Urbs Giudi: text, translation and topography

ABSTRACT This paper re-examines Bede’s reference to urbs Giudi for previously overlooked clues that may help to identify the location of this elusive fortress, somewhere in, on or near the Firth of Forth in what is now eastern central Scotland. After considering Bede’s abilities as a geographer, it assesses and challenges the persistent suggestion that urbs Giudi was on an island. It then analyses the implications of Bede’s use of Latin in medio sui and sinus by comparing these terms with other examples in Bede’s writings and elsewhere. This points to the importance of secondary and elliptical, rather than literal, senses of in medio sui and sinus respectively. The outcome of this is that urbs Giudi was located neither ‘in the middle of’ the Firth of Forth, nor ‘halfway along’ it, but further inland, on the Links of Forth, the meandering section of the Forth Estuary. This excludes all previously proposed locations for urbs Giudi with the exception of one, Stirling.