I've long been convinced that it was important to learn more about the Northern British Veteres precisely because I believe the Gwythyr ('Victor') of the Uther Pen story is none other than this deity. In other words, the name Victor was substituted for the theonym.
But I've gone back and forth with different etymologies and identifications for the god for quite awhile. Most recently, I proposed he was named for Castra Vetera of the Cugerni, who were in Britain and on Hadrian's Wall. This seemed reasonable, and I was content with the solution to the problem.
Alas, a more thorough study of Veteres now has me thinking that an earlier idea may have been correct, and the proposed relationship with a genius loci of Castra Vetera is wrong. I will post at the bottom of this article the complete discussion of Veteres as found in http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6643/2/6643_3946-vol2.PDF. For now, here are a few important points I have derived from that study...
First, the majority of the dedications to Veteres were done by people who appear to have born Celtic names. Only a few arre perhaps Germanic. Second, no dedication survives from anyone who is demonstrably either of the Cugerni or Batavii. Third, this appears to be a native cult. Fourth, we have two dedicants whose names contain Celtic Sen-, 'old', suggesting Veteres is simply to be derived from Latin vetus, 'old.' And fifth - and perhaps most importantly - the center of the cult is in the Tyne Gap.
All of this leads me to believe that I was right to associate Veteres with the god Esus who is honored in the Roman fort name Aesica at modern Chesters. See https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-new-identification-of-north-british.html, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/06/myrddin-on-pole-and-god-esusvitiris_29.html and https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-new-theory-on-goddess-creiddylad-of.html.
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[Kindly ignore the format problems; I had to retrieve this from a PDF.]
This is the god that on one variation of the name may be called 9Veteris 9 (figo10o3~ noo17)o All told~ there are fifty=nine dedications to this enigmatic godo As can be seen by a glance at the map (figol0o3)~ the example at York is very much an outliero The main distribution of the dedications is within the Tyne Gap~ along the Hadrianic frontier line with most examples clustering within the central sectoro At least thirteen come from the Wall fort at Carvoran (noso8a~m)~ although since three of these are by one and the same dedicator~ namely~ Necalemes (noso8a~ 8b and 8i)~ for comparison sake~ this total could be reduced to eleven o Chesterholm has yielded the next highest total~ namely, nine (noso6a=i)o As the distribution thins out~ the main spread continues down the eastern side of the region~ into the Wall hinterland of Durham and beyondo One dedication actually occurs quite outside the region~ at Thistleton in Leicestershire (noo18)o Despite the Thistleton dedication it is quite clear that the cult of Veteris should be regarded as belonging to Central Britain as defined o Furthermore~ it was popular in the northern part of the region and it is there that an important~ perhaps indeed, the main cult centre is to be locatedo Such a distribution as this, with no dedications abroad~ argues strongly in favour of the view that Veteris was a deity native to Central Britaino The name itself is subject to many variations in spelling~ as well as differences in gender and number. These have been tabula ted in fig. 10.4. On thirty-seven occasions~ the deity is referred to in the singular and on twenty-two occasions~ in the plural. There are seven cases where the deity name possesses an intrusive 'h 1 ~ six being in the singular and two in the plural. Mostly~ the deity is marked out as male by the presence of 1 deo 1 or 1 dibus'. On two occasions~ however 9 both in the plural 9 on altars from Chester-le-Stree t 9 County Durham (fig. 10.3 9 nos. 14b and c) 9 a female concept is indicated. On nine occasions 9 the deity is not specified as being either male or female (nos.lb 9 2c 9 Sc 9 6e 9 6f 9 6i 9 8j 9 9 and 11). Since most of the dedications are 9 as noted 9 to a male deity it may be that this was what was intended. It is possible 9 however 9 that on some or all of these examples the neuter form was intended 9 as if the deity concept was so vague and amorphous as to defy definition. With regard to variations in spelling 9 two main categories can be distinguished 9 ignoring the presence of an 1 h' • First are those names which begin with 've', and second those that begin with 'vi'. There are thirty-three of the former and twenty-five of the latter. That leaves the form 'votri' from Chesters (no.3d) in its own. There is no marked preponderance in favour of either main category. Subdividing within the two main categories 9 the two most frequent forms are 'Veteris' and 'Vitiris' with virtually 475o equal numbers of each o Consideration of the find places of these variations can detect no patterns which might indicate for example dialect differences to account for pronunciation changeso On one altar only is there