As I argued in a recent post that regarded Roman Londinium, the first component ‘Lond-‘ in the name recommends a potential Germanic and more likely Frisian influence so poses the question whether the Romans actually deployed Germanic troops in their military campaigns over Britain.
The Romans were known to have already drafted in good numbers of Germanic troops by the late first century BC and early first century AD in their campaigns against Germania, a trend that increased with time.
As it turns out, the Romans indeed employed Frisian mercenaries as cavalry along their invasion of Britain (43 – 87 AD) so there is a possibility that some might have been stationed in Londinium during early Roman occupation.
Later on, the presence of Frisian auxiliary units (Cuneus Frisionum) is attested at Vercovicium(1), Housesteads in Hexham, between at least 222 and 235 AD and the Vinovia, near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, potentially starting even earlier among others in nowadays northeast England.
Cavalry units of the ala Vettonum, a Frisian cohort, could have also been stationed at the latter fort whilst the finding of terp Tritzum, trademark earthenware(2) fashioned in fourth century Frisia, in Kent suggests the settling of Frisian laeti(3) therein.
(1) The mention of Tuihanti, Germanic people likely settled around nowadays Twente (Netherlands), on two memorial stones has them apparently as part of the formation of the Frisian force stationed there.
(2) Pottery made of baked clay.
(3) People from outside the Roman Empire allowed to settle within Roman territory on condition that they would provide recruits for the Roman army.
The Roman Baths and Gymnasium, among the most arresting sights across the city, was constructed towards the late second and maybe into the early third century AD located on the western edge of Sardis, ancient Lydia.
The pictured Marble Court, facing west, shaped the centrepiece that comprised a two-story colonnaded courtyard designated for the Roman imperial cult, featuring a statue of the emperor niched up in the main apse, lying at the very heart of the complex.
On the eastern side (near), lay a large open palaestra that measured a good 600 x 150ft (roughly 183 x 46m) of a sand floor encompassed by a colonnaded portico on all four sides whilst there were small rooms set up for weight training, skill practicing and massage around.
Finally, on the western side, beyond the Marble Court, stood the baths that contained the Frigidarium (cold pool) for the completion of the process towards the centre along with the Tepidarium (warm pool) and the Caldarium (hot pool) on the outer side.
Trajan’s Kiosk, or Pharaoh’s Bed (summer house?) as known to the locals, is a hypaethral (non-roofed) temple that is located nowadays along with the entire temple complex of Philae on Agilkia Island in the reservoir of the Old Aswan Dam on River Nile, southern (ancient Upper) Egypt.
The temple is attributed to Roman emperor Trajan (98 – 117 AD), depicted as Pharaoh on some interior reliefs(1), but a good part of the structure was apparently already built during the reign of Augustus around a century or even more earlier.
Standing about 16m high, as well as 20m long and 15m wide, it originally served as a prelude to the Philae temple complex on the namesake island before it was all relocated to its current place so as to be saved from the rising waters of the Nile due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.
Sockets within the structure’s architraves suggest that it was probably timber-roofed shaping a slight vault in ancient times. It presents a rectangular room encompassed with a screening wall bound together by fourteen columns that feature lotus-shaped capitals in a 4 x 5 pattern, with entrances on the eastern and western side.
Let’s drift way down memory lane to track and unlock the etymology of the name of London, the capital of Britain and a major cosmopolitan hub of modern world.
To begin with, Londinium, the long ancestor of London, was established by the Romans on the site of modern City of London at a key ford on River Thames shortly after they gained a firm foothold and started expanding their rule over Britain between 47 and 50 AD, during the reign of emperor Claudius.
Following the suppression of the Iceni(1) revolt under Boudica (c. 61 AD), when razed to the ground, the Roman city was quickly rebuilt on a grid accompanied by an ever-present garrison in a built-in fort northwest (nowadays Cornhill) to grow rapidly as a major port and road hub(2).
By the next century, further arrivals saw population figures rise sharply between 30000 and 60000 whilst the city obtained a forum, a basilica, a sizeable palace and other public buildings to eventually supplant Camulodunum, modern Colchester (Essex), as provincial capital.
