Artorius: A Nation with Amnesia

In this series of articles we have considered the relationship of the Three Welsh Romances, Historia Peredur ab Efrawg, Owain (Chwedl Iarlles Y Fynawn) and Geraint ab Erbin to their French counterparts the Arthurian romances written by Chretien de Troyes, Perceval, or Le Conte du Graal, Yvain, Le Chevalier du Lion; Erec et Enide. The relationship between these parallel stories immediately calls into question the origin, history, and influences of the tales – the so called mabinogionfrage. In particular the debate regarding the provenance of Chretien's story of the Grail has focused on the anonymous tale Peredur which has been locked in a ‘Welsh v French’ argument. It is clear that as the Grail stories evolved they were subject to influence from various sources from the Continent and even the Orient, creating a complex hybrid of themes in the later tales. However, one theory argues for the origins of the Arthurian Cycle and the story of the Grail in the ancient folklore of the Caucasus Mountains, the land between the Black and Caspian seas.

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“Attempts have been made to find a prototype for the Arthur of the Britons by identifying him with historical figures whose names have come down in early and independent records. It is commonly accepted that the most likely derivation of his name is from the Latin Artorius, and there is evidence that this name was known in Britain in the second century, for an inscription records that in this century a certain Lucius Artorius Castus, praefectus castrorum of the Sixth Legion stationed at York, was sent at the head of two legions to Armorica to suppress a rebellion.”1

A Biography in Stone
Two epitaphs found on a pair of Roman tombstones discovered on the Adriatic coast of modern- day Croatia, once Roman Dalmatia, commemorating the career of a Roman officer, are claimed to closely correspond to the military career of the legendary historical Arthur.2 

The longer inscription:

Drawing of the Lucius Artorius Castus inscription from Podstrana,
as read (with minor errors) by professor Frane Bulić in the late 1880s.3

Translation: 

“To the spirits of the departed: L. Artorius Castus,
Centurion of the III Legion Gallica; also centurion of the
VI Legion Ferrata, also centurion of the II Legion II Adiutrix;
also centurion of the V legion Macedonica; also primus pilus
of the same legion; praepositus of the classis Misenatium;
Praefectus of the VI Legion Victrix; dux of the cohorts
of cavalry from Britain against the Armoricans; procurator
Centenarius of the province of Liburnia with the power to issue
sentences of death. In his lifetime, for himself and his family,
he made this.”4

The long inscription on the larger of the two tombstones, found in the wall of St Martin’s Church, Podstrana, details the career of Castus from centurion of the Legion III Gallica through to prefect of the Legion VI Victrix, then appointed commander of a detachment of British troops on a campaign in ‘Armoricos’ (?) before finishing his career as procurator in the province Liburnia (part of Dalmatia). This led the American linguist, Kemp Malone, to see the military career of Lucius Artorius Castus as the starting point of the Arthurian legend.5

In support of Malone’s conjectured genesis was the fact that a few years earlier in the late-19th century it had been shown that the Welsh name Arthur most probably derived from the Roman name Artorius. It must be conceded that the name Arthur could certainly be derived from Artorius, rather than a Latinisation of a Celtic name.

A Career Reconstructed
There is much debate, and little agreement,6 over this inscription; unfortunately it has split in two right through the word ‘ARM’…. which was interpreted by Malone,7 and many others since, to identify Castus campaign as the inspiration behind Arthur’s Gallic invasion as first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), c.1138. 

But failing to identify a suitable military campaign in the desired timeframe in ‘Armoricos’8 this interpretation has now changed after many years. Early inspections of the long inscription claimed there was a ligature connecting the M to E, therefore ARM[ENIOS] seemed to be the most likely interpretation. This is the preferred interpretation of modern historians who see ARM[ENIOS] as referring to Castus in temporary command of troops drawn from legions stationed in Britain, in transit to Armenia and argue that Castus’s service as dux best fits the war triggered in AD 161 by a Parthian invasion of Armenia. Or even the later Parthian campaign of Caracalla of AD 216-17.

