Cartimandua

Cartimandua (also Cartismandua ) was queen of the brigands in northern England (present-day Yorkshire ) at the beginning of Roman rule over Britain . Her name means something like "supple horse". She ruled the brigands until AD 69.

Life

The brigands were the most important confederation of British tribes under Cartimandua in the first century AD and inhabited almost all of the north of what is now England. Their empire bordered Roman Britain in the south and present-day Scotland in the north. Cartimandua probably came to the throne by inheritance rather than marriage. The date of her accession to the throne is not known, but it was probably before the Roman conquest of southern and central England under Emperor Claudius in 43 AD: Cartimandua was one of the eleven "kings" who, according to the triumphal arch of Claudius surrendered without a fight. Otherwise it will have come to power after the rebellion of a faction within the brigands was put down by the Roman governor of Britain, Publius Ostorius Scapula , in AD 48. Because of the diversity of the sub-peoples of the brigands and the size of their territory, it would have been difficult for them to keep the entire empire under control. Your capital - if there was only one - used to be z. B. located in York or Aldborough , but seems to be most likely to be located in Stanwick in North Yorkshire, according to recent archaeological findings .

Practically all details of Cartimandua's life are known only through the writings of the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus , who wrote about 50 years after her reign and characterized her with his prejudices from a male and Roman point of view. She was one of several Germanic and British princesses who interested the Roman historian.

All known acts of government by the Cartimandua show their stance loyal to Rome. After Tacitus, she was also dependent on Roman support to secure her rule. It is first mentioned in AD 51, when the Silurian prince Caratacus , who for years had been the center of the British resistance against the Roman invaders, who sought refuge with her , handed them over to them in chains. Although one can accuse her of treason, if it really had happened like this, it seems strange that Caratacus would have chosen the brig queen, who was loyal to Rome, to protect herself from the Romans. Perhaps he came to Cartimandua to negotiate his submission. In Rome, possibly through the mediation of Cartimandua, he was not punished too severely. By extraditing Caratacus, she was sure of Rome's favor. As its ally, she must have received Roman citizenship if she had not already inherited it. If she received it from Emperor Claudius, her full name was Claudia Cartimandua ; if it had been bestowed (directly or indirectly) by a previous emperor, it was Julia Cartimandua ; but none of these epithets is attested in writing.

Only two Tacitus passages provide information about the further life of the brigant queen. The passage in the annals deals with the year 57 AD, that in the histories 69 AD. Since both passages show certain similarities, some researchers wanted to see a duplicate in the comment in the annals to the one in the histories. However, it is generally believed that there are actually two different events in the years mentioned.

The Cartimandua's husband was called Venutius , who probably came from an important part of the Brigantenbund tribe and, like his wife, was an ally of the Romans for a long time. But under Aulus Didius Gallus , who was the Roman governor of Britain from 52–57 AD, a marital dispute broke out that quickly spread among the brigands. Cartimandua, through cunning intrigues, captured Venutius' brother and other relatives; this led to civil war. Evidently Venutius and his troops invaded his wife's realm from outside; this suggests that he was the leader of a branch of the brigands. With Roman support from a legion of Caesius Nasica , Cartimandua was able to defeat her husband after a hard fight, who now became hostile to Rome. Tacitus claims that the followers of Venutius allegedly refused to rule by a woman.

In his histories, Tacitus now portrays Cartimandua even more unfavorably. He says that the growing wealth that resulted from the extradition of Caratacus increasingly corrupted Cartimandua. She took Vellocatus, the former armor of Venutius, as her new husband and co-regent, allegedly out of sheer lust. According to Tacitus, this was a moral crime that shook their rule. When the Romans wiped themselves out in their civil war in AD 69 in the year of the Four Emperors, Venutius saw the opportunity to take revenge on his ex-wife. Again he attacked their empire, where he was supported by a revolt of the brigands. Cartimandua was in dire straits. The Roman governor Vettius Bolanus was only able to send a few cohorts to her aid, who brought her to safety but had to leave the brigands' kingdom to Venutius.

In addition to the personal motives that Tacitus subordinates to the Cartimandua, political factors may also have been decisive for their divorce and remarriage. In the Roman understanding, slaves, or at least poor men, were associated with arms bearers. For a high-ranking Roman woman it would indeed have been morally reprehensible if she had cast out her husband in favor of a slave. However, the social position of a gun carrier among the brigands is not known; Vellocatus is unlikely to have belonged to a poor lower class. And Tacitus almost generally attributes lust and cruelty to powerful women. The fact that the brigands refused to rule by women is more likely to reflect the author's feelings towards female members of the Roman imperial family than real reservations of this Celtic people. After all, a woman, Boudicca , was the leader of the great Briton uprising against the Romans, and in various places Tacitus says that the Britons accepted men as well as women as leaders in war.

The further fate of the Cartimandua is unknown. Some historians suggest, after a fragmentary inscription from Chester that appears to mention a woman, that she spent her retirement there. But she could just as well have lived in exile in Italy. As a former client queen, she probably received outstanding treatment.

Afterlife in English Literature

In the Triads , a medieval Welsh poetry collection, Cartimandua is included in the legend of Arthur and identified with an Aregwedd Foeddawg , a cunning traitor who was allied with the Romans. In the "Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland" (1535), which Tacitus cites as a source, she is portrayed as an evil woman who Caratacus sells to the Romans. After the uprising of her husband Venutius, she imprisons him and his family; after his liberation he has them burned. Her sons play the leading role in the tragedy "Caratacus" by William Mason (1759).

See also

• Celtic women

literature

• Keith Branigan, Rome and the Brigantes: the impact of Rome on northern England , University of Sheffield, 1980, ISBN 0-906090-04-0
• David Braund: Cartimandua. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). 2004, Vol. 10, pp. 392f.
• John Haywood, Atlas historique des Celtes , Éditions Autrement, Paris, 2002, ISBN 2-7467-0187-1 .
• Nicki Howarth, Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes , Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2008, ISBN 0-7524-4705-X .
• Alexander Ingle: Cartimandua. In: Women in World History . 2000, Vol. 3, pp. 463f.
• Venceslas Kruta , Les Celtes, histoire et dictionnaire , Robert Laffont, coll. «Bouquins», Paris, 2000, ISBN 2-7028-6261-6 .
• Arthur Stein : Cartimandua. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, Col. 1627.

Remarks

1. ↑ According to Tacitus ( Historien 3, 45) Cartimandua was of noble birth.
2. ^ Tacitus, Annals 12, 32, 1.
3. ↑ Braund, ODNB Vol. 10, p. 392.
4. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 12, 36.
5. ↑ Braund, ODNB Vol. 10, p. 392
6. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 12, 40 and Historien 3, 45.
7. ↑ So z. B. Braund, ODNB Vol. 10, p. 392.
8. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 12, 40.
9. ^ Tacitus, Annals 12, 40, 3.
10. ^ Tacitus, Historien 3, 45.
11. ^ The heterogeneous tribal association of the brigands seems to have been prone to unrest: Braund, ODNB vol. 10, p. 393.
12. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 12, 35, 1; Agricola 16.
13. ↑ Ingle, Women in World History , Vol. 3, pp. 463f.
14. ↑ Braund, ODNB Vol. 10, p. 393.
15. ^ Ingle, Women in World History , Vol. 3, p. 464.