The Roman Map of Britain Mediomanae Tomen-y-Mur, Gwynedd

Mediomano (R&C 81) next

Mediolanion Mediolanium (Ptolemy II 3 11) a polis of the Ordovices (not necessarily the same as Mediomano)

    Mediomano is paired with Caer Gai. Some candidates are Tomen y Mur (SH7038) by Margary 68, Brithdir (sh7718) by Margary 66b, and Llanfor (sh9336) by Margary 66a.

    Medio- 'middle' is compounded with elements other than -lano 'plain', such as Mediomatrici Metz. The real question is what exactly does -mano represent? Is it a Br. moniio 'mountain' W. mynydd,  or a W. maen 'stone'?

    Ptolemy's Mediolanium, along with Brannogenium, are recorded with the longitude of Viroconium Wroxeter. But Ptolemy's text puts these in the territory of the Ordovices 'furthest to the west',  in the northwestern quarter of Wales, west of the Cornovii. If their recorded longitude was the result of a transcriptional error of wau for delta, then Tomen y Mur would be favored as Mediolanium and Pennal (SH7000) as Brannogenium. Both are of essentially the same longitude. A correcting one-degree shift westward and a recorded latitudinal separation of 25 minutes suits them best. Both were the site of Roman forts founded during the Flavian period.

    Ptolemy's Mediolanium and Brannogenium have often been considered identical with two sites of the AI, Mediolano Whitchurch of Iter II and Bravonio Leintwardine of Iter XII.

Burnham, R.C. 'Roman road, Cae Glas, Maentwrog' Britannia xxiv (1993) 270  [Margary 68]

    Mediomano appears to be composed of Celtic *medio- 'middle', a cognate of Latin medius; and Celtic *man-, a variant of *mon- 'mountain' and cognate of Latin mons. The composite would mean 'middle of the mountain', so it seems likely that a more appropriate *Mediomanae was recorded as *Mediomane - then -e was copied as -o. Tomen-y-Mur is ringed by mountains, thus *Mediomanae 'middle of the mountains' aptly describes its position.

Tomen-y-Mur (SH7038)