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Appendix II

PART-OLON'S IDENTITY WITH "CATH-LUAN," FIRST TRADITIONAL KING OF THE PICTS IN SCOTLAND


"Cath-luan was Arya sovereign over all [the Cruithne in Erin], and he was the first king of them who acquired [North] Alban."--Books of Ballymote and Lecan.1

 

As I observed that certain versions of the Irish-Scot traditions-for example, that cited in the heading-represent King Cath-Juan as taking the same position as the Catti king Part-olon, the first traditional "Briton" king of Ireland and North Britain, this suggested to me that "Cath-luan" was possibly a title of the Cassi king Part-olon in which his tribal title of Catti is substituted for his "Part" or "Barat" title. And so it seems to prove.

 
The form of the name "Cath-luan," also spelt "Cath-luain," is obviously a dialectic contraction for Part-olon's title of "Kazzi (or Catti)-gyaolowonie (or Gioln)" in our inscription; and in series with "Cassi-vellaunus," the title of the paramount king of the Cassi or Catti Britons in the pre-Roman period, who was the "Cad-wallon" of the Welsh Cymri. This identity seems clearly evident front the latter name.

 
Still closer to "Cath-luan" is the dialectic form of the title of the early Scottish royal clan "Cat-uallauna," which is recorded on the monument of the Barat of Cassi-vellaunus' clan of Britons, called by Ptolemy, as we have seen, "Catyeuchlani," and by Dion Cassius, in recording their later invasion by Aulus Plautius, "Catuellani."2

 

"Cath-luan" is obviously the dialectic form of the title of the early Scottish royal clan "Cat-uallauna," which is recorded on the monument of the second or third century A.D. at South Shields by the Barat of Syria already referred to.

 

The literal equivalency of Cath-luan with the titles borne by the Catti Part-olon or "Prat-(gya)olowonie" in his Newton Stone inscription is fully established by the variants in the spelling of the name of his later namesake, the Briton king of 630 A.D. in the Saxon Chronicle additions to Nennius' History of Britain, wherein the self-same name is variously spelt in the same MS. as follows:--

 

            "Cat-guollaun," "Cat-guollaan," "Cat-lon" and "Cath-lon."3

 

 

Cath-luan is reported to have been (as we found Parth-olon was) the first king of the Cruithne or Pruithne (i.e., as we have seen, Britons) in Northern Alban. And the traditional account of his origin is also in keeping with that of our Phoenician king Prwt-gyaolowonie (or "Giooln"). The Irish books state:--

 

"The Cruithni came from the land of Tracia; that is, they are the children of Gleoin, son of Ercol. Aganthiysi was their name."

 

This "Tracia" is, perhaps, for an admittedly sea-going people, "Trazi" or "Tarz," the old names for Tarsus, rather than for Thrace, which was also in the Land of the Goths. Tarsus, the famous sea-port city, was in the

 

 

1 Books of Ballymote and Lecan. See Skene, op. cit., 31. The Irish-Scot word Aire usually translated "king, sovereign, prince or chief," appears clearly to be the literal equivalent of the Arya ("Arya-n") title of the Indo-Persians the "Arri" or "Harri" of the Hittites and the "Harri" or "Heria" title of the Gothic king in the Eddas, as we have seen.

2 Dion Cassius, 51, 20.

3 British Museum Harleian MS. 3859 of 977 A.D. See Skene, op. cit., 14, 70 and 347.

 

p.395: PART-OLON'S IDENTITY WITH CATH-LUAN

 

Hittite province of Cilicia, which latter Prwt-gioln records on his monument as his father-land. And the "Gleoin" title is clearly the "Gioln" or "Gyaoiowonie" title inscribed on his Newton Stone.

 

The curious addition to this record that "Aganthirsi" was also the name of his clan suggests that the later bardic compiler of this tradition sought to identify these Gleoin people with the colony of the Geloni tribe of quasi-Greek merchants in Scythia, north of the Black Sea, described by Herodotus as living amongst a Scythian tribe adjoining the Agathirsi Scyths. If this word "Aganthirsi" really existed in the early traditional documents, it may have been intended

for "Agadir," the name of the old Phoenician sea-port city of Cadiz in Iberia, whence Part-olon is reported to have come.

