Veteres and the Cugerni Tribe: a Final Identification of the German God in Northern England

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

Over the years I have wrestled with several possible etymologies and origins for the god Veteres, found worshipped in the frontier zone along Hadrian's Wall.  Being an avowed Celtophile, it has always been my tendency to resort to Celtic solutions to such riddles.  But as is often the case in the very cosmopolitan Roman world, better explanations can reveal themselves - once we can get past our personal biases.

Years ago I wrote the following on Veteres:

The H- spellings of Veteris are listed in Guy de la Bedoyere’s “Gods and Goddesses of Roman Britain”:

Hveterus/Hviteres, and variants.

Carrawburgh: altar to the Hviteres. RIB 1549

Hadrian's Wall (exact location unknown): altar to the Hvitires. RIB 2069

Housesteads: altar to Hveteris by Superstes and Regulus. RIB 1602

Housesteads: altar to Hvitris by Aspuanis. RIB 1603

Netherby: altars to Hveterus and Hvetirus. RIB 969 and 973

The other forms/spellings, and distribution of the dedications (from the same source), are as follows:

Veter/Veteres/Vheteris/Viter/Vitiris/Votris, variously male or female, singular or plural, and numerous other variants.

Benwell: altar to Vetris. RIB 1335

Benwell: altar to the Vitires. RIB 1336

Carrawburgh: altar to Veteris by Uccus. RIB 1548

Carvoran: altar to Veteris by Necalames. RIB 1793

Carvoran: altar to Veteris by Necalames. RIB 1794

Carvoran: altar to Vetiris by Julius Pastor, imaginifer of cohors II Delmatarum. RIB 1795

Carvoran: altar to Vetiris by Andiatis. RIB 1796

Carvoran: altar to Veteris. RIB 1797

Carvoran: altar to Viteris. RIB 1798

Carvoran: altar to Vitiris by Menius Dada. RIB 1799

Carvoran: altar to Vitiris by Milus and Aurides. RIB 1800

Carvoran: altar to Vitiris by Ne[ca]limes (sic, but see 1793-4 above). RIB 1801

Carvoran: altars to the Veteres. RIB 1802-4

Carvoran: altar to the Vitires by Deccius. RIB 1805

Catterick: altar to Vheteris by Aurelius Mucianus. RIB 727

Chester-le-Street: altar to Vitiris by Duihno. RIB 1046

Chester-le-Street: altar to the goddesses the Vitires by Vitalis. RIB 1047

Chester-le-Street: altar to the goddesses the Vit(ires). RIB 1048

Chesters: altar to Vitiris by Tertulus. RIB 1455

Chesters: altar to the Veteres. RIB 1456

Chesters: altar to Vitiris. RIB 1457

Chesters: altar to Votris. RIB 1458

Corbridge: altar to Vetiris. RIB 1139

Corbridge: altar to Vitiris. RIB 1140

Corbridge: altar to Vit(iris) by Mitius. RIB 1141

Ebchester: altar to Vitiris by Maximus. RIB 1103

Ebchester: altar to Vitiris. RIB 1104

Greatchesters: altar to Vetiris. RIB 1728

Greatchesters: altar to the Veteres by Romana. RIB 1729

Greatchesters: altar to the Veteres. RIB 1730

Hadrian's Wall (exact location unknown): altar to Veteris. RIB 2068

Housesteads: altar to the Veteres. RIB 1604

Housesteads: altar to the Veteres. RIB 1605

Housesteads: altar to the Veteres by Aurelius Victor. RIB 1606

Lanchester: altar to Vit(iris). RIB 1087

Lanchester: altar to Vitiris by [....], princeps. RIB 1088

Piercebridge: altar to Veteris. Brit. v (1974), 461, no. 3

South Shields: altar to Vitiris by Cr[...]. Brit. xviii (1987), 368, no. 7

Thistleton: silver plaque to Vete[ris] by Mocux[s]oma. RIB 2431.3

Vindolanda: altar to [V]ete[r]is. RIB 1697

Vindolanda: altar to Veteris. RIB 1698

Vindolanda: altar to the Veteres by Senaculus. RIB 1699

Vindolanda: altar to the Veteres by Longinus. Brit. iv (1973), 329, no. 11

Vindolanda: altar to the Veteres by Senilis. Brit. iv (1973), 329, no. 12

Vindolanda: altar to Vetir. Brit. vi (1975), 285, no. 6

Vindolanda: altar to Ve[ter]. Brit. vi (1975), 285, no. 7

Vindolanda: altar to the Vitirum. Brit. x (1979), 346, no. 8

York: altar to Veter by Primulus. RIB 660

This is the inscription with the conflation with Mogons at Netherby:

