THE ARTHURIAN BATTLES: WHERE ARTHUR WAS (AND WASN'T)

Ribchester-Centered Arthur

Wall-Centered Arthur

The Arthurian battles, as found in the earliest sources, belong in the North.  Of that, I am finally reasonably certain.  For a brief explanation as to why seeking them in the South is fraught with problems, please see the following blog post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-problem-of-southern-arthur-from.html

So, if my arrangement of the battles is essentially correct, where was Arthur based?

Well, in the past I've presented two different arguments.  Interestingly, both utilized exactly the same battle list/map.  In one theory, I opted for Ribchester, with Sawyl Benisel being Arthur's father. 

First, I had proposed that Sawyl had been wrongly identified with Uther Pendragon, a Cymracized form of some of St. Illtud's military titles/descriptors.  Everything surrounding this theory depended upon L. Artorius Castus being in Britain when the Sarmatians were there.  And that meant Castus had gone with British force in the latter part of the 2nd century A.D.  to Armorica, presumably to fight in the Deserters' War.  I myself showed that, with allowable ligatures taking into account age and location of the stone, ARMORICOS does fit on the inscription.  And it is true that the only recorded instance of a British force going to the Continent in the time period under consideration was one composed of three legionary vexillations - which is exactly what we have mentioned on the Castus stone. 

Unfortunately, there is some evidence to suggest that Castus did not go to Armorica, but instead to Armenia.  This has to do with the military reorganization of Dalmatia right after the Armenian and Parthian Wars, an event which may well account for the creation of Castus's province of Liburnia.  If he had gone to Armenia, then he was in Britain before the Sarmatians were there, and it makes no sense to associate him with the Ribchester fort of the Sarmatian veterans.

ALSO, the overwhelming scholarly opinion for the Castus stone favors the ARMENIOS reading. Indeed, the top epigraphers and historians all prefer ARMENIOS over ARMORICOS.

The other Northern Arthur theory is simpler and better, but is deficient in the sense that we have no genealogical link for Uther.  Basically, this second idea presents us with an Arthur whose name was not preserved among the Sarmato-British population around Ribchester, but instead among Dalmatian-descended peoples at one of two possible locations in Britain.  Castus as Prefect of the Sixth Legion was based at York, and we know there was a Dalmatian unit either stationed there or nearby (Professor Roger Tomlin prefers the York post).  A corrupt Welsh TRIAD makes an Arthur Penuchel the son of Eliffer of York.

But there was also a Dalmatian unit posted on Hadrian's Wall, at Magnis/Carvoran, very close to the famous Banna/Birdoswald fort of the Dacians with its Dark Age royal hall complex.  A woman of Salona in Dalmatia was actually buried at Magnis, and we have attestations of Artorii from Salona.  Castus himself retired to his estate just a bit south of Salona in Dalmatia, and there are proponents (including Tomlin) who think it is possible or even likely that Castus had himself been born in Dalmatia.  We do know that important men in his orbit did, in fact, either have a Dalmatian origin or could easily have had such.  

The Magnis Roman fort guarded the road junction between the Maiden Way and the Stanegate Roman roads.

We all know by now that Arthur's Camlann was probably Camboglanna, a Hadrian's Wall Roman fort found in the same river valley as Banna.  We also know about the Hadrian Wall's fort of Aballava, 'the Apple orchard' or 'Apple place' (variant Avalana, from which Avalon could have been derived), only a few miles to the west of the Irthing valley forts. A Dea Latis or 'Lake Goddess' belonged to the marsh at Aballava. The river-name Irthing may well derive from a Cumbric term meaning 'Little Bear', and I have tentatively placed the *Artenses or 'Bear-people' (a name preserved in the Welsh eponym Arthwys) in the Irthing Valley.  It is well known that the Welsh associated the name Arthur with their word for bear, 'arth'.

Had a famouis Dalmatian-oriented officer, who ended up the first procurator of the newly formed province of Liburnia, a part of Dalmatia, led a British force to Armenia in the 2nd century, his name may well have been preserved among Dalmatians in Britain.  This name could have found its way to a later generation of Dalmato-British peoples at Magnis, only to crop up as that belonging to our syb-Roman/early Medieval Arthur.

So, Ribchester or the Wall - take your pick!

Uther remains a problem.  It is true that the Dacians of Banna had anciently possessed their own wolf-headed 'draco' standard.  I have shown that this standard did have scalation on its windsock body, and Romanian scholars have agreed it was a hybrid monster.  Such an affinity for their own draco may well have caused them to hold the later Roman draco in special veneration.  I have theorized (and had some success convincing scholars of the notion's validity) that Banna on the Ilam/Staffordshire Moor Cup is referred to by its Dacian garrison as the 'Aelian Dragon.'

While it is true that in Welsh medieval poetic usage dragon meant 'warrior' or the like, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the dragon itself as a symbol of military might derived from the draco of the Roman army.  And, of course, we know there was a late Roman military rank of magister draconum, a person who was the commander of the draco standard bearers.  Such a title could, conceivably, have been applied as an honorific to the leader at Banna during the Dark Ages.  

Banna appears to have been a very important spot, for I have also identified it pretty firmly as the birthplace of St. Patrick:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/banna-as-home-of-st-patrick-repost.html  

The account of Arthur in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM comes on the heels of that of St. Patrick.  

It is certainly possible, then, that Arthur belongs at Banna/Birdoswald.  Possibly his mother was from neighboring Magnis/Carvoran. 

But, I may be right about Sawyl Benisel as well.  Right now, if we want to be able to identify Uther with a historical figure, Sawyl is our man.  Sawyl also allows us to posit relationships between Dark Age Britain and Ireland that explain the subsequent Arthurs of Dalriada and Dyfed. 

So how will I decide between Ribchester and the Wall?

Stay tuned as I consider the opinions of other top scholars on the age of the L. Artorius Castus stone.  If the stone is earlier and we can have Armenia of the 160s for the fragmentary word ARM[...]S, then Castus was not there when the Sarmatians were there and a proposed connection of a Dark Age Arthur with the fort of the Sarmatian veterans at Ribchester pretty well collapses.  On the other hand, if ARMORICOS is the proper reading, then Castus was in Britain after the Sarmatians arrived and the link to Ribchester can be maintained.