Brigantes

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Brigantes
Approximate territory of the Brigantes
Geography
CapitalIsurium Brigantum (Aldborough)
LocationYorkshire - Lancashire - Northumberland - Durham
RulersCartimandua, Venutius, Vellocatus
The Stanwick Horse Mask, 1st century AD

The Brigantes were

Vindelici in the region of the Alps.[2]

Within

Parisii to the east and, to the south, the Corieltauvi and the Cornovii. To the north was the territory of the Votadini, which straddled the present day border between England and Scotland
.

Etymology

The name Brigantes (Βρίγαντες in

IEW, s.v. "bʰerǵʰ-"). The word is related to German Burgund and Iranian Alborz (OIr. Hara Berezaiti)
.

In modern Welsh the word braint means 'privilege, prestige' and comes from the same root *brigantī. Other related forms from the modern Celtic languages are: Welsh brenin 'king' (< *brigantīnos); Welsh/Cornish/Breton bri 'prestige, reputation, honour, dignity', Scottish Gaelic brìgh 'pith, power', Irish brí 'energy, significance',

Brigit (Modern Irish Bríd) also comes from Brigantī, as does the English river name Brent and the connected area Brentford
.

There are several ancient settlements named

Vindelicia[6])[7] and Bregenz in the Alps. From the same origin also stems the name of the Italian sub-region of Brianza
.

In chronostratigraphy, the British sub-stage of the Carboniferous period, the Brigantian, derives its name from the Brigantes.[8]

History

Romano-Brigantian theatrical mask

There are no written records of the Brigantes before the Roman conquest of Britain; it is therefore hard to assess how long they had existed as a political entity prior to that. Most key archaeological sites in the region seem to show continued, undisturbed occupation from an early date, so their rise to power may have been gradual rather than a sudden, dramatic conquest, or it may be linked to the burning of the large hill fort at Castle Hill, Huddersfield, c. 430 BC.[9] Territorially the largest tribe in Britain, the Brigantes encompassed sub-tribes or septs such as the Gabrantovices on the Yorkshire Coast,[10] and the Textoverdi in the upper valley of the River South Tyne[11] near Hadrian's Wall. The names Portus Setantiorum and Coria Lopocarum suggest other groups, the Setantii and the Lopocares located on the Lancashire coast and the River Tyne respectively. A name Corionototae[12] is also recorded but since the name seems to derive from *Corion Toutas meaning "tribal army" or "people's army" it may have been a name for a military force or resistance against the Romans rather than any tribe or sub-tribe. The Carvetii who occupied what is now Cumbria may have been another sub-tribe, or they may have been separate from the Brigantes. This is often disputed as the Carvetii made up a separate civitas under Roman rule.

Roman era

During the Roman invasion, in 47 AD, the governor of Britain,

auxiliaries, who succeeded in evacuating Cartimandua but left Venutius and his anti-Roman supporters in control of the kingdom.[16]

The extensive Iron Age fortifications at Stanwick in North Yorkshire were excavated in the 1950s by Mortimer Wheeler who concluded that Venutius probably had this site as his capital, but Durham University's later excavations from 1981 to 1986 led Colin Haselgrove and Percival Turnbull to suggest a slightly earlier dating with Stanwick a centre of power for Cartimandua instead.[17]

After the accession of Vespasian, Quintus Petillius Cerialis was appointed governor of Britain and the conquest of the Brigantes was begun.[18] It seems to have taken many decades to complete. Gnaeus Julius Agricola (governor 78–84) appears to have engaged in warfare in Brigantian territory.[19] The Roman poet Juvenal, writing in the early 2nd century, depicts a Roman father urging his son to win glory by destroying the forts of the Brigantes.[20] There appears to have been a rebellion in the north sometime in the early reign of Hadrian, but details are unclear. A rising of the Brigantes has often been posited as the explanation for the disappearance of the Ninth Legion, stationed at York. It is possible that one of the purposes of Hadrian's Wall (begun in 122) was to keep the Brigantes from making discourse with the tribes in what is now the lowlands of Scotland on the other side. The emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) is said by Pausanias to have defeated them after they began an unprovoked war against Roman allies,[21] perhaps as part of the campaign that led to the building of the Antonine Wall (142–144).

