The Tactics of Riothamus

[Arturus Uriconium]

Thanks for the clarification Agraes, and you're absolutely right. I was using Britanny purely to identify the rough region of today. It should also be mentioned that there were Saxons around the Loire also.

Fleuriot does have very interesting arguments with regards to Ambrosius and Riothamus, as does Ashe. The only counter arguments for these are the British tradition for Ambrosius, which make him a Wledig (land holder/commander?), and the fact that neither Gildas nor the tradition refer to him as a king. (Gildas seems to have a thing against kings (tyrannus) but not Ambrosius). Whilst the former can be argued against, Gildas' account is a harder one.

I wonder why Riothamus would only be remembered in Letavia and Gaul by that name/title but not in Britain? If he was indeed the 'supreme-king' why is he remembered here as Ambrosius? Or is this purely down to the only account of him coming from Gildas? Or is it because he was a 'supreme-king' in Amorica but only a land holder and commander in Britannia? I don't have any answers, just lots of question.

As you probably know, there are arguments for the reference of Llydaw as also being a region of what is now Wales. Hence Lake Llydaw in Snowdonia, near Dinas Emrys, Ambrosius' so called fort. It's very doubtful that it ever was his fort and this could all be secondary location, but it's there never-the-less.

I'd say we have to be careful in how far we trust the HB as a totally reliable source. Whatever it says it was written around 400 years after these events. (I certainly don't trust it with the Arthurian section). Having said that, it does indeed call Ambrosius a king and this information could be from an unknown source.

The dating of the letter is, as you say, very important, but all those I've seen so far put it between 460 and 470, meaning before Riothamus' defeat. As mentioned earlier, this means his troops would have been in the region many years before the battle.

It's all very interesting and it's great to hear the view of a Letavian! All I wanted to know about were the possible tactics used but it started a very interesting debate, which I'm very grateful for, so many thanks.