Lucius Artorius Castus

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Lucius Artorius Castus was a Roman officer in the 2nd century AD who one theory sees as the historical starting point for the legend of King Arthur .

Life

The military career of Artorius Castus is known because of two inscriptions in Dalmatia ( Croatian coast) near Split found. The longer one is on his sarcophagus , which was found built into an ancient villa that Castus may have lived in as a procurator . The second, shorter inscription can be found on a memorial stone.

Several other members of the gens Artoria are recorded as belonging to the equester ordo during the Roman Empire . Like them, Lucius Artorius Castus probably came from Campania , a region in southern Italy. However, he did not begin an equestrial career, but served, which was not unusual, first as a centurion in several legions , first the Legio III Gallica , then the Legio VI Ferrata in Judea , the Legio II Adiutrix and finally the Legio V Macedonica , which in particular worked in what is now Bulgaria , Serbia and Albania and in which he was promoted to Primus Pilus . Probably he fought under Marcus Aurelius with the Legio V Macedonica in 172 the Sarmatian Iazyans north of the Danube estuary. He was then appointed praepositus of the Misenum fleet , followed by a position as praefectus in the Legio VI Victrix .

This legion had been stationed in Britannia since 122 . Between 180 and 185 the Romans suffered great losses on Hadrian's Wall , and some time later the Legio VI Victrix revolted and disintegrated. In contrast to other leaders of the Legion who were executed or sent to other areas, Castus, who had evidently proven himself, was appointed dux in 185 and sent to Aremorica to put down an uprising there. Some time later he finished his military service and became civil procurator of Liburnia , part of Dalmatia, with a salary of 100,000 sesterces . After that, nothing more is known about him.

Possible starting point for the Arthurian legend

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The possibility that Artorius was a role model for King Arthur was first raised by Kemp Malone in 1924 . The unification of the British tribes into a primordial nation, for which Arthur was later so valued, could only point to the violent pacification of the country in the 2nd century. Or the “barbarians” bit their teeth on the Sarmatian armored lancers in Roman services, so that they no longer had the strength to fight one another. Perhaps they also buried their feuds for a while and turned to a common, larger opponent.

It is much more probable that Artorius was simply remembered as a particularly successful general, around whom legends were ultimately formed, which were carried on, especially among the Sarmatian auxiliary troops that he had commanded and who, unlike him, remained in the country.

According to this overall very controversial thesis, Artorius only formed the very first basis of the Arthurian legend, and, ironically, Artorius / Artus with his followers was not on the Celtic side at all - unless the Roman Artorius had early become an idol of the Romanized Celts who made him revered as defenders against the Picten and Scots. He then loaned King Arthur, who also incorporated various other historical and mythical models, into little more than his name. The chivalrous and Christian aspects of the later Arthurian story were then only read into it in the Middle Ages and updated in numerous Arthurian novels.

Afterlife in film and literature

The 2004 US adventure film King Arthur , directed by Antoine Fuqua , takes up the theses of the connection between Castus and Arthur and the mounted Sarmatian auxiliaries and the knights of the Round Table. In the film, Artus is the Roman officer Artorius Castus , who commands a Sarmatian cavalry unit and later becomes King of Britain after an invasion of Saxony and the retreat of the Romans . The plot of the film, however, has been moved from the 2nd century to the 5th, the protagonist Arthur is said to be a descendant or successor in office of the historical Lucius Artorius Castus and is the son of a Roman and a Celtic Pictin , which is unlikely in the case of the real Artorius.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 3, 1919 , found in Stobreč : L (ucius) Artori [us Ca] stus | (centurio) leg (ionis) / III Gallicae item [| (centurio) le] g (ionis) VI Ferra / tae item | ( centurio) leg (ionis) II Adi (utricis) [i] tem | (centurio) leg (ionis) VM [a] / c (edonicae) item p (rimus) p (ilus) eiusdem praeposito / classis Misenatium [pr] aef (ectus) leg (ionis) VI / Victricis duci (!) legg (ionum) [triu] m Britan (n) ic {i} / {mi} arum adversus Arm [oricano] s proc (uratori) cente / nario (! ) provinciae Li [burniae iure] gladi (i) vi / vus ipse sibi et suis [... ex te] st [amento] .
  2. ↑ CIL 3, 12791 , found in Podstrana : L [ucius] Artorius | Castus, p [rimus] p [ilus] | leg [ionis] VM [a] c [edonicae], pr | aefectus | leg [ionis] | VI Victric [is] .
  3. ^ Cassius Dio 72.
  4. ^ Dio 73, 2a.
  5. ↑ Press material for the film "King Arthur". (PDF; 277 kB) (No longer available online.) Touchstone Pictures '/ Jerry Bruckheimer Films', archived from the original on April 18, 2012 ; accessed on February 7, 2018 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Artorius Castus, Lucius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Castus, Lucius Artorius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman officer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century or 3rd century
Place of death unsure: Dalmatia