Tacitus, in a speech put into the mouth of the

Caledonian leader Calgacus, refers to the Brigantes, "under a woman's leadership", almost defeating the Romans.[22]

Settlements

poleis
(cities) or towns belonging to the Brigantes; these were:

Latin name
Modern name Modern County
Epiacum
Whitley Castle, Alston[23] Northumberland
Vinovium
Binchester[23] County Durham
Caturactonium Catterick[23] North Yorkshire
Calatum Burrow,
Lonsdale[23]
Lancashire
Isurium Brigantum Aldborough[23] North Yorkshire
Rigodunum
Unknown[a] Greater Manchester
Olicana
or Olenacum
Ilkley[b] West Yorkshire
Eboracum City of York[23] North Yorkshire
Cambodunum
Unknown[c] West Yorkshire

Other settlements known in Brigantian territory include:

Brigantes in Ireland

The Brigantes are attested in

Geographia,[24] but it is not clear what link, if any, existed between the Irish and the British Brigantes. T. F. O'Rahilly proposed that the Irish branch was the origin of the later Uí Bairrche clan, believing that they belonged to the Érainn (Ptolemy's Iverni) who he hypothesized were originally descendant from the Gaulish and British Belgae[25] according to his model of Irish prehistory. Professor John T. Koch posits links between the British and Irish groups, identifying the Romano-British goddess Brigantia with the Irish Brigid and pointing to a possibly Roman or Romano-British burial in Stonyford, County Kilkenny. He identifies the Irish Brigantes with the early mediaeval Uí Brigte clan.[26]

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ "Celtic Ireland in the Iron Age". WesleyJohnston.com. 24 October 2007.
  2. ^ Strabo, Geographia Book IV Chap. 6
  3. ^ "The Brigantes". Roman-Britain.co.uk. 24 October 2007.
  4. ^ "Brigantium". Terra.es. 24 October 2007. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
  5. ^ "Brigetio (Szöny) Komárom". The Princeton encyclopedia. 1976.
  6. ^ "Vindelicia map". Europeana. 1830.
  7. ^ "Brigobanne Germany". The Princeton encyclopedia. 1976.
  8. ^ Harland, W.B. 1990 A Geologic Time Scale 1989, Cambridge University Press p43
  9. ^ William Jones Varley, Castle Hill, Almondbury; A Brief Guide to the Excavations 1939–1972 Tolson Memorial Museum (1973)
  10. ^ Ptolemy, Geographia II, 3, 4
  11. ^ B. Collingwood & R.P. Wright (eds.) The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (1965) Oxford
  12. ^ Mc Caul, John, Britanno-Roman Inscriptions with Critical Notes (1863)
  13. ^ Tacitus, Annals 12.32
  14. ^ Tacitus, Annals 12:36
  15. ^ Tacitus, Annals 12:40
  16. ^ Tacitus, Histories 3:45
  17. ^ Stanwick North Yorkshire, Part I : Recent Research and Previous Archaeological Investigations; Haselgrove, Turnbull, Fitts; Royal Archaeological Institute
  18. ^ Tacitus, Agricola 17
  19. ^ Tacitus, Agricola 20
  20. Satires
    14.196
  21. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.43.4
  22. ^ Tacitus, Agricola 31
  23. ^ a b c d e f g h i Geographical identifications as given in www.roman-britain.co.uk. "The Geography of Ptolemy". Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  24. Geographia 2.1, 2.2
  25. ^ O'Rahilly, T. F. (1946), Early Irish History and Mythology, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
  26. ^ Koch, J.T., Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia Vol. I pp. 312-313
  27. ^ "The Why and How". Wigan Warriors Blog. 1 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.

Further reading

External links