05-25-2019, 10:49 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-25-2019, 02:27 PM by Nathan Ross.)
(05-24-2019, 08:45 PM)Purplest Wrote: There isĀ evidence that subunits of it helped build the Antonine Wall.
As I'm sure you've already read, the only evidence is an altar from Old Kilpatrick fort, dedicated by Coh I Baetasiorum with their Prefect, ( C)ura (A)gente a centurion of I Italica. The Latin phrase means 'under the charge of' or perhaps 'directed by', and seems to appear when a legionary centurion is given temporary command of an auxiliary unit to perform some task.
In this case the task was probably building the wall or the fort, and the centurion Candidus would have been directing the construction work in some way. He would therfeore have been an engineering officer, rather than the leader of a legion detachment. Why such a man might have been sent all the way from Dacia to oversee this work is anyone's guess - perhaps he had distinguished himself in some engineering task before and come to the notice of his superiors? But there's not much reason to assume that any other members of Legio I Italica had travelled to Britain with him.
Nathan Ross