King Arthur in History and Legend

Abstract

exist? There is reason to believe that he was a real person, not a euhemerized god, probably of Romano-British origin, like many others who figure in early British history. His name is in all likelihood a Roman gens name. Such a one is Lucius Artorius Castus who played a conspicuous military part in Britain during the second century A.D. and led an expedition to Armorica (later called Brittany), taking the VI legion. (This may possibly have given rise to Arthur's expedition and conquest of the Continent, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain.) It may be objected that from the second to the sixth century Arthur was born about A.D. 465 - is a long period during which to preserve the name, but we do find at least six men christened Arthur during the sixth and seventh centuries. (i) Aedan mac Gabraiin, king of Scottish Dalriada, who had British connections, had a son Arthur and perhaps a grandson. He flourished around A.D. 570 and headed what was meant to be a massive attempt to drive the English out of Northumbria. (2) Another named Arturius is found in Adamnan's Vita Columbae (Life of St Columba): he was a prince of the ScotoIrish kingdom of Dalriada who fell in battle in 596.