[gothic-l] Question about Catualda

[Alburysteve at AOL.COM]

Hi Dirk:

As a footnote to Tim's post:

>  The reference to Catualda is in Tacitus _Annals_ II.62:
>
>  'Among the Gotones was a youth of noble birth, Catualda
>  by name, who had formerly been driven into exile by the
>  m'sight of Maroboduus, and who now, when the king's fortunes
>  were declining, ventured on revenge.'

I think that Maroboduus (P-celtic meaning "Great Crow": crows & dogs were of
mythological significance to the Celts) is a Celtic name.  Whether this means
that the Marcomanni were Celtic, German, or Celto-Germanic is moot, I suppose.

>  The fact that Tacitus says Catualda was 'among the Gotones'
>  and had previously been 'driven into exile' by Maroboduus
>  would seem to suggest that he was not among the Goths by
>  choice, and was a Marcomann by birth.


And his Celtic name would support this assumption since the Marcomanni king
also bore a Celtic name.

>This would make sense,
>  since the Goths were fairly remote from the Marcomanni at
>  this stage and they would have made a suitable refuge for
>  a young Marcomannic political refugee.  I'm not sure how,
>  on the other hand, a Gothic Catualda would have managed to
>  'corruptly (win) over the noble to support him' - surely
>  these nobles would have been more favourably disposed to
>  a noble of their own tribe rather than an interloper from
>  an obscure people far to the north.
>
>  Jan Czarnecki in 'The Goths in Ancient Poland' feels that
>  Catualda was most likely a Marcomann, and hypothesises that
>  he was exiled by Maroboduus around 17-19 AD.  He figures that,
>  as a young man, Catualda's exile would not have been long
>  and may have been part of a 'general purge' around the time
>  of Maroboduus' war with Arminius.  He acknowledges that others
>  have suggested Catualda was actually a Goth and cites
>  several authorities who discuss the issue:
>
>  'The Exiled Narcomannic Nobleman Catualda', G, Ekholm,
>  "The Peoples of Northern Europe" in _THe Cambridge Ancient
>  History_ (12 volumes, Cambridge: University Press. 1923-39)
>  vol. 11, p. 57.
>  "Der Markomanne Catualda" , Schonfeld, in _Paulys
>  Realencyclopodadia_ Suppl. vol. 3 (1918), col. 798
>  "Catualda, vornehmer Gotone ...", Stein, in the same work,
>  vol. 3 (1899), col. 1785
>  "Nalezacy do szachty gockiej Catualda", Tymieniecki,
>  _Ziemie polskie_, p. 669
>
>  Peter Heather also comments on the incident, stating that
>  Catualda was 'himself not a Goth', and says this is possible
>  evidence that the Goths were beginning to assert their
>  independence from the Lugian/Vandalic/Lugian-Vandalic League.
>  (P. Heather, 'The Goths' (Blackwell: Oxford, 1996) p. 31-32.
>
>  As for Catualda's name, I was under the impression most
>  East Germanic names ending in '-a' were feminine.  I'd also
>  guess the last element in his name is a cognate with the
>  Germanic '-wald(a)' deuterotheme.
>
>  Tim O'Neill

Indeed, and this is curious, given the popularity of "kingship/ruler" terms
among Germanic and Celtic names.  I have read variously that Gothic -reiks
was borrowed from Celtic -ric but don't see this as imperative from a
linguistic standpoint.  And it's hard to say, inasmuch as the IE root (val-)
is widely attested (cf Welsh gwlad and Gaulish -valos and probably in the
Irish name for Ulster- Ulad, Lithuanian valdti "to rule" Latvian valdit
"rule", Old Church Slavonic vlado "rule" and even Tocharian wal "king").

Whatamess.

Rgds,

Steve O'Brien
Albury, Ontario

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