OSMap: LR74
Type: Roman Fort, 5 Marching Camps.
SE (10) to Chew Green (Northumberland)
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NGRef: NT6921 OSMap: LR74 Type: Roman Fort, 5 Marching Camps. |
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NW (12) to TRIMONTIVM (Newstead, Borders) SE (10) to Chew Green (Northumberland) | |
| LEG XX V V FEC |
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| "The Twentieth Legion Valiant and Victorious made this." (RIB 2119) |
"Cappuck (Fig. 8) is a little fort barely an acre in extent (about 200 by 240 feet internally) with a clay rampart on a cobble foundation 24 feet wide on the east, the weakest side, and 8 feet elsewhere. On the north and west is a double ditch 24 feet wide with no berm ; on the south a single 18-foot ditch with a 9-foot berm ; on the east a 22-foot berm followed by three ditches with intervals between them. The rampart, and the stone inner buildings, date from the second century, but there was a Flavian fort here - the objects found prove that - and it probably had the same ditch system and similar ramparts.¹
"¹ P.S.A. Scot., xlvi. In so small a fort, the ratio 200 to 250 men per acre no longer holds, for obvious reasons." (Collingwood, pp.32-4)
There are three inscriptions on stone recorded in the R.I.B. from Cappuck, all of which are shown and translated on this page; an altar to Jupiter dedicated by an auxiliary garrison unit (RIB 2117 infra), another altarstone on which the name of the deity has been lost (RIB 2118 infra), and a building inscription recording the legionary unit responsible for the fort's construction (RIB 2119 supra).
| I O M VEXILATIO RETORVM GAESAT Q C A IVL SEVER TRIB |
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| "For Jupiter Best and Greatest, the detachment withdrawn from the Gaesatae¹ commanded by the tribune Aulus Julius Severus [made this offering]." (RIB 2117; altarstone) |
| ... COH I FID VARDVL C R M EQ ET G QVINTIVS SEVERVS TRIB COH EIVSDEM DOM CAMIL RAVENNA V S L L M |
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| "[...] the First Cohort of Faithful Vardulli, one-thousand strong, part-mounted, Citizens of Rome, and Gaius Quintius Severus, of the Camillian voting tribe from Ravenna, tribune of the selfsame cohort, willingly gladly and deservedly fulfil their vow." (RIB 2118; altarstone) |
The pottery evidence from the Cappuck fort shows occupation throughout the first and second centuries. There are two sherds of South Gaulish Form 29 dated to the Agricolan period, three pieces of South Gaulish Form 37 dated to Flavian-Trajanic times, and Antonine occupation is attested by three potters stamps all represented on single sherds: Casurius Form 37, Criciro Form 37 and Ruffus Form 33. Another single piece of South Gaulish Form 27 samian bore the stamp ]OF, which cannot be identified.
There are several temporary marching camps in the close proximity of the fort, two to the north, two to the west and another to the south, all in the Borders Region (at NT6820). These are all dealt with on a separate page for Ulston Moor.
