This page created 15 November 2015, and last modified: 15 November 2015

The tenth officer listed (154.26 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) under the command of the Dux Britanniarum following the subsection headed "along the line of the Wall" (item 154.16, per lineam valli), is the Tribunus cohortis primae Asturum, said to be stationed at Aesica.

Entry 154.26, giving a Tribunus cohortis primae Asturum, is somewhat problematic. Only a single record outside the Notitia can be found for a British association with a unit of this name: an Algerian inscription (ILS 2767) mentioning a [pr]AEF COH I ASTURUM PR BRITTA[n]IAE. Since the unit's station is given as Aesica (the fort at modern Great Chesters near Haltwhistle in Northumberland), and a dedication slab found there (RIB 1738) dating to 225 records the activities of the soldiers of cohors II Asturum, it may be the Notitia is in error. This suspicion is reinforced when one considers the lack of other evidence for a cohors I Asturum in Britain, other than the Algerian inscription mentioned above, while cohors II Asturum has many attestations as being in Britian, not only from diplomata, but also two inscriptions (RIB 407, RIB 408) from Llano in Wales (Roman Bremia), where the unit was presumably garrisoned before moving to Great Chesters. Like the ala I Asturum (154.19) and ala II Asturum (154.22) also listed under the Dux, this unit would have been originally recruited from the Asturian region in Spain.

As with all limitanei units in the Notitia, the shield pattern of the cohors I (or II) Asturum is not illustrated.

1. Ingo Maier; "Appendix 4: Numeration of the new edition of the compilation 'notitia dignitatum' (Cnd)"; last accessed 26 October 2015. See also for here for numbering examples. Return

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