918, Professor Haverfield suggested that Veteres was a deity of place, perhaps imported by troops serving in Britain from the Continent.  His work on the subject may be found here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0jjktml0ze5tu08/AAAPDA9OFWfauPB8MvybdsKua/3rd%20Series_Vol%2015?dl=0&preview=archael315-022-043-haverfield.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1

Vetera or Veteres was paired with Mogons at Netherby in Cumbria.  Mogons could be either Celtic or Germanic, but if the later, it may be the same name as the attested deified form found in the place-name Mainz (Moguntiacum), a city on the Rhine at the confluence with the Main (see https://www.livius.org/articles/place/mogontiacum-mainz/).  

My own feeling at this point, as the Cugerni were at Newcastle Upon Tyne, is that the place-name Castra Vetera may have been associated with the River Wear, Ptolemy's VEDRA.  The following selection is from Rivet and Smith's THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN under the entry for Vedra:

"Ekwall ERN 442 thinks the analogy doubtful, and prefers to derive the name from a root *ued- 'wet' (Walde-Pokorny I. 252), found with r- formation in Vedra, in Greek Odwr, udra, Umbrian utur 'water', Anglo-Saxon wœter, otr, etc. The German river-name Wetter is then a precise equivalent of present Vedra. See also E. P. Hamp in EC, XII (1971), 547-50, on primitive *uodr/n 'water'; and for further discussion of the group, Nicolaisen in BZN, VIII (1957), 236."

As it happens, the Wetter is a right tributary to the Nidda which itself is a right tributary of the Main. The same River Main which has at its confluence with the Rhine the city of Mainz.  Mogons Vitiris would then be something like 'Water, the Great One' or perhaps simply 'the Great Water.'

Three inscriptions to Veteres have been found at the Chester-le-Street Roman fort on the River Wear. (RIB 1046, 1047 and 1048).