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Concept
Eboracum
Summary
Eboracum (ɛbɔˈraːkʊ̃) was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimately developed into the present-day city of York, in North Yorkshire, England.
Two Roman emperors died in Eboracum: Septimius Severus in 211 AD, and Constantius Chlorus in 306 AD.
The first known recorded mention of Eboracum by name is dated 95–104 AD, and is an address containing the genitive form of the settlement's name, Eburaci, on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in what is now the modern Northumberland. During the Roman period, the name was written both Eboracum and Eburacum (in nominative form).
The name Eboracum comes from the Common Brittonic *Eburākon, which means "yew tree place". The word for "yew" was *ebura in Proto-Celtic (cf. Old Irish ibar "yew-tree", iúr (older iobhar), iubhar, efwr "alder buckthorn", evor "alder buckthorn"), combined with the proprietive suffix *-āko(n) "having" (cf. Welsh -og, Gaelic -ach) meaning "yew tree place" (cf. efrog in Welsh, eabhrach/iubhrach in Irish Gaelic and eabhrach/iobhrach in Scottish Gaelic, by which names the city is known in those languages). The name was then Latinized by replacing the Celtic neuter nominative ending -on by its Latin equivalent -um, a common use noted also in Gaul and Lusitania (Ebora Liberalitas Julia). Various place names, such as Évry, Ivry, Ivrey, Ivory and Ivrac in France would all come from *eburacon / *eburiacon; for example: Ivry-la-Bataille (Eure, Ebriaco in 1023–1033), Ivry-le-Temple (Evriacum in 1199), and Évry (Essonne, Everiaco in 1158).
Peter Schrijver has instead counter-argued that "eburos did not mean yew tree" and that the derivation from Latin ebur instead refers to boar's tusks.
The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD, but advance beyond the Humber did not take place until the early 70s AD.
Official source
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