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Queen Cartimandua*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

I. A. Richmond
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Extract

Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes is the first queen in British history to play a determining part in a policy for the whole island. She does not hold the stage with the outraged fury of Boudicca: no description of her appearance, terrifying or otherwise, has come down to us. But until the moment when the neglectful terms of a husband's will and the tactlessness and bestiality of Roman officials drove Boudicca and her nobility into revolt, Cartimandua was in her own right much the more important figure and certainly counted for very much more in Roman eyes. Nor in reality is the story of Cartimandua less dramatic: but its elements are at once more peculiar to Britain and more personal to the Queen.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 1-2 , November 1954 , pp. 43 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © I. A. Richmond 1954. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

This paper was given in March, 1953, as a Bryce Lecture at Somerville College, Oxford.

References

1 Histories III, 45.

2 Annals XIV, 29–37.

3 l.c.

4 Holder, , Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz II, 409Google Scholar s.v. mannus: cf. Jackson, , JRS XXXVIII (1948), 58Google Scholar, and Dottin, La langue gauloise, 358.

5 Dottin, o.c. 243.

6 Elgee, Early Man in N.E. Yorkshire (1930), 186, gives the best conspectus.

7 Sir Fox, Cyril, Arch. Camb., c. (1948), 37Google Scholar, fig. 10; cf. XCVIII (1945), 214, fig. 10.

8 Sir Cyril Fox, The Personality of Britain (4th edn.), 31, fig. 12; cf. also Arch. Camb. XCVIII, l.c.

9 Tacitus, Agricola, 17, ‘quae numerosissima provinciae totius perhibetur.’

10 Ptolemy, , Geogr. II, 3, 16Google Scholar; Ἐβόρακον, Ἰσούριον, Κατουρακτόνιον, Οὐιννούιον, Καμουνλόδουνον, Κάλαγον.

11 CIL VII, 200 (Greetland), 203, (Adel); EE VII, 920 (Longwood); EE IX, 1120 (Castleford).

12 CIL VII, 1062 (Birrens); CIL VII, 895 (near Brampton); EE IX, 1141 (Corbridge); EE IX, 1138 (S. Shields).

13 Ptolemy, , Geogr. II, 3, 10Google Scholar, mentions Βρεμένιον, in Redesdale as within the area of the Ὠταδηνοί.

14 e.g. Collingwood, Roman Britain (1923), 24.

15 For the magnesian limestone see Kendall, and Wroot, , The Geology of Yorkshire I, 264–5Google Scholar; also ibid. 61 for characteristics of the soil above it.

16 Ptolemy, , Geogr. II, 3, 6Google Scholar, Гαβραντουίκων ὁ καὶ λεγόμενος Εὐλίμενος κόλπος.

17 ibid. II, 3, 16, Ῥιγόδουνον.

18 For Elmet, see Sir Ifor Williams, Canu Aneirin XXXI, also Cumb. and Westm. A. and A. Soc. Trans. 2, LI, 83 (quoted below as CW): for an Elmetian see Nash-Williams, The Early Monuments of Wales, 88, no. 87, from Llanaelhaiarn.

19 For the name Bede, , HE II, 15Google Scholar ‘in regione, quae vocatur Loidis’: it was part of Elmet; cf. Crawford, , Antiquity IX (1935), 282Google Scholar.

20 The best account of Roman remains at Adel is still Thoresby, Ducatus Leodiensis (edn. 2, by Whitaker, 1816), 159–162.

21 Ptol. Geogr. II, 3, 17Google Scholar, Καμουνλόδουνον: cf. Archaeologia XCIII, 27, s.v.: for transferences of name cf. Viroconium, from Wrekin to Wroxeter.

22 ibid. II, 3, 6, Δοῦνον κόλπος. For Eston Nab, see F. Elgee, Early man in N.E. Yorkshire, 154–155, fig. 53 though he does not make the suggestion.

