CROATIA: An international group of scholars gathers to discuss claims that King Arthur was actually Roman General Lucius Artorius Castus who is buried in a Roman tomb found near the Croatian city of Split

Record ID: 582742

  • Title: CROATIA: An international group of scholars gathers to discuss claims that King Arthur was actually Roman General Lucius Artorius Castus who is buried in a Roman tomb found near the Croatian city of Split
  • Date: 4th April 2012
  • Summary: IGRANE, CROATIA (APRIL 2, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) HEAD OF IGRANE MUNICIPALITY, EMIL TALIJANCIC, SAYING: "We are not interested in history that much because we are not experts on it, we do not want to get involved in it or prove if (Arthur's) mother Igrayne really came from Igrane. But we want that the story goes on, that we create some sort of a brand which would entertain both us (the locals) and tourists, so that the this story continues." WIDE OF BEACH SPLIT, CROATIA (APRIL 2, 2012) (REUTERS) ROMAN EMPEROR DIOCLETIAN'S PALACE AND WATERFRONT IN SPLIT PEOPLE SITTING IN STREET CAFES VARIOUS OF DIOCLETIAN'S PALACE IN SPLIT
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia, Croatia
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: Conflict,History,Quirky,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6R01Q0ZXTTYSJ1CL96WPESNTK
  • Story Text: An international group of scholars gathered in the Croatian city of Split on April 1-3 to discuss claims that King Arthur was actually Roman General Lucius Artorius Castus who is buried in a Roman tomb found near the city.
    The conference, attended by British, American, Croatian and Italian historians and experts on Arthurian legends, discussed the possibility that Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman army commander, whose short biography is engraved on a memorial plaque found at Podstrana, just south of Split, served as a real-life model for legends about King Arthur that developed in early mediaeval Britain.
    "Well the theory is that Lucius Artorius Castus, who may have been born in this area but certainly lived and died in this area and was buried here, had a very long military career in the Roman army. He went through very many different theatres of war, he was very active. And at a certain time in the 2nd century AD he took a group of Sarmatian soldiers to Britain, and they were based there for a number of years and many of them settled in the country. And from this we believe that the stories they took with them may have influenced the later legendary stories of Arthur," British historian John Matthews said.
    The theory, first mentioned by scholars in the 1920s, sparked some wider interest following the release of the 2004 American blockbuster "King Arthur", which tried to marry the theory with Arthurian legends, depicting King Arthur as a Roman officer who fought against the Picts rather than a medieval knight. Matthews, who was the historical advisor on the film and has published a number of books on Arthurian legends, chaired the conference in Split.
    "But the importance of this is that there is no other evidence anywhere of a real person being associated with Arthur. So this is the only reference we've ever found, literally carved in stone, that says 'Artorius, Britain' on the same inscription that talks about the things that he did and suggests that he may have been there," John Matthews told Reuters.
    Another champion of the theory that Artorius Castus and his exploits may have served as the basis for folk stories about King Arthur is the American folklorist Linda Malcor from the University of California in Los Angeles. She believes that Artorius commanded a group of Sarmatian soldiers who fought in ancient Britain and who carried their folk stories to Britain with them, which were then mixed with actual events to produce Arthurian legends.
    "Something that is a legend is mixed with history. And so you've got a folk tale that is mixed up with history. Here's the history! And you have a folk tale mixed with it, and the folk tales I think that are mixed with it were carried by the Alans and the Sarmatians who invaded Europe periodically over most of the course of the Roman empire. And this guy commanded Sarmatians. Those are the horsemen of Britain that the inscription is talking about," scholar Linda Malcor said.
    Although the theory has gained a number of followers, it is still based solely on a fragmented stone inscription found in a small church in Podstrana near Split and on circumstantial evidence, with scholars claiming that there are many parallels between Arthurian legends and Artorius' actual exploits as described on the tablet.
    The wider area in Dalmatia where the stone inscription was found is rich in Roman ruins and proponents of the theory are hopeful that new evidence might come to light in recent archaeological excavations such as the one in the town of Trilj where the remains of a Roman legionnaire camp were found.
    But scholars are not the only ones who showed interest in this theory. The story was picked up by the locals of Igrane, a small tourist town of 400 some 70 km south of Split, who claim that if Arthur might have come from Podstrana, his legendary mother Igrayne could have been a native of Igrane and that is where her name comes from.
    "And then that legend stirred up my imagination a bit, and (the name of) Igrane reminded me of the name of King Arthur's mother Igrayne. Then there's a part of eastern Igrane which is called Zanjeva, which reminded me of Genevieve. And then imagination kicked in," said the head of Igrane municipality, Emil Talijancic.
    In August 2011 the locals held the " Night of King Arthur" for the first time, a one-day festival which included reenactments of scenes from Arthurian legends and which attracted some 3,000 tourists. The locals are hoping to turn this into an annual event, and plans to hold the next "Night of King Arthur" in August 2012 are already well under way.
    According to Emil Talijancic, the organizer of the event, the locals are not interested in changing history as much as raising the profile of Igrane, hoping that the event and the story of Artorius could be used to make Igrane stand out among all the other small towns along the coast popular with tourists.
    "We are not interested in history that much because we are not experts on it, we do not want to get involved in it or prove if (Arthur's) mother Igrayne really came from Igrane. But we want that the story goes on, that we create some sort of a brand which would entertain both us and tourists, so that the this story continues," Talijancic said.
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