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Roman Garrisons in the North of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

Since the antiquaries of the eighteenth century—Hunter, Gordon, and Horsley—identified the forts on Hadrian's Wall with the stations per lineam valli by means of inscriptions found in them, further epigraphic material has accumulated, as a result of which all the forts except those at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Rudchester, as far west as Birdoswald, have produced evidence of the regiments assigned by the Notitia Dignitatum to the stations Segedunum-(C)amboglanna. But, in a number of instances, there have also come to light inscriptions set up by regiments that do not occur in the Notitia, or that are placed elsewhere in that list; the purpose of the present paper is to consider the significance of these inscriptions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright ©Eric Birley 1932. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 55 note 1 Cf. however, Macdonald, , The Roman Wall in Scotland (1911), pp. 322 ff.Google Scholar

page 55 note 2 Cf. Grosse, , Römische Militärgeschichte, p. 28Google Scholar.

page 55 note 3 For the most part, it will be sufficient to refer to a single inscription of each regiment at each site. It is assumed that, besides building-inscriptions, corporate dedications (usually to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus) by alae or cohorts indicate the presencein garrison of the dedicating regiment at the fort where the dedication occurs. It may be premised that the view which has occasionally been put forward, that some regiments garrisoned forts on both Walls at the same time, is hardly borne out by the available evidence, besides being in itself highly improbable.

‘Inscr.’ in the following enumeration indicates inscriptions whose date is not specified; throughout this section, accepted emendations of the Notitia have been adopted without comment. The following abbreviations are used: AA4, = Archaeologia Aeliana, fourth series. CW2 = Transactions, new series, of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. C = CIL vii. EE = Ephemeris Epigraphica.

page 56 note 1 P-W, vol. iv (1901), col. 338, art. cohors.

page 56 note 3 The cohort was at High Rochester early in the third century, and at Lanchester in the latter part of the second (C. 1045, 440); it was at one time at Castlecary (C. 1096), and an inscription at Jedburgh (JRS xi, 238) should indicate that it was stationed in the valley of the Tweed, though at what fort it is not clear, during the Roman occupation of Scotland.

page 57 note 1 It is not clear whether the cohort was at Carrawburgh or not; the inscription is a difficult one.

page 57 note 2 Cf. EE ix. p. 566.

page 59 note 1 Further changes in the composition of the British army may have been brought about by the transfer of regiments to other provinces. The a. Agrippiana miniata which appears in the British diploma for A.D. 122 is possibly the same as the a. Agrippiana of the Lollianus inscription (ILS 2724); similarly, a. Gallorum et Thracum Classiana c. R. of that diploma may be represented by the a. Gallorum et Thracum of the díploma for Palestine, A.D. 139; and a. V Raetorum, in Egypt in the Notitia, is presumably the cohort that was in Britain in A.D. 122, transformed into an ala, as had happened in a number of instances by the time of the Notitia's composition.