Others now argue that there is no ligature on the inscription and there never was (meaning no 'E'), initial readings were simply wrong, and it should now be interpreted as ARM[ATOS], as in ‘fighting armed’ men (adversus armatos) which unshackles Castus from fighting Armoricans or Armenians in AD 161 or AD 216 and makes other campaigns possible.9 Thus, the dating of the inscription is critical, but again, few agree on whether it is late 2nd century or early 3rd century. 

From the long inscription the complete military career of Castus has been reconstructed, determining where he would have served in each Legion, such as the first post recorded on the inscription was as centurion in Legio III Gallica which has been determined as in Syria c. AD 158 until around 162 when he transferred to IV Ferrata in Judea. After spending about 4 years in Judea Castus joined Legio II Adiutrix on the Danube, at the age of around 22, where it is claimed he first came into contact with the Sarmatians.10

Castus then moved to Legio V Macedonia where he was promoted to primus pilus (the highest ranking centurion).  According to the inscription Castus was then promoted to praepositus (a naval rank) of the classis Misenatium, (the fleet based at Misentia). He then moved to Britain as praefectus of Legio VI Victrix, who were based at Eboracum (York). From here he was appointed dux (a temporary command) to lead detachments of cavalry from Britain against the Armoricans(?), before finishing his career as procurator Centenarius of the province of Liburnia.11

There are no other sources known to us to verify the military career of Castus, and the shorter inscription merely confirms his posts as primus pilus of Legio V Macedonica and prefect of Legio VI Victrix.

However, another post is argued for between his time in Legio V Macedonia and the classis Misenatium that is missing from Castus's resume on the long inscription. Littleton and Malcor write that after serving as primus pilus Castus would have re-enlisted in the traditional "equestrian cursus,” the first rank of which ‘praefectus cohortis’ is missing from the inscription. It is then suggested that he “probably served this tour as a praefectus of numeri (an alternative rank to praefectus cohortis) by leading the Iazyges to Bremetennacum and settling them into the Roman military system.” They add that instead of serving as a simple praefectus alae (cavalry commander) in his next post as praefectus of Legio VI Victrix, Castus was placed in command of Bremetennacum (Ribchester).12 None of this is attested on either inscription or any other source and therefore must be considered pure speculation.

Neither inscription provides any dates whatsoever which has left a void, a black hole, for an imagined reconstruction of the career of Castus. According to John Matthews, as seen above, around AD 158 Castus was a centurion in Syria. Eight years later at the age of 22 he joined Legio II Adiutrix. Therefore he was a centurion in Legio III Gallica at the age of 14! Perhaps this was the inspiration behind Arthur the boy king who pulled the sword from the stone at age 15 in later Arthurian romance. In fact we have no idea when Castus was born and what age he was when he first achieved the rank of centurion, but it is hardly likely to be as a young boy. The inscription does not say he served in Syria, Judea or the Danube. These locations have been taken from known activity of the said legions to reconstruct a timeframe that revolves around the Marcomannic Wars (bellum Germanicum et Sarmaticum) from about AD 166 to 180 ensuring Castus was in the right place at the right time. Yet, the inscription provides no evidence of Castus’s contact with Sarmatians (Iazyges), we know he joined Legio II Adiutrix but we don’t know when and we have no evidence that he ever fought on the Danube.

The Commander at Ribchester
Dio Cassius's Roman Histories describes how toward the end of the Marcomannic Wars (AD 166-180) 8,000 heavy cavalry from a Sarmatian tribe known as the Iazyges were taken into the Roman army by Marcus Aurelius; 5,500 of which Dio says were sent to Britain.

The Notitia Dignatum, a record of Roman units of the late Roman Empire, does confirm a Sarmatian presence at Bremetennacum, near Ribchester, Lancashire, listed as Cuneus Sarmatarum, under the command of the Dux Britannia, the only firm evidence for their presence in Britain. The Notitia Dignatum is considered accurate for early 5th century Roman Britain but is of little value for 2nd century Roman Britain when the 5,500 Sarmatians are said to have arrived. However, Roman altars found at the site do confirm the presence of Sarmatian cavalry, however the size of the fort was not large enough to accommodate all 5,500. The fort, built around 70 AD and active for around 300 years, initially accommodated an Ala (wing) of 500 Asturians from Spain who were replaced by a similar number of Sarmatians. It is likely that the Cuneus Sarmatarum, as recorded in the Notitia Dignatum, was enlisted from later generations of the first Sarmatian cavalry settled in the area. 

