Eboracum

Eboracum (Classical Latin: [ɛbɔˈraːkũː]) was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britannia and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimately developed into the present-day city of York, in North Yorkshire, England.

Two Roman emperors died in Eboracum: Septimius Severus in 211 AD, and Constantius Chlorus in 306 AD.

The first known recorded mention of Eboracum by name is dated c. 95–104 AD, and is an address containing the settlement's name, Eburaci, on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in what is now Northumberland. During the Roman period, the name was written both Eboracum and Eburacum (in nominative form).

The name Eboracum comes from the Common Brittonic *Eburākon, of disputed meaning. One view is that it meant "yew tree place", if Proto-Celtic *ebura meant "yew" (cf. Old Irish ibar "yew-tree", Irish: iúr (older iobhar), Scottish Gaelic: iubhar, Welsh: efwr "alder buckthorn", Breton: evor "alder buckthorn"), combined with the proprietive suffix *-āko(n) "having" (cf. Welsh -og, Gaelic -ach) (cf. efrog in Welsh, eabhrach/iubhrach in Irish Gaelic and eabhrach/iobhrach in Scottish Gaelic, by which names the city is known in those languages). Other linguists, such as Andrew Breeze and Peter Schrijver, dispute the etymological connection of *eburos and "yew"; Schrijver suggests that *eburos meant "rowan", and that *iwo, giving Welsh yw and Old Irish éo, was the only Proto-Celtic word for "yew". Schrijver has suggested that the derivation from Latin ebur (ivory) instead refers to boar's tusks. The name was Latinized by replacing the Celtic neuter nominative ending -on by its Latin equivalent -um, a common use noted also in Gaul and Lusitania (Ebora Liberalitas Julia). Various place names, such as Évry, Ivry, Ivrey, Ivory and Ivrac in France would all come from *eburacon / *eburiacon; for example: Ivry-la-Bataille (Eure, Ebriaco in 1023–1033), Ivry-le-Temple (Evriacum in 1199), and Évry (Essonne, Everiaco in 1158).

The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD, but advance beyond the Humber did not take place until the early 70s AD. This was because the people in the area, known as the Brigantes by the Romans, became a Roman client state. When Brigantian leadership changed, becoming more hostile to Rome, Roman general Quintus Petillius Cerialis led the Ninth Legion north from Lincoln across the Humber. Eboracum was founded in 71 AD when Cerialis and the Ninth Legion constructed a military fortress (castrum) on flat ground above the River Ouse near its junction with the River Foss. In the same year, Cerialis was appointed Governor of Britain.

A legion at full strength at that time numbered some 5,500 men, and provided new trading opportunities for enterprising local people, who doubtless flocked to Eboracum to take advantage of them. As a result, permanent civilian settlement grew up around the fortress especially on its south-east side. Civilians also settled on the opposite side of the Ouse, initially along the main road from Eboracum to the south-west. By the later 2nd century, growth was rapid; streets were laid out, public buildings were erected and private houses spread out over terraces on the steep slopes above the river.

From its foundation the Roman fort of Eboracum was aligned on a north-east/south-east bearing on the north bank of the River Ouse. It measured 1,600 × 1,360 pedes monetales (474 × 403 m) and covered an area of 50 acres (200,000 m²). The standard layout of streets running through the castra is assumed, although some evidence exists for the via praetoria, via decumana and via sagularis. Much of the modern understanding of the fortress defences has come from extensive excavations undertaken by L. P. Wenham.

The layout of the fortress also followed the standard for a legionary fortress, with wooden buildings inside a square defensive boundary. These defences, originally consisting of turf ramparts on a green wood foundation, were built by the Ninth Legion between 71 and 74 AD. Later these were replaced by a clay mound with a turf front on a new oak foundation, and eventually, wooden battlements were added, which were then replaced by limestone walls and towers. The original wooden camp was refurbished by Agricola in 81, before being completely rebuilt in stone between 107 and 108. The fortress was garrisoned soon afterwards by the Sixth Legion, possibly as soon as 118.