Glasgow Archaeological Society [Hrsg.]: The Antonine Wall report: being an account of excavations, etc., made under the direction of the Glasgow Archæological Society during 1890 - 93 (Glasgow, 1899)

156

GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Assuming then that the Hamii garrisoned Carvoran in the second century,
we have to explain their occurrence at Barr Hill. This question cannot be
treated apart from the whole question of the garrisons of the vallum. The
inscriptions, our sole evidence, show that legionaries constructed the vallum,
just as legionaries constructed Hadrian's Wall. But it does not appear that
they garrisoned either of these frontier works when completed. It will
be observed in the following table that our inscriptions mention at least
seven auxiliary regiments along the vallum and two more at Cramond
which may fairly be treated as a frontier fort :—

Name.

Kind of Inscription.

V. of Phis.1

Hadrian's Wall.

Ala Tungrorum

1

dedication

Mumerills.

Burgh on Sands.

Cohors ii. Thracum

1

tombstone

>>

Moresby (flanking









fort to the Wall).

C. vi. Nerviorum

1

dedication

Roughcastle.

Aesica ?; Whitley









Castle.

C. i. fida Vardullorum ?

1

dedication, but

Castlecary.

High Rochester,





reading doubtful



Lanchester.

C. i. Tungrorum

1

building record

..

Housesteads.

C. i. Hamiorum

1

tombstone

Barr Hill.

Carvoran.



1

dedication





G. iv. Gallomm

1

dedication

Castlehill.

Chesterholm and









Castlesteads.

C. v. Gallorum

1

dedication

Cramond.

S. Shields.

0. i. Tungrorum

1

dedication



(see above).

C. i. Cugernorum

1

dedication (a.d.



unknown elsewhere.





140-4?)





HBAT ? coh. i. Batavorum, fragment.

Castlecary.

Carrawburgh.

I cannot prove that these troops garrisoned the vallum, for none except
the Hamii are mentioned more than once. But auxiliaries usually guarded
Roman frontiers, and the double testimony to the Hamii, tombstone and
dedication, suggests that they formed a permanent garrison ; while, if this
be admitted, it becomes extremely probable that some of the other troops
were also in permanent garrison. We may go further. As my table shows,
nearly all these regiments were quartered on Hadrian's Wall, and, as there
are indications that that wall was not evacuated when the Vallum of Pius
was built, we must suppose that both walls were held together and that the
northern line was defended by detachments from the garrisons of the
southern line. Here Germany provides an interesting though not in any
sense a precise parallel.2 In the Odenwald the German Limes is double ;

1 There is unfortunately some uncertainty as to the precise forts to which some
>of the inscriptions found along the vallum actually belong. This uncertainty
makes it difficult to locate special cohorts, but does not affect the general
argument.

2Zangemeister, Heidelberger Jahrbiicher, v. (1895), pp.82, 99; Schumacher,
ibid., vii. (1897), p. 148.