The Roman bathhouse remains at  Bremetennacum (Ribchester) 

 

It is claimed that these Sarmatian auxiliaries were posted in groups of five hundred to the garrisons along Hadrian's Wall. Additionally, when their period of service was over, the veterans were settled at Bremetennacum Veteranorum. It is further argued, in line with the imagined additional inscription (above) that their first commander was a Roman officer named Lucius Artorius Castus, prefect of the VI Legion Victrix, whose headquarters were at York (Eboracum). Apparently, as the name is uncommon, the very same Roman Officer commemorated on the epitaphs of the two tombstones from Podstrana as we have seen above. There must have only been one Roman stationed in Britain named Artorius.

It is then claimed that these Sarmatian cavalrymen from north of the Danube brought with them a treasury of folktales which became attached to the Roman commander whose name was the origin of ‘Arthur’, who led a band of mounted knights, that evolved as the core of the Arthurian legend and the stories of the Holy Grail, and thus, the so-called ‘Sarmatian Connection’ was conceived.13

We must recognise that the two tombstones from Podstrana bear, as far as we know, the only complete career biography of Castus, as we have no other source to verify this. Anything else is imaginative  speculation and conjecture. Accepting this fact, we must also recognise that there is nothing to link Castus with Sarmatian cavalry in Britain; the inscription simply does not record any contact between them. There is also nothing to verify that they were posted in groups of 500 along the forts of Hadrian’s Wall. In fact there is very little archaeological evidence for their presence along the Wall; it is likely the majority of the 5,500 (if they ever arrived - and we only have Cassius Dio’s word for it, and I suspect the number is incorrect) were moved out of Britain soon after their arrival. But as it stands, the vast majority of the 5,500 Iazyges posted to Britain simply disappeared without trace. Furthermore, there is no evidence whatsoever that Castus had any connection with Bremetennacum.

Thus, we can now see why the interpretation of ARM […] on the long inscription is critical to the career of Castus. If ARM[ENIOS] is correct and Castus was fighting Armenians in the 160s he had left Britain before the Sarmatians arrived. And neither inscription suggests he returned to Britain after this campaign. If Castus was in Armenian at this time he could not have had contact with any Sarmatians in Britain and the ‘Sarmatian Connection’ collapses.

A Caledonian Campaign?
Taking this a mighty leap further, it is then argued that the twelve victories,  culminating in the famous victory at Badon Hill, attributed to "Arthur" in the 9th century Historia Brittonum and 10th century Annalaes Cambriae, may actually have been won by Lucius Artorius Castus between AD 183-185 in Northern Britain leading units of Sarmatian cavalry and defeating marauding Caledonians who had crossed Hadrian’s Wall and raided into Northern England.14

I struggle to see a convincing attachment of the 2nd century Roman officer to the earliest Arthur, the successful leader (dux bellorum) of the battles of the Historia Brittonum; to suggest that this is a distant memory of the northern campaign of Castus, some 650 years earlier, is incredulous to say the least.15

How do we explain the silent gap? The onus is on those people proposing this thesis to validate their claims. Reconstructions based on speculation and conjecture of what may have been are worthless as evidence. We may ask where did the author of the Historia Brittonum get his information? There is no record of any battles fought in the north of Britain by Castus; certainly not on his tombstone, so where did this come from? It is no more than a modern myth.

Are we really supposed to believe a memory of this campaign suddenly appeared after a 650 year silence? There is no qualification for any of these claims that the 2nd century military career of Castus reflects that of the 9th century Arthur of the twelve battles in the Historia Brittonum. Arthur’s battles have been located all over the country, but it is fair to say that historians favour a northern location for the whole campaign. 

We have already seen how there is no evidence that Castus was commander of a Sarmatian cavalry unit at Bremetennacum (Ribchester) and now we find in the reinterpretation of Nennius’s battle list that this fort appears as Arthur’s eleventh battle at Breguoin in the Historia Brittonum, which is often identified with the Roman fort at High Rochester (Bremenium). Malcor’s identification is unconventional to say the least but Ribchester fits her reconstructed battle sequence of Castus chasing Caledonians all over the north of England and back into Scotland.

