Greetings,<br>
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Where the forts on Hadrians wall only occupied by auxilia forces? Does someone know of a fort where a group of legionaries was stationed? The time period I'm looking for is the early period of the wall, until around 150 AD.<br>
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Thanks very much in advance,<br>
Valete,<br>
MarcusMummius <p></p><i></i>
<em>Where the forts on Hadrians wall only occupied by auxilia forces? Does someone know of a fort where a group of legionaries was stationed?</em><br>
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Step forward the heretic. The legions built most of the thing, were almost certainly involved in building the forts after the 'forts decision' and would presumably have been based in them whilst finishing them off. There may even have been legionaries involved after that: a Newstead type lorica segmentata hinge came from Great Chesters, whilst the Vindolanda writing tablets appear to include references to legionaries at that site immediately prior to the Wall being built, and Corbridge (just south of the Wall) had legionaries based there throughout the 2nd century.<br>
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The problem is one of visibility of the evidence. There may have been detachments of legionaries around like those posted to train the Usipi during Agricola's campaigns in Scotland, but they are not easy to spot with our highly limited evidence.<br>
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The Roman army had a predilection for mixed garrisoning (in fact, I would go so far as to say that garrison homogeneity was the exception, not the rule: remember the Vindolanda tablet talking about all the Batavians outposted at Coria?) so it would not surprise me to find legionaries knocking around on the Wall. Not in cohorts perhaps, perhaps not even in centuries, but they would have been around (look at all the evidence for outposting of small numbers of soldiers from provinces like Egypt). Very small detachments are probably less likely to indulge in the 'epigraphic habit' so you will not find any monumental inscriptions saying 'Hey look at us! Legionaries at Housesteads' but the tombstones, were they to survive in any numbers, might tell a different story.<br>
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Of course, you won't find that in any of the standard text books, where an overly simplistic 'one auxiliary unit = one auxiliary fort' view prevails... yet.<br>
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Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>
Quote:</em></strong><hr>Of course, you won't find that in any of the standard text books, where an overly simplistic 'one auxiliary unit = one auxiliary fort' view prevails... yet<hr><br>
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Hehe, I've been to hadrian's wall two weeks ago and I, along with my fellow archaeology students got a guided tour by the man who dug up Birdoswald and even he only mentioned auxilia.<br>
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Thanks! <p></p><i></i>
there are several Tablets from Vindolanda citing different Aux forces,
1st Cohort of Tungrians,under Iulius Verecundus ,the 9th Cohort of Batavians under Flavius Cerialis ,3rd Cohort of Batavians(Centurion Equester),There are also referances to Cavalry units at Vindolanda, one refers to Vardullian cavalrymen owing 7 denarii and several letters being deliverd by Cavalry men but no name of the Unit/s concerned.
If you keep in mind that the majority of administrative and technical specialists came from the legions (at least as our evixdence indicates) it is quite likely that some legionaries were up at the wall, given it was an important centre for overseeing trade and managing native relations. And given how mobile some legion contingents seem to have been (evidence for Egypt indicates that hundreds, if not thousands, of men retzurned to their home base no more than once a year, and some were excused even that) I think you can make a case for legionaries being found pretty much anywhere.
Quote:If you keep in mind that the majority of administrative and technical specialists came from the legions (at least as our evixdence indicates) it is quite likely that some legionaries were up at the wall,.
Quite so,one of the VT's is from a Vittius Adiutor, eagle-bearer of the Second Augustan Legion to his brother,Cassius Saecularis,fits the hypothesis that he might have been a centurion, a decurion or an optio in a unit stationed at Vindolanda as a vexillation from legio vii Augusta in Britain.They also mention several Issues of food and equipment to Legionaires,but no mntion of their parent unit.
Co incedentally Vettius Adiutor might be one of two brothers attested on inscriptions from Pannonia.
Greetings,
wasn't some of VI Victrix up there...I had the impression they did 'tours' from headquarters over in York...
regards
Arthes.
Quote:wasn't some of VI Victrix up there...I had the impression they did 'tours' from headquarters over in York...
There were elements of
legiones II,
VI, and
XX at Corbridge (and probably Carlisle) throughout the second half of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD in military compounds. However, in the case of Corbnridge at least, this has as much (or even more) to do with what is happening in Scotland, as it does HW.
Mike Bishop