Editing Armorica

{{short description|Region of Gaul between the Seine and Loire rivers}}
{{About|the historic region|other uses}}
[[Image:Armorica.png|thumb|300px|The Roman geographical area of Armorica. The Seine and the Loire are marked in red.]]

In ancient times, '''Armorica''' or '''Aremorica''' ([[Gaulish]]: {{lang|xtg|Aremorica}}; {{langx|br|Arvorig}} {{IPA|br|arˈvoːrik|}}; {{langx|fr|Armorique}} {{IPA|fr|aʁmɔʁik|}}) was a region of [[Gaul]] between the [[Seine]] and the [[Loire]] that includes the [[Brittany Peninsula]], and much of historical [[Normandy]].<ref>[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Aremorica ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', ''s.v.'' "Aremorica"]; [http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Aremorica ''The Free Dictionary'', ''s.v.'' "Aremorica"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607031818/http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Aremorica |date=2011-06-07 }}.</ref>

== Name ==
The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the [[Gaulish]] [[toponym]] {{lang|xtg|Aremorica}}, which literally means 'place in front of the sea'. It is formed with the prefix ''are''- ('in front of') attached to -''mori''- ('sea') and the feminine suffix ''-(i)cā'', denoting the localization (or provenance). The inhabitants of the region were called ''Aremorici'' (<small>sing.</small> ''Aremoricos''), formed with the stem ''are-mori''- extended by the determinative suffix -''cos''. It is glossed by the Latin ''antemarini'' in [[Endlicher's Glossary]]. The Slavs use a similar formation, ''Po-mor-jane'' ('those in front of the sea'), to designate the inhabitants of [[Pomerania]].{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=53}} The Latin adjective ''Armoricani'' was an administrative term designating in particular a sector of the Roman defence line in Gaul in [[Late Antiquity]], the ''Tractus Armoricani'' ('Armorican Tract').<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bachrach|first=Bernard S.|date=1971|title=Procopius and the Chronology of Clovis's Reign|journal=Viator|volume=1|pages=21–32|doi=10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301706|issn=0083-5897}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Loriot|first=Xavier|date=2001|title=Un mythe historiographique : l'expédition de L. Artorius Castus contre les Armoricains|journal=Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France|volume=1997|pages=85–87|doi=10.3406/bsnaf.2001.10167}}</ref>

In medieval [[Insular Celtic languages]], the Celtic term ''*Litauia'', meaning 'Land' or 'Country' (from an original Proto-Celtic {{lang|xtg|*[[Litavis|Litauī]]}} 'Earth', <small>lit.</small> 'the Vast One'), came to be used to designate the Brittany Peninsula, as in [[Old Irish]] {{lang|sga|Letha}}'','' [[Old Welsh]] {{lang|owl|Litau}}, [[Old Breton]] {{lang|obt|Letau}}, or in the Latinized form {{lang|la|Letavia}}.{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|pp=204–205}} 

In [[Breton language|Breton]], which belongs to the [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]] branch of the Insular Celtic languages, along with [[Welsh language|Welsh]] and [[Cornish language|Cornish]], "on [the] sea" is ''war vor'' (Welsh ''ar fôr'', "f" being voiced and pronounced like English "v"), but the older form ''arvor'' is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to ''argoad'' (''ar'' "on/at", ''coad'' "forest" [Welsh ''ar goed'' or ''coed'' "trees"]) for the inland regions.<ref>The Irish form is ''ar mhuir'', the Manx is ''er vooir'' and the Scottish form ''air mhuir''. However, in those languages, the phrase means "on the sea", as opposed to ''ar thír'' or ''ar thalamh/ar thalúin'' (''er heer/er haloo'', ''air thìr/air thalamh'') "on the land".</ref> The cognate modern usages suggest that the Romans first contacted coastal people in the inland region and assumed that the regional name ''Aremorica'' referred to the whole area, both coastal and inland.

== History ==
[[Image:Britonia6hcentury.png|thumb|right|200px|Map of Briton settlements in the 6th-century, including what became Brittany and [[Britonia]] (in Spain).]]

