Gabrosis

Moresby Castle
Alternative name	a) Gabrosenti ; b) Gabrosenti ; c) Gabrocentio ; d) Gubrosenti
limes	Britain
section	Hadrian's Wall ( Cumbrian Coast Defense )
Dating (occupancy)	Hadrianic , ; 2nd to 5th centuries AD?
Type	a) Cohort fort ; b) Fleet station?
unit	a) Legio XX (construction crew), ; b) Cohors II Lingonum , ; c) Cohors II Thracum , ; d) Classis Britannica ?
size	approx. 109 × 122 meters, ; 1.4 ha
Construction	Stone fort
State of preservation	rectangular complex with rounded corners, not visible above ground
place	Parton / Moresby
Geographical location	54 ° 34 '22.8 " N , 3 ° 34' 33.6" W Coordinates: 54 ° 34 '22.8 " N , 3 ° 34' 33.6" W.
Previous	Magis Castle (northeast)
Subsequently	Tunnocelum Fort (southeast)

Coin portrait of Hadrian

Location sketch

Attempted reconstruction of the fort (state in the 2nd century AD)

Legio XX building inscription (British Museum)

Building inscription of the Cohors II Thracorum

St. Bridget's Church

View from the south of the fort area and the nearby coast

Gabrosa was a Roman auxiliary fort in the Parish Parton, Moresby, Copeland District, Cumbria, England.

The fortress was part of a coastal defense system, consisting of a chain of forts and watchtowers, along the west coast of Cumbria, which should prevent the western flank of Hadrian's Wall from being bypassed . The archaeological monument includes the remains of a fort and a civil settlement. Of both of them, extensive and well-preserved foundations of the fortifications and the buildings should still be preserved in the ground. Its remains provide an insight into the Roman occupation of northern England and the complex relationship between Roman fortresses, settlement and trade activities.

Surname

This military station appears in the two most important written sources for late Roman antiquity; the Notitia Dignitatum ( Gabrosenti ) and in the Cosmology of the Geographer of Ravenna , where it is registered as Gabrocentium , between the as yet unlocated Iuliocenon and Alauna (Maryport). The ancient place name comes from the Celtic, obviously a combination of gabr and sent and literally means “the goat path”. The current place name was first mentioned in 1160. Moresceby, Mawriceby or Moricebi (= the place or the village of Maurice) should have old French (or Norman) and Scandinavian roots. Presumably a larger farm or village was built there during this time.

location

The fort is in west Cumbria, 5 miles north of St. Bees Head, between the villages of Parton and Lowca, 2 miles north of Whitehaven on the A595, on the edge of the Lake District . The fort area partially covers a pasture and St. Bridget's cemetery, located on a plateau between the northern end of the built-up area of Parton and Lowca Beck, in the district of Moresby. The plateau drops steeply in the north and west, but only gently in the south. From there you had a good view of the Solway Firth , the Scottish coast and the Isle of Man . The church stands in the northeast area of the former Roman fort. There was probably a direct road connection with the forts of Magis (Burrow Walls) in the north, Derventio (Papcastle) in the northeast and Tunnocelum (Ravenglass) in the southeast. In the late 2nd century this coastal region belonged to the province of Britannia inferior , from the 4th century to the province of Britannia secunda and, after a further administrative reform, probably to the province of Valentia .

Research history and range of finds

William Camden mentions Gabrosis in his 1637 description of Britain. John Horsley reported in 1789 of ancient vaults, foundations, some caves (Picts holes), fragments of Roman inscriptions and altars that were found in Moresby. During earthworks in 1822, remnants of Roman walls were found that were preserved up to a height of 0.91–1.21 meters. Between 1822 and 1840, coins from the time of Domitian , Carausius , Constantine I, Constantius and Constans were found when a new road was built near Moresby Hall. A Roman building that was discovered south of the fort in 1859 was believed to be part of the camp village. In 1892 a spearhead was encountered. Later excavations revealed the location of the north gate, the foundations of the south gate and possibly the foundations of the east wall. During excavations on the north side of the camp in 1951 by Brenda Swinbank, the moat and a ceramic fragment from post-Roman times were found. Robbery graves uncovered a number of small stone pillars, possibly the supports of a hypocaust. In 1977 aerial photos of the fort area were made. In 1979 a geophysical survey was carried out on behalf of the Department of the Environment.

