Lucius Artorius Castus

[10][11] The memorial inscription, which was broken into two pieces at some point prior to the 19th century and set into the wall of the Church of St Martin in Podstrana, Croatia, reads (note that "7" is a rendering of the symbol used by scribes to represent the word centurio; ligatured letters are indicated with underlines): Manfred Clauss of the Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby (EDCS), following the readings and expansions provided in CIL 03, 01919; CIL 03, 08513; CIL 03, 12813; Dessau 2770; IDRE-02, 303; BritRom-07, 00001; JIES-2019-432 expands the text as: Hans-Georg Pflaum offered[12] a slightly different expansion: Anthony Birley translates[13] this as: *Note that the double -ff- in PRAEFF should be indicative of the plural (often dual), though it might be a scribal error here.

[13] Previous editors have preferred to restore the word as alarum "to/for the alae", which may make better sense if duci legg is to be understood as the title dux legionum.

***Birley does not translate the final phrase, [...ex te]st(amento), which (if correct) should be rendered "...according to the terms of (his) will"[15] As of 2009, the two stone fragments bearing this inscription have been removed from the wall of the Church of St. Martin for scientific analysis and restoration; they have since been replaced by a copy.

The memorial plaque, which was discovered not far away from the first inscription and was also broken at some point prior to the 19th century, reads: Which Clauss (following CIL 03, 12791 (p 2258, 2328,120); CIL 03, 14224; IDRE-02, 304), expands: L(ucius) Artorius | Castus p(rimus) p(ilus) | leg(ionis) V Ma[c(edonicae)] pr|aefec[t]us leg(ionis) | VI Victric(is)|[...] Translated: Lucius Artorius Castus, Primus Pilus of the legion V Macedonica, Prefect of the Legion VI Victrix [....] An undated, unprovenanced inscription on a stamp, supposedly discovered in Rome but recorded as being in Paris in the 19th century[16] reads: As inscription shows the text is in the genitive form.

This title (generally given to Equites) indicated a special command over a body of troops, but somewhat limited in action and subject to the Emperor's control.

Castus could have overseen vexillations of troops guarding Hadrian's Wall, but his inscriptions do not provide us with any precise information on where he might have served while in Britain.

It is interesting that the title is spelled (P)RAEFF on Castus's sarcophagus – doubled letters at the end of abbreviated words on Latin inscriptions usually indicated the plural (often dual) and some legions are known to have had multiple praefecti castrorum.

Before finishing his military career, Castus led an expedition of some note as a Dux Legionum, a temporary title accorded to officers who were acting in a capacity above their rank, either in command of a collection of troops (generally combined vexillations drawn from legions[26]) in transit from one station to another or in command of a complete unit (the former seems to be the case with Castus, since the units are spoken of in the genitive plural).

[27] For many years it has been believed that Castus's expedition was against the Armoricans (based on the reading ADVERSUS ARM[....]S, reconstructed as "adversus *Armoricanos" – "against the Armoricans" – by Theodor Mommsen in the CIL and followed by most subsequent editors of the inscription), but the earliest published reading of the inscription, made by the Croatian archaeologist Francesco Carrara(in Italian) in 1850, was ADVERSUS ARME[....],[28] with a ligatured ME (no longer visible on the stone, possibly due to weathering, since the stone has been exposed to the elements for centuries and was reused as part of a roadside wall next to the church of St. Martin in Podstrana; the mutilated word falls along the broken right-hand edge of the first fragment of the inscription).

If Carrara's reading is correct, the phrase is most likely to be reconstructed as "adversus *Armenios", i.e. "against the Armenians", since no other national or tribal name beginning with the letters *Arme- is known from this time period.

In the Parthian War of AD 161-6 under Lucius Verus the general Priscus led the advance through Armenia and captured the Armenian capital at Artaxata.

However, after a subsequent successful campaign, Caracalla did eventually grant the Armenian crown to Tiridates II c. AD 217 and Armenia returned under Roman influence.

[34] In the reign of Macrinus, AD 217-8, the Historia Augusta states there was a ‘dux Armeniae erat et item legatus Asiae atque Arabiae’.

Alexander drew troops from the Rhine and Danube on his march east, and we have various inscriptions dated to ad 232–5 honouring men who died in ‘expediteone Partica et Armeniaca’.

Exceptionally talented, experienced and/or connected Praefects Castrorum/Legionis could sometimes move on to higher civilian positions such as Procurator,[22] which Castus indeed managed to accomplish after retiring from the army.

The late French epigraphy expert Xavier Loriot suggested that Lucius Artorius Castus's expedition against the Armenians (as he reads the main inscription) could have taken place in 215 AD, under the reign of emperor Caracalla, or perhaps later, in 232 AD, under the reign of Severus Alexander (when P. Aelius Hammonius led a Cappadocian force in Severus's Persian war).

[40] Three Croatian archaeologists examined the inscriptions in 2012, as part of an international conference on Lucius Artorius Castus organized by authors Linda Malcor and John Matthews: Nenad Cambi, Željko Miletić, and Miroslav Glavičić.

[45][46][47][48][49] Due to the significant differences between the persons and careers of the historical Lucius Artorius Castus and the traditional King Arthur, the consensus of mainstream historians is that it is very unlikely the former inspired the latter.

As a research consultant for the film King Arthur (2004), Linda Malcor's hypotheses regarding Lucius Artorius Castus were the primary inspiration for the screenplay.