The Ancient Paths
Page 31
121
Defeat of Arverni (King Bituitos) and Allobroges; foundation of Roman province of Gallia Transalpina (later, Gallia Narbonensis).
c. 120–110
First Gaulish oppida (Besançon, Bibracte, Châteaumeillant, etc.); monetary union of Aedui, Lingones and Sequani; Boii oppidum at Bratislava.
118
Foundation of Narbo Martius (Narbonne); construction of Via Domitia.
113–101
Cimbri and Teutones invade Danube Basin, northern Italy, Gaul and northern Iberia.
106
Treasure of Tolosa (Toulouse) stolen by Roman proconsul.
102
Teutones defeated at Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence) by Gaius Marius.
Late 2nd century
First coins minted in Britain.
Early 1st century
Posidonius travels through Gaul; international trading ports in southern Britain.
c. 80–70
Collapse of oppida in southern Germany (Finsterlohr, Heidengraben, Heidetränk, Manching), and Rhineland (Fossé des Pandours, Donnersberg); German provinces of Inferior (‘Lower’) and Superior (‘Upper’).
c. 70
Earliest visible occupation of Alesia oppidum.
63
Diviciacus the Aeduan Druid asks Roman Senate for military aid.
62–61
Revolt of Allobroges crushed by Rome.
61
Gaius Julius Caesar governor of Gallia Transalpina.
58–51
Gallic War.
58 Helvetian migration; defeat of Helvetii and of German tribes by Caesar.
57 Defeat of Belgic tribes.
56 Defeat of Alpine and Atlantic tribes.
55 Expeditions to Britain and across the Rhine.
54 Second expedition to Britain.
53 Second crossing of the Rhine.
52 General uprising of Gaulish tribes; Spring – Siege of Avaricum (Bourges); battle of Lutetia (Paris); August-September – siege of Alesia (Alise-Sainte-Reine) and surrender of Vercingetorix.
51 Autumn – battle of Uxellodunum.
c. 50
Founding of Calleva (Silchester); Aylesford Bucket.
46
Revolt of Bellovaci.
44
Assassination of Caesar.
43
Foundation of Colonia Copia Felix Munatia, later Lugdunum (Lyon).
39–29
Revolts of Rhineland tribes and Morini.
c. 37
Celtic mercenaries in Judea.
27
Augustan Settlement at Narbonne organizes division of Gaul north of Gallia Narbonensis into three provinces (Aquitania, Belgica, Lugdunensis); abandonment of Gaulish oppida continues.
c. 5
Birth of Jesus Christ.
AD
9
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (German tribes massacre three Roman legions).
10
1 August – Birth of Claudius at Lugdunum (Lyon).
c. 20
Druidism outlawed by Tiberius.
21
Revolts of Aedui, led by Sacrovir, and Treveri, led by Florus; rumours of pan-Gallic and German uprising.
c. 30
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
43
Roman legions land on the coast of Cantium (Kent); Roman fortress at Camulodunum (Colchester).
48
Gauls from Gallia Comata admitted to the Senate.
51
Last stand of Caratacus in Wales.
c. 54
Druidism outlawed by Claudius.
60–61
Massacre of Druids on Mona (Anglesey); revolt of Iceni and allies led by Boudica: destruction of Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans).
78
Surrender of Mona.
83 or 84
Battle of Mons Graupius.
122 – c. 126
Building of Hadrian’s Wall.
142 – c. 154
Building of Antonine Wall.
252
Martyrdom of St Regina at Alesia (Alise-Sainte-Reine).
Mid-3rd century?
Martyrdom of St Alban at Verulamium (St Albans).
316
Birth of St Martin of Tours.
c. 387
Birth of St Patrick.
Early 5th century?
Roman withdrawal from Britain.
Mid-5th century?
Vortigern invites Saxons to Britain; Saxons defeated by Ambrosius Aurelianus.
c. 451
Birth of St Brigit.
Before 474
Arvernian aristocrats abandon ‘Celtic speech’ (Sidonius Apollinaris).
597
Gregorian mission to Britain; Augustine first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Notes
Abbreviation: BG = Caesar and Hirtius, Commentarii de Bello Gallico.
Note on portolan charts (see here):
Portolan charts – mostly Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries – were cartographic equivalents of the ancient periploi (here). They show what could be achieved, even at sea and with few more refinements than were available in the late Iron Age. The main innovation was the compass. This was not strictly necessary for a land survey and it introduced the complication of magnetic as opposed to true north.
