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Where might Mons Graupius have been?
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WolfgangSchaub
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Where might Mons Graupius have been?
May 16, 2021, 16:42
I am a German interested in the Roman history of Scotland. I thought about the question where the Latin name Mons Graupius might come from, in other words: Where is Mons Graupius? You know, the site of the battle of 84 AD of Agricola against the Caledonians that the Roman historian Tacitus mentions. I know there are several theories and hypotheses about where the site may have been, but none of them is verified.

My approach is etymology:

Not far from Dalginross (where Agricola has fought a battle against the Caledonians previous to Mons Graupius) is the small town of Crieff, pronounced something like "cruuw". The phonetic similarity of this name with Graupius seems striking to me, especially if you know about the shifts of consonants and vowels between languages. "Cr" corresponds to "Gr", "ie" to "au", and "ff" to "p". The Gaelic name of Crieff supports this as well.

Could it therefore be that the famous battle was at the foothills of the Knock of Crieff (278 m)?

I would appreciate if you can give me an "elucidative" response or pass my question on to an expert.

And a personal note: I would love to be part of a search team, digging possibly for remains of the battle.

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