Vindocladia
Attested: Vindocladia on iter 15 of the Antonine Itinerary, also spelled Vindogladia as part of an accidental insertion in iter 12; Bindogladia at position 38 in the Ravenna Cosmography.
Where: Poole, Dorset, at or near the modern Poole Lifting Bridge, across the narrow tidal channel, at about SZ006903, that separates Poole quay on the east, from Hamworthy on the west, long thought to be where Vespasian's troops landed supplies for the conquest of south-west Britain.
Name origin: Vindo meant something like ‘valley flat’ or ‘floodplain’, as created by a winding or meandering river. For the -cladia/-gladia part, the 2 instances of G versus one of C, plus the nature of Poole channel, make Old English gelād ‘difficult river crossing’, a place-name element discussed at length by Gelling and Cole (2003), slightly better as a parallel than Irish clad and Welsh clawdd ‘ditch, dyke’. They may descend from PIE *kel-/*kla- ‘to cut’, whose many other descendants include Greek κλαω ‘to break’ and Latin clades ‘destruction’ and gladius ‘sword’.
Notes: Rivet & Smith suggested Badbury Rings, following Jackson in imagining that white chalk was exposed in its ditches (unlikely), to fit the belief that Vindo- was a precursor of Welsh gwynn ‘white’. A better guess near there would be Shapwick, where there was a Roman fort at ST948023 and where a Roman road crossed the river Stour at ST93640164. However, neither location can be reconciled with the Itinerary's mileages before and after this name. Poole wins because it lies so perfectly on the straight line of iter 15 that stretches beyond Winchester and Alton, probably with ultimate targets of London and Colchester, but it still requires the stated mileage to Dorchester to be amended from viii to xviii, implying that the scribe who miscopied *Duronovaria into Durnonovaria immediately made a second mistake.
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Last edited 11 November 2023 To main Menu