[[Pliny the Elder]], in his ''[[Pliny's Natural History|Natural History]]'' (4.17.105), claims that Armorica was the older name for ''[[Aquitaine|Aquitania]]'' and states Armorica's southern boundary extended to the [[Pyrenees]]. 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 following [[Celtic tribe]]s as living in the area: the [[Aedui]] and [[Carnuteni]] as having treaties with [[Rome]]; the [[Meaux|Meldi]] and [[Segusiavi|Secusiani]] as having some measure of independence; and the [[Boii]], [[Senones]], [[Aulerci]] (both the [[Eburovices]] and [[Aulerci Cenomani|Cenomani]]), the [[Parisii (Gaul)|Parisii]], [[Tricasses]], [[Andicavi]], [[Viducasses]], [[Baiocasses|Bodiocasses]], [[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]], [[Coriosolites|Coriosvelites]], [[Diablinti]], [[Rhedones]], [[Turones]], and the [[Etusiati|Atseui]].

Trade between Armorica and Britain, described by [[Diodorus Siculus]] and implied by Pliny<ref>[http://www.history-compass.com/images/store/HICO/chapters/523.pdf History Compass : Home<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419084640/http://www.history-compass.com/images/store/HICO/chapters/523.pdf |date=April 19, 2009 }}</ref> was long-established. Because, even after the campaign of [[Publius Licinius Crassus (son of triumvir)|Publius Crassus]] in 56 BC, continued resistance to Roman rule in Armorica was still being supported by Celtic aristocrats in [[Roman Britain|Britain]], [[Julius Caesar]] led two invasions of Britain, in 55 BC, and again in 54 BC, in response. Some hint of the complicated cultural web that bound Armorica and [[Roman Britain| the Britanniae]] (the "Britains" of Pliny) is given by Caesar when he describes [[Diviciacus (Suessiones)|Diviciacus]] of the [[Suessiones]] as "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"<ref>Caesar, ''[[De Bello Gallico]]'' ii.4.</ref> Archaeological sites along the south coast of England, notably at [[Hengistbury Head]], show connections with Armorica as far east as the [[Solent]]. 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.

[[File:Celtic billon stater Armorican tribe.jpg|thumb|left|A Celtic [[stater]] made from [[Billon (alloy)|billon alloy]] found in Armorica]]
[[Image:Kartenn Galianed.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Map of the [[Gauls|Gallic]] people of modern [[Brittany]]:
{{legend|#66CC80|[[Osismii]]}}
{{legend|#80FFCE|[[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]]}}
{{legend|#FFCC00|[[Curiosolitae|Coriosolites]]}}
{{legend|#FF6600|[[Redones]]}}
{{legend|#FF8080|[[Namnetes]]}}
]]

Archaeology has not yet been as enlightening in Iron-Age Armorica as the coinage, which has been surveyed by [[Philip de Jersey]].<ref>"Coinage in Iron Age Armorica", ''Studies in Celtic Coinage'', 2 (1994)</ref>

Under the [[Roman Empire]], Armorica was administered as part of the province of [[Gallia Lugdunensis]], which had its capital in [[Lugdunum]], (modern day [[Lyon]]). When the [[Roman province]]s were 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 the [[Battle of the Catalaunian Plains]] in 451 a Roman coalition led by General [[Flavius Aetius]] and the Visigothic King [[Theodoric I]] clashed violently with the Hunnic alliance commanded by King [[Attila the Hun]]. [[Jordanes]] lists Aëtius' allies as including Armoricans and other Celtic or German tribes (Getica 36.191).

