Reposting these two pieces. I've decided I can no longer hold to the belief that a Dark Age British Arthur died at Camlan. Instead, I now view the Camlan battle as a conjured annal entry based on a folk memory of Roman warfare against the Maeatae - a conflict which also intruded on Dalriadan tradition (the Miathi of Adamnan).
The Dunipace/Bassas battle of Arthur, directly between the two Miathi forts and near the Roman period monument of Arthur's Oven, is part of the same legendary development. This is confirmed by the presence in the HB list of the Caledonian Wood.
The Severan dating of the L. Artorius Castus stone, and my reading of "armed tribes" for its lacuna, confirms that Castus may well have led legionary forces under Severus against the Maeatae and Caledonian confederacies. In the words of Simon Elliot, author of Septimius Severus in Scotland, the expeditions of that emperor secured "peace in the north of the islands of Britain for four generations."
For those who maintain that Castus of the third century could not have been remembered in the 5th or 6th, I say that they have a very poor understanding of the lasting power of myth and heroic legend. A Roman officer with a name the native population connected with their own word for bear ('arth'), who led a massive force on a devastating campaign against the northern tribes, may well have achieved a heroic status sufficient for a later age to mine that tradition when searching for a great champion against the Saxons. The mere fact that the HB author padded out the Arthurian battle list by adding several Dubglas actions so that Arthur could have a proper Herculean 12 engagements is proof enough of this claim.
Professor Nicholas Higham (who does not see any historical value in the HB's Arthurian chapter) recently told me the following:
"The HB's author made up several British hero figures who he used to demonstrate the Britons were courageous and good at bashing foreigners. The best way to understand his technique is to focus on Dolabella/um, who is obviously a straight lift out of Roman history, specifically from Orosius, but who he converted to a British general fighting Caesar. Historical nonsense but of considerable propaganda value in 829."
If the author could do that, and concoct or relate other stories (like that of Ambrosius Aurelianus), then he could use Castus in the same way.
For awhile I was tripped up by the death of Artur/Arthur fighting the Miathi (as Castus died in Dalmatia), but as the Irish accounts differ, providing the Dalriadan Arthur with a death in Circenn as well, and as Medraut is the Roman name Moderatus, I no longer see any reason to allow the Camlan entry for 537 to influence my decision regarding Castus.
Badon, as I've already remarked, looks to have been an event in southern England. Arthur's name became attached to it simply because he was famous and Gildas made the battle of his own birthday famous.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.