I found evidence for a prior claim that some readers may have shunned. I had said that the Bretons and Bruces were one and the same, an idea first devised after catching glimpse of a Bruce link to "Aprutium" (central Italy). I then reasoned that the Bruces were named in honor of the Bruttii, but never in my hopes did I expect that Bruttium would be named like so:

"Brucios (of Latin Bruttii) was a town of the south of Italy...(named the Brucio or Brutti)...the Greeks called [it] Bretia" (brackets not mine).

The quote is at this translated page [page no longer has the quote but this page has a comparable one]

I think the blue lion of the Bruces is therefore a good candidate for depicting British Blue Blood, for as Athena's color was blue, so the article above continues to say that the region of the Brucios was settled by "Scyllacion (Scyllatium), athenian colony." Wouldn't that be mythical Scyllus (i.e. the other caduceus snake = Asklepios), whom in Greek myth was loved by Glaucus (i.e. the Gileki snake)?

I am concerned with the tracks of Hermes here, leading from the Armenians of southern Italy as they evolved into the Germanians, especially the Herminone Germanics...who I suspect were given the ermine symbol of Brittany. These Armenians are then traced (by me) to the Mount-Sion cult, at mount Hermon (in what is now Lebanon), where Pan and Hermes were worshiped. I don't think it's a coincidence that Lancelot's father was made "Ban," even as Pan's city, Panias at mount Hermon, was called "Banias." With other evidence given later, I'll expose now the very city and river that Lancelot originated from in southern Italy: Bantia on the Bradanus river (see map of Lucania) just to the east of Lucania. The reason that I'm introducing this early is due to "Bradanus" evoking "Pretani," the founders of Britain.

The article above also mentions the Laus river! It turns out to be in Lucania, now next to Bruttium, but what was part of Bruttium in ancient days. For new readers, the importance of finding a Laus geographical term, for the first time, is the "Laus Deo" written (in an unsee-able place) at the top of the Washington Monument, a modern monument that has the very shape of ancient Hermes temples, and is therefore a symbol of the Hermes caduceus (i.e. either the Gileki or Asklepios snake, or both). Ptolemy's Geography said that the Bruttii lived at the mouth of the Laus river! Bingo!!
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/3/1*.html

As I had tied the Bruce family of peoples, not only to the Samnites at Aprutium/Abruzzo and to the Brutti, but also to Epirus, so we can read (at article above) that the Brucios region, in 282 BC, was "allied with Samni and Lucania against Rome. They [Brucios] appear shortly after like aids of Pirros de Epiro" (Lucania was adjacent to Bruttium, at the arch of Italy's boot).

Then was found that another river of the Bruttii region is "Butrotos or Buthrotus (today Novito)," evoking the city of Epirus by the same name (Buthrotum). Epirus traces back to Troy, to mythical names such as Paris and Pyrrhus. If you do the math, it begins to appear that both the Paris Franks and the York Bretons were from Epirus-Trojan stock, so that the same ought to apply to the Illuminati founders of America.

Buthrotos of Epirus was a region ruled by mythical Helenus, who I say depicted the same Spartans as Helen, ally of Trojan Paris, the daughter of Menelaus. Both the city of Troyes and Paris were on the Seine river leading downstream to the Vexin. Let's assume for the moment that I'm correct in tracing "Vexin" to Buxentium (in Lucania), which the Greeks called "Pyxus." One website directed attention from this Italian Pyxus to "Marthyla, a town of the Bizeres, Pontus, at the mouth of Pyxites" (11 miles north-east of Limne).
http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0220.html

Another article by the same web master adds that the Pyxirates river of Armenia "rises in Scordisi," and that "Pyxirates" was the name of Euphrates at one time. On this map of ancient Lucania, compare "Scordisi" with "Scidrus" at Pyxus/Buxentium, just north of Laus.
http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0291.html

Convinced already that Buxentium traces to Armenia and the Euphrates in this way, much needs to be explored. For example, did "Pyxirates" furnish "Bagratoni," the latter being the dynasty in Armenia and Georgia that I feel compelled to trace to holy-grail Franks and British-Israelists. For Bagratids claimed falsely that they derived from king David of Israel, and this was echoed by certain Merovingians and is yet believed by some members of the British royally family.

