Recruitment in the Auvergne

[John1]

I am trying to get a handle on which Roman units might have been recruiting in and around the Auvergne for garrisoning the UK. It looks like the area might be on the eastern periphery of the Aquitanians (Bakewell) but also Malone shows XX (Chester) drew Tribunes and Centurians from the Rhone Valley. Were any other units likely to have recruited in the region? Any hints an tips on good Roman, particularly military, sites in the Auvernge would be very useful. Thanks for any hints and tips you can provide....

[Nathan Ross]

which Roman units might have been recruiting in and around the Auvergne

Malone shows XX (Chester) drew Tribunes and Centurians from the Rhone Valley.

Difficult question to answer, I think - there's very little evidence for the geographical origin of auxiliary soldiers after their units started recruiting locally. I would guess the cohortes Aquitanorum might be a possibility, or the various cohors Gallorum, which presumably drew men from all over the place. But the lack of large numbers of units drawing their titles from more settled provinces might indicate that the army preferred to recruit from the frontier regions (perhaps just because that's where the military bases were?)

Legionary tombstones often give a place of origin, or at least a tribe, but officers could have come from anywhere. By the first century I would think the Rhone valley was both entirely Romanised and quite wealthy, so an ideal place to find the ambitious provincial minor aristocrats that increasingly made up the Roman officer caste!