Brittania-connected Roman Emperors & Anti-Emperors

Brittania-connected Roman Emperors & Anti-Emperors 

Recognized emperors who campaigned in, visited, served in, were proclaimed in, or were given victory titles related to Britannia, as well as anti-emperors (preceded with a ‘u’) proclaimed in and/or followed by Britannia unrecognized by any established imperial authorities

Dictator Gaius Iulius Caesar, 49-44 BCE
(invaded Britannia as imperator of the Republic in 55 and 54 BCE)

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 41-54 CE
(ordered the conquest of Britannia in 43 and visited after the initial successes; given the victory title Britannicus in 44, but he never used it)

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus
(inherited the agnomen, or victory title, Britannicus from his father, Claudius; murdered by his step-brother Nero at age 13 

Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Augustus, 69 CE
(proclaimed at Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium; supported by troops in Germania, Gallia, Britannia, and Rhaetia; accepted by the Senate)

Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, 69-79 CE
(legatus of Legio II Augusta in the invasion of 43 CE; propraetor of Britannia 78-85 

Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, 117-138
(visited Britannia, initiated building of the Wall named for him)

Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius Pontifex Maximus, 138-161
(ordered the campaign which reconquered the lost territory north of Hadrian’s Wall; the Antonine Wall is named for him)

uImperator Caesar Cornelius Priscianus Augustus, 145
(Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore Britanniae after Quintus Lollius Urbicus, Proconsul Hispaniae Citerioris Tarraconensis at the time of his rebellion)

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus (aka Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus), 177-192
(given the victory title Britannicus in 184)

uImperator Caesar Caerellius Priscus Augustus, 184
(ex-Propraetor Britanniae, proclaimed by troops rebelling against then propraetor Ulpius Marcellus, but he declined the honour)

Imperator Caesar Publius Helvius Pertinax Augustus, 192-193
(former tribune of Legio VI Victrix, then Propraetor of Britannia)

Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus, 193-211
(invaded, 208; given the victory title Britannicus Maximus, 209; died at Eboracum, 211)

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (Caracalla), 198-217
(given the victory title Britannicus Maximus in 209)

uImperator Caesar Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus Augustus, 196-197
(Propraetor Britannia; attempted usurpation in self-defense against Septimus Severus; supported in Britannia and Gallia Lugdunensis)

uImperator Caesar Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus Pius Felix Augustus Germanicus Maximus, 260-269
(ruler of the Imperium Galliarum, which included Britannia, Lugdunensis, Aquitania, Belgica, Germania, and Hispania)

uImperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Marius Augustus, 269
(ruler of the Imperium Galliarum)

uImperator Caesar Marcus Piavonius Victorinus Augustus, 269-271
(ruler of the Imperium Galliarum)

uImperator Caesar Gaius Esuvius Tetricus Pius Felix Invictus Augustus Pontifex Maximus, 271-274
(ruler of the Imperium Galliarum)

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Carinus Augustus, 283-284
(given the title Britannicus Maximus in 284)

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Numerianus Augustus, 283-284
(given the victory title Britannicus Maximus in 284)

Imperator Caesar Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, 284-305
(given the victory title Britannicus Maximus in 285 and in 297)

uImperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius Pius Felix Invictus Augustus, 286-293
(Praefectus Classis Britannica; ruler of the ‘Imperium Britannicum’; supported in Britannia, Lugdunensis I, and Belgica II)

uImperator Caesar Allectus Augustus, 293-296
(ruler of the Imperium Britannicum)

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Augustus, 286-305
(given the victory title Britannicus Maximus in 297)

Imperator Caesar Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus Augustus, 305-311
(given the victory title Britannicus Maximus in 297 as Caesar of the west)

Imperator Caesar Marcus Flavius Constantius Augustus (Constantine Chlorus), 305-306
(campaigned north of Hadrian’s Wall beginning 305; received the victory title Britannicus Maximus 305; died at Eboracum 306)

Imperator Caesar Flavius Valerius Constantinus Augustus (Constantine the Great), 306-337
(‘tribune of the first order’ during father’s campaign; proclaimed at Eboracum 306; given the victory title Britannicus Maximus in 305 and 306)

Imperator Caesar Flavius Julius Constans Augustus, 337-350
(visited and possibly campaigned in Britannia, 343)

Imperator Caesar Flavius Magnus Magnentius Augustus, 350-353
(born in Gaul to a Brittone father and a Salian Franci mother; recognized by the Senate but not by Constantius Augustus in Constantinopolis; supported in Britannia, Gallia, Germania, Hispania, Italia, and Africa 

uImperator Caesar Flavius Carausius Augustus (‘Carausius II’), 354-358
(possible usurper in Britannia, based on six coins found in Richborough, the former Rutupiae, engraved with this name)

Imperator Flavius Gratianus Augustus, 375-383
(named for grandfather who served as Comes Britanniae under Imperator Caesar Flavius Iulius Constans Augustus)

Imperator Caesar Flavius Theodosius Augustus, 379-395
(junior officer under his father Comes Britanniae Theodosius during the Great Conspiracy in 368, along with Magnus Maximus; proclaimed emperor in the east by western emperor Gratian)

Imperator Caesar Flavius Magnus Maximus Augustus, 383-388
(junior officer under Comes Theodosius during the Great Conspiracy in 368, along with Flavius Theodosius; later became Comes Britanniae; proclaimed by his troops 383; supported in Britannia, Gallia, Germania, Hispania, and Africa)

uImperator Caesar Marcus Augustus, 406
(proclaimed and deposed by his troops in Britannia)

uImperator Caesar Gratianus Augustus, 406-407
(proclaimed and deposed by his troops in Britannia)

uImperator Caesar Flavius Claudius Constantinus Augustus, 407-411
(Comes Britanniae, proclaimed by his troops in Britannia; supported in Britannia and Gallia, though the Bagaudae controlled the countryside of three provinces in Gallia and of one in Septem Provinciae)

uImperator Caesar Iovinus Augustus, 411-413
(proclaimed by Constantinus-supporting nobles in Gallia along with the Burgundi and the Alani; recognized in most of Gallia, especially in the north, and likely, though not certainly, in Britannia)
 

 

A VERY Short Synopsis of the History of Dioecesis Britannia

A VERY Short Synopsis of the History of Dioecesis Britannia

Most of which appear again in the ‘Timeline of the Brithons’ which makes up the bulk of this work.

