Argentocoxos
Argentocoxos was a Caledonian chief in the early 3rd century.[1] He is known from the Historia Romana of Cassius Dio, who gives an account of the campaigns of Septimius Severus in that region.[1] His name means "silver leg" and is evidence that the Picts spoke a Celtic language.[2]
After treaty negotiations in the year 210, his wife spoke with the Empress, Julia Augusta, about Caledonian and Roman society. Dio presents the account with a traditional topos, contrasting the vigorous virtue of barbarian life with Roman decadence[3]
...a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to Julia Augusta. When the empress was jesting with her, after the treaty, about the free intercourse of her sex with men in Britain, she replied: "We fulfil the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest."[4]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Richard Oram (2011), "The Earliest Kings c.80–600", The Kings & Queens of Scotland, The History Press, ISBN 9780752470993
- ↑ Andrew Breeze (2010), "Gaelic vocabulary", in Michelle Macleod; Moray Watson (eds.), The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 9780748637102,
the Pictish leader Argentocoxos 'silver leg' ... whose name helps prove that Pictish was Celtic
- ↑ Elizabeth Ewan; Rose Pipes, eds. (2019), "Argentocoxos, wife of", The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, Edinburgh University Press, p. 18, ISBN 9781474436298
- ↑ Cassius Dio, "Roman History", Loeb Classical Library, translated by Earnest Cary, Harvard University Press
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