I'm reading a Chinese textbook on British culture and history at the moment, as I'm teaching a class on it at my (Chinese) university next semester. The book is, frankly, full of rather dubious stuff (Ireland has a population of 520 million, Wales has a population of 290,000) though it has plenty of reasonable stuff too. Anyway, I just got to a chapter on women in British culture, and it begins off by talking about famous pre-Roman British warrior-queens. Besides Boadicea, it lists; Camilla, Queen of Latium in the 13th century BC; Tomyris, a Celtic Queen mentioned by Herodatus as killing Cyrus the Great; Queen Eire and Queen Scota, for whom Ireland and Scotland are named. Martia Proba, a Queen who invented common law.
Now, I've checked on wikipedia, and it tells me Tomyris was an Iranian Queen; was there every some pseudo-history that claimed she was British which the Chinese writers have misunderstood? And I've never heard of most of the rest. Wikipedia tells me that Martia Proba is a character from Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, is that where the rest are from? I mean, I'm assuming this is all rubbish, I just wondered why the authors might have thought it was real history. Also... was there ever a queen called Camilla of Latium? I believe Latium is a province in Italy, north of Rome, so I wondered if that's a real person, just one who had nothing to do with Britain.
The author appears to have read the medieval pseudo-history Lebor Gabála Érenn, though not with exceptional lucidity, as Ériu and Scota are neither British nor historical persons.
That is the time when Gaedel Glas, from whom descend the Gaels, was born to Scotta, daughter of Pharaoh. It is after her that the Gaels are named 'Scots', ut dictum est ['so it is said']:
The Féni were named after Fénius,
vigour with restraint,
the Gaels from generous Gáedel Glas,
the Scots from Scotta.^^1
Cermait son of the Dagda had three sons: Mac Cuill, Mac Cécht, Mac Gréne. Sethor and Tethor and Cethor were their names. Fótla and Banba and Ériu were their three wives.^^2
Ériu, whatever haven [?] she may reach,
Banba, Fótla, and Fea,
Neman of ...,
Donann, mother of the gods.^^3
The ellipsis indicates the manuscript is illegible. One can view the original manuscript text as it appears in the Book of Leinster. As an addendum, the name Scotland arises from a Latin word for the Gaels; Scoti. The origin of that term is as far as I'm aware unknown. Ireland or Éire does derive literally from Ériu however, as Dáthí Ó hÓgáin notes:
The land-goddess of the country had this (Ériu > Éire) as one of her names, and from it the English and other forms - such as Irlanda - are derived. The dative of Éire is Éirinn, and its genitive is Éireann. The goddess Éire is represented in medieval pseudo-history as one of the three queens of Ireland of the Tuatha Dé Danann at the time of the invasions by the sons of Míl.^^4
^^1 ^(John Koch and John Carey. The Celtic Heroic Age. Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales. s.v. "Lebor Gabála Érenn". Aberystwyth, Wales: Center for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, 2009. p. 229 ^¶16)
^^2 ^(Ibid., p. 254 ^¶71)
^^3 ^(Ibid., p. 255 ^¶72)
^^4 ^(Dáthí Ó hÓgáin. The Lore of Ireland. s.v. "Éire". Rochester, New York: The Boydell Press, 2006. p. 191)
Rome is within Latium, it's the northernmost city of the Latin plain. Camilla is a figure who only appears in Virgil and no other author--she is not a Latin at all, but is the daughter of the king of the Volsci, a people who historically inhabited an area south of Latium, in the foothills. The Aeneid does not take place in the 13th Century, B.C., but immediately after the Trojan War, which was traditionally dated by classical authors to have ended in 1184
Could this be a possible source?
Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology By Robin Morgan