| Brigantes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Geography | |
| Capital | Isurium Brigantum(Aldborough) |
| Location | Cheshire Cumberland County Durham Derbyshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Lancashire Staffordshire Westmorland Yorkshire |
| Rulers | Cartimandua,Venutius,Vellocatus |
TheBrigantes were a tribe or confederation ofCeltic Britons who dwelt in what is nowNorthern England during theIron Age andRoman era. Their territory, often referred to asBrigantia, was probably the largest of the British tribes and was centred on thePennines and what is nowYorkshire. Their Roman-eracapital wasIsurium Brigantum (Aldborough), and the city ofEboracum (York) was within their territory. They are also associated withStanwick fort. Prominent leaders named in Roman sources were queenCartimandua and kingVenutius.
The Brigantes may have included sub-tribes such as theSetantii andTextoverdi. Brigantia was bordered by that of four other tribal territories: theCarvetii in the northwest, theParisii to the east and, to the south, theCorieltauvi and theCornovii. To the north was the territory of theVotadini. The Greek geographerPtolemy also named theBrigantes as a people on the south coast ofIreland,[1] while theBrigantii are named byStrabo as a people in theAlps.[2]
The nameBrigantes (Βρίγαντες inAncient Greek) shares the sameProto-Celtic root as the goddessBrigantia,*brigantī, brigant- meaning 'high, elevated', and it is unclear whether settlements calledBrigantium were so named as 'high ones' in a metaphorical sense of nobility, or literally as 'highlanders', or inhabitants of physically elevated fortifications. The reconstructedProto-Indo-European root is*bʰerǵʰ-.[3] The word is related to Germanic*Burgund, Burgundī andIranianAlborz (Old IranianHara Berezaiti).
In modern Welsh, the wordbraint means 'privilege, prestige' and comes from the same root*brigantī. Other related forms from the modern Celtic languages are: Welshbrenin 'king' (<brigantīnos); Welsh/Cornish/Bretonbri 'prestige, reputation, honour, dignity', Scottish Gaelicbrìgh 'pith, power', Irishbrí 'energy, significance',Manxbree 'power, energy' (all <*brīg-/brigi-); and Welsh/Cornish/Bretonbre 'hill' (<brigā). The name Bridget fromOld IrishBrigit (Modern IrishBríd) also comes from*Brigantī, as does the English river nameBrent and the connected areaBrentford.
There were several ancient settlements namedBrigantium around Europe, corresponding to modern places (many with cognate names), including Berganza inÁlava (Spain),A Coruña andBergantiños inGalicia (Spain),Bragança andBraga inPortugal,Briançon in France,[4][5]Brigetio on the border ofSlovakia andHungary,[6]Brigobanne[7] situated on theBreg River and near theBrigach river in southGermany (pre-RomanVindelicia[8])Bregenz in the AustrianAlps, andBrianza in Italy.
Inchronostratigraphy, the Britishsub-stage of theCarboniferous period, the Brigantian, derives its name from the Brigantes.[9]
There are no written records of the Brigantes before theRoman conquest of Britain; it is therefore hard to assess how long they had existed as a political entity prior to that. Most keyarchaeological 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 atCastle Hill, Huddersfield, c. 430 BC.[10] Territorially the largest tribe in Britain, the Brigantes encompassed sub-tribes orsepts such as theGabrantovices on the Yorkshire Coast,[11] and theTextoverdi in the upper valley of theRiver South Tyne[12] nearHadrian's Wall. The namesPortus Setantiorum andCoria Lopocarum suggest other groups, theSetantii and theLopocares located on theLancashire coast and theRiver Tyne respectively. A nameCorionototae[13] 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. TheCarvetii who occupied what is nowCumbria 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 separatecivitas under Roman rule.
During the Roman invasion, in 47 AD, the governor of Britain,Publius Ostorius Scapula, was forced to abandon his campaign against theDeceangli ofNorth Wales because of "disaffection" among the Brigantes, whose leaders had been allies of Rome. A few of those who had taken up arms were killed and the rest were pardoned.[14] In 51, the defeated resistance leaderCaratacus sought sanctuary with the Brigantian queen,Cartimandua, but she showed her loyalty to the Romans by handing him over in chains.[15] She and her husbandVenutius are described as loyal and "defended by Roman arms", but they laterdivorced, Venutius taking up arms first against his ex-wife, then her Roman protectors. During the governorship ofAulus Didius Gallus (52–57) he gathered an army and invaded her kingdom. The Romans sent troops to defend Cartimandua, and they defeated Venutius' rebellion.[16] After the divorce, Cartimandua married Venutius' armour-bearer,Vellocatus, and raised him to the kingship. Venutius staged another rebellion in 69, taking advantage of Roman instability in theYear of the Four Emperors. This time the Romans were only able to sendauxiliaries, who succeeded in evacuating Cartimandua but left Venutius and his anti-Roman supporters in control of the kingdom.[17]
The extensive Iron Age fortifications atStanwick in North Yorkshire were excavated in the 1950s byMortimer Wheeler who concluded that Venutius probably had this site as his capital, but Durham University's later excavations from 1981 to 1986 ledColin Haselgrove and Percival Turnbull to suggest a slightly earlier dating with Stanwick a centre of power for Cartimandua instead.[18]
After the accession ofVespasian,Quintus Petillius Cerialis was appointed governor of Britain and the conquest of the Brigantes was begun.[19] It seems to have taken many decades to complete.Gnaeus Julius Agricola (governor 78–84) appears to have engaged in warfare in Brigantian territory.[20] Tacitus, in a speech put into the mouth of theCaledonian leaderCalgacus, refers to the Brigantes, "under a woman's leadership", almost defeating the Romans.[21] The Roman poetJuvenal, writing in the early 2nd century, depicts a Roman father urging his son to win glory by destroying the forts of the Brigantes.[22] 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 theNinth Legion, stationed at York. It is possible that one of the purposes ofHadrian's Wall (begun in 122) was to keep the Brigantes from making discourse with the tribes in what is now the lowlands ofScotland on the other side. The emperorAntoninus Pius (138–161) is said byPausanias to have defeated them after they began an unprovoked war against Roman allies,[23] perhaps as part of the campaign that led to the building of theAntonine Wall (142–144).
Ptolemy named nine principalpoleis (cities) or towns belonging to the Brigantes; these were:
Other settlements known in Brigantian territory include:
The Brigantes are attested inIreland as well as Britain inPtolemy's 2nd centuryGeographia,[25] 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 laterUí Bairrche clan, believing that they belonged to the Érainn (Ptolemy'sIverni) who he hypothesized were originally descendant from the Gaulish and British Belgae[26] according to his model of Irish prehistory. ProfessorJohn T. Koch posits links between the British and Irish groups, identifying the Romano-British goddessBrigantia with the IrishBrigid 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.[27]
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