In 150 CE, Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria published his Geographike Hyphegesis, including lists the known tribes, at least the major ones, of the Pretanic Isles, which were in large part the same as found during the Roman conquest.  These were, with additions from others contemporary sources (Julius Caesar, for example), as follows, by region:

Pictavia: Caereni, Caledonii, Carnonacae, Catti, Cornovii, Creones, Decantes, Epidii, Horestii, Lugi, Smertae, Taexali, Vacomagi, and Venicones

Between the Walls: Damnonii, Gadeni, Novantae, Selgovae, Votadini

North Britain: Anavionenses, Brigantes, Carvetti, Corionototae, Gabrantovices, Lopocares, Segontiaci, Setantii, and Textoverdi

Midlands: Cornovii, Corieltauvi, and Parisii

Southern Britain: Ancalites, Atrebates, Belgae, Bibroci, Boduni, Cantiaci, Cassi, Catuvellauni, Cenimagni, Iceni, Regnenses, and Trinovantes

West Country: Dobunni, Dumnonii, Durotriges, and Lendiniae (or Lendinienses, a subtribe of the Durotriges); there may have been also a third group of Cornovii as a subtribe of the Dumnonii, but evidence for that is tenuous.

North Wales (or ‘Deheubarth’, Cambria, modern Wales): Deceangli, Demetae, Gangani, Ordovices, and Silures

Since it is part of the Pretanic Isles, here are those of Ireland:

Ireland: Autini, Brigantes, Cauci, Corionidi, Darini, Eblani, Erdini, Gangani, Iverni, Manapii, Nagnatae, Robogdii, Usdaie, Vennicnii, Volunti, and Velabri

Also, these two regions became homes to diapora Brithons in the Late Roman and Early Medieval periods.

Armorica: Curiosolites, Osismii, Veneti, Redones, Namnetes

Gallaecia:  Arrotrebae (also spelled Arroni)

== Roman Britannia ==

Provincia Britanniae was first established in 43 CE, with its capital at Camulodunum, the former seat of the Trinovantes.  However, this was destroyed completely during Boudica’s War, and in the restoration after the war, the capital was moved to Londinium (London, Middlesex; Cair Lundein to the Brittones in the Sub-Roman period) on River Thames.

After Agricola finished his conquests, the province was sectioned into civitates based more or less on tribal realms (at least of the larger tribes or confederations), with the following capitals:

Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester, Hampshire); Cair Celemion
Venta Belgarum (Winchester, Hampshire); Cair Guinntguic
Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough, Yorkshire); Cair Isurion
Durovernum Cantiacorum (Canterbury, Kentshire); Cair Ceint
Durobrivae Cantiacorum (Rochester, Kentshire); Cair Dourbruf
Luguvalium Carvetiorum (Carlisle, Cumberlandshire); Cair Lugualid
Verulamium Catuvellaunum (St. Alban’s, Herefordshire); Cair Minicip
Ratae Corieltavarum (Leicester, Leicestershire); Cair Lerion
Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter, Shropshire); Cair Guricon
Moridunum Demetarum (Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire); Cair Merddyn
Corinium Dobunorum (Circencester, Gloucestershire); Cair Ceri
Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter, Devonshire); Cair Uisc
Lendiniae Durotrigum (Ilchester, Somersetshire); Cair Lindinos
Durnovaria Durotrigum (Dorchester, Dorsetshire); Cair Durnac
Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter, Devonshire); Cair Uisc
Venta Icenorum (Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolkshire); Cair Went
Petuaria Parisorum (Brough-on-Humber, Yorkshire); Cair Petuar
Noviomagus Regnensium (Chichester, Sussexshire); Cair Cei
Venta Silurum (Caerwent/Chepstow, Monmouthsire); Cair Guent
Caesaromagus Trinovantum (Chelmsford, Essexshire); Cair Calmer

In addition to the capitals of the civitates, four coloniae for veterans of the Roman army were established:

Colonia Claudia Victricensis, or Camulodunum (Colchester, Essexshire); Cair Colun
Colonia Domitiana Lindensium, or Lindum Colonia (Lincoln, Lincolnshire); Cair Lind-colun
Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or Glevum (Gloucester, Gloucestershire); Cair Gloui
Colonia Eboracensis, or Eboracum (York, Yorkshire); Cair Ebrauc

Some other major cities and towns with known Roman names:

Alauna (Alcester, Warwickshire); Cair Alen
Andertitum (Pevensey, Sussexshire); Cair Pensa vel Coyt, Anderidos
Aquae Sulis (Bath, Somersetshire); Cair Baddan
Blestium (Monmouth, Monmouthshire); Cair Guorthigirn
Caistor (Caistor, earlier Thancaster, Lincolnshire);
Castra ad Alaunam (Lancaster, Lancashire)
Cataractonium (Catterick, Yorkshire); Cair Catarauc
Canovium (Caerhun, Caernarfonshire); Cair Conovion
Danum (Doncaster, Yorkshire); Cair Daun
Deva Victrix (Chester, Chestershire); Cair Legion
Dubris (Dover, Kentshire); Cair Dour
Durolinponte (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire); Cair Grauth
Isca Augusta (Caerleon, Monmouthshire); Cair Legion-guar-Uisc
Letocetum (Wall, Leicester, Staffordshire); Cair-luit-Coyt
Magnae Dobunorum (Kenchester, Herefordshire); Cair Fawydd
Mamucium (Manchester, Lancashire); Cair Maunguid
Mediolanum (Whitechurch, Shropshire); Cair Meguidd
Moridunum (Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire); Cair Merddyn
Portus Adumi (Portsmouth, Hampshire); Cair Portus
Rutupiae (Richborough, Kentshire); Cair Ritus (?)
Segontium (Caernarfon, Caernarfonshire); Cair Segeint
Sorviodunum (Old Sarum, Salisbury, Wiltshire); Cair Caratauc
Tamium (Cardiff, Glamorganshire); Cair Taf
Vertis (Worcester, Worcestershire); Cair Guiragon
Verulamium (St. Albans, Hertfordshire); Cair Mincip
Vinovia (Binchester, County Durham); Cair Weir

* * * * *

After Severus Augustus defeated Albinus at the Battle of Lugdunum in 197, he sent Virius Lupus as Propraetor Britanniae, dividing the single province of Britannia into two (each under a legatus Augusti pro praetore):  Britannia Superior, with its capital at Londinium, and Britannia Inferior, with its capital at Eboracum.

* * * * *

In 297, following the collapse of the ‘Imperium Brittanicum’, Caesar Constantius Chlorus divided Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior into four new provinces, making it a diocese headed by a vicarius under the Praefectura Praetorio Galliae: Britannia Maxima Caesariensis, with its capital at Londinium; Britannia Prima, with its capital at Corinium; Britannia Secunda, with its capital at Eboracum; and Britannia Flavia Caesariensis, with its capital at Lindum.

The governor of the first was a consularis, of the other three were praesides; Britannia Maxima covered the densely-populated southeast; Britannia Prima roughly what became (North) Wales along with the West Country; Britannia Flavia the area of the later midlands Mercia; and Britannia Secunda the part of later Northumbria south of Hadrian’s Wall.  In addition, Londinium, the capital of the diocese as well as of Britannia Maxima, was renamed Augusta Britanniarum, though the redesignation never gained widespread usage.