The charts were not consciously based on a projection of the world, but the data (sailors’ knowledge of distances and directions) naturally produced a proto-Mercator projection (Mercator’s map dates from 1569), in which straight lines cross all meridians at the same angle and allow the navigator to follow the same bearing from start to finish.
Albino de Canepa’s chart (Genoa, 1489), reproduced here in schematic form with five lines emphasized, is grossly distorted to the north of France but surprisingly accurate in other areas. It was probably pieced together from different maps, each one more or less consistent with itself, which would explain the northward rotation of Italy. The second map shows the five emphasized lines on a modern Mercator projection. The portolan charts gave bearings in increments equivalent to 11.25° (based on a compass rose divided into 32). The bearings in France and Iberia on Canepa’s chart are skewed several degrees to the west but accurate to within one point of a 32-point compass.
83. Albino de Canepa’s portolan chart
84. The portolan chart on a Mercator projection
Protohistory
x ‘Note on Celtic origins’: During the writing of this book, I was told that because my hair is dark and my parents Scottish, I must be Celtic. Hearing this, a German friend protested that the Celts were blond and came from the region of Bavaria. Another friend told me of a Spaniard whose red hair and freckles are thought to mark her out as a Celt. Many people still agree with Tacitus (early second century AD) that dark-skinned, curly-haired natives of western Britain and the Iberian Peninsula are ethnically Celtic. The ancient Celts themselves seem to have believed that they had no single origin. (See the map on this page.) Population movements suggested by genetic analyses may predate the appearance of Celtic culture by thousands of years (Cunliffe and Koch, 110). The fact that Ireland was not noticeably invaded after the late Bronze Age and yet became Celtic (here) is a reminder that, as an archaeological and historical term, ‘Celtic’ refers to the cultural and linguistic traits shared by the majority of the Iron Age inhabitants of western Europe, not to a particular ethnic group with a propensity for making war and a superhuman ability to populate half a continent within a few generations.
xii a professor of literature: Vadé (1972–74).
xii the Professor of Geography: Planhol, 15 and 24–25.
xiii heaving like a lung: Strabo, II, 4, 1 (perhaps referring to a type of jellyfish).
xiv ‘ley lines’: Watkins.
xvi ‘a river called the Arar’: BG, I, 12.
xvii ‘They converse with few words’: Diodorus Siculus, V, 31, 1.
/> 1. The Road from the Ends of the Earth
3 ‘at the extreme west of Europe’: Herodotus, II, 33; also IV, 49. On classical sources: Koch and Carey; Rankin.
5 One tale in particular: The account of Herakles’ journey is based on the following: Ammianus Marcellinus, XV, 9, 6 (father of the Celts); Avienus, v. 322 (Sacred Promontory); Cassius Dio, XIII, 21 (Bebruces); Diodorus Siculus, IV, 18, 5 (sea-monsters), IV, 19, 1–2 (Alesia), IV, 19, 3–4 (Alps), V, 24, 2–3 (Alesia, Galates) and V, 26, 2 (honeycombs); Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I, 41 (Spain to the Alps; building of cities and roads); Hesiod, 289–94 (Erytheia); Hyginus, I, 2, 6 (Ligurians); Justinus, XXIV, 4 (Alps); Livy, V, 34 (Alps) and XXI, 37 (attributes the creation of a col to Hannibal: also Ammianus Marcellinus, XV, 10, 11; Appianus, VII, 2; cf. Diodorus Siculus, IV, 19, 3); Lucian of Samosata, ‘Herakles’ (Ogmios); Mela, II, 76 (the Crau); Nepos, Hannibal, III (Alps); Parthenius of Nicaea, XXX (Celtine); Seneca (1984), 7 (Lyon); Silius Italicus, III, 420–40 (Bebruces, Pyrenea); Stephen of Byzantium, Ethnika (Nemausos, Nîmes); Strabo, IV, 1, 7 (the Crau, which stretched as far north as the Carpentras plain). On the Via Heraklea: Clavel, 419; Dellong, 95; Duch; Knapp; Lugand and Bermond, 64; Plácido; Pseudo-Aristotle, in Aristotle (1980). On Hercules: Benoît (1949 and 1965); Carrière; Hofeneder, I, 82, 106 and 162; Moitrieux; Rawlings. Eustathius (V, 281) mentions two sons of Herakles, Celtus and Iber, progenitors of the Celts and Iberians; also Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XIV, 1.