23 For a list of references see R. C. Hedley, Proc. Soc. Ant. Newc., ser. 4, 1, 112–113, and A. H. A. Hogg, ibid. XI, 178–179.

24 On the relation of Amounderness to Yorkshire, see VCH Lancs, II, 180–181Google Scholar.

25 See note 27, below.

26 See note 8, above.

27 For the Dark-Age history of the area, see F. M. Stenton, Inventory of Westmorland (RCHM), XLVIII–LV.

28 E. Ekwall, Place-names of Lancashire (1922), 225.

29 Archaeologia XC, 42.

30 Holder, Alt-Celtische Sprachschatz, s.v. For Dark-Age names with main stem tegern-, tigirn-, or tigern- see V. Nash-Williams, The Early Christian Monuments of Wales, pp. 74, 95, 166, 186, 170.

31 First proposed by G. F. Hill, Num. Chron. 1897, 293.

32 Vellocatus can hardly be in question, as Allen seems to think (Archaeologia XC, 43), in view of the early date of the coins; see below, p. 50 f.

33 Allen, o.c. pl. III, 3–12.

34 ibid., pl. II, 27.

35 J. Evans, The Coins of the Ancient Britons, Supplement, 1890, 592.

36 For a study of Cartimandua in legend and romance, see Casson, T. E., CW 2 XLIV, 68–80Google Scholar, quoting the Triads (where she is equated with Aregwedd Foeddawg) and The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland.

37 Holder, o.c. s.v. citing abundant coins.

38 Allen, o.c. 30–31; Ehrenberg and Jones, Documents illustrating the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, 26–27.

39 Ptol. Geogr. II, 17Google Scholar, Καμουνλόδουνον; II, 3, 22, Καμουδόλανον. For Camulos, see Lambrechts, Contributions à l'Étude des divinités celtiques, 129. For Camulosessa, see Archaeologia XCIII, 27Google Scholar, s.v.

40 The complete absence of coins assignable to either Cogidumnus or Prasutagus proves the point.

41 Ann. XII, 40 ‘ut supra memoravi’ may refer back only to XII, 32.

42 Ann. XII, 40.

43 Ann. XII, 32. ‘paucis qui arma coeptabant interfectis, in reliquos data venia.’

44 Ann. XII, 31–32.

45 Ann. XII, 32, ‘vastati agri, praedae passim actae.’

46 Sir Cyril Fox, The Personality of Britain (4th edn.), 30, fig. 11.

47 Arch.J. cv, 41–66, embodies much information about Almondbury and makes the comparison.

48 W. J. Varley, Castle Hill Almondbury Excavation Committee, Report of the first year's excavations, 1939, 4, where the vessel is described.

49 Sir Cyril Fox, A find of the Early Iron Age from Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey (1946), 62, fig. 34.

50 Tac., Ann. XII, 32Google Scholar ‘Silurum gens …. bellum exerceret castrisque legionum premenda foret. id quo promptius veniret, colonia Camulodunum valida veteranorum manu deducitur.’

51 CIL VII, 90: for comment upon the relief see JRS 11 (1912), 124Google Scholar, fig. 7.

52 CIL VII, 1339: found in association with CIL VII, 67.

53 Ann. XII, 33, ‘transfert bellum in Ordovicas.’

54 Ann. XII, 33.

55 Ann. XII, 36, ‘cum fidem Cartimanduae reginae Brigantum petivisset.’

56 Hist, III, 45, ‘capto per dolum rege Carataco.’

57 For the portents Dio Cassius, LXII, 1, and Tac., Ann., XIV, 32Google Scholar, are plainly drawing independently upon the same source; for the atrocities Tac., Ann. XIV, 33Google Scholar, summarizes, while Dio Cass. LXII, 7, copies horrific detail. Tac. Ann. XIV, 34Google Scholar, differs markedly from Dio Cass. LXII, 8.

58 Histories III, 45.

59 Antiq. Journ. XX (1940), 338–357Google Scholar, pl. LII, fig. 1, to the Editor of which Journal we are indebted for the block of fig. 2; JRS XXIX (1939), 204Google Scholar, pl. XXV, 1.