These governors only had authority over civilian affairs, with no military units attached to their offices, but this now was the case with all civil officers, not just those in frequently rebellious Brittania.  The military in the diocese was restructured as follows:

In Dioecesis Britanniae, there were three commands: 

Comes Maritimi Tractus, under whom were Legio II Augusta, now at Ritupiae (Richborough), plus limitanei that include 3000 foot and 600 horse

Dux Britanniarum, under whom were Legio VI Victrix at Eboracum, plus limitanei that include 14,000 foot and 900 horse

Comes Britanniae (Comes Rei Militaris per Britannias), under whom were Legio XX Valeria Victrix at Deva Victrix, plus comitatenses that include 2200 foot, 200 horse

The Comes Maritimi Tractus (later Comes Litoris Saxonici per Britanniam) supervised shore defense of both sides of the Mare Britannicum (English Channel) and also had under his command the Classis Britannica, which is based at both Dubris (Dover) in Britannia and at Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) in Gallia.

In the same reform, the provinces of Gaul were divided into the Diocese of Galliae (Lugdunensis I, Lugdunensis II, Lugdunensis III, Lugdunensis IV Senonia, Belgica I, Belgica II, Germania I, Germania II, and Maxima Sequanorum) and the Diocese of Viennensis or Septem Provinciae (Aquitania I, Aquitania II, Aquitania III Novempopulana, Narbonensis I, Narbonensis II, Viennensis, Alpes Maritimae, and Alpes Poeninae et Graiae).

In Hispania, the three provinces became five: Hispania Tarraconensis, Hispania Gallaecia, Hispanis Lusitania, Hispania Baetica, and Hispania Cartaginensis.  Furthermore, the provinces here were further subdivided into ‘conventi’, a counterpart to the civitates of the rest of the empire.

* * * * *

At the death of Constantinus Augustus in 337, the Imperium Romanum was divided into three praefecturae praetoriae (with their dioceses):

Praefectura Praetorio Galliarum: Gallia, Viennensis or Septem Provinciae, Britannia, Hispania, Germania, and Tingitana

Praefectura Praetorio Italiae, Illyrici, et Africae: Italia, the Balkans, and Africa

Praefectura Praetorio Orientis: Thracia, Anatolia, Syria-Palestina, Aegyptus, and Libya

As was the case with civilian diocesan and provincial officials in the reorganization of 297, the Praefecti of these units had authority only over civil administration.

This tripartite division corresponded to the territories alotted to the three sons and surviving successors of Constantinus I Augustus: Flavius Claudius Constantinus (Constantine II) over Galliae, Flavius Julius Constans over Italiae, and Flavius Julius Constantius (Constantius II) over Orientis.

In addition to these regions, Roma and Constantinopolis each have their own Praefectus.

The Magister Militum per Gallias reported to the Magister Utriusquae Militiae, who answers to the western Augustus.

* * * * *

Mopping up operations in the north in the wake of the Great Conspiracy of 367, Vicarius Britanniae Civilus added an additional province in the north, Britannia Valentia, making its governor a consularis.  For centuries, general hypothesis held this to be between the Walls (‘Intermuros’, the Walls being Hadrian’s and the Antonine), with its seat at Habitanicum (Risingham, Northumberlandshire) on Dere Street, or else at Luguvalium (Carlisle).  Since the late 20th century, dissenting opinions have suggested it was rather in Wales, with its seat at Deva, or else covered Cumberlandshire-Westmorelandshire, with its seat at Luguvalium.

Notitia Dignatum, 425

The portion dealing with Britannia, and two associated commands in northern Gallia.

At the top of Dioecesis Britanniae is the Vicarius (Vices Agens Praefecti Praetorio Galliarum per Britannias).  His staff includes a princeps officium (chief of staff), a cornucularius (chief deputy), two numerarii (receivers of taxes), a commentariensis (keeper of the commentary or diary), an adiutor (chief assistant), an ab actis (acts keeper, archivist), a cure epistolorum (keeper of correspondence), subadiuvae (deputy assistants), exceptores (lower clerks), and singulares et reliquum officium (various menial staff).

At the next level are the governors of provinces.  Those of Britannia Prima and Britannia Valentia each have a consularis, while those of Britannia Secunda, Britannia Flavia Caesariensis, and Britannia Maxima Caesariensis each have a praesides, which, if the Nomina Omnium Provinciarum of Polemius Silvanus (449) is accurate, would have also been the case with Britannia Orcades.  Each of the governors has a similar staff to the vicarius.

In addition to reaffirming the five province structure of the diocese, the ND lists the following military commands.  In the late Roman army, a numerus was a unit of 300.  A cohort was a unit of 480.  An ala was a special cavalry unit.  The legion of the late Roman army had 1000 infantry soldiers rather than the 5000 mostly infantry supported by cavalry of earlier.

Many of the local and tribal designations along with specialized functions such as ‘exploratorum’ and ‘vigilum’ were traditional and may have had little to do with the actual origin, composition, or duties at this date.

The ND did not include Roman forts in Valentia (between the Walls) nor in  (North) Wales, probably because, as noted above, these had previously been turned over to ‘praefectus gentili’ (local rulers and/or Roman officers).

Comes Rei Militaris per Britannias (Comes Britanniae)

Includes overall military command of Dioecesis Britanniae, with direct charge of the comitatus, or field army, of which are the following units:

Primani iuniores (formerly half of Legio II Adiutrix)
        (legiones comitatenses; heavy infantry)
Secundani iuniores (formerly half of Legio II Adiutrix)
        (legiones comitatenses; heavy infantry)
Victores iuniores Britanniciani
        (an auxilia palatinae; medium infantry)
Equites cataphractarii iuniores
        (heavy cavalry)
Equites stablesiani
        (heavy cavalry)
Equites scutarii Aureliaci
        (heavy cavalry)
Equites Honoriani seniores
        (a vexillationes comitatenses)
Equites Syres
        (mercenary cavalry)
Equites Taifali
        (mercenary cavalry)

Comes Litoris Saxonici per Britanniam

Includes command over the limitanei on the northern coast of the Oceanus Britannica and the eastern coast of the Mare Frisicum

Praefectus legionis II Augustae, Rutupis
        (Richborough, Kentshire)
Praefectus classis Britannicae, Dubris
        (Dover, Kentshire)
Praepositus numeri Fortensium, Othonae
        (Bradwell, Essexshire)
Praepositus militum Tungrecanorum, Dubris
        (Dover, Kentshire)
Praepositus numeri Turnacensium, Lemannis
        (Lympne, Kentshire)
Praepositus equitum Dalmatarum Branodunensium, Branoduno
        (Brancaster, Norfolkshire)
Praepositus equitum stablesianorum Gariannonensium, Gariannonor
        (Burgh Castle, Norfolkshire)
Tribunus cohortis primae Baetasiorum, Regulbio
        (Reculver, Kentshire)
Praepositus numeri Abulcorum, Anderidos (Andertitum)
        (Pevensey, Sussexshire)
Praefectus classis Anderidaensis, Anderdidos
        (Pevensey, Sussexshire)
Praepositus numeri exploratorum, Portum Adurni
        (reconnaissance; Portchester, Hampshire)

Dux Britanniarum

Includes command over the limitanei in Maxima Caesariensis and along the Vallum Aelium (Vallum Hadriani, Hadrian’s Wall), with some authority over Valentia and possibly over Britannia Secunda.

