Activities of Auxilliarys in Britain

[Arwen]

need to know, if any records of Auxilliaries being posted to Hadrian's Wall, survive?

[GhostOfClayton]

Yes - in fact so many, that my first questions is: "Can you be any more specific?"

[caldrail]

There are some mentions I believe though most of our detail on this point comes from archaeology. We know for instance that at least one cohort of african negros were posted there - I think it was in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

[Melvadius]

If you have the time you may find the Roman Britain website of interest since it includes maps and linked pages providing a lot of detailed information for each fort and other locations in Romen Britain. The webiste contains a lot of additional information although ti can be difficult to navigate to so I am including two options for the information you requested.

 

The normal way people find things is to use the main Roman Britain map and then navigate to the location they wish by clicking on the relevant layer and individual symbols on the maps which opens up additinal web pages.

 

For a search about auxilliary units this would mean going to the military layer map of the Roman Britain site and filtering for just the auxilliary forts then going into Map Squares NY and NZ. Within the map square you can click on the symbols for individual forts along Hadrian's Wall and see which auxilliary and legionary units left any evidence via inscriptions for their presence at which fort and when - although not all did so.

 

A simpler way of doing it would be to go to this page on the Roman Britain site list the Hadrian's Wall, Stanegate Forts and the Western sea defences (western extension to Hadrian's Wall around Cumbria). On this page you can get to the same location specific web pages as above by clicking on the relevant fort name.

 

There is also a separate page for the Antonine Wall here.

[Arwen]

Yes - in fact so many, that my first questions is: "Can you be any more specific?"

 

 

were they at any time, posted to Hadrians wall?

[Arwen]

If you have the time you may find the Roman Britain website of interest since it includes maps and linked pages providing a lot of detailed information for each fort and other locations in Romen Britain. The webiste contains a lot of additional information although ti can be difficult to navigate to so I am including two options for the information you requested.

 

The normal way people find things is to use the main Roman Britain map and then navigate to the location they wish by clicking on the relevant layer and individual symbols on the maps which opens up additinal web pages.

 

For a search about auxilliary units this would mean going to the military layer map of the Roman Britain site and filtering for just the auxilliary forts then going into Map Squares NY and NZ. Within the map square you can click on the symbols for individual forts along Hadrian's Wall and see which auxilliary and legionary units left any evidence via inscriptions for their presence at which fort and when - although not all did so.

 

A simpler way of doing it would be to go to this page on the Roman Britain site list the Hadrian's Wall, Stanegate Forts and the Western sea defences (western extension to Hadrian's Wall around Cumbria). On this page you can get to the same location specific web pages as above by clicking on the relevant fort name.

 

There is also a separate page for the Antonine Wall here.

TY very much Milvadius:)

[Arwen]

There are some mentions I believe though most of our detail on this point comes from archaeology. We know for instance that at least one cohort of african negros were posted there - I think it was in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

[/quote

 

Wow!!! ty Caldrail:))

[Maty]

There are some mentions I believe though most of our detail on this point comes from archaeology. We know for instance that at least one cohort of african negros were posted there - I think it was in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

 

Do we know which cohort this was? As far as I know the only African auxiliary cohorts which might be candidates were 1 Afrorum and II Ulpia Afrorum. Even if we count North Africa as a whole that gives the Maurori cohorts which served in Pannonia. There are references to a 'Mauretanian unit' on the wall (e.g. in Snowden - who seems to have assumed that 'African means black') but I can't find a definitive reference - and even then, Mauretanians were north Africans. I Flavia Musulamiorum might have included Negroes (the exact ethnicity of the tribe is uncertain) but I don't think they ever served outside Africa.

 

I've managed also to turn up two cohorts of flavia Numidiarum, but I thought these were in Dacia and Lycia - though it must be said that light horse would serve excellently on a frontier such as Hadrian's where fast communications were paramount.

 

As far as I know - and I look forward to being corrected - the only generally accepted Negro in the Roman army is an assumed Ethiopian called Lusius Quietus, and even that depends on a disputed phrase in Dio. I'm sure there were others, but skin colour doesn't seem to have featured much in Roman racial awareness (which generally used other criteria). Apart from a Roman military tombstone with a negroid skeleton beneath, I'm not sure we will ever know.

[caldrail]

Asking me which unit was where is like trying to guide a chinese airliner through fog. I know they're out there but something gets lost in communication. I too would like confirmation and I accept I'm only restating what I've read elsewhere, and not from academic sources either.

 

There is a case for compilation of all postings and associated details in an easily referenced form. The site Melvadius suggested deals only with Britain. Is there a site with better imperial coverage?

[Melvadius]

The topic of Latin inscriptions has been discussed on UNVR a few times before including:

 

Inscriptions Where to find them? in January 2011 and;

 

How to find Latin inscriptions without out physical access to CIL in December 2009

 

since then there may well be a compilation such as Caldrail suggests somewhere however I have not come across it so far and the only ones I have come across online are fairly limited in my limited experience of using them. So far as functionality is concerned tending to mainly be sorted by inscription references rather than by topic.

 

An example is the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum maintained by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum was formed in 1853 with all Latin inscriptions published on a regular/ irregular basis ever since.

 

One major issue seems to be that often, with the publically available on-line resources, the indexing is based on the CIL (or similar) reference rather than by subject matter so it makes extracting strictly military inscriptions or indeed many other topics problematical. If I remember correctly the CIL website may also be one of those which simply list the extant inscriptions and doesn't include translations of the Latin text so you may have to do your own translation. The CIL also tends to be a year or so behind the paper publication date with its electronic updates I believe currently only including items published up to 2008.

 

There are several countries which maintain their own records of inscriptions such as the annual round-up published in Britain in the Journal of Roman Studies so such inscriptions may have a country specific reference as well as a CIL or similar reference which may appear ina different year depending on publication schedules.

 

There are also the quirks in any system which makes any search 'interesting' including where an inscription may have originally been found incomplete with additional segments found at different times. This means that you could have two (or more) references which will need to be linked together, hopefully by whichever database you are looking at and with mising segments interprolated, before you can read the entire 'extant' inscription.

 

This is possibly something for someone with a vastly better knowledge of ,databases Latin text and the ability ot translate them into a modern language (any chance it could be English?) than me to spend several years compiling an easy to use, searchable database.

[GhostOfClayton]

They were all over the wall. The best way is to plough through Handbook to the Roman Wall. It's hidden in among the detail. Make sure you don't forget Arbeia. There's also detail of the Staingate and Cumbrian coast forts.

[Metella]

this wasn't my questions; but you "old timers" are really a wealth of information and energy!

 

I'm inspired each time I read on this site.