5 a tribe called the Andosini: Polybius, III, 35. ‘Andosini’ and ‘Andorra’ may come from a Pyrenean Celtic god, Andossus, who was related to Hercules and Lugh: Benoît (1949), 114–15; Knapp, 111; Lajoye, 56.
5 a temple to Hercules: mentioned by Ephorus (c. 350 BC); contradicted in ignorance by Strabo (c. 7 BC), III, 1, 4. On ancient pilgrimage: Dillon; Fear.
7 Buccacircius: ‘Ventus cercius . . . buccam implet’ (Gellius, II, 22, 29). Boucocers (Buccacircio) is the name of two sites in the Aude: Adams, 227; Jullian, VI, 1, 1 n. 15; Nègre (1990–98), I, 1147. ‘When he was living in Gaul, the divine Augustus had a temple built and dedicated to [the Mistral]’: Seneca (1971–72), V, 17, 5.
9 Emain Macha: Warner, 31 (from Annála Ríoghachta Éireann).
10 Ogmios: Lucian of Samosata, ‘Herakles’; Le Roux.
10 ‘come from remote regions’: Pliny, XXI, 31 (57).
11 founded by a son of Herakles: Stephen of Byzantium (listed in Ethnika).
11 A cognitive psychologist: Boroditsky.
13 the Etruscans: Aveni and Romano; Frontinus (1971), 10–11.
14 Herakles was also a sun god: e.g. Macrobius, I, 20, 11; Porphyry, in Eusebius of Caesarea, III, 11.
14 pocket-sized votive wheels: e.g. over seventy thousand at La Villeneuve-au-Châtelot (Aube): Birkhan, 578.
14 ‘he measured the whole earth’: Philostratus, V, 4.
15 ‘From Italy as far as the country of the Celts’: Pseudo-Aristotle, in Aristotle (1980). On the road to the Hesperides and Herakles as a guide of dead souls: Wagenvoort, 115; also Knapp. Avienus (v. 322) applies the name ‘Via Herculis’ to the Sacred Promontory.
15 the centuriation of Agathe: Max Guy in Arcelin et al., 443; Nickels et al.; also Chouquer (1980 and 2005); Clavel.
16 Astronomical observations: on ancient astronomy: Aveni (1989); Burl; James Evans; Kelley and Milone; Kendall and Hodson.
16 the story of Massalia’s foundation: Athenaeus, XIII, 576 (from Aristotle); Justinus, XLIII, 3–4; Livy, V, 34; Plutarch, ‘Solon’, in Plutarch (1914–26), I; Silius Italicus, XV, 169–72; Strabo, IV, 1, 4; also Jullian, I, 5, 3.
16 A colony was founded: on Greek influence in Gaul: Cary; Cunliffe (1988); Rothé and Tréziny.
17 a city called Heraklea: Pliny, III, 4 (33); a Celtic Heraklea (location unknown) is listed in Stephen of Byzantium’s Ethnika.
17 ‘on tiptoe in expectation of war’: Livy, XXI, 20.
18 in the region of Andorra: Rico (84) points out the plausibility of an inland route; also Jullian, I, 2, 2 n. 36.
18 names of Celtic origin in Iberia: Two other maps on the same theme: Lenerz-de Wilde, in Aldhouse-Green (1996), 534; Villar, 180.
18 the temple of Melqart-Herakles: Fear, 319–20.
19 ‘a hero [Herakles]’: Polybius, III, 48.
19 ‘the way had seemed long to no one’: Livy, XXI, 30.
19 ‘unintelligible and meaningless sounds’: Polybius, III, 36.
19 Roquemaure: e.g. Jullian, I, 11, 5 n. 82; Wickham, 30–32.
19 ‘marched up the bank’: Polybius, III, 47.
20 the old ‘Elephant’ inn: Whymper, 52.
20 Hannibella: Hoyte.
20 the Col de Montgenèvre: Mahaney et al. suggest this col as Hannibal’s ‘intended path’ (42); also Jullian, I, 11, 12 n. 219. On Mons Matrona: Ganet et al., 130–31. The Matrona is cited in Ammianus Marcellinus, XV, 10, 6, and in the anonymous Itinerarium Burdigalense (early fourth century).
