Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:16:38.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

M. Maenius Agrippa, the Expeditio Britannica and Maryport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

S.S. Frere
Affiliation:
Marcham, Oxon.

Extract

The Hadrianic fort at Maryport in Cumbria is well known for the large series of altars found in its vicinity, including twenty dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus (RIB 815–31, 833–35) and one to Jupiter Augustus (RIB 814). Of these, sixteen were dedicated by cohors i Hispanorum equitata and its successive commanders; they are thought to be annual dedications made either on 3 January or on the anniversary of the emperors succession. Four of these altars were dedicated by M. Maenius Agrippa, and four by C. Caballius Priscus, both of whom are recorded as holding the rank of tribune; four other commanders have the rank of prefect, save one who might have been a centurion in temporary command as praepositus. If the dedications are annual, a total of fourteen or fifteen years is involved. As prefects normally commanded cohorts five hundred strong while milliary cohorts were commanded by tribunes, it has often been suggested that cohors i Hispanorum during Hadrian's reign had been doubled in strength for about eight years, only later to be reduced again to its original size. The cohort had been in Britain at least since the Flavian period, when it is recorded at Ardoch (RIB 2213); but its expansion to milliary strength under Hadrian, ifit occurred at all, which in this paper I suggest it did not, would probably have happened c. A.D. 125, because the newly built fort at Maryport at c. 1.9 ha is too large to have been planned for a quingenary unit. The forts of these units normally averaged c. 1.5 ha, whereas Maryport approaches the average for milliary cohorts of c. 2 ha. The reduction of the cohort back to its original strength, it has been argued, would have taken place in the early 130s, when a detachment may have been sent to serve in the Jewish War, which broke out in 132.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 31 , November 2000 , pp. 23 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © S.S. Frere 2000. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bérard, F. 1995: ‘Un nouveau procurateur à Aime en Tarentaise’, Gallia 52, 343–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birley, A.R. 1981: The Fasti of Roman Britain, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Birley, E. 1953a: Roman Britain and the Roman Army, KendalGoogle Scholar
Birley, E. 1953b: ‘Roman garrisons in Wales’, Arch. Cambr. 102, 219Google Scholar
Birley, E. 1966: ‘Alae and cohortes milliariae’, in Corolla Memoriae Erich Swoboda Dedicata, Graz/Köln, 5467Google Scholar
Breeze, D.J. 1997: ‘The regiments stationed at Maryport and their commanders’, in Wilson 1997, 6789Google Scholar
Butler, R.M. (ed.) 1971: Soldier and Civilian in Roman Yorkshire, LeicesterGoogle Scholar
Caruana, I.D. 1997: ‘Maryport and the Flavian conquest of North Britain’, in Wilson 1997, 4051Google Scholar
Dobson, B. 1978: Die Primipilares, KölnGoogle Scholar
Eck, W., and Paunov, E. 1997: ‘Ein neues Militärdiplom für die Auxiliartruppen von Germania inferior aus dem Jahr 127’, Chiron 27, 335–54Google Scholar
Jarrett, M.G. 1976a: Maryport, Cumbria: a Roman Fort and its Garrison, KendalGoogle Scholar
Jarrett, M.G. 1976b: ‘An unnecessary war’, Britannia 7, 145–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keppie, L.J.F. 1994: ‘Roman inscriptions and sculpture from Birrens: a review’, Trans. Dumfriess. & Galloway Nat. Hist. & Ant iq. Soc. 69, 3551Google Scholar
Maxfield, V.A. 1981: The Military Decorations of the Roman Army, LondonGoogle Scholar
Nolle, J. 1997: ‘Militärdiplom für einen in Britannien entlassenen “Daker”’, ZPE 117, 269–76Google Scholar
Pflaum, H.-G. 1960: Les Carrières procuratoriennes équestres, ParisGoogle Scholar
Ritterling, E. 1925: art. ‘Legio’, in Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 12, Stuttgart, 12111829Google Scholar
Roxan, M.M. 1994: Roman Military Diplomas 1985–93, Inst. of Arch, occasional paper no. 14, LondonGoogle Scholar
Strobel, K. 1986: ‘Rekonstruktion der Laufbahn des C. Velius Rufus’, ZPE 64, 265–86Google Scholar
Tomiin, R.S.O., and Hassall, M.W.C. 1992: ‘Roman Britain in 1991. Inscriptions’, Britannia 23, 309–23Google Scholar
Wilson, R. J. A. 1997: Roman Maryport and its Setting, KendalGoogle Scholar