Two Roman forts on the Wall, Camboglanna and Avallana, have been suggested as the site of Camlann, Arthur’s last battle, and Avalon, respectively, where he was taken to be healed of his wounds. Neither battle occurs in the list in the Historia Brittonum; Camlann belongs to Welsh tradition and Avalon is based on the Celtic Elysium.

Furthermore, there is no record of any post-Roman battles at either fort. All we have is a Roman officer bearing the name ‘Artorius’ which could have been taken into Celtic as the name ‘Arthur’ but not necessarily.  Oddly no Latin sources refer to him as such: only to a Latinized Welsh or Breton name ‘Arthurus’.16 It is significant that Latin writers always refer to Arthur as Arturus or Arturius, but never as Artorius,17 suggesting any link with a Roman officer was unknown to these writers.

Moving forward a thousand years from the time Castus was active in the 2nd century to Arthur’s Gallic invasion as first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century we find the only part of Castus’s career that could possibly correspond to the military career of Arthur. Yet as we have seen this has now been rejected by the current wisdom.

Yet, as we have seen Arthur’s Gallic invasion does not appear before Geoffrey of Monmouth’s psuedo-historical account of the Kings of Britain and certainly is not part of the earliest stratum of the Arthurian legend, Arthur of the battles as recorded in the 9th century Historia Brittonum, and 10th century Annales Cambriae which records Badon and Camlann only. Geoffrey’s source for Arthur’s Gallic invasion has been the subject of much debate, he probably pulled from several sources but the usurpation of Magnus Maximus was likely his main source; Geoffrey seemed totally unaware of a Roman officer named Lucius Artorius Castus stationed in Britain – or no doubt he would have used him in his Historia.

An Armorican Campaign?
However, we find the sources do reveal an occasion in Armorica (read Gaul) in which Roman troops from Britain may have been deployed as a counter offensive. The Historia Augusta explicitly records a military disorder that immediately precedes Commodus’ accession to imperial power, (HA Comm. 16.1–2). The Historia Augusta names this as ‘bellum desertorum’ (War on Deserters) without going into any great detail. Commodus reigned as emperor from AD 177-192 which certainly puts the events in the correct timeframe for a late 2nd century Castus.

The Roman geographical area of Armorica

A certain Maternus and some fellow soldiers left the army and turned to robbery and plunder, living as outlaws. They had reasonable success and gained further supporters (deserters) from the army, criminals and prisoners. The commentary of the historian Herodian, one of the main sources of the Historia Augusta, tells us that Maternus’ mob had swelled in such numbers it ravaged the “Celtic and Iberian territories”. Herodian’s account is supported in other accounts such as the biography of Pescennius Niger (HA Pesc. Nig. 3.3–5) which also reports that deserters plagued the provinces of Gaul in countless numbers.18

Commodus took appropriate action and prepared to despatch imperial forces into the area, but before they arrived Maternus’ rabble disbanded, with some small bands going into Italy. Maternus, so the story goes, now planned to assassinate the Emperor and take the throne himself. His own men betrayed him and he was quickly caught and executed.

Cassius Dio reports a failed uprising among the legions of Britain around this time, which seems to be linked to the War of the Deserters. Dio writes that “the lieutenants in Britain, accordingly, having been rebuked for their insubordination, — they did not become quiet, in fact, until Pertinax quelled them, — now chose out of their number fifteen hundred javelin men and sent them into Italy. These men had already drawn near to Rome without encountering any resistance, when Commodus met them.” When the Emperor asked them the purpose of their mission they replied that they had come because Perennis was plotting against him and plans to make his own son emperor.19

As Birley writes20 it hardly seems credible that the 1500 legionaries would be sent from Britain to simply denounce Perennis and ponders if they were part of a task force rounding up deserters, whose activities had reached alarming proportions in Gaul and Spain and may even have got as far as Rome. Birley adds that Lucius Artorius Castus, prefect of VI Victrix, had a special command over vexillations from two British legions and is often associated with these events.21 If the inscription does read ARM[ORICOS] then this is surely a strong candidate for the event it refers to.

