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Armorica

Coordinates:48°10′00″N1°00′00″W/ 48.1667°N 1.0000°W/48.1667; -1.0000
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This article is about the historic region. For other uses, seeArmorica (disambiguation).
The Roman geographical area of Armorica. The Seine and the Loire are marked in red.

In ancient times,ArmoricaorAremorica(Gaulish:Aremorica;Breton:Arvorig[arˈvoːrik];French:Armorique[aʁmɔʁik]) was a region ofGaulbetween theSeineand theLoirethat includes theBrittany Peninsula,extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast.[1]

Name[edit]

The nameArmoricais a Latinized form of theGaulishtoponymAremorica,which literally means 'place in front of the sea'. It is formed with the prefixare- ('in front of') attached to -mori- ('sea') and the feminine suffix-(i)cā,denoting the localization (or provenance). The inhabitants of the region were calledAremorici(sing.Aremoricos), formed with the stemare-mori- extended by the determinative suffix -cos.It is glossed by the LatinantemariniinEndlicher's Glossary.The Slavs use a similar formation,Po-mor-jane('those in front of the sea'), to designate the inhabitants ofPomerania.[2]The Latin adjectiveArmoricaniwas an administrative term designating in particular a sector of the Roman defence line in Gaul inLate Antiquity,theTractus Armoricani('Armorican Tract').[3][4]

In medievalInsular Celtic languages,the Celtic term*Litauia,meaning 'Land' or 'Country' (from an original Proto-Celtic*Litauī'Earth',lit.'the Vast One'), came to be used to designate the Brittany Peninsula, as inOld IrishLetha,Old WelshLitau,Old BretonLetau,or in the Latinized formLetavia.[5]

InBreton,which belongs to theBrythonicbranch of the Insular Celtic languages, along withWelshandCornish,"on [the] sea" iswar vor(Welshar fôr,"f" being voiced and pronounced like English "v" ), but the older formarvoris used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast toargoad(ar"on/at",coad"forest" [Welshar goedorcoed"trees" ]) for the inland regions.[6]The cognate modern usages suggest that the Romans first contacted coastal people in the inland region and assumed that the regional nameAremoricareferred to the whole area, both coastal and inland.

History[edit]

Map of Briton settlements in the 6th-century, including what became Brittany andBritonia(in Spain).

Pliny the Elder,in hisNatural History(4.17.105), claims that Armorica was the older name forAquitaniaand states Armorica's southern boundary extended to thePyrenees.Taking into account the Gaulish origin of the name, that is perfectly correct and logical, as Aremorica is not a country name but a word that describes a type of geographical region, one that is by the sea. Pliny lists the followingCeltic tribesas living in the area: theAeduiandCarnutenias having treaties withRome;theMeldiandSecusianias having some measure of independence; and theBoii,Senones,Aulerci(both theEburovicesandCenomani), theParisii,Tricasses,Andicavi,Viducasses,Bodiocasses,Veneti,Coriosvelites,Diablinti,Rhedones,Turones,and theAtseui.

Trade between Armorica and Britain, described byDiodorus Siculusand implied by Pliny[7]was long-established. Because, even after the campaign ofPublius Crassusin 56 BC, continued resistance to Roman rule in Armorica was still being supported by Celtic aristocrats inBritain.Julius Caesarled two invasions of Britain, in 55 BC, and again in 54 BC, in response. Some hint of the complicated cultural web that bound Armorica andthe Britanniae(the "Britains" of Pliny) is given by Caesar when he describesDiviciacusof theSuessionesas "the most powerful ruler in the whole of Gaul, who had control not only over a large area of this region but also of Britain"[8]Archaeological sites along the south coast of England, notably atHengistbury Head,show connections with Armorica as far east as theSolent.This 'prehistoric' connection of Cornwall and Brittany set the stage for the link that continued into the medieval era. Still farther East, however, the typical Continental connections of the Britannic coast were with the lower Seine valley instead.

A Celticstatermade frombillon alloyfound in Armorica
Map of theGallicpeople of modernBrittany:
Osismii
Veneti
Coriosolites
Redones
Namnetes

Archaeology has not yet been as enlightening in Iron-Age Armorica as the coinage, which has been surveyed byPhilip de Jersey.[9]

Under theRoman Empire,Armorica was administered as part of the province ofGallia Lugdunensis,which had its capital inLugdunum,(modern dayLyon). When theRoman provinceswere reorganized in the 4th century, Armorica (Tractus Armoricanus et Nervicanus) was placed under the second and third divisions of Lugdunensis. After the legions retreated from Britannia (407 AD) the local elite there expelled the civilian magistrates in the following year; Armorica too rebelled in the 430s and again in the 440s, throwing out the ruling officials, as the Romano-Britons had done. At theBattle of the Catalaunian Plainsin 451 a Roman coalition led by GeneralFlavius Aetiusand the Visigothic KingTheodoric Iclashed violently with the Hunnic alliance commanded by KingAttila the Hun.Jordaneslists Aëtius' allies as including Armoricans and other Celtic or German tribes (Getica 36.191).