Praefectus legionis VI, Eboracum
        (York, Yorkshire)
Praefectus equitum Dalmatarum, Praesidio
        (near Bridlington, Humberside)
Praefectus equitum Crispianorum, Dano
        (Doncaster, Yorkshire)
Praefectus equitum catafractariorum, Morbio
        (Ilkley, Yorkshire)
Praefectus numeri barcariorum Tigrisiensium, Arbeia
        (South Shields, County Durham)
Praefectus numeri Nevuiorum Dictensium, Dicti
        (Old Winteringham, Lincolnshire)
Praefectus numeri vigilum, Concangios
        (“watchmen”; Chester-le-Street, County Durham)
Praefectus numeri exploratorum, Lavatres
        (Bowes, County Durham)
Praefectus numeri directorum, Verteris
        (“guides”; Brough Castle, Westmorlandshire)
Praefectus numeri defensorum, Barboniaco
        (“defenders”; Kirkby Thore, Westmorlandshire)
Praefectus numeri Solensium, Maglone
        (Old Carlisle, Cumberlandshire)
Praefectus numeri Pacensium, Magis
        ( Drumburgh, Cumberlandshire)
Praefectus numeri Longovicanorum, Longovicio
        (Lanchester, County Durham)
Praefectus numeri supervenientium Petueriensium, Deruentione
        (Malton, Yorkshire)

Units along the Wall:

Tribunus cohortis quartae Lingonum, Segeduno
        (Wallsend, Northumberlandshire; Segedunum)
Tribunus cohortis primae Cornoviorum, Ponte Aeli
        (Newcastle, Northumberlandshire; Pont Aelius)
Praefectus alae primae Asturum, Conderco
        (Benwell, Northumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis primae Frixagorum, Vindobala
        (Rudchester, Northumberlandshire)
Praefectus alae Sabinianae, Hunno
        (Halton Chesters, Northumberlandshire; Onnum)
Praefectus alae secundae Asturum, Cilurno
        (Chesters, Northumberlandshire; Cilurnum)
Tribunus cohortis primae Batavorum, Procolitia
        (Carrawburgh, Northumberlandshire; Brocolitia)
Tribunus cohortis primae Tungrorum, Borcovicio
        (Housesteads, Northumberlandshire; Vercovicium)
Tribunus cohortis quartae Gallorum, Vindolana
        (Chesterholm, Northumberlandshire; Vindolanda)
Tribunus cohortis primae Asturum, Aesica
        (Great Chesters, Northumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis secundae Dalmatarum, Magnis
        (Carvoran, Northumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis primae Aeliae Dacorum, Amboglanna
        (Birdoswald, Cumberlandshire; Camboglanna)
Praefectus alae Petrianae, Petrianis
        (Stanwix or Wreay, Cumberlandshire; Vxelodunum)
Praefectus numeri Maurorum Aurelianorum, Aballaba
        (Burgh-by-Sands, Cumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis secundae Lingonum, Congavata
        (Kirkbride or Drumburgh, Cumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis primae Hispanorum, Axeloduno
        (Maryport or Netherby, Cumberlandshire; Castra Exploratorum)
Tribunus cohortis secundae Thracum, Gabrosenti
        (Workington or Moresby, Cumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis primae Aeliae classicae, Tunnocelo
        (Bowness or near Calder Bridge, Cumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis primae Morinorum, Glannibanta
        (Ravenglass, Cumberlandshire)
Tribunus cohortis tertiae Neruiorum, Alione
        (Lancaster, Lancashire; Calunium)
Cuneus Sarmatarum, Bremetenraco
        (Ribchester, Lancashire; Bremetenacum)
Praefectus alae primae Herculeae, Olenaco
        (Elslack, Yorkshire; Olenacum)
Tribunus cohortis sextae Neruiorum, Virosido
        (Brough-by-Bainbridge, Yorkshire; Virosidum)

The following two commands of territory in Dioecesis Galliae on the Continent, districts formerly under the Comes Maritimi Tractus, coordinate with the Comes Litoris Saxonici but are not under his command

Dux Tractus Armoricani et Nervicani

Includes command over the limitanei in Lugdunensis II, Lugdunensis III, Lugudnensis IV Senonia, Aquitania I, & Aquitania II, with shore and inland territory stretching from the mouth of Gironde Estuary in Aquitaine to the mouth of River Somme in Picardy.

Tribunus cohortis primae novae Armoricanae, Grannona in litore Saxonico
        (Port-en-Bessin, France)
Praefectus militum Carronensium, Blabia
        (Blaye, France)
Praefectus militum Maurorum Benetorum, Venetis
        (Vannes, Brittany)
Praefectus militum Maurorum Osismiacorum, Osismis
        (Brest, Britanny)
Praefectus militum superventorum, Mannatias
        (Nantes, Britanny)
Praefectus militum Martensium, Aleto
        (Saint-Malo-de-Beignon, Britanny)
Praefectus militum primae Flaviae, Constantia
        (Countances, Normandy, France)
Praefectus militum Ursariensium, Rotomagus
        (Rouen, Normandy, France)
Praefectus militum Dalmatarum, Abrincatis
        (Avracnes, Normandy, France)
Praefectus militum Grannonensium, Grannona
        (Port-en-Bessin, France)

Dux Belgicae Secundae

The following three units were originally assigned to this command but later detached to the field army of the Magister Militium per Gallias:

Geminiacenses
        (legiones comitatenses; heavy infantry)
Cortoriacenses
        (legiones comitatenses; heavy infantry)
Prima Flavia Metis
        (legiones pseudocomitatenses; heavy infantry, former limitanei)

Includes command over the limitanei in Belgica Secunda and over the Classis Sambricae (which operated on the River Somme and the Mare Frisicum near the mouth)

Equites Dalmatae, Marcis in litore Saxonico
        (prob. Marck, France; Marquise or Mardyck also poss.)
Praefectus classis Sambricae, in loco Quartensi siue Hornensi
        (Port d’Etaples and Cap Hornu or Saint-Valery-sur-Somme)
Tribunus militum Nerviorum, Portu Epatiacus
        (Oudenberg, Netherlands)
Praefectus laetorum Nerviorum, Fanomantis
        (Famars, Picardie, France)
Praefectus laetorum Batavorum Nemetacensium, Atrabatis
        (Arras, Pas de Calais, France)
Praefectus laetorum Batavorum Contraginnensium in Noviomago
        (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
Praefectus laetorum gentilium in Remo et Silvanectas
        (Durocotroum Remorum, now Riennes, and Senlis, France)
Praefectus Sarmatarum gentilium inter Renos et Tambianos
        (between Renos and Tambianos)

Genocide as Defined by Raphael Lemkin

Raphael Lemkin, a secular Jewish lawyer in Poland, began studying genocide in the 1920s, coining the word to describe what the Ottoman Turks did to the Armenians, Assyrians, and Anatolian Greeks in 1915, so where his definition differs from that approved by the colonial powers who founded the United Nations, his is the one which is correct.  In his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, he defined genocide as:

“Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.”

