Eboracum Eboracum Eboracum (Latin /ebo'rakum/, English or ) was a fort and city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Roman Empire and ultimately evolved into the present-day city York, occupying the same site in North Yorkshire, England. Two Roman emperors died in Eboracum: Septimius Severus in 211 AD, and Constantius Chlorus in 306 AD. The first known recorded mention of Eboracum by name is dated and is an address containing the genitive form of the settlement's name,
Eboracum "Eburaci", on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in what is now the modern Northumberland. During the Roman period, the name was written both "Eboracum" and "Eburacum" (in nominative form) . The name "Eboracum" comes from the Common Brittonic "Eburākon", which means "yew tree place". The word for "yew" was "*ebura" in Proto-Celtic (cf. Old Irish "ibar" "yew-tree", (older "iobhar"), , "alder buckthorn", "alder buckthorn"), combined with the proprietive suffix "*-āko(n)" "having" (cf. Welsh "-og", Gaelic "-ach") meaning "yew tree place" (cf. "efrog" in Welsh, "eabhrach/iubhrach" in Irish Gaelic and "eabhrach/iobhrach" in Scottish Gaelic, by which