What is pasted below are jpegs of Professor Roger Tomlin's analysis of the text found on the Lucius Artorius Castus memorial stone. I've now been confirming this reading for several months with every good Roman historian and Latin epigrapher I could find. Most recently, Dr. Michael Bishop (https://independent.academia.edu/MikeBishop) signed on to the ARMENIOS reading for the fragmentary ARM[...]S. Not one scholar will accept the proposed ARMATOS reading of Linda A. Malcor, Antonio Trinchese and Alessandro Faggiani ("Missing Pieces: A New Reading of the Main Lucius Artorius Castus Inscription", Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 47, Nos. 3 & 4, (Fall/Winter 2019), pp. 415–437).
I've reached the point now where I no longer believe it is necessary for me to continue exploring this topic. Malcor wishes to promote the ARMATOS idea for one reason and one reason only: so that she might retain her Arthurian Sarmatian theory. This theory requires that she place LAC in the period just following the deployment of 5,500 Sarmatians to Britain. This can't be done if LAC went to Armenia in the 160s.
She also wishes to further glorify LAC's career by both insisting on a late Antonine date for the stone itself (something not demonstrable; most authorities agree with Tomlin on the dating, with a small number refusing to commit to a specific range within the period) and by manipulating the significance of the Roman military designation of dux to prove that this officer was a de facto governor of Britain. I have shown the fallacy of these claims in my article at https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/07/lucius-artorius-castus-no-sarmatian.html.
She also wishes to further glorify LAC's career by both insisting on a late Antonine date for the stone itself (something not demonstrable; most authorities agree with Tomlin on the dating, with a small number refusing to commit to a specific range within the period) and by manipulating the significance of the Roman military designation of dux to prove that this officer was a de facto governor of Britain. I have shown the fallacy of these claims in my article at https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/07/lucius-artorius-castus-no-sarmatian.html.
I followed up that treatment of the ARMATOS reading with investigations into the probable Dalmatian origin of LAC (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/10/lucius-artorius-castus-birth-and-death.html).
So, without further ado, here is Tomlin's treatment of the LAC inscription from BRITANNIA ROMANA: ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS AND ROMAN BRITAIN, Oxbox Books, 2018, Reprinted in Paperback 2020...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.