That definition describes what the State of Israel is doing today to the people of Palestine, just as it has been doing it since 1948 and the Zionists in Palestine were doing before that.  It describes what China is doing to the Tibetans, Uyghyrs, Manchurians, Inner Mongolians, Cantonese, and every other non-Han, non-Mandarin group within its borders.  It describes what was done to the Jews, Roma, Sinti, Slavs, queers, disabled, and other groups targeted by the Nazis in Germany and their puppets in Europe.  It describes what Russia is trying do to Ukraine now, what India under Modi and the BJP is trying to do to the Muslims of India, what Sri Lanka did to the Tamils, what Iran and Pakistan are doing to the Baluchi, what every European power that set foot in the Americas did to the Indigenous people here.

The KKK in Chattanooga and Hamilton County: A Very Brief Account

Just what the title suggests; not a deep dive but an overview of highlights.

“First Era” Post-bellum Ku Klux Klan

The so-called “First Era” Ku Klux Klan of the immediate postbellum period is related to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan founded in 1915 only by the latter copying its name and in likewise being a terrorist group.

By all contemporary accounts, there was no organization in Chattanooga in the postbellum period.  Nor was there in Hamilton County, except possibly in what was then called Wauhatchie and is now known as Lookout Valley.

First, Hamilton County’s support had overwhelmingly been for the Union in April 1861 (by a vote of 1260 to 854) even after Fort Sumter, and that included most of the large plantation owners.  Most of the 854 in favor of secession lived in the City of Chattanooga, and a lot of those had fled south after the Army of the Cumberland occupied the city in August 1863.

Second, many Union veterans had made their homes here (there were five posts of the Grand Army of the Republic in the county to one camp of the United Confederate Veterans).  The new leaders of the city (later merging with the old ones left or returned) openly welcomed carpetbaggers into the city, even advertising in the North for them to come to the city.

Third, the most likely source of resistance from which such a group might have come were the gang of bushwackers known as Snow’s Scouts in the Snow Hill area north of Ooltewah.  However, this had been dispersed by former Union Lt. (Co. D, 4th Tennessee Cavalry, USA) Joe Ritchey’s personal war against its members.  According to legend, Ritchey hunted them down to wherever they fled, taking his vendetta across three states, last of all killing their leader William Snow in Arkansas.  In his day, Ritchey was as notorious in the tri-state region of Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia, and Northeast Alabama as Jesse James was in Kansas and Missouri.

Two incidents mentioned in newspapers in 1870 indicate that there was some activity by the Ku Klux Klan in Wauhatchie, which at the time meant Lookout Valley from the stateline to the Tennessee River.  The only ways to get between there and Chattanooga were the railroad and the Old Federal Road over the bench of Lookout Mountain, the latter much abused by the passage of armies during the war.  Not until 1887 was Wauhatchie Pike as such formally constructed.

Church burning in Wauhatchie, 1870

Farmer James Cummings, whose family owned a good portion of Lookout Valley, leased some land for local freedmen to build a church upon, as long as they built a fence around it.  The site was on Kelly’s Ferry Road about a mile away from what was then considered the center of the village of Wauhatchie.  During a prayer meeting one night at the beginning of the third week of March, a group of “masked marauders” drove out the congregation and set the building on fire.

The lynching of Dan Tucker, 1870

According to a news article in the Knoxville Sentinel, on 24 September 1870, a band of 25-30 masked “night riders” surrounded the home of a freedman named Dan Tucker living as a sharecropper on the Cummings farm in Wauhatchie, what is now called Lookout Valley.  The night riders dragged him from his home, beat him, and shot him to death in place of his cousin Solomon Crooks of Chattanooga, who was accused of molesting a 14-year old white girl of the community.

Before attacking Tucker, the night riders dragged another freedman, Hiram Crockett, from his home some 15 yards away, whipped him, then forced him to witness the lynching.

“Second Era” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan founded in 1915 was mostly confined to Georgia until 1920.  Its mythology pretended direct descent from the postbellum Ku Klux Klan founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, much the same way some in Freemasonry have claimed its descent from the Knights Templar (the Military Order of Christ, Order of Montesa in Spain, Imperial Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Vatican’s own Supreme Order of Christ do, in fact, descend from the Templars).

In truth, it was founded on the basis of the anti-Semitic Knights of Mary Phagan who’d lynched Leo Frank several months earlier.  Its founders were cosplaying, mostly deriving their regalia and ideology from D.F. Griffith’s 1915 blockbuster epic The Birth of A Nation, along with carrying over many practices from the White Cap movement of the late 1880s to early 1910s, which had in its later years adopted the costumes portrayed in Thomas Dixon’s popular play The Clansman, upon which Griffith’s film was based.

The Birth of A Nation became the first motion picture shown in the White House, courtesy of its then resident, Woodrow Wilson, a big fan of both the original postbellum Ku Klux Klan and its 1915 heavily reimagined imitation.  He subsequently segregated the Navy and the federal civil service, restricting Afro-Americans in both to servant positions.

Knights of the KKK in Chattanooga

Shortly after the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan altered its ideology to cast a broader appeal, dubbing the new version “Americanism”, Chattanooga Klan No. 4 organized in 1921 as the fourth klavern (local group) in the ‘Realm’ (state) of Tennessee, under Exalted Cyclops Earl Hotalen.  It met on Main Street.  Cleveland Klan No. 12 and East Chattanooga Klan No. 13 organized that same year (the latter under Exalted Cyclops George Perry).  The next year, Lookout Klan No. 15 was also established in the city under Exalted Cyclops Phil Hays; it met at Ninth Street and Georgia Avenue.

Later in 1922, Exalted Cyclops Hays of Lookout Klan No. 15 was expelled (Zeke Witt took his place); he and other members of the Lookout Klan, along with some dissidents from Chattanooga Klan No. 4, formed a chapter of the new insurgent National Association of Klansmen (or National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), which later changed its name to National Association of Clans to further distance itself from the Simmons group.

In the municipal elections of 1923 in Chattanooga and Memphis, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan ran their own slate of candidates.  At both locations, they even campaigned in black communities, assuring residents that their targets were now not Afro-Americans, but Jews, Catholics, Communists, Socialists, trade unionists, and immigrants.

As you may imagine, they lost badly in both cities.  One effect in this city was that membership rolls fell to the point that the two local klaverns had to merge in 1924 as Chattanooga Klan No. 48 under Exalted Cyclops Charles Hood, only to flounder the next year due to dissension in its ranks.  A tiny remnant met annually to elect officers and put on a couple of parades.