The name Londinium itself, yet, is of uncertain to even unknown origin and etymology where the reconstructed suggested Brythonic form Londinjon as ‘place that floods’ looks as though guided more by patriotic feelings among British linguists and very shaky.
On the one hand, the suffix ‘-jon’(3) looks either (Vulgar) Latin- (-giō, -jō) or even more so Franconian/Frankish-descended (-jǭ) spelling ‘fortification, castle’ while, on the other hand, ‘Lond’ looks as though Germanic and more likely Frisian in origin carrying also the nuance of ‘state, realm’ along with an intermediate suffix ‘-in’ that is an alternate of ‘-en’ in Norse with a likely Latin root again.
There were also other Latin variations of the name such as Lundinium, Londonium, Lundonium, Londonum or Londinum that show an interchange of ‘u’ and ‘o’ in the first and ‘o’ with ‘i’ in the second syllable – while Lundin is a Swedish name where ‘lund’ spells ‘grove’ and ‘-in’ adds a sense of ‘of, pertaining to.’
Therefore, the ancient name looks like Roman with a likely Germanic influence so, since the arrival of Germanic peoples and Norse took place only centuries later, an intriguing new question may arise: Did the Romans deploy Germanic troops in their military campaigns over Britain, with some potentially stationed in Londinium?
The Romans were known to have already drafted in good numbers of Germanic troops by the late first century BC and early first century AD in their campaigns against Germania, a trend that increased with time.
Following the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain, Londinium largely declined and by the end of the fifth century was all but deserted ruins.
Summing up, the closest rendering to the name of Londinium in modern English I feel would probably be ‘State Fortified City.
The Temple of Trajan, or Trajaneum, was a magnificent structure built in honour of emperor Traian, hence its name, and located on the highest point of the citadel (acropolis) of the ancient city of Pergamum, or Pergamon, near the eastern coastline of Minor Asia.
Construction of the temple and the surrounding sacred precinct (Trajaneum), actually, commenced under the reign of Trajan himself around 114 AD but was completed later during the time of his successor Hadrian in the first half of the second century AD, serving as a venue for the cult of both Roman emperors.
Facing west, the temple was made almost entirely of white marble and stood on a high podium in the middle of a terrace that measured a good 68 x 58m laid out on a levelled slope, supported by a complex of eleven arched tunnels.
The building measured itself about 18m wide and lined up six Corinthian-styled columns at the front and back apiece as well as nine along either side with the altar situated at some distance towards the edge of the terrace.
Originally, the site was devoted to Jupiter Amicalis (or Zeus Philios in Koine, meaning ‘Jupiter/Zeus pertaining to friendship’) apparently extending a message of friendship by the ruling Romans to their subjects.
Most likely, nonetheless, that was no other than Egyptian Serapis, a merge of Osiris and Apis, since he was the king deity (Jupiter/Zeus) venerated across the city as further demonstrated by the Roman temples of the Serapium and the Red Basilica.
The fabulous Roman Theatre of Orange (Théâtre antique d’Orange in French) shapes one of the best preserved Roman theatres around and still remains in operation hosting the summer opera festival of Chorégies d’Orange, held each August, despite its long age.
It was built between 10 and 25 AD straddling the reigns of Caesar Augustus and Caesar Tiberius so as to serve the Roman colony of Arausio, founded by veterans of the second legion of the Roman army in about 36 BC, and finds itself located nowadays in the commune of Orange, Vaucluse in southeast France.
The structure features a trademark grant exterior façade that measures about 103m (338ft) long and 37m (121ft) high where its stage is about 61m long against the fully preserved wall, with apparently a wooden roof raised originally across the theatre to protect the audience against poor weather conditions.
The imposing scaenae frons on the interior helped enhance acoustics and was clad with colourful marble mosaics, columns and friezes as well as set with niches that accommodated statues, featuring a large sculpture of Augustus (3.5m) high up in the middle right above the Valva Regia (Royal Gate).
