CASTRA EXPLORATORVM

Roman Fort & Minor Settlement

Netherby, Cumbria

NGRef: NY3971 OSMap: LR85 Type: Roman Fort, Minor Settlement.
Roads
Possible Road: N (7½) to Broomholm (Dumfries & Galloway) Iter II: WSW (15) to BLATOBVLGIVM (Birrens, Dumfries & Galloway) Iter II: S (9) to VXELODVNVM (Stanwix, Cumbria) possible early road: SE (10) to Old Church (Cumbria)

Castra Exploratorum - The Camp of the Scouts

Mentioned only in the Antonine Itinerary, the identification of Netherby with the Castra Exploratorum of Iter II is nontheless fairly certain. This station occurs near the start of the second itinerary, where it is recorded between Blatobulgium (Birrens, Dumfries & Galloway) at the start of the Iter II and Luguvalium (Carlisle, Cumbria). The recorded distance to both of these posting-stations is the same, namely twenty-two Roman miles, however, this does not fit the actual measured distances very well at all, though it is feasible that at the time the Antonine Itinerary was produced, the Roman road between Netherby and Carlisle took a dog-leg east along the Stanegate to Old Church, in order perhaps to avoid the marshes of the Solway Estuary.

The name Castra Exploratorum is easily translated as the Fort or Camp of the Exploratores. These were part-mounted auxiliary units recruited from among tribes noted for their tracking and hunting skills, and used primarily to reconnoiter enemy territory, akin to the Scouting service of colonial America.

The Builders of the Netherby Fort

The inscription above shows that major building work was undertaken at the Camp of the Scouts sometime during the reign of emperor Hadrian. It has been suggested that Castra Exploratorum along with other forts positioned at Fanum Cocidi (Bewcastle, Cumbria) and Blatobulgium (Birrens, Dumfries & Galloway) perhaps acted as a forward buffer zone to protect against native attacks aimed at the construction parties on the curtain wall itself. All of these forts lie about half a days march north of Hadrian's Wall, and likely all date to the early Hadrianic period (vide RIB 995; Bewcastle). The Second Legion is also known to have provided manpower for further building work in the third century (vide RIB 980 infra).

There was perhaps a further bout of construction during the reign of Commodus, as building work within the fort was dedicated to him (vide RIB 975 supra), perhaps by contingents of Legio Sextae Victrix whose work is also recorded (vide RIB 981 infra).

1. The margin of the stone also contains the legend LEG VI P F.

1. Modius Julianus was the governor of Britain by AD219.
2. The only surviving original text occurs on line 10, and reads: ...IO TEMPLVM.

Further work was perhaps undertaken by Cohors I Hispanorum who left four datable inscriptions ranging from AD213 to AD222. A further inscription dated to c.AD215-20 records the work of this auxiliary unit along with vexillations from Legio II Augusta and Legio XX Valeria Victrix, but the stone has been recut and the reading is unreliable (Vide supra).

The Garrison Units

This unit is named on a single undated altar and were probably stationed at the fort during its first period of occupation as a Hadrianic outpost fort.

1. The title Mater Castrorum and the following two titles are also confirmed on other inscriptions, notably one found in the forum Boarium (the pig market) at Rome.
2. Possibly the dual emperors, the brothers Caracalla and Geta, though the term Augusti may have been applied to Caracalla and his mother Julia, following Geta's murder in 212. This may account for the fact that Geta is not mentioned, hence the date given above.

This part-mounted unit is named on several stone inscriptions including five dated to the first quarter of the third century. It would seem that the regiment occupied the Netherby fort during the campaigns of Severus and Caracalla into Scotland between AD208 and 212, and were perhaps stationed there more or less permanently afterwards.

1. This title was likely awarded for service under the emperor Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla during their British campaigns between AD208 and 210.
2. The RIB gives a date AD214-16 without saying why it is not 213. Vide etiam RIB 976 supra, et RIB 1235 Habitancum (Risingham, Northumberland).

1. The emperor Severus Alexander came to power in AD222 and was murdered at Vicus Britannicus (Bretzenheim, Germany) in 235. It is likely that this stone was dedicated sometime during this period.

There is apparently some confusion in the Notitia Dignitatum concerning the Wall fort at Stanwix which is listed in the N.D. under the name Petrianis, after the garrison unit the Ala Gallorum Petrianum, even though its official name was Uxelodunum. But, ... there is another entry in the N.D. for a fort named Axelodunum, obviously, meaning the Stanwix fort, but listing the garrison unit as Cohors I Hispanorum, which is the attested garrison of the Netherby fort. In light of this, it seems likely that the N.D. entry for Castra Exploratorum was mistakenly named Axelodunum.

The Basilica Equestris Exercitatorius

1. The emperor Alexander Severus, who succeeded Elagabalus following his murder by the praetorians in March AD222. He was the junior colleague of Elagabalus as ordinary consuls for that year (222), and was consul for the second time in 226 with Gaius Aufidius Marcellus, and for the third - and last - time in 229 with the historian Cassius Dio (himself for the second time). It is very likely that this stone should be dated to the latter half of AD222.
2. Literally 'a large hall for the training of horsemen'.
3. Marius Valerianus was governor of Britain c.AD221/222.

When this inscription was first discovered archaeologists greeted it with great enthusiasm as it gives us the actual name the Romans used for the large riding-hall attached to the front of the principa in many auxiliary cavalry forts (see note#2, above).

The Gods of Roman Netherby

Altar to Fortuna Conservatricis

Over the years a number of stone altars have been unearthed at Netherby, some of which were dedicated to the familiar gods of classical Roman mythology although almost half offer thanks to gods of Germanic origin. The classical deities are; Apollo the sun-god and patron of music, the goddess Fortune (vide supra), Silvanus the god of the forest, Mars the war god and Jupiter the leader of the Roman pantheon. The Germanic gods represented are Cocidius (vide RIB 966 supra), Huetirus, Moguntus and Belatucader. There is also one altarstone to an unknown deity (RIB 967; not shown), which has been considerably damaged.

1. The restoration of this name is entirely conjectural.

1. The dedicator's name is difficult to reconstruct, primarily because it is entirely non-Roman, probably German.

The Military Deity Hueterus or Vitiris

1. Moguns or Mogons is a Germanic mountain god, after whom Moguntiacum (Mainz, Germany) was likely named. The suffix Vitiris is fairly commonplace, though this particular combination is unique in Britain.

The Civilian Settlement

The RIB records a single tombstone from Netherby which is, oddly enough, that of a woman, named Titullinia Pussitta (vide infra). It is possible that she was the wife of one of the unit commanders stationed at the fort, who would be the only woman (apart from domestic slaves in her household) you would normally expect to find in a military camp. The inscription however, does not name the bereaved husband let alone his rank, which would be expected if she was the wife of a senior officer.

1. The Roman province of Raetia lay mostly in south-east Gemany, extending into eastern Austria and the south-western part of the Czech Republic.

The absence of the husbands name and titles from her memorial indicates that Titullinia was more likely the wife of an ordinary soldier or perhaps even a native merchant, and as such would not be entitled to live inside the fort, but in a street-settlement or vicus positioned outside the defences of the camp. These small villages were normally located along each side of the road issuing from the main gate of a Roman fort, and the vicus at Netherby has been identified to the north-west, between Castra Exploratorum and the River Esk, where there was probably some sort of crossing in Roman times.

See: Chronicle of the Roman Emperors by Chris Scarre (Thames & Hudson, London, 1995);
Chronology of the Ancient World by E.J. Bickerman (Thames & Hudson, London, 1980);
The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965).
All English translations, including any inherent mistakes, are my own.

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