Klan No. 48 and the CPUSA

In the Great Depression, the Knights of the KKK nationally allied with the anti-Roosevelt American Liberty League, and so too did the remnant in Chattanooga and Hamilton County.

Also during the Depression, Chattanooga was a stronghold of the Communist Party USA.  At first, organization was purely local but it soon became the seat of the party’s District 17 (Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama), as well as operations center of the entire Southern Region.  However, the only time at which the two organizations came into direct conflict was in 1935 when the party planned to hold its regional party convention here and the Klan No. 48 revived enough to conduct a march downtown that convinced the party to relocated its meeting to Highlander Folk School in Summertown, midway between Monteagle and Tracy City.  Two years later, however, the klavern was virtually nonexistent and CPUSA was able to hold it party conference in Memorial Auditorium.

The two antagonistic organizations also intersected in another unexpected way.  Almost as soon as the CPUSA organized in Chattanooga, the party established its regional paper for the South, Southern Worker, which ran from 1930 to 1937.  Ostensibly it was published in Birmingham, but in reality it came from Chattanooga.  The company which printed it was located just across the stateline in Rossville, Georgia; the big joke here is that the owner of that printing company was kleagle of Rossville Klan No. 103 in the  ‘Realm of Georgia, Knights of the KKK’.

Former McCallie School student named J.B. Stoner revived Chattanooga’s Klan No. 48 in 1942 and allied with the local chapter of Liberty League front group Crusaders for Economic Liberty, which had an armed element called the White Shirts patterned after the Black Shirts of Italy’s Fascist Party and the Brown Shirts of Germany’s Nazi Party.

Klan No. 48 dissolved when the national organization shut down in 1944, but Stoner remained a Kleagle (organizer) for the surviving Tennessee “Realm” of the defunct national organization.

“Third Era” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Organizations of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan arose after the Second World War, but they didn’t really take off until the Civil Rights Era, and especially after Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1954.  Only this time, instead of a single national organization, there were several mostly regional groupings with scores of Imperial Wizards.

Association of Georgia Klans

This group was organized in fall 1945 by Samuel Green of Atlanta, Georgia, and included several Klans in Tennessee, including, from the outset, Chattanooga Klan No. 305 and Rossville Klan No. 311, both under Exalted Cyclops (and Kleagle) Walter Arp.

J.B. Stoner, meanwhile, left the Klan to found the Christian Anti-Jewish Party and later played a part in founding the National States’ Rights Party.  In Atlanta, he headed up a group called Confederate Underground, which was responsible for a number of terrorist incidents in the city, including a synagogue bombing.

In 1949, Green abolished Klan No. 305 because of its pattern of widespread violence that included floggings and raids on black churches and other targets of their ire.  One of the more notable was a raid on a suspected gambling house on Scenic Highway by 75 masked men in December 1948.

That incident was far surpassed in notoriety by an April 1949 Knights of the KKK raid into Hooker, Georgia, in conjunction with the Dade County Sheriff’s Office, in which a mob of a hundred in robes, hoods, and masks abducted seven black men (one from Hooker and six from Chattanooga, all but one veterans of WW2) from a house in Hooker, Georgia, and took them to a secluded area where they were flogged with branches and belts.

That action resulted in indictments by a federal grand jury on charges of violations of civil rights under the 14th Amendment from a federal grand jury against Sheriff Lynch, four of his officers, and several local and regional Klan officials, including the pastor of Olive Street Baptist Church in East Chattanooga, who was the AGK’s Great Titan of the local ‘province’ (district of several counties) in United States v. Lynch (1950).  Newspapers at the time celebrated the fact that the 14th Amendment rather than the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 could be used against violators of civil rights.

In the summer of 1949, the Association of Georgia Klans reorganized as the ‘Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan’, and Samuel Green, up till then using the title Grand Dragon of Georgia, was elected its first Imperial Wizard.  At the time, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Georgia National Guard and aide-de-camp to Gov. Herman Talmadge, having been made so as reward for organizing the terrorizing of the state’s registered black voters into not voting in November 1948.

Green died of a heart attack two weeks after his election and elevation to Imperial Wizard.  During his time, he initiated a campaign of infiltrating various law enforcement agencies, especially targeting the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.  After his death, his successor as Imperial Wizard of the Original Knights of the KKK, Samuel Roper, resigned as second director of the GBI to take up the post.  He also reinstated Chattanooga Klan No. 305, but it soon went defunct.

The Original Knights of the KKK itself ended in a threeway split in 1964 after the resignation of its then Imperial Wizard, Roy Davis, and discovery of the massive misappropriation of funds.

U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc.

When U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was chartered in 1955 in the wake of the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954) decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which struck down segregation in public schools under the principle “separate is inherently unequal”, Chattanooga Klavern No. 1 organized in East Chattanooga.

By 1957, Klavern No. 1 had gotten such a bad reputation for violence among their fellow Kluxers that the U.S. Klans, which at the time was the largest such body in the South, expelled them.  Their members, who probably included former members of Chattanooga Klan No. 305, had already committed sixteen floggings, several shootings, and at least one bombing.

Dixie Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Upon their expulsion, former members of Chattanooga Klan No. 305 reorganized as the Dixie Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, with their klavern hall being the former Hamilton Trust & Savings Bank building (1922-1928) at 2507 Glass Street (probably the same they’d been using before).  The new group, allied (in at least some things) to the J.B. Stoner’s National States Rights Party, eventually spread into northwest Georgia, northern Alabama, Virginia, and Mississippi.

J.B. Stoner and his Confederate Underground were involved in the 1958 bombing of Bethel Street Church in Birmingham

The Dixie Knights originally included the klavern (chapter) in Neshoba County, Mississippi, that later committed the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwermer in 1964, until it joined the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the organization to which belonged Medger Evers assassin Byron De La Beckwith, who later resided in Walden, Tennessee.

Jack Brown, the Dixie Knights’ Imperial Wizard, was a suspect in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, on 15 September 1963 that killed Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11).

From 1957 to 1960, the Dixie Knights committed seventeen bombings of homes, buses, an integrated YMCA, and Howard High School, two shootings, a beating, an arson, countless floggings, and several cross burnings, (including one in Avondale in 1959 in which Klansmen were reportedly escorted to the site by two motorcycle cops from the Chattanooga City Police Department), a record more than ample to earn them the designation of domestic terrorist organization.  They were brazen enough to field a team in the local amateur baseball league with their organization’s name blazoned across their uniforms.  Along with all these activities, the leaders were constantly in court defending against suits filed by the U.S. Klans as well as filing counter suits against them.

Overt violence more or less ceased after 1960, roughly at the same time the court actions by both factions were dropped.  The Dixie Knights continued at the Glass Street site at least through 1964, the year city government discovered the group had been mistakenly given a tax exemption in 1960 and wanted to collect back taxes.  The group affiliated with the National Association of the Ku Klux Klan in 1965, but was defunct by 1970.

Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

A large part of the reason for the demise of the Dixie Knights was a fraction led by William Church breaking away to form the Justice Knights of  the Ku Klux Klan in 1968. 

By the late 1970s, Church’s son of the same name led the group, as well as the team which perpetrated the armed intimidation of the denizens of the Ninth Street district that ended with the shootings of Viola Ellison, Lela Mae Evans, Katherine O. Johnson, Opal Lee Jackson, and Mary Tyson on 19 April 1980.  The acquittal of Church Jr. and his cohorts by an all-white jury that summer led to several nights of rioting and a strict 7:30 pm curfew that lasted at least a week.  Having found no justice in the criminal courts, the five women sued their attackers, and in 1982 won.

The case, Crumsey v. Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (1981), was brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf to the five victims under the Klux Klan Act of 1871, seeking damages and an injunction against Klan members entering the black community.  The court granted the injunction, and a judgment of $535,000.  This example, the first time that legislation had been used to pursue a civil rather than criminal case, set a precedent which groups like Southern Poverty Law Center used to take down Klan organizations all across the country in the next decades.

 

The 'Fillory and Further' series as described in Lev Grossman's novels

This is basically the account of the in-universe Fillory and Further series of novels written by retired American businessman Christopher Plover at his house in Cornwall that was in the earlier piece I did on why fans of the TV show The Magicians should read the trilogy of novels on which it is based, with a few added details from the TV show and a later graphic novel.

The novels The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land were written by Lev Grossman.  The episodes of SyFy’s TV show The Magicians referenced here were written by Sera Gamble and John McNamara; Sera Gamble, John McNamara, and David Reed; and Mike Moore.  The graphic novel The Magicians: Alice’s Story was written by Lilah Sturges and illustrated by Piak Bak.  Lev Grossman worked as consultant on both the TV series and the graphic novel.

Fillory in Lev Grossman’s trilogy

In the trilogy, the world of Fillory is not a world in our universe, but a sole world in its own pocket universe.  It is flat and two-sided.  Its sun and two moons revolve around it, as do that stars in the sky, which are not gaseous giants but more like large nightlights.  The nearest analogy I can think of is the cosmology of the ancient Semitic peoples such as that upon which the Tanakh (Hebrew scriptures; the Old Testament to Christians) is based.

The continent which the kingdom of Fillory occupies the largest and central part of has two mountain rages which dividing it from its neighbors, the Northern Barrier in the north, separating it from Loria, and the Copper Mountains in the south, separating it from the Wandering Desert.  There is a huge Eastern Sea with several large islands and a Western Sea, at the other side of which is the western continent that never appears in Grossman’s trilogy or the in-universe heptalogy.

The population of the kingdom of Fillory is very small and fairly stable at ten thousand humans and ten thousand magical creatures, many of them human-animal hybrids, plus all the talking animals and talking trees.  The magical creatures include griffins, hippogriffs, giants, dwarfs, pegasi, (hippo)centaurs, elves, minotaurs, fairies, satyrs, nymphs, dryads, fauns, manticores, sphinxes, spirits, elementals, grimlings, pangborns, cynocephali (dog-headed humanoids), reptilians, shas, vulpa (fox) centaurs, merefolk, assorted human-animal hybrids, and jinnis.  There are myriad talking animals, of which Humbledrum the bear is the recognized leader at the time of the trilogy.

Loria has no magical creatures, just humans.  The Wandering Desert has the “Southern Nomads” and giant talking bunnies, possibly others.

The Fillory and Further series

(that all fans of both the novels and the TV series wish they could read)

A notable difference between the TV series and the novels is that in the novels, there were five Chatwin children (versus three on TV), in descending order of age: Martin, Fiona, Rupert, Helen, and Jane.  Also, their adventures in Fillory began during the Great War, also known as the First World War, not during the Second World War as portrayed in the TV series.

Having laid that out, let’s now take a look at the contents of Christopher Plover’s children’s series Fillory and Further, as described in Lev Grossman’s trilogy, The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land.

Fillory and Further, Book One: The World in the Walls (by Christopher Plover, January 1935)

        Features Martin and Fiona, who get to Fillory through the grandfather clock at their Aunt Maude’s house in the year 1917.  Aunt Maude’s house is called Dockery House, on Darrowby Lane in Fowey, Cornwall.  The Chatwins are there because their father is at war iun Belgium and their mother is in an asylum.  Martin opens the grandfather clock and discovers Fillory in the walls of the house.  Martin becomes a master horseman and Helen a forest scout.  Together Martin and Fiona look for the trees enchanted by the Watcher Woman.  Martin and Jane prevent the Watcherwoman from permanently stopping time at 5 o’clock on a rainy afternoon.

        In the TV show episode “The World in the Walls” (S01E04), Quentin recounts Jane encountering the Madness Maker, whose real name is Ellis Wirth-Downes, who has been cursed to be able to only practice game magic.  Jane destroys his game, thereby freeing him from the curse.  (Note: In the novels, the Chatwin children seem to have been the first Earthers in Fillory, though this is never stated explicitly.)

        In the TV episode “Have Your Brought Me Little Cakes?” (S01E13), Quentin and Julia turn out to be the Witch and the Fool who help Jane free herself from a magical tree trap.  (Note: This is out of continuity with the novel The Magicians, in which Julia only appears in one scene after the opening one and is not part of the party traveling to Fillory.)

Fillory and Further, Book Two: The Girl Who Told Time (by Christopher Plover, Fall 1936)

        Features Rupert and Helen shanghaied from their respective boarding schools in the winter (with all five Chatwin children eventually in Fillory together).  Their adventure crosses over with the previous adventure, with Rupert dogging Martin and Fiona in disguise as the Wood One while Helen chases the Questing Beast.

Fillory and Further, Book Three: The Flying Forest (by Christopher Plover, October 1937)

        Features Rupert and Fiona get to Fillory by climbing a tree and spend most of the novel looking for the ticking which is driving their leopard friend Sir Hotspots batshit crazy.  The ticking turns out to be a large clock made by dwarves in a cave, which a giant seals shut.  Afterwards Rupert and Fiona go to Castle Whitespire, which is in essence a giant clockwork.  Rupert trains as a deadeye archer.  Martin appears toward the end, only to disappear into the Darkling Woods, never to be seen again.

Fillory and Further, Book Four: The Secret Sea (by Christopher Plover, 1938)

        Features Rupert and Jane, who get to Fillory by riding a magic bicycle then stow away aboard the Swift to escape the pursuing Watcher Woman; the ship is crewed by a party of wrongly accused noblemen masquerading as pirates.  Fiona, trains as a master fencer.  Rupert turns twelve and is never invited back.