Artorius Remembered?
As we have seen above, from the two inscriptions an imaginative full blown biography of this Roman officer has been developed, including Arthur’s twelve battles of the Historia Brittonum re-interpreted as Castus fighting a band of Caledonians that crossed Hadrian’s Wall in the late 2nd second century.22 

The longer inscription

We have seen that in AD 175 a group of 5,500 Sarmatian heavy cavalry, who belonged to a tribe known as Iazyges, were posted to Britain. It is argued that these Sarmatians brought with them stories from their homeland, around the Black Sea, to Britain. Their native folklore became attached to a Roman officer named Artorius, the Latin name from which the name ‘Arthur’ most probably derived. Thus, the core of the Arthurian stories that developed through the Middle Ages apparently has its origins in oral storytelling in the Caucasus, the meeting of Asia and Europe; the heavy cavalry of the Iazyges under the command of Artorius being the origin of the Arthurian knights.23 Mabinogionfrage solved! The source of the Arthurian Romance is neither Welsh or French but the Caucasian folklore of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe!

For this theory to be viable these tales of Caucasian folklore must have passed through several language barriers, to quote Nicholas Higham; “from Old Iranian into Latin and Brittonic, been taken up by both the clerical and vernacular traditions in post- Roman Britain, then been adopted into literature written predominantly in French from c.1150 onwards”.24 

It is accepted that any thesis is initially built on a level of conjecture but this is a very taxing route of transmission susceptible to all sorts of challenges, not least the many language changes, as Higham states above, that could have failed at various stages; and even more challenging to be accepted as credible. There are no proofs here, only speculation and conjecture which is argued as fact. 

Are we really expected to believe that these tales from the Caucasus arrived in Britain in the 2nd century and lay dormant, forgotten for many hundreds of years then suddenly re-emerged without any interim record? If the account of Arthur’s twelve battles in the 9th century Historia Brittonum is based on memories of Castus 2nd century campaign against the Caledonians what was the author’s (Nennius?) source? 

There is no record of any interim account; are we to believe the story of the battles survived as an oral account; one day Nennius was chatting to an old Sarmatian……. Where was this story for 650 years?

The reinterpretation of the battle list in From Scythia to Camelot (Appendix 3) shows greater similarity to the account of Arthur’s battles as told by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century which is accepted by historians as a pseudo-historical tale, but here it is presented as a factual recall of Castus’s campaign against the Caledonians in AD 180s. Where was this story for a 1,000 years?

This, it is argued, is a typical pattern of development of a legend; a hero’s extraordinary deeds are passed on by people of his own time telling tales of this remarkable character. Then after many years in which his name is not used (?) the same hero suddenly re-emerges in further tales in which historical facts and imaginative stories merge into the hero often now possessing superhuman qualities; “he was victorious at the battle of ???? and he alone killed 900 of the enemy by his own hand”. Other bodies of folklore become attracted to the existing cycle to create a new form of the legend often with a semi-historical foundation. 

This is the formula being used to explain Castus as the genesis for the Arthurian legend. Yet, in the case of the historical events of Castus developing into a new form as the Arthurian legend there is a complete absence of evidence of transmission between stages, a silence of hundreds of years, no interim steps whatsoever. It seems Artorius’s time while stationed in Britain was so insignificant that no one even remembered him. Combined with the issues of transmission across many languages as noted above and this becomes a massive, if not impossible, call.

Eurasian steppes

During the late classical period the Alans had been neighbours of the Sarmatians, nomads of the Central Asian Steppe, at their peak extending across the plains from the borderlands of western China, westward to what is now Hungary. The Alans moved west under pressure from the Huns, some settled in Gaul by the Romans while others arrived as invading barbarians during the 5th century.

When the Arthurian Legend was taken to the Continent, so it is claimed, it collided with the folklore of the Alans, who told tales of magical swords and magical cups, including the death of the hero among other parallels that can be found today in the Nart Sagas of the Caucasus and the cultures and languages of the Ossetians and their neighbours, the ancestral lands of the Alans.