a formal epigraphic equation with another god 9 namely 9 on that from Netherby with the non=Roman Mogontes (or Mogons) (noolOa)o In another case 9 also from Netherby 9 an equation with Hercules may be intended by reason of the symbols on the sides of the altar depicting scenes from his labours (noolOb)o A third altar from Nether by is perhaps associating 'Hv [ e] teris' with 'Jupiter Optimus Maximus' for the dedication to the former has been cut over the main part of the text pertaining to the latter but without erasing the vital 'IoOoMo' (noolOc)o In eight instances 9 the epithet sanctus 9 'holy' 9 is employed" With regard to 'Veteris' worshippers 9 only two betray military connections» one from Lanchester in Coo Durham (nool3b) and one from Carvoran (noo8c)o The former is by a princeps and the latter by an imaginifer o Only one undoubted female devotee is recorded» namely 'Romana' from Great Chesters 9 who dedicates her altar to a male plural form (noo7c)o Two other cases 9 however 9 may involve female dedicators: Ivixa from Carvoran 9 dedicating also to the male plural form 9 (noo81) and Mocux[s]oma from Thistleton 9 dedicating to a singular Veteris (noolB)o There is a fourth possibilityo The secondary dedication 476o from Netherby mentioned above 'to Hv[e]ter(is)'~ the dedicant may be either 'Fortunat[a] 1 9 a woman 9 or 'Fortunat[us]' 9 a man (noalOc)a Twenty of the dedications have been set up without the intention of providing dedicators' names 9 that is 9 in effect one third of the total knowno Of the named worshippers 9 only five have (nosa5c~ 8C 9 8g 9 lOa and 16)o Latin nomen and cognomen Twelve possess single Latin names including such common names as Regulus~ Tertulus and Vitalis (noso3a~ 5e and 14b)o There is little or nothing which can be learned about the origins of such worshippers (Birley Aq 1979 9 108). However 9 one of these twelve reveals his origins in that his name is Celtic with a Latin suffix; this is Senaculus on an altar from Chesterholm (noo6e) o The rest of the named dedications are by people with barbarian names, mostly deemed to be Celtic, but with a couple of apparently German examples (Birley Ao, 1979, 107; Haverfield, 1918, 34)o It seems clear that most of the god's worshippers were male, of low status and civiliano The small size and poor quality of the altars and variations in the deity name support this conclusiono A few of the altars are crudely ornamented on the sideso One from Benwell has jug, patera, knife and axe (noala) and another, from Carvoran, has knife and quadruped, probably an ox (8a)o Animals are also depicted on other 477. altars. Such carvings lend themselves to interpretation as the implements and animals involved in sacrificeo However 9 the representation of bird (Ebchester~ nool2a) and even more of serpent (Carvoran 9 noo8m) cannot belong to this category and urges reconsideration of the meaning of the symbolismo The serpent on this Carvoran altar (no.8m) has been wrongly identified by Wright (RIB 1805) as a dolphin o No doubt the reason for this error is because it possesses a fish tailo The reference to water is clear and the composite creature is reminiscent of examples of ram-headed serpents with fish-tails known from Gaul (Thevenot~ 1955 9 21-22). On the same altar is depicted a boar which in this context should be interpreted as being a Celtic rather than a classical sacred symbol o It may stand for the hunt~ sexual and physical potency~ and the Otherworld (cf. Ross~ 1967~ 308- 321). The boar appears again on the Ebchester altar mentioned above with the bird figure on it (no.12a)o The boar and serpent appear yet again on the Netherby altar~ referred to above~ showing scenes from the labours of Hercules (no.10b)o On one side is shown a tree encircled by a serpent and on the other the front part of a boar. E. Birley has interpreted the first scene as standing for the apple tree of the Hesperides and the second one as a reference to the Erymanthean boar ( 1986 ~ 83) o No doubt these aspects of the mythology associated with Hercules were chosen because they provided a meaningful symbolism - serpent, boar and trees - for the non-classical deity. 478o With regard to dating none of the dedications can be closely datedo As Haverfield pointed out (1918 9 35) Aelius Secundus on the Netherby altar (noo10a) should post~date the reign of Hadrian (AD 117-138)0 Again bearers of the name 'Aurelius' (noso5d and 16) will belong to a period not preceding the region of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161=180) o In her study of Roman domestic altars Kewley assigned several discussion (nos o 7b ~ 8g 9 of the altars under 13a~ 14a-c) to the present masons' workshops at Chester=le~Street and Lanchester 9 County Durham~ which were in production during the third century (Kewley 9 1974)o Names such as Aurelius 9 Victor and Julius were indeed very popular during the third century (A. R o Birley 9 1979 9 109) o The third century seems to be the period when the cult flourished 9 at least in the Romanised form surviving in the recorded dedicationso How long it continued in that form is impossible to decide given the poor quality of the altars and their lettering o Continuation into the fourth