Everything about Tincomarus totally explained
Tincomarus (a dithematic name form typical of insular and continental
Celtic
onomastics, analysable as
tinco-, perhaps a sort of fish [cfLatin
tinca, English
tench] +
maro-, "big") was a king of the
Iron Age Belgic tribe of the
Atrebates who lived in southern central
Britain shortly before the
Roman invasion. His name was previously reconstructed as
Tincommius, based on abbreviated coin legends and a damaged mention in
Augustus's
Res Gestae, but since
1996 coins have been discovered which give his full name.
He was the son and heir of
Commius and succeeded his father around
25-
20 BC. Based on coin distribution it's possible that Tincomarus ruled in collaboration with his father for the last few years of Commius's life. Little is known of his reign although
numismatic evidence suggests that he was more sympathetic to Rome than his father was in later years: the coins he issued much more closely resemble Roman types, and are so much better made that they must have come from professional Roman die-cutters. GC Boon has suggested that this technical advance wasn't limited to coinage and represents wider industrial assistance from the Roman Empire. Tincomarus's successors used the term
rex on their coins and this indicates that Tincomarus had begun the process of achieving
client kingdom status with Rome (see
Roman client kingdoms in Britain).
John Creighton argues, based on the imagery used on his coins, that Tincomarus may have been brought up as an
obses (diplomatic hostage) in
Rome in the early years of Augustus's reign. He compares Tincomarus's coins to those of
Juba II of
Numidia, who is known to have been an
obses, and identifies a coin found in Numidia which may bear the name of Tincomarus's younger brother
Verica.
By
16 BC Roman pottery and other imports appear in considerable quantities at Tincomarus's capital of
Calleva Atrebatum, today known as
Silchester, and it's likely that the Atrebatic king had established trading and diplomatic links with Augustus.
Tincomarus was expelled by his subjects for unknown reasons around AD
8 and fled to Rome as a refugee and supplicant. He was replaced by his brother
Eppillus whom Augustus chose to recognise as
rex rather than depose and reinstate Tincomarus. Augustus may have planned to use his ally's deposing as an excuse to invade Britain but other, more pressing foreign policy matters probably persuaded him to postpone the move.
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