Having discovered the root of the Salian-Frank portion of the Merovingians here in southern Italy, the origin of the Sala river (from which they were named) could be from the Sele river running through Salerno, marked the "Silarus" on the map of Lucania. You can see "Eburum" at the Silarus river, wherefore if the Merovingians were truly Hebrews in any way, this town is suspect. As yet I have zero proof that Eburum was founded by Hebrews, but that too may come soon. As a major part of my Bruce story has thus-far involved the Eburovices of France and northern Italy (known also by various other Ebur terms), finding Eburum in the thick of Bruttium is in my eyes monumental. If the Eburovices (and their fellow Ceno tribe) can be shown to be Hebrew, then almost certainly Eburum was too.

The Vexin region (France/Normandy) encompassed Meulan, ruled by certain Harcourts from Torville/Torny (Normandy) that came to live at nearby Beaumont (after whom the Beaumont surname derives). To help me trace the Vexin to Buxentium, let me start by first appealing to the claim of the Welles family, that their surname was a version of the Vaux surname. Note that the father of the first Beaumont (Robert/Roger) was Humphrey Vieilles, and that "Beau" evokes the "Baux" version of "Vaux." Also, "Beaumont" was early "Bellemont," what easily modifies to Welles. Then I found that "The Gaulish tribe of the Veliocassi, whose capital was at Rouen, gave their name to the region that became known as the Vexin."

By the time that I discovered this quote, I had already written (in an up-coming chapter) the following on Lucania: "See the town of Volcei to the east of Eburum! Then see the town of Velia to the west of Buxentium, a term evoking the Velio(cassi) Celts." I had written that to draw attention to a possible Fulk root in Volcei, and if I haven't yet mentioned it, let me do so now, that "Vaux" is a variation of "Fulk," or vice versa. I think it's reasonable to trace the Welles/Vaux/Baux surname (i.e. as well as the Veliocassi Celts) to Velia and Buxentium. Then I would remind you that the Vaux were closely related to Cohen Hebrews simply because the Vaux Coat and the German Cohen Coat are the very same design.

Like the Vexin, Rouen was on the Seine river, and though having a heavy "Jewish" population, Rouen was a Rus center of the Redones originally from Rhone/Rhodanus river, apparently, for "the Seine was known as Rodo, or Roto...and is also the original name of the Rhone River (see Rh'ône article for further explanations). This is proved by the name of Rouen, which was Rotomagos in Gaulish."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seine

Recall that I trace Varangians to Redones, and more particularly to a "rudr" term, and for what it may be worth, since I tend to view mythical Arthur as a Redone (early version, "Aereda") peoples, I'll mention that "rudr" smacks of "Arthur."

Since the holy-grail bloodline seems to be rife in Geoffrey Plantagenet, who was from a Fulk on his father's side, and on the other side from Lancelin de Beaugency, born in Fleche (Normandy), couldn't we ask if "Beaugency" is rooted in "Buxentium," and related to "Beau(mont)" and "Baux"?

The similarity between "Lancelin" and "Lancelot" may not be coincidental, and even if the myth writer(s) who introduced Lancelot may not have been alluding to the Lancelin>Plantagenet bloodline in particular, Lancelin may yet have been a personal name linked to whatever peoples Lancelot depicted. As Lancelot was raised by the "Lady of Lac" (usually defined as "lake"), who is sometimes equated with Morgan of Fay, and as he is therefore called Lancelot of Lac, Laconai>Lucania may just be the secret meaning of "Lac."

In the painting of Geoffrey Plantagenet, he is displayed with a green and gold robe, evoking Morgen of Fay (= the Muses), also painted with green and gold clothing in the painting provided at her Wikipedia article. Moreover, the Welsh Morgan/Morien Coat is a gold lion on green shield. Sybaris, the location of the Muses of southern Italy, was just across the Lucania border from Laus.