Back in its day, the theatre would feature poetry reading, mime, pantomime and the very popular Attelana (Atellian Farce) stretching over day-long programmes available to all free of charge, with a capacity of about 9000 spectators.
The name definitely strikes one at first sight due to the well-known fictional hero Conan the Barbarian, a Cimmerian mainly portrayed on the big screen by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Conan Meriadoc was actually a legendary Briton leader considered to have lived roughly around the second half of the 4th century AD.
He was apparently a prince or king of the early Brythonic (Briton) kingdom of Dumnonia, southwest nowadays England, under Roman rule and authority while he was reckoned to have established Brittany (meaning ‘Little Britain’), northwest nowadays France, across the Channel at the orders of Roman ruler Magnus Maximus after the latter was proclaimed Caesar (emperor) by his own troops in 383 AD.
Medieval Sources
Conan is associated so in both main sources of his story which are the Welsh text known as ‘The Dream of Macsen Wledig (the Welsh name of Magnus Maximus, wledig meaning ‘Lord’)’ and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘Historia Regum Britanniae’ that appeared much later, with primary evidence afforded in the slightly preceding ‘Life of Saint Gurthiern,’ in the 12th century.
A historical character, Magnus Maximus eyed greater power and rule over the whole Western Roman Empire so when he felt that circumstances were favourable he crossed the Channel with the bulk of his Roman legions and plenty of British troops, apparently stationing many of them with Conan at the helm in what became Brittany, and went on to confront rightful emperor Gratian whom he defeated near Paris to take over as Caesar himself.
Name Etymology
As a name, ‘Conan’ appears to be of Irish roots apparently spelling ‘little wolf,’ in the form of ‘Konan’ in Breton, yet ‘Meriadoc’ seems to carry a Latin element since the first component ‘Meria-‘ is almost identical and carries the same sense as ‘Maria’ to the effect of ‘of the sea,’ the latter definitely Latin in origin.
‘Meriadoc’ is interpreted as ‘Sea Brow (gangway, dock)’ and the second component ‘-doc,’ or its variation of ‘-dawc,’ looks like a Welsh/Celtic rendering of ‘dock,’ which has either a root in Low German ‘docke’ or Frisian ‘dok.’
Bear in mind that either ‘The Dream of Macsen Wledig’ or ‘Historia Regum Britanniae’ were written long after the Germanic invasion of the Saxons, Angles, Frisians and Jutes along with their dialects so many words would have been incorporated into the Celtic tongues.
Eudaf Hen or Octavius
Furthermore, his apparent father Eudaf Hen (Eudaf the Old) is also called Octavius by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who further identifies him as brother of Constantine the Great, so there is a profound suggestion that Conan was of Roman lineage which wouldn’t be a surprise in a wide Romano-British state of affairs over the land.
After all, Eudaf Hen could simply be the Welsh/Brythonic appellation assigned to Octavius, as was an apparent practice of the native Britons, who could have taken advantage of the departure of Constantine the Great as new Roman emperor, since there was no military ruler but only a proconsul left in charge behind, to rebel and proclaim himself lord of Britannia.
The argument, actually, that ‘Octavius’ is simply a corruption and faux-Latinization of Old Welsh/Breton Outham looks ‘lame,’ let alone the latter definitely looks Anglo-Saxon with an apparent Frisian or High German earlier root that may have found its way into Welsh/Breton instead.
Thereby, the attempted presentation of Eudaf Hen’s coup d’état as a British uprising against the Roman rule feels rather implausible as it looks more likely to have been yet another revolt within the high ranks of a turbulent Roman empire at the time.
Conan’s Kin
Conan’s sister was Elen Luyddog, as appears in Welsh, or Saint Helen who was apparently the wife of Magnus Maximus while he was married himself to Romano-British princess Saint Ursula, a Latin name, by the way.
(The picture is a detail of Saint Auta Altarpiece, fashioned by an unknown Portoguese painter between 1522 and 1525, that depicts the wedding of Conan Meriadoc to Saint Ursula)
Breaking through History 