Early Byzantine Fort Σίκλαι: Etymological Analysis of the Toponym

Abstract

Early Byzantine fort Σίκλαι (Siclae) was recorded by the historian Procopius in his Buildings, more precisely, in the list for Macedonia from Book IV. Procopius’ form of the place name confirms the disappearance of the unstressed vowel in the penult as one of the most important features in Vulgar Latin phonetics. Apart from considering the morphological peculiarities of the toponym, the present article also focuses on a more detailed examination of its etymology. To this effect, two equally possible solutions regarding the origin of the name are presented. According to the first one, the appellative sicla/sikla forms the basis of this toponym, which is the Vulgar Latin variant of the noun situla, denoting a ‘bucket, pail, jug, pitcher’. The other possibility, equally strong, is that this toponym is related to the name of the Illyrian tribe Siculi/Siculotae (Σικελοί).