I see signs that Lucanians migrated in large part to Essex, England, where Colchester/Camulodunum was located, and recalling that a version of the Campbell name is "Cammel," it's interesting to cite the region of Campania, adjacent to Lucania (Salerno is in Campania). There on the map of ancient Lucania you can see Compsa, and to the west of it is Abellinum, what I think was the root of Avalon, for just to the north of Abellinum is, to this day, the province of Avellino. As I see the peoples of southern Italy as a mix of Greeks and Curete Cretans, the latter of whom I view as evolving into the Cruithne of Ireland (who I had identified earlier as the green-dragon Crichtons), look at the Crotone/Crothon Coat, a green and gold version of the Campbell Coat. Crotona was in southern Italy and, as I'll show in the next chapter, was founded by Muse peoples.

The above link tells that "Members of this [Crichton] family settled in Midlothian (now part of the region of Lothian), in the territories of Kreiton." This is some good reason to view the "lot" in "Lancelot" as mythical Lot (as others besides myself suggest), founder of Lothian. That is, Lancelot may depict an Anglo-Lothian alliance, and in fact Angles did rule at Lothian. As I view Arthur as a Rus peoples, might Roslin at Lothian, which I think may derive from Ros(e) Line, be a city founded specifically by Arthurian elements? I will (in a coming chapter) connect the non-Redone half of Arthur to the Anglo-Jute founders of Kent, this being important due to my previous Jute/Eoten root of Edinburgh of Lothian (6 miles from Roslin). Jutes and Angles lived side by side in northern Germany before invading Britain, and the mythical founders of Kent were said to be Jutes and yet tagged, "Hengest," possibly a code for an Anglo peoples.

[Update March 15 2007 -- The English Broc(k) Coat link says that the surname was "First found in Essex where Ralph Broc was granted lands in Colchester in 1119." It's certainly possible that "Broc" was a variation of "Ebraic," and perhaps it's helpful to point out the following from houseofnames.com: "The original Gaelic form of the name Brick is O Bruic, from the word broc..." The English Brocs were from Broc, near Anjou, says the above link, but as a red lion on white is in the Coat's chief, it should tie to the near-identical German Gerber Coat. Note that there is a "Jewish" Gerber Coat that is identical to the German Gerber Coat, meaning that the Gerbers, and therefore likely the Brocs, were Hebrews (as expected of the Eburs). The Oxford-surname Coat also uses a red lion on white in the chief. An upright red lion on white was used by the Stewarts of Shropshire, the Talbots of Shropshire, the Cornwall surname, and according to one website (below), the kings of Cornwall.
http://www.the-spoiler.com/ADVENTURE/Sierra/conquests.of.the.longbow.1.html End Update]

The Arms of Braintree and Bocking District -- of Essex -- use both a green fleur de lis on gold as well as a blue lion on gold. The Brains (also "Branes"), who could have been Eburs by the looks of it, were from Normandy and were granted lands in Gloucester by the Conqueror. The Brain/Brane Coat uses three white lion/leopard heads on red background, a possible kinship-reversal of the Broc lion scheme.

In the description of the Braintree and Bocking Arms, we find a Curete-like surname at the root of the green fleur de lis, which is conspicuous since I color the Curetes green: "The blue lions on gold are from the arms of William de Sancta Maria, Bishop of London...The green fleur-de-lys are from the arms of the Courtauld family." At the same website we see the popular marine symbol of Daphne in Delphi, used by an alternative of "Courtauld":

"The dolphins [of Brock Parish Council] are from the crest of William Courtnay, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1381 to 1396. The cross and dolphins were taken as the seal of Bocking Deanery, the first of which dates from the time of William Courtnay. The Courtnays adopted a dolphin, the symbol of Byzantium, as their crest to show their connection with that maritime empire, one of whose emperors descended from a branch of the family."

http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/essex_ob.html

Zowie. If only that emperor's name was given, what a story it might tell.