The "Armorican" peninsula came to be settled withBritonsfrom Britain during the poorly documented period of the 5th–7th centuries.[10]Even in distant ByzantiumProcopiusheard tales of migrations to the Frankish mainland from the island, largely legendary for him, ofBrittia.[11]These settlers, whether refugees or not, made the presence felt of their coherent groups in the naming of the westernmost, Atlantic-facing provinces of Armorica,Cornouaille( "Cornwall") andDomnonea( "Devon").[12]These settlements are associated with leaders like SaintsSamson of DolandPol Aurelian,among the "founder saints" of Brittany.

The linguistic origins ofBretonare clear: it is aBrythonic languagedescended from theCelticBritish language,likeWelshandCornishone of theInsular Celtic languages,brought by these migrating Britons. Still, questions of the relations between the Celticculturesof Britain—CornishandWelsh—and CelticBretonare far from settled. Martin Henig (2003) suggests that in Armorica as insub-Roman Britain:

There was a fair amount of creation of identity in themigration period.We know that the mixed, but largely British and Frankish population of Kent repackaged themselves as 'Jutes', and the largely British populations in the lands east of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall) seem to have ended up as 'West Saxons'. In western Armorica, the small élite which managed to impose an identity on the population happened to be British rather than 'Gallo-Roman' in origin, so they became Bretons. The process may have been essentially the same. "[13]

According toC. E. V. Nixon,the collapse of Roman power and the depredations of theVisigothsled Armorica to act "like a magnet to peasants,coloni,slaves and the hard-pressed "who deserted other Roman territories, further weakening them.[14]

Vikingssettled in theCotentinpeninsula and the lower Seine aroundRouenin the ninth and early tenth centuries and, as these regions came to be known asNormandy,the nameArmoricafell out of use in the area. With western Armorica having already evolved intoBrittany,the east was recast from aFrankishviewpoint as theBreton Marchunder a Frankishmargrave.

In popular culture[edit]

The home village of the fictional comic-book heroAsterixwas located in Armorica during theRoman Republic;there, "indomitable Gauls" hold out against Rome. The unnamed village was reported as having been discovered by archaeologists in a spoof article in the BritishThe Independentnewspaper onApril Fool's Dayin 1993.[15]The opening chapter ofFinnegans WakebyJames Joycealso refers to North Armorica.[16]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^Merriam-Webster Dictionary,s.v."Aremorica";The Free Dictionary,s.v."Aremorica"Archived2011-06-07 at theWayback Machine.
  2. ^Delamarre 2003,p. 53.
  3. ^Bachrach, Bernard S. (1971). "Procopius and the Chronology of Clovis's Reign".Viator.1:21–32.doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301706.ISSN0083-5897.
  4. ^Loriot, Xavier (2001). "Un mythe historiographique: l'expédition de L. Artorius Castus contre les Armoricains".Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France.1997:85–87.doi:10.3406/bsnaf.2001.10167.
  5. ^Delamarre 2003,pp. 204–205.
  6. ^The Irish form isar mhuir,the Manx iser vooirand the Scottish formair mhuir.However, in those languages, the phrase means "on the sea", as opposed toar thírorar thalamh/ar thalúin(er heer/er haloo,air thìr/air thalamh) "on the land".
  7. ^History Compass: HomeArchivedApril 19, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  8. ^Caesar,De Bello Gallicoii.4.
  9. ^"Coinage in Iron Age Armorica",Studies in Celtic Coinage,2 (1994)
  10. ^Leon Fleuriot's primarily linguistic researches inLes Origines de la Bretagne,emphasizes instead the broader influx of Britons into Roman Gaul that preceded the fifth-century collapse of Roman power.
  11. ^Procopius, inHistory of the Wars,viii, 20, 6-14.
  12. ^K. Jackson,Language and History in Early BritainEdinburgh, 1953:14f.
  13. ^Martin Henig,British Archaeology,2003, review ofThe British Settlement of Brittanyby Pierre-Roland Giot, Philippe Guigon & Bernard Merdrignac
  14. ^C.E.V. Nixon, "Relations Between Visigoths and Romans in Fifth Century Gaul", in John Drinkwater, Hugh Elton (eds)Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?,Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 69
  15. ^ Keys, David (1 April 1993)."Asterix's home village is uncovered in France: Archaeological dig reveals fortified Iron Age settlement on 10-acre site".The Independent.Retrieved17 April2015.
  16. ^Rearrived from North Armorica

General and cited references[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikisourcehas the text of the1911Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle "Armorica".

48°10′00″N1°00′00″W/ 48.1667°N 1.0000°W/48.1667; -1.0000

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