06-22-2006, 04:24 PM
Ave to all,
The change of gender and number of "castra" was certainly facilitated by another, indigenous fact: in Celtic, names in -a (such as -briga, -venta, -sessa) are 1st declination feminine [Rivet & Smith, 33].
Many Roman forts bore Celtic names, a fact so striking that Rivet & Smith (p. 347) admit "That Celtic names should have been adopted for Roman forts is something of a mystery."
It is certainly not! Simply look at the names of American army bases around the world. None of it is referred to as "base" or "army base", but e.g. Inçirlik, Okinawa, Guam, i.e. the local names.
Valete
Cepheus
aka Bernard Roobaert
"De minimis non curat praetor"
The change of gender and number of "castra" was certainly facilitated by another, indigenous fact: in Celtic, names in -a (such as -briga, -venta, -sessa) are 1st declination feminine [Rivet & Smith, 33].
Many Roman forts bore Celtic names, a fact so striking that Rivet & Smith (p. 347) admit "That Celtic names should have been adopted for Roman forts is something of a mystery."
It is certainly not! Simply look at the names of American army bases around the world. None of it is referred to as "base" or "army base", but e.g. Inçirlik, Okinawa, Guam, i.e. the local names.
Valete
Cepheus
aka Bernard Roobaert
"De minimis non curat praetor"
