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First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-09-2012
I'm trying to get a handle on the First Cohort of Aquitanians which was present at Navio, if you're to believe the alter stones they left lying around;
http://www.roman-britain.org/places/navio.htm
can anyone point me at any good sources/papers?
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - Nathan Ross - 02-09-2012
John Spaul's Cohors 2 is probably your best bet for all auxiliary studies. I Aquitanorum seem to have left a meagre trail across the empire. Eric Birley (Roman Garrisons in the North of Britain, 1932) puts them at Carrawburgh in the late 2nd / early 3rd century (CIL 07, 00620a), at Brough in AD158. An inscription from Viminiacum (ILS 7173) seems to identify it with Coh I Aquitanorum Veterana (Equitata), which appears in Diplomata for Germania Superior (at Stockstadt am Main CIL 13,11780 and Nieder-Ingleheim CIL 13,11959) for AD74, 82, 90, 116 and 134; Birley notes that since the cohort appears on British diplomata for 112 and 124, this identification might be incorrect. The cohort ended up at the Saxon shore fort of Brancaster, presumably later in the third century.
P.A. Holder's Studies in the Auxilia of the Roman Army from Augustus to Trajan suggests that the Ancyran origo of a soldier of I Aquitanorum might derive from service in Corbulo's eastern campaigns in the reign of Nero.
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-09-2012
Thanks Nathan, great start.
Amazon are offering Cohors 2 for £763.82, I think I might go for Hadrian Books at £52 instead.
Around Navio, would they be associated with the XX in Chester?
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-10-2012
I picked these up;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohors_I_Aquitanorum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohors_I_Aquitanorum_veterana
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - Vindex - 02-10-2012
This may be of interest although perhaps just the same information.
http://www.roman-sites.com/units.htm
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - Nathan Ross - 02-10-2012
Quote:http://www.roman-sites.com/units.htmThat's a handy list. But I wonder why they start with Legio I Maximiana, who appear to have no connection to Britain?
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - Vindex - 02-10-2012
I have wondered that before and can't really answer you :roll:
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-10-2012
I'm just pondering where the Cohort would have recruited. The area associated specifically with the Aquitani tribe seems to be pretty small;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquitani
I'm wondering whether their recruitment area would have included all of the tribes marked in red as "pre-indo-european" on the above page, that would include pretty much all of what we think of now as the Basque Country, an affiliation that seems to run pretty deep to this day. Alternatively would the recruitment have been restricted to the Roman Province of Gallia Aquitania which is a more plausible recruitment area in terms of size, but far more tribally mixed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallia_Aquitania
The answer may lie in whether there are other contemporary cohorts recruited amongst the Cantabri and Vacones. I haven't found any yet, does anyone know of any?
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-10-2012
I'm also struggling with the name "Navio" what I've read states that it means "place by the river" but in what language? surely latin would suggest Fluvius or something similar
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - Vindex - 02-10-2012
There's this
The name Noe, is itself Celtic, (as is often the case with rivers) and it means “flow”.
from this site
:
http://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/navio-roman-fort-at-brough-near-hope-and-castleton-c10890.html
which isn't a scholarly web site but they obviously got it from somewhere. I am away from my books at the moment but will try and find a more convincing answer for you unless someone provides one first.
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - Vindex - 02-10-2012
John1 - I've been doing a little research into Roman Aquitaine(s) which I thought might be helpful and I was going to send you a PM but I can't without your proper name! Would you like to send me one to establish the link? Ta
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-10-2012
hi Vindex I have pm'd you
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - D B Campbell - 02-10-2012
Quote:I'm trying to get a handle on the First Cohort of Aquitanians which was present at Navio, if you're to believe the alter stones they left lying aroundWell, if you don't believe the altar stones, then the entire study of the Roman army in Britain comes crashing down! :wink:
I'm sorry to see that nobody refers to Paul Holder's Roman Army in Britain (1982), which is still a great wee book (although he fell for the "artillery range" interpretation of Burnswark -- see Ancient Warfare magazine, Vol. V, No. 6).
Here's what he writes about your cohort:
Quote:This cohort was raised in Aquitania in the reign of Augustus as part of a series of four cohorts and stationed in Upper Germany. It presumably formed part of the army of the invasion in 43, and is recorded on the diplomas of 117/120, 122, 124. It is attested at Carrawburgh in the reign of Hadrian (RIB 1550) and then recorded building at Brough-on-Now under Julius Verus (RIB 283). Early in the third century it had moved to the new fort at Brancaster where two stamped tiles have been found. It was later replaced by the Equites Dalmatae Branodunenses.Nathan's CIL VII, 620a is RIB 1550 (Carrawburgh). The two tile-stamp fragments are RIB 2466 (Brancaster). And Nava is thought to be a Celtic river name (cf. the Nahe near Bingen, Germany, and the Navia in northern Spain), linked to the word for "flowing".
(If you're reading this, Paul -- please drop me a line.)
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - John1 - 02-10-2012
"Well, if you don't believe the altar stones, then the entire study of the Roman army in Britain comes crashing down!"
The comment was directed more at the location of the find of one of the altars which is described as being found in the vicinity of Haddon Hall rather than at Navio, maybe from the supposed fort at Bakewell.
The river Navia in Northern Spain is on the edge of the Cantabri territory so I was wondering if the Cohort could have recruited so far west and carried the name to Britain.
Holder gets a good billing on the wiki pages about the unit
Pastscape seems to state Nava is British for River,
http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=309471&search=all&criteria=fort
Re: First Cohort of Aquitanians - D B Campbell - 02-10-2012
Quote:The river Navia in Northern Spain is on the edge of the Cantabri territory so I was wondering if the Cohort could have recruited so far west and carried the name to Britain.I would say that's unlikely. The river probably already had its Celtic name, which the builders of the Brough-on-Noe fort adopted. (But that's just my opinion.)
Leo Rivet (who was a "place names" guy) has some interesting remarks on this (in Britannia 11, 1980, pp. 1-19). Some Roman places are simply named after the Roman construction there (e.g. place names Traiectus or Pons/Pontes, beside a Roman bridge), while others combine a Roman element with a pre-existing (in the West) Celtic element (e.g. place names ending in -bona, "building", or -magus, "market", or -ritum, "ford", or -dunum, "fortification"). Others are simply native names (Rivet illustrates native Ligurian names in southern Gaul). The transference of a river name seems fairly common.
Rivet believes that, when initially planted, a Roman fort was named after the unit based there. (Some sites never progressed from this initial stage: e.g. Castra Exploratorum, Netherby; Castra Batavorum, Passau.) He postulates a hypothetical conversation between the governor and his advisor: "We can't go on calling this place Cohors III Nerviorum. What is its real name?" -- to which the reply is: "We call it Durobrivae, the fort by the bridge." [ Or Navio, the place by the river? ]