The "Armorican" peninsula came to be settled with [[Britons (historic)|Britons]] from Britain during the poorly documented period of the 5th&ndash;7th centuries.<ref>Leon Fleuriot's primarily linguistic researches in ''Les Origines de la Bretagne'', emphasizes instead the broader influx of Britons into Roman Gaul that preceded the fifth-century collapse of Roman power.</ref> Even in distant Byzantium [[Procopius]] heard tales of migrations to the Frankish mainland from the island, largely legendary for him, of ''[[Brittia]]''.<ref>Procopius, in ''History of the Wars'', viii, 20, 6-14.</ref> 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]]") and [[Domnonée|Domnonea]] ("[[Devon]]").<ref>K. Jackson, ''Language and History in Early Britain'' Edinburgh, 1953:14f.</ref> These settlements are associated with leaders like Saints [[Samson of Dol]] and [[Pol Aurelian]], among the "founder saints" of Brittany.

The linguistic origins of [[Breton (language)|Breton]] are clear: it is a [[Brythonic languages|Brythonic language]] descended from the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] [[British language (Celtic)|British language]], like [[Welsh language|Welsh]] and [[Cornish language|Cornish]] one of the [[Insular Celtic languages]], brought by these migrating Britons. Still, questions of the relations between the Celtic ''cultures'' of Britain&mdash; [[Cornish language|Cornish]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]]&mdash;and Celtic [[Breton language|Breton]] are far from settled. Martin Henig (2003) suggests that in Armorica as in [[sub-Roman Britain]]:

<blockquote>There was a fair amount of creation of identity in the [[migration 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."<ref>[[Martin Henig]], [http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba72/book.shtml. ''British Archaeology'', 2003, review of ''The British Settlement of Brittany'' by Pierre-Roland Giot, Philippe Guigon & Bernard Merdrignac]</ref></blockquote>

According to [[C. E. V. Nixon]], the collapse of Roman power and the depredations of the [[Visigoths]] led Armorica to act "like a magnet to peasants, ''coloni'', slaves and the hard-pressed" who deserted other Roman territories, further weakening them.<ref>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</ref>

[[Vikings]] settled in the [[Cotentin]] peninsula and the lower Seine around [[Rouen]] in the ninth and early tenth centuries and, as these regions came to be known as ''[[Normandy]]'', the name ''Armorica'' fell out of use in the area. With western Armorica having already evolved into ''[[Brittany]]'', the east was recast from a [[Carolingian Empire|Frankish]] viewpoint as the [[Breton March]] under a Frankish [[margrave]].

==In popular culture==
The home village of the fictional comic-book hero [[Asterix]] was located in Armorica during the [[Roman 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 British ''[[The Independent]]'' newspaper on [[April Fool's Day]] in 1993.<ref>
{{cite web | last = Keys | first = David | title = Asterix's home village is uncovered in France: Archaeological dig reveals fortified Iron Age settlement on 10-acre site | work = The Independent | date = 1 April 1993 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/asterixs-home-village-is-uncovered-in-france-archaeological-dig-reveals-fortified-iron-age-settlement-on-10acre-site-1452580.html | access-date = 17 April 2015 }}</ref> The opening chapter of ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' by [[James Joyce]] also refers to North Armorica.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://shawnthepenman.com/2020/07/31/rearrived-from-north-armorica/ |title=Rearrived from North Armorica |access-date=2024-03-11 |archive-date=2024-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083544/https://shawnthepenman.com/2020/07/31/rearrived-from-north-armorica/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Breton language]]
* [[Jublains archeological site]]
* [[Saxon shore | Saxon shore (Tractus armoricanus)]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist|2}}

=== General and cited references ===
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite book|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental|year=2003|publisher=Errance|isbn=9782877723695|author-link=Xavier Delamarre}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Armorica}}
* [http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba72/book.shtml/ Martin Henig, review in ''British Archaeology'' '''72''' (September 2003)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719124201/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba72/book.shtml |date=2012-07-19 }}
* [http://www.writer2001.com/exp0002.htm John Hooker - Coriosolite (Armorican) coinage and classification]

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[[Category:Armorica| ]]
[[Category:Gallia Lugdunensis]]
[[Category:Geographical, historical and cultural regions of France]]
[[Category:History of Brittany]]
[[Category:Pre-Roman Gaul]]
[[Category:Roman Gaul]]