century is a distinct possibilityo Turning now to the nature and origins of the deity~ an appeal to the meaning of the name is not very helpful for there is no agreement concerning its origin 9 much less its meaningo One view has been that 'veteri' and 'veteribus' are the datives of the Latin adjective 'vetus' ~ 1 old' (Haverfield» 1918~ 35). Based on this the argument went that the dedications were 'to the Old God (or Gods)' 9 contrasting Christianityo the pagan gods with The variations in the the new name 479o religion of that ex is ted could be accounted for by reason of the dedicators not being very literateo Haverfield 9 however 9 felt that this argument had to be abandoned because of the examples occurring where the name contained the intrusive 'h' (Haverfield 9 1918 9 36)o Collingwood too pointed out that the 'Old Gods' in the sense required would be rendered not by veteres but by antiguio He also felt that it was very unlikely that the many and various pagan gods would be lumped together in this way (Collingwood 9 1926 9 23)o In attempting to account for the intrusive 'h' a Germanic origin has been suggested by Hodgson and Haverfieldo The former suggest vithrir 9 'The weather god' 9 an epithet for Odino Haverfield pointed to philological difficulties raised by German scholars (Hodgson 9 1840 9 140 9 200 cited by Eo Birley 9 1986 9 63; Haverfield 9 1918 9 3 7) o Other suggestions are Old Nordic hvitr 9 meaning 'white' or 'shining' 9 or hvethr-ung 9 'son of a giantess' 9 epithet of the fire-god Loki 9 equivalent of Vulcanus (A oRo Birley 9 1979, 108) o As Anthony Birley has pointed out this last suggestion is attractive because of its appropriateness in the context of frontier settlements where the work presided over by a Smith-god would be of such importanceo Ross has very tentatively suggested that the intrusive 'h' may have arisen from aspiration which occurred after the vocative form of the nameo As an example 9 she instanced the modern form 'Hamish' 9 from the original aspirated vocative form of the Gaelic name 'Seumas' (Ross~ 1967~ 374) 0 Thus the name (or names) employed poses (pose) real difficulties in interpretation and this approach is no real help with regard to the nature or origin of the god. It may be that the name belongs to a pre-Celtic stratum of language which could help account for its variations and for the confusion of modern scholars. The equation with the god 'Mogons' (or Mogontes) whose name is said to mean 1 the Powerful One' 9 or 1 the Great One' (Ross 1967 9 201) 9 does not add much information. Such a name is rather general in its implication and does not specify the source of the god's power. The reference to Hercules on the Nether by altar (no. lOb) may provide more specific information. Hercules too was a powerful god who fought against monsters and was therefore useful in protecting his worshippers. However~ the symbolism on this altar 9 may~ as has been seen~ fall into line with that on other altars to indicate a connection with waters and healing (serpent) as well as with hunting~ fertility and the Otherworld (boar). A further hint of the healing aspect may be provided by the use of the formula 'pro sa(lute)' on the altar from Catterick (no.16); the formula 'pro (se) et suis' on one of the Housesteads altars (no.Sf) perhaps indicates the role of family protector. 481o Thus it is that the god Veteris (in whatever variation of the spelling) was a god who appealed to the lower strata of societyo The cult in its Romanised form flourished mainly on the Hadrianic frontier probably during the third century AD and perhaps beyondo It is possible that Veteris was imported from abroad by auxiliary soldiers but more probable that an indigenous deity is in questiono Addressed by 'his 1 votaries in various forms - singular and plural~ masculine and feminine and perhaps even neuter - the deity seems ill-defined and amorphous as might befit a vague and primitive spirit of natureo Yet the Celtic symbolism detected on some of the altars suggests a concern with hunting and fertility, healing and protectiono There is a similarity to the dedications to Belatucadrus~ yet to be discussed, and it may be that, as will be suggest for Belatucadrus~ Veteris should be regarded as the god of a specific communityo If of course Veteris is regarded as imported, then that community is not likely to represent an indigenous tribal grouping but rather an assemblage of incomers o On the other hand~ if the indigenous nature of Veteris is accepted, then a native. tribal group is the likely source of the culto That this tribal group was not the same as that belonging to Belatucadrus is suggested by the fact that despite some overlapping, the distribution of the dedications to the two deities does not coincide (figsol0o3 and 10o6)o A location within the Tyne Gap would seem called foro In addition, from what has been said, the attractive hypothesis suggests itself that the deity belonging to this tribal group was not only pre-Roman but pre-Celtic. This could account for some of the difficulties in interpretation and~ while it cannot be proved~ the possibility of such antiquity should be recognised.
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