I think I know where the Courtnays were from: Aquitaine. I don't say this because I had traced Melissena, a Byzantine noble, and her Varangian husband, Inger Martinakia, to Aquitaine environs. Recall from a previous chapter the Perigourdin peoples of the old Aquitaine province of Perigord. Aquitaine/Akitania has similarity to "Gatinais" -- not to mention Kythnos, home of the Martinakia Muses -- wherefore see that "...firstly, the [Courtnay] surname may be locational, from places called Courtenay in the regions of Loiret and Gatinais." As I'm seeking Inger's relations in Ingeltrude of Orleans, note that Loiret was once the province of Orleans.
http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=corteney

Perhaps the Courtnay Coat is now red and gold due to the red and gold of Aquitaine. Perigord is now the province of Dordogne/Dordonha, and so be reminded of the importance here, for the Arms of Dordogne, three gold lions on red background, are said by some to be the root of England's three gold lions on red. On the western border of Dordogne is the departement of Gironde, and so see that the Arms of Gironde is a blue and white version of the Campbell and Crotone/Crothon Coat Coats.

[Update March 1 2007 -- I had been keeping an eye out for a Gironde connection to England, and found it in the Granta river at Cambridge. This city was anciently Grantebrycge in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which may mean that the town was not initially named after a bridge, but after the Brucios/Bruttii who named Britain. In Doomsday, it was "Grentebrige(scire)." That the town was then renamed "Cambridge" is some evidence to ponder whether the two different terms didn't originate from Gironde and Cambell respectively. Could "Cambridge" be "Camp-Ridge? If so, it highlights a Campbell relationship to Gironde. Perhaps this explains why, "From 1793 to 1795, [Gironde's] name was changed to Bec-d'Ambes."

Cambridge sits extremely close to Colchester, which was at first Camuldunum. I don't think it's a coincidence that houseofnames.com gives "Cammel" as a variation of "Campbell." Therefore, the Campbells might just be the root of Camelot, and if true, the root may be further back in Gironde somewhere. The Garonne river flows into the Gironde, and because the former was anciently "Garumna, " it gives hint as to origins in southern Italy. For there was, near Buxentium, a city of Grumentum (see map of ancient Lucania). End Update]

I think I know the very peoples that the Courtnays were named after, an idea I discovered after seeing an obvious connection to the Courtaulde family (first found in Essex), since the Courtauld Coat also uses the three spheres (albeit in gold and black rather than red and gold). For having made that connection, I discovered the red and gold French Courtault Coat. There as the central symbol of that latter surname we have a single gold bugle, which I've not only traced to the cornucopia cult of the Sabines, but to the mythical goat-line peoples of Crete after whom the cornucopia became a symbol in the first place. They were Curetes (some of which moved to southern Italy as mythical Britomartis), and so see that "Courtin" and "Courtas" are in the list of variations of "Courtault." The Sabina were called, Quirites, remember, after their god of Quirinus.

Ephor Spartans and Cosmi Cretans had meshed to some degree, but in southern Italy, wars between Spartans and Cretans are evident, and it appears that Spartans came later to conquer Cretan realms. Sybaris, a term to which I attach the Spartan side, was in the province of Cosenza. Coincidence, or was that named by the Cosmi? The city of Cosenza was on the Crati river! It was the capital of Bruttium!! Therefore, I would definitely view this as the Britomartis Cretans. "Cosenza" might even be a variation of "Kythnos." In Cosenza flows the Busento river (into the Crati), a term smacking of Buxentium/Buxentia.

As I have ventured to equate the Curetes with the Cruithin of Ireland, see that the same webpage (above) tracing the Courtney surname to Orleans/Gatinais had this to say: "In some cases, bearers of the [Courtnay] surname may be of Irish descent, since Courtney is also an Anglicized form of the Gaelic "O'Curnain", descendant of Curnan, from an Old Irish personal name of obscure origins." That Irish term could be from "horn," as in a goat's horn.
http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=corteney