 

The "Geloni" people of the colony in Scythia, described by Herodotus, were probably a colony of Hitto-Phoenician "Khilaani" traders. Herodotus tells us1 that they were originally resident in Greek trading ports, but were expelled thence, and were engaged in Scythia as fur-merchants. They were blue-eyed and red-haired2 and worshipped Dionysus (as did the Phoenicians), and "had temples adorned after the Greek manner with images altars and shrines of wood." What is especially significant is that "all their city is built of wood, its name is 'Gelonius,' . . . it is lofty and made entirely of wood." All this suggests that the buildings were of the style of the "Khilaani" palace and mansion of the Hitt-ites. Significantly also, these Geloni were related to the Phoenician sea-port of Gades (Cadiz) with its famous temple of the Phoenician Hercules, in Iberia, outside the Pillars of Hercules. Herodotus relates the legend that they were the descendants of this Phoenician hero, Hercules, who, on returning from Gades, drove the herds of Geryon into Scythia and left there two sons, Gelon and Agathyrsis, from whom those two tribes were descended.3

 

It is also remarkable that this presumably Phoenician colony of Geloni in Scythia was likewise settled amongst a primitive nomad people who, like the Picts, painted their skins blue, and whom Virgil calls "the painted Gelons."4 But Herodotus is at pains to point out that this painted nomad tribe in whose land the Geloni traders had their colony were the aborigines and erroneously called "Geloni" by the Greeks. He says that their proper tribal name was "Bud-ini" and that they were a totally different and inferior race to the Geloni.

 

"They do not use the same language as the Geloni nor the same mode of living, and are the only people of those parts who eat vermin; whereas the Geloni are tillers of the soil, feed upon corn, cultivate gardens, and are not at all like the Budini in form or complexion."

 

We thus seen to have here in this colony of Gelons in Scythia in the fifth century B.C. another parallel instance of what occurred in the Don Valley about the same period, of a colony of fair Phoenician Barat "Giolns" with a high civilization settled amongst a population of primitive nomads who painted their skins blue and were otherwise seemingly akin to the Picts of Scotland.

 

Further similarity between Cath-luan and Part-olon is seen in the tradition that the former first arrived in and possessed a part of Erin before proceeding to North Alban or Scotland.5 His opponent in Ireland was "Herimon," or "Eremon," which might possibly be a scribal variant for the Umor or Fomor men who opposed Part-olon in Ireland. The tradition that Part-olon, as well as Cath-luau, held possession of the South Coast of Ireland probably indicates that Part-olon established and kept a colony there in addition to his kingdom in the North of Scotland.

 

 

1 Herodotus, 4, 108.                         2 Turner's Notes on Herodotus, 4, 108.         3 Herodotus, 4, 8-10.

4 " Pictosque Gelonos," Virgil, Georgics, 2, 114-5.

5 Skene, op. cit., 125-6. Cath-luan is traditionally reported to have landed or fought a great battle on the "Slaine" River, which is usually identified with the Slaney River of Wexford, that is, further East than Part-olon's traditional landing place.

 

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In Scotland we are told that Cath-luau established his rule by force of arms:--

 

"And [North] Alban was without a king all that time till the period of . . . Cath-luan, son of Cait-mind, who possessed the kingdom by force in Cruthen land, and in Erin, for sixty years, and after him Gud possessed it for fifty years."1

 

Though in another version it would appear that his occupation had been relatively peaceful:--

 

"From thence (Erin) they conquered Alba . . .
Without destroying the people,
From Chath [Caith-ness] to Foirciu [Forth]."2

 

Like Part-olon, the "Gioln," who is recorded in the British Chronicles to have visited Orkney, we are told that "the clan Gleoin" of Cath-luau also visited Orkney and occupied it:--

 

"The clan of Gleoin, son of Erc-ol, took possession of the islands of Orcc [Orkney] . . and were dispersed again from the islands of Orcc."3

 

And it seems possible that this leader's name "Erc-ol" may be intended for the "Ikr" personal name of Part-olon, as recorded on his Newton Stone monument.

 

The ancestry of Cath-luan also is generally identical with that of Prwt-gioln. As seen in the extract in the heading, he was an "Aire," that is, Arya or Aryan. He was a Pruithne (Cruithne) and was "the son of Cait-mind,"4 in which compound word mind means "the noble,"5 and thus presumably describes him as "The son of the Noble Catti or Khatti or Hitt-ites." And his two sons bore the prefixed title of "Catin,"6 which is obviously the equivalent of the "Cadeni" title of Ptolemy for the people of the Clyde Valley, and a title, as we have seen, of the Phoenicians.

 

All this evidence thus seems to establish the identity of the Catti Part-olon with Cath-luan, the first Aryan king of the Picts in Scotland.

 

 

1 MS. Bodleian Laud., 610, in Skene, op. cit., 27.

2 Books of Ballymote and Lecan. Skene, op. cit., 43.                               3 Ibid., 23.

4 Skene, op. cit., 27.                   5 See Calder, op. cit., 347.

6 The two sons of Cath-luan were Catino-Lodhor and Catino-Lochan. Skene, op. cit., 31.