Uxelodunum
Attested: VXELODVNVM on the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan
VXELODVNVM on the Amiens Patera; VXELODVM on the Rudge Cup
2x Uxelludamo & 1x Uxeludiano at position 154 in the Ravenna Cosmography; (not Axeloduno in the Notitia Dignitatum)
Where: Stanwix, now part of Carlisle, at NY402571, where Hadrian's Wall crossed the river Eden, over a low, flood-prone area with sandbanks.
Name origin: See here about *uxela ‘high lookout’ and here about dunum ‘ fort’. The fort is up a slight rise (of 10 to 20 metres) across the river from Luguvalium (Carlisle), in the sort of situation where later places are often called Upton or Upper Town.
Notes: This fort's name is often cited as Petriana, from the cavalry regiment stationed there. It is a twin of Segedunum at the other end of the Wall. A parallel exists in France at Uxellodunum, probably at Le Puy d'Isollud, near Vayrac, which was the scene in 51 BC of one of the last acts of Julius Caesar's rampage through Gaul, where people were not 100% certainly Celtic in the modern linguistic sense. One rebel leader there was Lucterius, which looks like a precursor of Frankish Chlothar ‘lauded by the army’ and similar to the Galatian leader Lutarius, the Allemanic Leutharis, and the Briton Lugotorix.
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Last edited 23 February 2023 to main Menu