It is argued by Littleton and Malcor that the coming together of these two strands of folklore resulted in the Arthurian Cycle and the story of the Grail that emerged on the Continent from the 12th century and the introduction of a new Arthurian character, Lancelot the Alan.25

Notes and References:

1. Rachel Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman, Brynley F. Roberts (editors), Introduction, to The Arthur of the Welsh, University of Wales Press, 1993. p.6.
2. For a detailed commentary on the inscriptions, Lucius Artorius Castus’ Career and the origin of the name “Artorius” see: Christopher Gwinn, Lucius Artorius Castus: A Sourcebook 
3. T. G. Jackson, "Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria", Oxford, 1887, pp. 167 (Wikimedia Commons)
4. The Monumental collection of Latin inscriptions, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, No. 1919 (ed.) by Th. Mommsen: Berlin, Reimer, 1873.
5. Kemp Malone, Artorius, Modern Philology 23 (1924–1925): pp.367–74.
6. a. Tony Sullivan, The Roman King Arthur?: Lucius Artorius Castus, Pen & Sword, 2022,
b. Linda A. Malcor & John Matthews, Artorius: The Real King Arthur, Amberley Publishing, 2022.
7. Kemp Malone, Artorius.
8. Armorica, (from Celtic ar “on,” and mor, “sea”), the Roman name for the northwest peninsula of Gaul, now Brittany, which included the western part of what later became Normandy, part of the Gallia Lugdunensis province.
9. Linda A. Malcor & John Matthews, Artorius: The Real King Arthur, Amberley Publishing, 2022.
10. John Matthews, King Arthur Of The Romans: Lucius Artorius Castus And The Sarmatians In Britain, Hallowquest, Oxford, p.279.
11. Matthews, Ibid.
12. Littleton & Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, p.73, fn.16.
13. a. Linda Malcor, Lucius Artorius Castus, Part 1: An Officer and an Equestrian, Heroic Age, 1, 1999.
b. Lucius Artorius Castus, Part 2: The Battles in Britain" Heroic Age 2, 1999.
c. C. Scott Littleton & Linda A. Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail, Garland, 2000 (Revised Edition)], Appendix 3 – A Reinterpretation of Nennius’s Battle List.
13. C. Scott Littleton and Ann C. Thomas, The Sarmatian Connection: New Light on the Origin of the Arthurian and Holy Grail Legends, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 91, No. 359 (Jan. - Mar., 1978), pp. 513-527.
14. Littleton & Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, Appendix 3, pp. 327-330.
15. John Matthews and Caitlín Matthews, The Complete King Arthur: Many Faces, One Hero, Inner Traditions, 2017. This book includes a new translation of Taliesin's poem Kadeir Teyrnon in which they present Arthur as fighting along Hadrian's Wall. This interpretation of the poem has significant differences to more recent modern translations and clearly influenced by the authors' bias toward a Northern Arthur rather than accuracy of translation in support of their case for Lucius Artorius Castus.
16. J. E. Caerwyn Williams, Brittany And The Arthurian Legend, in The Arthur of the Welsh, University of Wales Press, 1993. p.264.
17. Jean Markale, Le Roi Arthur et la societe celtique, Paris, 1981.
18. Tilman Moritz, An army in revolt? Military disorder during the reign of Commodus. Ancient World magazine.
19. Cassisus Dio, Roman History, Epitome of Book 73.9.
20. Anthony R. Birley, The Frontier Zone in Britain: Hadrian to Caracalla, pp.355-370, in The Impact of the Roman Army (200 B.C. – A.D. 476), Lukas de Blois and Elio Lo Cascio (Editors), Brill, 2007, pp363-.364.
21. Birley, Ibid. p.364, fn.46.
22. Littleton & Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, Appendix 3.
23.  C. Scott Littleton and Ann C. Thomas, ‘The Sarmatian Connection: New Light on the Origin of the Arthurian and Holy Grail Legends.
24. Nicholas Higham, King Arthur: The Making of the Legend, Yale University Press, 2018, p.41.
25. Littleton & Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, Chp 9: The Alans and the Grail, pp.233-254.

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