21 Herculean sanctuary of Deneuvre: Hamm, 176–79.
22 Ora Maritima (‘Sea Coasts’): Avienus; Saulcy.
22 ‘Solis columna’: Avienus, v. 638.
22 Cassiterides or ‘Tin Islands’: see Ramin.
2. News of the Iron Age
23 the horreum: see Bromwich, 85–87.
24 gold jewellery: Diodorus Siculus, V, 27, 3.
24 undiluted wine: e.g. Athenaeus, IV, 36 (from Posidonius); Polyaenus, VIII, 25.
24 moustaches trailed in the soup: Diodorus Siculus, V, 28, 3.
24 the best cut of meat: Athenaeus, IV, 40 (from Posidonius).
24 throwing them into the river: The Greek Anthology, 9.125.
24 swallowed by the waves: Aristotle (2011), III, 1229 b; Aelian, XII, 23; see also Rankin, 56.
24 ‘raging with outlandish lust’: Diodorus Siculus, V, 32, 7.
24 flabby Celtic youths: Strabo, IV, 4, 6.
24 slashed to ribbons with a sword: Strabo, IV, 4, 3.
24 Greek philosopher Posidonius: Strabo, IV, 4, 5.
25 the ‘alces’: BG, VI, 27.
25 ‘because of our short stature’: BG, II, 30.
25 St Jerome: Jerome, II, 7.
25 the dozen words that entered English: Charles-Edwards, 729–30.
25 lead curse-tablets: Delamarre (2003), 47, 332 and 334.
25 etched on spindle-whorls: Delamarre (2003), 335, 217, 133 and 331; see also Duval et al.
26 wheelwright of Blair Drummond: A. Harding, 165–67.
27 Marseille to Boulogne in thirty days: Diodorus Siculus, V, 22, 4.
27 chariots . . . found in graves: Verger; also Cunliffe (1999), 58–59.
27 their technology amazed the Romans: a list of Roman references in Napoléon III, II, 18 n. 5; see also Arrian of Nicomedia, Tactics, 37; Jullian, II, 7 nn. 64–65.
27 ‘la Dame de Vix’: Egg and Franz-Lanord; Rolley.
28 ‘in about fifteen days’: BG, II, 2.
29 entering or leaving a tribal territory: Jullian, II, 2, 7 and n. 94.
29 Roman roads can usually be distinguished: e.g. Chouquer (2005), 36; Jullian, II, 7, 3; Robert et al.; also Castellvi; Chevallier (1997); Gendron.
29 the Gaulish oppidum of Vermand: Fichtl (1994), 108 (with other examples); also Pichon (2002), 479.
30 used by the Romans: on Roman occupation of oppida: Todd, and p. 72 above.
31 ‘Gaul was now at peace’: BG, VI, 44 and VII, 1.
31 ‘The report was conveyed’: BG, VII, 3.
32 appetite for news: BG, IV, 5; also Diodorus Siculus, V, 28, 5.
33 ‘innumerable horns and trumpets’: Polybius, II, 29.
35 a Gaulish word, ‘equoranda’: Aeberhardt; Billy, 133–34; Cravayat; Dauzat and Rostaing; Delamarre (2003), 163–64; Gendron, 86–87; Jullian, II, 2 n. 95; Lebel (1937 and 1956); Nègre (1990–98), I, 195–96; Provost, L’Indre-et-Loire, 115; Roger; Vannérus; Vincent (1927 and 1937).
36 a ‘sound-line’: This is consistent with Gaulish word-formation: e.g. ‘sonnocingos’ (sun-course) on the Coligny calendar.
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nbsp; 36 ‘per agros regionesque’: BG, VII, 3; cf. VII, 46: ‘recta regione’ (‘in a straight line’).
37 ‘Make straight in the desert a highway’: Isaiah 40:3; also John 1:23. For Greek geometrical uses of ‘euqunate’: Mugler.
3. The Mediolanum Mystery, I
40 one of the commonest and oldest place names: Bayerri y Bertomeu et al.; Dauzat and Rostaing; Delamarre (2003), 220–21; Desbordes; Dowden, 274–75; Guyonvarc’h (1960 and 1961); Holder, II, 497–521; Longnon (1920–29); Nègre (1990–98), I, 189–90; Vincent (1937), 102–103.
40 must be a Latin term: Gasca Queirazza.
41 ‘a term of sacred geography’: Delamarre (2003), 221.