Rutupiae
Attested: Ptolemy 2,3,27 Ρουτουπιαι, a πολις of the Καντιοι; Rutupis at position 73 in the Ravenna Cosmography; Ratupis on the Peutinger map
ad portum Ritupis on iter 2 of the Antonine Itinerary; Maritime Itinerary ad portum Ritupium; Notitia Dignitatum Rutupis
Ammianus Rutupias twice; Orosius Rutupi portus; Roman poets Rutupinus
Where: The Roman fort and port at Richborough, Kent, TR324601, on a peninsula at one end of the Wantsum Channel. See this map of the likely layout in Roman times.
Name origin: Richmond & Crawford suggested a meaning close to ‘muddy creek’, based on a guess that Rutu- came from PIE *reudh- ‘red’ developing a sense of ‘rusty’ and then ‘muddy’. There is no obvious reason why mud deposited there by the river Stour and the sea was especially rust-coloured, but there was one source of real redness – salt-making (briquetage) residues like those that generated Red Hills in Essex. The second part, -upiae (apparently plural), might refer to salt-makers’ mounds, possibly via Latin tufa ‘helmet crest’. Or else it might be related to *uba ‘water, river’.
Notes: It no longer seems likely that Ruoihm, mentioned by the Historia Brittonum as an island handed over to Horsa and Hengest by Vortigern referred to Thanet. A pity, because Rooigem ‘red home’ near Antwerp, seemed like a good parallel.
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Last edited 11 February 2022 To main Menu.