        In the graphic novel The Magicians: Alice’s Story, Alice describes how Jane is forced to undergo a series of trials to determine if she is worthy to be a queen, in one of which she must move the city of Barion north of the Great Salt River.  She gets already queen Fiona to declare that north is south and south is north.  After she passes, Ember and Umber show up and congratulate her, saying they knew she would pass.  When she asks then why did they make her take the test, Ember tells her that she needed to prove her worth to herself.

Fillory and Further, Book Five: The Wandering Dune (by Christopher Plover, published posthumously in late 1939)

        Features Helen and Jane, who are transported to Fillory while painting in a meadow.  The sisters are taken aboard the Windswept, a clipper crewed by bunnies cruising the sands of the Wandering Desert.  Captain High-bound gives Helen and Jane five buttons with which they can magically travel to Fillory at any time.  Helen hides them all (in a dried-up well at their aunt’s house, it later turns out) upon their return to Earth, self-righteously stating that entry into Fillory should be up to Ember and Umber.

Fillory and Further, Book Six: The Magicians (by Jane Chatwin; synopsis in the chapter “The Retreat” of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians)

        Features only Jane, age 13 (which would make it the year 1925), crossing over into Fillory after a hedgehog named Pricklepump helps her find the five magic buttons.  She finds Fillory beset by ferocious winds.  In the Darkling Woods she finds the wounded Ember, who tells her about Martin’s transformation into the Beast.  Together on the Cozy Horse, they visit the dwarves, who create for her the magical pocket watch with which to control time and create loops.  Jane never returns home to Cornwall ever again.

        (Note: The story in the TV series episode “A Life in the Day” (S03E05) about Jane Chatwin solving the Mosaic in the “Fillory books” because she needed the key to power the watch the dwarfs gave her so she could stop her brother could only have taken place in this book, which TV Quentin never actually read.)

The Door in the Page: My Life in Two Worlds (by Rupert Chatwin, finished in 1942, found among his belongings after his death in North Africa; the entire book is in chapters 16-18 of Lev Grossman’s The Magician’s Land)

        A more factual (from an in-universe POV) telling of the Chatwins’ adventures and interactions with Plover; found in its entirety in Chapters 16-18 of Lev Grossman’s The Magician’s Land.  It includes an account of the children discovering the clock portal to Fillory (Fiona was seven at the time; Jane was five).  Martin and Fi went in and came back out somewhat older (their adventures were told in The World in the Walls).  Then Rupert and Helen went in (The Girl Who Told Time).  After they came out, just five minutes had lapsed in real time between then and when Martin and Fi first went through.  By then Jane was awake and they all five went through.

        Fiona was the first to mention Fillory to Plover.  Contrary to what Plover wrote, they went through multiple times, usually all together and all through the year, not just summer.  Rupert’s account includes the truth of Martin’s last return to Fillory and how he managed to stay, and also that Plover didn’t begin writing his novel accounts of the Chatwins’ adventures until Martin disappeared.

* * * * *

The seventh book is from SyFy’s TV series, and while not part of the in-universe Fillory and Further series as laid out by Lev Grossman, I’m including it because the Order of the Library (at least the one in Grossman’s novels) would no doubt want it that way.  Of course, the TV story and cast of characters of this first foray into Fillory of current and former Brakebills students is much different than that of Grossman’s novel The Magicians.

Fillory and Further, Book Seven: TBD (by Quentin Coldwater, the episode 13 finale, “Have You Brought Me Little Cakes?”, of the first season SyFy’s show The Magicians)
        Prologue: Holy Shit, You Guys, Fillory
        Chapter 1: The Journey of the Witch and the Fool
        Chapter 2: By All Means, Hinge Your Entire Quest On a Traumatized Boy
        Chapter 3: The Watcherwoman, or the Other, Other Identity
        Chapter 4: Everything Sucks Now, And Why
        Chapter 5: Be Careful What You Bargain For
        Chapter 6: How to Prepare for a Fillorian Wedding
        Chapter 7: Weddings Are So Boring, Penny Would Rather Astrally Project Into A Dungeon
        Chapter 8: Like I Said, Be Careful What You Bargain For
        Chapter 9: The Gift of Ember
        Chapter 10: Helpless

On Marmite and Vegemite, and Branston Pickle

I’ve been experimenting with vegemite, marmite, and Branston pickle the past couple of weeks.

I’ve just started on marmite, which I’ve had before, after finishing the jar of vegemite, and have to admit I prefer marmite a little bit, though that may have to do with it being more easily available.  They’re very similar.

In exploring this online various uses for the condiment, I’ve seen posts by Brits and Aussies making fun of us Yanks slathering it on toast. What y’all don’t get is that here we have this thing called country ham which, if it’s the real thing, is so salty it makes your face pucker like a raisin. AND we then make redeye gravy with the scraps and grease in the pan after frying, combined with strong coffee that’s been sitting on a burner long enough to make it thick and acidy, and pour it over biscuits (American biscuits, aka scones, not what we call ‘cookies’). By comparison, both vegemite and marmite on toast are kind of tame.

Very few of us, however, would be able to eat marmite straight out of the jar with a spoon, like Julia Wicker did at breakfast in Venice in a scene in Lev Grossman’s novel The Magician King.

Marmite (and vegemite) provide a very good approximation of the taste of redeye gravy, by the way, though they’re easier to spread on toast than on biscuits (scones).

Peanut butter and mayo has been a Southern US staple since the Great Depression; I use olive oil mayo to cut out the bulk of the saturated fat.  Several months back, I started adding guacamole too, for the avocado in it, and the guacamole because it has more taste.  I’d tried first using straight mashed avocado, but that isn’t potent enough to complement the peanut butter when paired with it.

One day the other week, I had a vegemite, peanut butter, and guacamole sandwich with mayo, plus sun-dried tomatoes. Everyone says to put the mayo and/or butter on first, but I did that and the other way around would be better.  Also, now that I had the vegemite in combo with other things, I can see what you Brits and Aussies mean about vegemite and marmite needing just a little. On my sandwich, the taste overwhelmed everything and I didn't even use much.

I also figured out that mashed avocado like some supermarkets have would be better than the guacamole, which the marmite or vegemite overwhelms.

After seeing DCI Humphrey Goodman espousing the virtues of a cheese-and-pickle sandwich on Death in Paradise, I knew I had to try it.  Luckily, I found one of the grocery chains here in Chattanooga carries Branston pickle.  I love the Branston pickle, but to really balance its flavour I would need about half a pound of cheddar.  And V is right; grated is better than sliced in this case.

The ultimate test was the sandwich on toasted whole wheat with peanut butter, along with both Branston pickle and marmite, sun-dried tomatoes, guacamole, and shredded cheese.  What I mean by ultimate test is that my effort to see how marmite and Branston pickle blended, and the result was that if you’re wondering which is more potent, it’s the Branston pickle, with which I could barely taste the marmite, even after my second or third try when I slathered an American amount of marmite.

Since then, I keep marmite and Branston pickle separate on sandwiches, only using one or other.  And yes, usually with peanut butter, and sometimes even mayo.