Camulus or Camulos is a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

deity who was identified with Mars via '' interpretatio romana''. Camulus was an important god of Roman Britain and Gaul, especially among the

Belgae The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Ju ...

and the

Remi The Remi (Gaulish: ''Rēmi'', 'the first, the princes') were a Belgic tribe dwelling in the Aisne, Vesle and Suippe river valleys during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their territory roughly corresponded the modern Marne and Ardennes and ...

, a Gaulish people living in the region that is now modern Grand Est around

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

Name

The etymology of the name is uncertain. It has been compared with the Old Irish ''cumall'', meaning 'champion'.

Attestations

Evidence of Camulus' popularity can be seen in several place-names, notably

Camulodunum Camulodunum (; la, ), the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "strapline" in the 1960s identifying it as the "oldest re ...

. Camulus is named in combination with Mars in inscriptions coming from Reims,

Arlon Arlon (; lb, Arel ; nl, Aarlen ; german: Arel ; wa, Årlon; la, Orolaunum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in and capital of the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. With a population of just over 28,000, it is th ...

Kruishoutem Kruishoutem (, in French and English ''Cruyshautem'') is a village and was a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprised the towns of Kruishoutem proper, Nokere and Wannegem-Lede. In January 2018, ...

Rindern Rindern is a village in the Kleve (district) of Lower Rhine region of Germany. It is part of the town Kleve Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in th ...

, Mainz,

Bar Hill Fort Bar Hill Fort was a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland. It was built around the year 142 A.D.. Older maps and documents sometimes spell the name as Barr Hill. A computer generated fly around for the site has been produced. Lidar scans ...

near the

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twe ...

, Sarmizegetusa, and Southwark, London. The town

(now

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

) in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Gr ...

may have been named after him (and is the conjectured basis for the legendary city of

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as the ...

). Camulodunum is a Latinised form of the Brittonic ''Camulodūnon'' from ''Camulos'' plus '' dūnon'' "(hill)fort, stronghold", a reference to the town's extensive Iron Age earthwork defences.

Theories

Attempts from the 20th century and earlier to link the name ''Camulus'' with the nursery rhyme character Old King Cole, and with Irish mythological

Cumhall Cumhall (earlier Cumall, pronounced roughly "Coo-al" or "Cool") or Cumhall mac Trénmhoir ("son of Trénmór/Tréanmór" meaning "strong-great") is a figure in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, a leader of the fianna and the father of Fionn mac ...

, the hero Fionn's father, have been rejected by contemporary scholars.

References

;Biblioography *

Name

Attestations

Theories

References

Further reading