Alithacenon
Attested: RC Alithacenon (or Alitacenon)
Where: Redshaw Burn Roman fortlet at NT03001398. Located by its position in the whole sequence of names across SW Scotland listed by RC
Name origin: Pure Greek
αληθης ‘unconcealed’ (literally ‘not oblivion’) plus
κενος ‘empty’ (an element also seen in Iuliocenon and
Κενιωνος).
Notes: Evidently this was known to the Romans as a rather isolated place. Margary commented that as the Roman road leaves the gentle farmland of Annandale and heads away from the Solway over a watershed, whose high point is on Errickstane Hill near this fortlet, towards the Clyde, it “traverses wild moorland”.
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Last Edited: 20 July 2016