Now the cornucopia cult in Crete was that of Zeus and his father Cronus, who was a symbol for the Molech cult there, which metal-furnace idol from Tyre (anciently "Tyrus") was cast in the shape of a bull = Taurus. I've said that peoples depicted by Zeus were also from Dor (in pre-Israel, not far from Tyre), and that these peoples led to the "Dorus" mythical character who depicted the Greek region of Doris (home of the Dorians). As I've conjectured that bees were a symbol of the Molech cult in Crete, take a look at the English Dore/Dorey Coat, using three bees. And as the city of the Quirites was Cures, while Quirites were of the Opis/Ops (= bee) cult of the Sabines, recall that the Welsh Kerry Crest uses a beehive. Then recall my trace of Carians/Carites to the Kartli Georgians, now the Kurds, and ask if the Perigourdins of Dordogne apply.

On account of Dor having been a major Dagon center, perhaps we should understood that province to mean: Dor-Dagon. Note the central fish in the blue French Dore/Doree Coat (surname first found in Brittany), and the three white lions, similar to the Dorward Coat with three white leopard heads also on blue.

I can now report how white came to be a French color: "The use of white on banners dates to the times of Joan of Arc and the house of Orleans. A flag composed entirely of a white field was often used in conjunction with blue flags bearing fleurs-de-lis. White had been considered the Bourbon dynastic colour...Blue was the colour of the revered cloak of St. Martin." Apparently, then, the sacred blue of Freemasonry, as for example the Blue Lodge, traces to whatever St. Martin of Tours (4th century) depicted.
http://www.nava.org/Flag%20Information/articles/Quebec/quebec_flags.htm

When I learned his birthplace to be Sabaria/Savaria (Hungary), it brought to mind the Savard surname of France, because I've been keeping in mind for a couple of months now that the Savard Coat uses three spheres, like the Court- surnames. Why was I? Because the surname evokes "Sparta" and "Sepharvites" (i.e. Molech worshipers). Sybaris of southern Italy was associated with the Thurii, and these may connect with Tours. I've assumed that the Thurii were Dorians, the cousins of whom ruled Gotland under mythical Thorri. The Thuringi tribe that named Thuringia on the border of Hesse (= Catti) comes to mind.

Checking the origin of Tours, I found this: "The name of the city comes from the ancient Gallic tribe called the Turones." Therefore, the traditional idea that "Tours" derives from "tower" is probably incorrect. The Turones certainly seem qualified for founding Turin/Torino as well.

If the question is: why chose Martin of Tours, of all the St. Martins to pick from for secretly representing the Martin-sacred bloodline of the Franks, the answer should be in 1) Merovingians tracing themselves to a bull, and, 2) "[St.] Martin was named after Mars, the god of war."

The origin of the Merovingians must pass through mythical Eridanus because they are traced back to mythical Meropes of Ethiopia, which produced mythical Phaethon crashing the chariot of Helios into Eridanus. Either after or before being in Eridanus, the Merops bloodline also had to be in Autun, which is at/near the source of the Rhone. I've got to suggest that Merops (son of Helios), or rather his granddaughter "Aedon," ought to be the Redones coming to France for the first time (from the island of Helios, Rhodes).

In Greek mythology, Pandareus was the son of Clymene and Merops, and the father of Aedon. In myth, we have the following codework tracing Pandareus from Crete's wolf line (probably mythical Lycus>Ligurians) to southern Italy: "At the request of his friend, Tantalus [father of Pelops = the golden fleece line], Pandareus stole a bronze dog from a temple to Zeus [i.e. Molech] on Crete. According to various sources, he was turned to stone or fled to Sicily."
http://www.answers.com/topic/pandareus

This is pregnant with meaning, for Phaethon was identified not only as son of Helios, but as son of Apollo = the Gorgon wolf line. Apollo in his role as the wolf bloodline was named, "Apollo Lyceus" = "the wolf-god." Perhaps this dog term was Lucania. That Tantalus assisted Pandareus in taking the dog of Zeus to Italy should mean that he was part of that migration. For one, I would peg Pandareus as the region of Pandosia, in Lucania (map of ancient Lucania). Note that this city is off the Siris river, and that the star called "Sirius/Siris" is called the "Dog Star." Then see from the following quote that these peoples were likely the Avvites of Egypt (worshipers of Anubis, the dog god):

"The Primitive and leading magnifiers of this Star, were the Egyptians, the great admirers of Dogs in Earth and Heaven. Wherein they worshipped Anubis or Mercurius...Who was therefore translated into this Star; by the Egyptians called Sothis, and Siris by the Ethiopians; from whence that Sirias or the Dog-Star had its name, is by some conjectur'd."

