MIGHT ARM.GENTES FOR THE ARM[...]S LACUNA BE A VALID READING AFTER ALL?

[NOTE: For my readers who would like to access a good account of Severus' invasion of Scotland, please see https://history-hub.chalkefestival.com/history-hub/the-scottish-campaigns-of-septimius-severus/.  This article is by the author of the book SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS IN SCOTLAND: THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS OF THE FIRST HAMMER OF THE SCOTS, Dr. Simon Elliott.]

There is one curious thing that makes me lean towards ARM.GENTES: the strange reference in the Dark Age Irish sources to Arthur of Dalriada fighting the Miathi (= the Maeatae). 

The Miathi territory was way too far east for a battle with the Dalriadans. The latter was well beyond the British kingdom of Strathclyde and on the border with Manau of the Gododdin. This battle account reads like a dim folk memory of another Arthur's campaign in the North. Even stranger, the Bassas battle in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM is possibly Dunipace (new work on the name by John Reid and Alan James), etymologized recently as Hill of Fort of the bas, 'shallow'. This site IS DIRECTLY BETWEEN THE TWO FORTS OF THE MIATHI, Myot Hill and Dumyat. In my opinion, this is way too far North for the more famous Dark Age Arthur to have fought.  It is an outlier (along with the Tribruit at North Queensferry) that does not seem to belong with the other battles of the HB list.  Arthur's Oven, a Roman building associated with Arthur in folk belief, is close to Dunipace.

But no one I've talked with about the Maeatae seems all that disposed to making something out of it. They think it is merely coincidence that an Artorius prefect of the Sixth leading legionary forces in the late second or early third century could well have been fighting the Maeatae in the time of Virius Lupus and/or Severus. 

Yet, the Severus campaign was the first "hammer of the North" sort of event (see Simon Elliot's book SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS IN SCOTLAND). The emperor was attempting genocide, if the sources are correct. Something like that would have been remembered for some time, I imagine. A dux in charge of legionary forces in that war of extermination may also have long lingered in the cultural memory.  In the North, he would be a supreme villain.  In the Romanized south, a remarkable hero. 

But is it possible that Castus was that dux?

I put this question to both Prof. Roger Tomlin and Dr. Benet Salway:

In keeping with a possible Severan date for the Castus stone, a question please...

Had Castus participated in the war against the Maeatae during the reign of Severus, might he have been designated dux of legionary forces for the enterprise? If not under Severus himself, then under governor Virius Lupus?

Or would he not have been given such a title if the emperor or governor were in charge or even had one of them been leading the forces against the northern tribes?

I note that no one seems to have a problem with the dux role if we opt for Castus having left for Armenia with the Roman governor of Britain, Statius Priscus. 

It seems Severus brought many soldiers to Britain to supplement what was already there.

Their responses, beginning with Tomlin:

"Birley over-interpreted RIB III, 3509, an altar dedicated by a centurion about to leave for the lower Danube as evidence of Severus bringing troops to Britain – which he undoubtedly did. And a dux would have commanded troops drawn from one legion or more to go on campaign, irrespective of who commanded-in-chief that campaign."

"Yes, a dux might be quite properly used in those circumstances. The term originates to designate the leader of an ad hoc force."

Given that I've been able to support a decent argument in favor of armatas gentes (see

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-new-reading-for-arms-lacuna-of-l.html, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2025/01/why-armatas-gentes-is-not-too-vague-or.html), and given that Benet Salway prefers a Severan date for the stone, and given that both scholars have no problem with Castus having been dux at this time, have we stumbled on the real reason the Artorius name came to be preserved in the North?

As a reminder, here is Benet Salway's opinion on the age of the Castus memorial stone:

"Coming to the stone cold without any presuppositions and basing my opinion purely on the script, I would favour a date in the Severan period (AD 193-235) or up to a decade or so later. I base this on the high degree of ligaturing in the design."