Rome Vs Britain

[ST Dragon]

I really enjoy history and the Greco-Roman & Byzantine periods are by far my favourite!
But the Roman period in Britain was a bit hazy for me until now.
I recently read about the battle of Wattling Street (60AD), where Queen Boudicca fought against the mighty legions of general Suetonius Paulinus in 60AD
The wedge formation that the outnumbered Roman legions (10000) used to defeat a much larger barbaric horde of 230000 at the battle of Wattling street, can also be seen more vividly in the following 3 videos:

Queen Boudica "Battle of Watling Street" 1of3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05qCbZSU ... re=related

Queen Boudica "Battle of Watling Street" 2of3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLQiBAvi ... re=related

Queen Boudica "Battle of Watling Street" 3of3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkhmdS2X ... re=related

And here is the whole 8 part documentary on Queen Boudicca:

Queen Boudicca 1of8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXTGTkla ... ure=relate

Interestingly she is mentioned as a Celtic Queen rather than British.

[Magic Knight]

Interestingly she is mentioned as a Celtic Queen rather than British.

The British were Celts (Brythonic - Irish Celts were Gaelic).

[oli_lar]

I think she is probably mentioned as Celtic rather than British because Britain didn't really exist for another 700 years or so. She could have been called a Briton. In addition there were Celts, Gauls, Picts etc living here at the time, all very distinct peoples.

I don't know how far back your interest in history goes, but I've always been fascinated by prehistory, and scotland has some stunning BC architecture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broch

[Magic Knight]

I'd guess they refer to her as Celtic in order to differentiate between the old British tribes and modern British people - i.e. there were no English (Anglo-Saxon) people in Britain at that time. In Scotland there were Picts and Gaels; in the rest of Britan, the Brythonic tribes. Following all of the invasions from Rome, Normandy, Scandinavia etc., the Britons were pushed west and now we have the Brythonic languages of Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, and the Gaelic languages of Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx.

Place names in Britain are a great way to see the influence of foreign invaders. For instance:
Viking names in Wales: Swansea (Welsh:Abertawe), Anglesey (Môn), Fishguard (Abergwaun)
Roman names in Wales: Caernarfon, Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin), Caerleon, and Caerwent. [Caer=Castra]

Also, look at the numbers in the different languages, and how they mutated:
Latin - Irish - Welsh
unus - aon - un
duo - dó - dau
tres - trí - tri
quattor - ceathar - pedwar *
quinque - cúig - pump *
sex - sé - chwech
septem - seacht - saith
octem - ocht - awth
novem - naoi - naw
decem - deich - deg

* These are a perfect example of why Irish is a Q-Celtic language and Welsh is a P-Celtic language. The 'qu' came into Irish and changed to just a 'c'. The final 'g' in cúig is a softening of the 'c'. The 't' in ceathar is not pronounced, it has softened out.
Look at Welsh pump: from quinque to "pinpe" - the 'n' before 'p' mutates in speaking to an 'm' and the final 'e' sound disappears. Welsh pump is pronounced a lot like English 'pimp'.

Compare also Latin piscus, English fish (the p becomes f), in Welsh, it's still has the 'p': 'pysgod'. Irish didn't have a 'p' sound, so it got dropped. In modern Irish, the word for fish is 'iasc'. Pater(L) - father - 'athair' (Ir).


Don't know if anyone's really interested in this, just thought I'd write it up.

[mr_m0nks]

So the Welsh for fish is Psygod?


COOL!!!

[nimitz]

I like how the Romans speak Latin and the Britons modern English in the documentary.

[Magic Knight]

So the Welsh for fish is Psygod?


COOL!!!

Not quite, it's pysgod, the y and s are reversed in what you have.

[mr_m0nks]

Boo