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo413.html

Another website said the Nile was named "Siris," and yet another website clarified the specific part of the river, in Ethiopia: "...some have said that the Aethiopian Nile took from Sirius its name Siris." So, then, there we have the origin of "Siris" in Ethiopia. Coincidence? Or does Siris and Pandosia in Lucania equal the Merops bloodline coming through to Eridanus and Autun (the latter near Avallone)? Indeed, and don't forget mythical Nun from Egypt, the frog god, coming to settle the mouth of the Rhone, for that surely leads to the frog symbol of Clovis, a Merovingian king who is key to this story.

As Sirius is called the dog of Orion, note that Orion was mythical Hyria, known to be the bee god from Boiotia. It is said in myth that Poseidon, Hermes and Zeus "urinated on the hide of a bull and buried it. After nine months, Orion grew up on the spot and was named Urion by his father." Surely, Hyria leads from bee-line Boiotia to an alliance with the Taurus cult of Crete, then to the sacred bees of Clovis, and so see at the webpage below that Hyria was married to the daughter (Euryale) of the Cretan king, Minos, who was himself the son of a white bull. It seems apparent that Hyria was Euryale herself, even as the terms are similar enough, and just as Hyria in Boiotia must be the Gorgons called "Muses," so we find Wikipedia telling that Euryale was "one of the immortal Gorgons."
http://www.semjaaza.com/seven/orion.html

Clearly, this was the bee and bull bloodline of Zeus, Curetes. Hyria was moreover a region in Apulia of southern Italy, a term that certainly evokes "Apollo" and "Avalon." Apulia is therefore the root of the Merovingians and their "holy" grail cult. Not only is the constellation of Orion beside Taurus for these reasons, but Hyria loved and raped the Gorgon, Merope ( = Mer-bee), thus linking her to Merops of Ethiopia.

As Meropes was made a star in the Pleiades star group (part of Taurus), it's interesting to mention that Scandinavians viewed the Pleiades as seven chickens, which may be important in the chicken symbol of the Sinclair Normans. I say this because the Templars were both Normans and Franks, suggesting a kinship in some way.

A major city in Apulia is Tarento, and on the Tarento gulf was Turios, the city of the Thurri. See the blue and white Arms of Tarento, a dolphin ridden by Taras, "son of Poseidon and of the nymph Satyrion." What better picture to describe the Quinotaur if "Tarento" is rooted in "bull"? Note the term "Taurae" in red and gold, and that the "u" is a shell/scallop. I would root the founders/namers of Tarento to the bull cult and/or the mythical Minotaur = the Zeus Cretans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_%28mythology%29

The following doesn't necessarily show Spartan origins of Tarento, but rather that the Spartans took the region from the Iapyges from Crete: "It was in Torre Saturo [i.e. Satyrion], almost 15 km south of Taranto, that Spartan colonists settled their first colony in Taranto zone. Later, around 706 BC, they conquered the Iapygian city of Taranto." I see that Torre Satura was initially the Satyr-goat cult from Crete. As Pollux was from Leda=Ladon, the dolphin symbol that Taras rides could surely be Ladon's daughter, Daphne. In this picture, Taras is a Cretan peoples allied to Leda/Ladon Spartans (leading to the formations of the Latins). Perhaps the early waves of Spartans into the heel were of (Mene)Laus, you see, followed by his "sons," Pollux and Castor, and his daughter, Hellen of Troy...with Paris = the Epirus Helenus = the Brucios/Bruttii.