60 Hist. III, 45 ‘pro adultero libido reginae et saevitia’.

61 Dio Cassius LXII, ὃ δὴ δεινότατον καὶ θηριωδέστατον ἔπραξαν.

62 Fox, , Arch. Comb. c. (1948), 27Google Scholar, fig. 2; cf. C. F. C. Hawkes, Aspects of Archaeology in Britain and beyond, 197, pl. viiia.

63 H. Eckroyd Smith, Reliquiae Isurianae (1852), pl. xxva, facing p. 49, no. 10, described as ‘a brazen cow’ (ibid. p. 2) and as found ‘upon laying bare a portion of the old rampart some time ago’. cf. Handbook to the York Museum (1891), 120 ‘a bovine head of bronze, found at Aldborough’, presented, 1828. In the seventh edition (1881) the object is stated to have been found in 1794.

64 cf. the escutcheon from Brough on Humber, , Antiq. J. XVIII (1938), 68Google Scholar, pl. xxix: also the Welwyn mount, figured by Piggott and Daniel, A Picture Book of ancient British Art (1951), no. 70.

65 Memoirs illustrative of the History and Antiquities of the County and City of York, Proceedings of Royal Archaeological Institute, 1846, 36, pl. ii, fig. 1.

66 Jacobsthal, , Early Celtic Art I, 15Google Scholar, points out that this feature was derived, through Etruscan and Phoenician art, from the Egyptian crown of Hathor. The Celtic examples are figured in o.c. II, pls. 3 (Roquepertuse), 9, 10, 11 (Pfalzfeld), 13 (Holzgerlingen), and 14 (Heidelberg, fragmentary).

67 For horned deities in the Celtic world, see Lambrechts, o.c. 28 ff.

68 Arch. Camb. LXXXV, 352–53, figs. 6, a, b, c; cf. W. F. Grimes, Guide to the Collection illustrating the Prehistory of Wales, Nat. Mus. Wales, 127, fig. 44. The type is discussed by Leeds, Celtic Ornament, 126, type 8, where its distribution (ibid. 124, fig. 33) is shown to be almost exclusively northern.

69 Propertius, , Eleg. II, 1, 76Google Scholar.

70 For Cernunnos, see CIL XIII, 3026Google Scholar, the Paris altar of the nautae Parisiaci, with Cernunnos figured as a bearded god with stag's antlers (Espérandieu, , Recueil general des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine, IV, pp. 211–215Google Scholar); the most complete treatment is by Bober, P. F., AJA 2 LV (1951), 13 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially p. 44.

71 For a good illustration of the Aylesford bucket, see Hawkes, Jacquetta, Early Britain, 35Google Scholar. For the lyre pattern, of interlocked roundels, see Sir Fox, Cyril, Arch. Camb. XCVIII, 208, fig. 5Google Scholar.

72 Ann. XII, 40.

73 Whether Stanwick in N. Yorkshire is the ancient centre of Venutius himself or not, it certainly appears to be the place where his supporters mustered (see Sir Wheeler, Mortimer, Antiq. Journ., XXXII (1952), 8 ff.Google Scholar). The name Venutio in the Ravenna Cosmography (Arch. XCIII, 48) is undoubtedly the same name, but a connection is not imperative.

74 Tac., Agricola, 31, ‘Brigantes femina duce,’ is presumably an error for Trinovantes.

75 Hist. III, 45, ‘libido reginae.’

76 Hist. III, 46.

77 For the status of Vellocatus, see note 75.

78 Hist. III, 45, ‘accitis auxiliis, simul ipsorum Brigantum defectione.’

79 The clause comes close to an Alcaic hendecasyllable.

80 Hist. III, 45, ‘cohortes alaeque nostrae.’

81 Statius, , Silvae v, 2, 140Google Scholar.

82 Hist. III, 45, ‘regnum Venutio, bellum nobis relictum.’