971 (altar)

DEO

MOGONT

VITIRE SAN

AEL SECUND

V S L M

And the dedications at Netherby to Hveterus and Hvetirus, alluded to already above:

969 (altar; secondary inscription)

D[EO] HV[E}TER[I]

973 (altar)

DEO HVETIRI

When I looked at the initial H-, I first thought of an aspirate, such as the H- we now use conventionally for the Greek name Hekate, originally ‘ekata.  I also thought about the Irish H-prothesis.  Neither of these ideas seemed very helpful, but I did have one last possibility come to mind: what about something akin to Old English hwyttre, hwitere, forms of the word hwit, meaning “white”? 

I thought of this because the Chesterholm Roman fort was called Vindolanda, the ‘White/Bright/Fair Moor/Heath’ (Rivet and Smith).  This fort has the second highest concentration of dedications to Veteris; only Carvoran has more.  And this means Vindolanda could, conceivably, be the cult center of Veteres.  Netherby, where we find Mogons Veteres, is hard by the ‘White Dales’ (Gwenddolau) of Myrddin.  His sister was named Gwenddydd, 'White day.' W. Gwen-, of course, is the feminine form of Gwyn, 'White.'

Old English hwīt (comparative hwītra, superlative hwītost),  “white”

Proto-Germanic *hwītaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kweit-. Cognate with Old High German wīz (German weiß), Old Norse hvítr (Swedish vit).

Spellings in declension such as hwitre, etc.

When I wrote to Professor Matasovic about this, he responded thusly:

“OE hwitere is a good formal match to Viteris. But the word for 'white' is inherited in Germanic, of course (cf. its correspondent in Lith. kviečiai 'wheat'); it is not a borrowing from Celtic. Irish h-prothesis is much older, and in Greek h- is from *s- or *sw-, so the spelling hv- in Vitires probably indicates that the name is not Celtic. The connection with Vindolanda seems attractive, if this god was really worshipped there, but the etymology will work only if the name is Germanic. Were there Germanic mercenaries or auxiliary troops in Vindolanda and other places where Vitires is attested? If so, the connection of Vitiris with 'white' is quite convincing, as far as etymologies of proper names go.”

I did not really pursue the matter until just recently, when I approached Professor Roger Tomlin on this possibility.  He responded thusly:

"Your idea that ‘Veteres’ is derived from a Germanic word for ‘white’ seems plausible to me. With the many variants of the name, including the extraordinary ‘h’–variants, it seems very likely that it was transmitted orally, and confusion with Latin uetus likely."

Bolstered by this measured endorsement of my idea, I returned to the question asked by Prof. Matasovic, viz. could I connect a German group to a place where Veteres is attested?  I soon found that answer to be YES!

The spelling Hviter- is found at Carrawburgh.  And only a very little research showed me that the Cugerni had been there, as well as at Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Here is what we know about the Cugerni in Britain as drawn from Michael G. Garrett's NON-LEGIONARY TROOPS IN BRITAIN:

Why are the Cugerni significant in the context of possible Veteres worship?  Because they came from Castra Vetera in Germany.  See

https://www.livius.org/articles/people/cugerni/

https://www.livius.org/articles/place/xanten/xanten-cut/

https://www.livius.org/articles/place/xanten/

https://www.livius.org/articles/place/xanten/xanten-vetera-ii/

Note that we do not have a satisfactory etymology for Vetera.  It is unlikely to be related to Latin vetus, veteranus, etc.  

I would propose, therefore, that Veteres (a word from a root meaning 'white') was a god or perhaps genius of the place on the Rhine who was brought into Britain by the Cugerni.  Support for this argument may be found in the identification of Veteres at Netherby with a god named Mogonti.  'Mogons' is the god of Mogontiacum at the confluence of the Rhine and the Main. 

At this point I do not feel the need to explore the Veteres name further.  In fact, I note that Rudolf Simek in his DICTIONARY OF NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY says of the matronibus Veteranehis of Germany that for this group of mother goddesses "a derivation from the name of a camp Castra Vetera is to be preferred." 

NOTE:

Where might the main shrine of Veteres have been located, assuming there was such a thing? 

Well, simplistic though it sounds, if I'm right and Veteres owes it etymology to a Germanic root meaning "white", then it may not be a coincidence that the Vindolanda Roman fort, whose name means the 'White (or bright or fair) Moor' (see Rivet and Smith's THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN) and which is not too far to the east of Carrawburgh, just happens to have yielded the second highest number of Veteres dedications.  

The site with the most Veteres dedications is Carvoran, just a little west of Carrawburgh.