It is said by some in the Pollock family that they trace to Clovis, and so read this:

"Clovis (Cholodovech), King of the Salian Franks...promised his Christian wife Clotilda that he would be baptised if he was victorious over the Alemanni; he credited the intervention of St Martin [of Tours] with his success, and with several following triumphs...As a result, Clovis was able to move his capital to Paris, and he is considered to be the 'Founder of France'. The cult of St Martin continued to be closely identified with the Merovingian monarchy, and survived the passage of power to their successors, the Carolinginian dynasty."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_of_Tours

Thus, as the blue of the Merovingians and subsequent Franks would now appear to be from Martin of Tours, I can trace it further back than the Franks, to see if it leads, as suspected, to Amorites. Clovis started his run for world ruler from Belgic "Tournai (in Dutch: Doornik, in German: Dornick in Latin: Tornacum)," a term smacking of the Turones and Dorians. "Under kings Childeric and Clovis, Tournai was the capital of the Frankish empire."

We saw that the sacred blue color leads back also to the Bourbons. The first count of Bourbon was "Louis I of Bourbon, le Boiteux, the Lame." That term, "Boiteux," sure does evoke Boiotia (Greece), where we find mount Helicon, sacred ground of the Muses. Strabo linked Sybaris in southern Italy to a fountain in Bura/Boura (hmm), Greece, just southeast of, and related to, the city of Helike. The blue boar of the Veres now seems conspicuous, especially as Boiotia encroaches on the old realm of Calydon. There we are, a possibly link of the blue of France to the Muses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boura

A Boiotian city called Hyria (mythical Orion) was "a principal Messapian town in ancient Messapia." This latter region was the heel of Italy (Salento), and it with it's Hyria was founded, according to Herodotus, by Cretans, though there was a Messapia also in Euboea. As the Appian Way came into Puglia, and as "apis" means bee in Greek/Latin, I would venture to define Messapia as Mess-bee, and perhaps the term is founded in the Muses of Boiotian Hyria, for:

"Hyrai is a plural form: its name once had evoked the place of 'the sisters of the beehive'. According to Hesychius, the Cretan word hyron meant 'swarm of bees' or 'beehive' (Kerenyi 1976 pp 42-3). Through his "beehive" birthplace Orion is linked to Potnia...Pindar remembered that the Pythian pre-Olympic priestess of Delphi remained 'the Delphic bee' long after Apollo had usurped the ancient oracle and shrine. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo acknowledges that Apollo's gift of prophecy first came to him from three bee-maidens."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyria_%28Boeotia%29

This is all the more reason to consider tracing bee-worshiping Merovingians back to Puglia and/or other areas of southern Italy. Apparently, the Messapian Spartans were those who had moved into Messene (next to Sparta), for "In the Homeric poems eastern Messenia is represented as under the rule of Menelaus of Sparta, while the western coast is under the Neleids of Pylos."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenia

Behold now, that there was a Messina in Sicily (named after the Greek Messene) just off the coast of Bruttium, and that the Arms of Sicilian Messina is a gold lion on blue (holding a red and gold banner)! The question is, how did Messina come to use these symbols? Was the gold lion a symbol first of the Messenes, or of the Franks? Was this the basis for the gold fleur de lis on blue background?

Perhaps the reader doesn't realize the importance of discovering a Muse-like term in southern Italy. I had theorized a Muse link to Avalon, and only afterward traced Arthurian characters, independently, to southern Italy. I recall that mythical Pelops (son of Tantalus) was the golden fleece line of Mysia, and so note that geographical Pylos was a region of Messene.

The Spartans who came to conquer Tarento and other regions of Puglia were called "Partheniae." Recall, if you read the chapter, "Minoan Origins of the Bretons," that the name of Cilicia's capital, Tarsus, was previously "Parthenius." It's thereby clear in my mind that Spartans depicted by Taras and his dolphin were of Tarsus itself, the holy-grail bloodline, though I would peg them also as the Pisidians near mount Taurus (because Taras was the son of Poseidon). Because the "Parthenius" term is, in my opinion, the root of the Cruithin by their "Pretani" name, I would peg the Partheniae as the "father" of Lancelot on the Bradanus river (acting as the Apulia-Lucania border).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Leicester