Prasutagus
Attested: Tacitus (Annals 14,31) described Prasutagus as king of the Iceni. This probably matches part of the coin legend SUB ESUPRASTO / ESICO FECIT (Briggs, 2011).
Where: Iceni territory is generally deduced from coin finds to be modern Norfolk, plus parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Name origin: Briggs reckoned that Esuprasto meant essentially ‘high priest of Esus’, where prast- was influenced by, if not directly loaned from, Latin. Then Tacitus' ending -tagus resembles Greek ταγος ‘commander, ruler’, but initial Prasu- resembles
πρασσω ‘to pass through, transact, negotiate with’ appropriate for a priest.
Notes: The Iceni were probably in maritime contact with Gaul and therefore exposed to Greek and then Latin culture well before the big bust-up of the Boudicca rebellion.
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Last edited 5 December 2022 to main Menu