Ten Roman inscriptions are known from Moresby, including a few altars. One was dedicated to the forest god Silvanus. Another to the supreme Roman state god Iupiter Optimus Maximus, who was presumably set up in the principia of the fort. A badly damaged inscription celebrated the successful construction or rebuilding of a gable. Another fragment of the inscription (discovered in 1586) names a centurion who apparently had completed a work assignment there. What kind of activity it was or whether Severinus was a member of the military is unknown. The coins found on the storage area date from the second to fourth centuries AD.

development

In 122 the Romans began building Hadrian's Wall, which stretched from Bowness-on-Solway ( Maia ) to Wallsend ( Segedunum ) on the North Sea. After that, the Romans also built a security chain of cohort forts, small forts and watchtowers on the west coast of Cumbria. Their crews were supposed to fend off attacks by the Scots from Ireland and the Caledonii and Picts, the most powerful tribes in Scotland. Subsequently, it was also intended to prevent the wall from being bypassed by landing on the west coast or by foraging through the two relatively flat Solway fjords. An inscription from the Legio XX suggests that the fort must have been built during the reign of Hadrian around 128. The location suggests that the inscription was originally placed over the passage of the east gate. Two other, undated, building inscriptions document that the buildings of the camp were subjected to a renovation at a later date, which was apparently carried out by the two garrison units. Most of these appear to have been minor repairs. According to the coin finds and the entry in the Notitia Dignitatum , the fort was occupied until the late 4th or early 5th century.

Fort

The fort, oriented from west to east, can only be seen today from aerial photographs and from elevations in the ground. It had the long rectangular floor plan with rounded corners (playing card shape), typical of medieval forts, measured 109 meters (north-south) × 122 meters (west-east) and covered an area of 1.41 ha. According to a geophysical survey carried out in 1979 Investigation, it was also surrounded by a single, 3.3 meter wide pointed ditch. It ran from north to south and could be followed over a length of about 30 meters. At its northern end it turned slightly west. Traces of a Roman road were found south of the fort.

The fort wall is best preserved on the west and south sides. In places it still reaches a height of 1 meter at the eastern end and up to about 4 meters in the southwest corner of the camp. The north side has been less carefully examined and its eastern end can hardly be seen. The remains of the wall at the northwest corner, however, are still 3 meters upright. The rear earth ramp within the churchyard is still visible as a slight, 0.5 meter high elevation. On the west side the corner sections and especially the earth ramp (0.5 meters high) are better preserved than on the other sides. At the SW corner you can still see stones from the fort wall. No traces can be seen from the moat or the gates. The interior of the fort is also completely leveled and shows no special features.

The camp could be entered through four gates. The camp wall was presumably also reinforced by internal square towers and four corner towers. The fort probably also had the interior buildings that were standard for mid-imperial auxiliary troop camps: in the center the headquarters ( principia ), the commandant's house ( praetorium ), one or two granaries ( horrea ) and team barracks ( contubernia ), including functional buildings such as a bathhouse ( balineum ) , Workshops ( fabricae ), bakeries and a latrine. During the archaeological excavations, the remains of a hypocaust came to light near the north wall, which suggests that either the home of the commanding officer or the bathhouse was located there.

garrison

Gabroson must have been occupied by regular Roman soldiers from the middle of the 2nd century at the earliest. Legionnaires may also have stayed in the camp temporarily. They were usually not assigned to garrison service at the border, but instead sent special forces for the more demanding construction projects at the border fortifications.

The following units are known for Moresby:

Time position	Troop name	description
2nd century AD	Legio Vicesimae Valeria Victrix ("the victorious 20th Legion, the Valerian")	According to an inscription found on the east gate in 1822, members of this legion were likely to have been involved in construction work between 128 and 138 in the camp. Presumably this legion built the fort. One of the inscriptions found in Moresby mentions only from the serial number of a cohort ( COH VII ). This could mean that the construction crew consisted of members of the seventh cohort of this legion. Such stones (slab or centurial stones) were usually set by legionaries. Sometimes the name of the legion and the commanding centurion of the cohort were also given on it. One of these officers stationed in Moresby could - according to an inscription - have been Lucius Severinus.
2nd century AD?	Cohors Secundae Lingonum equitata ("the second partially mounted cohort of Lingons")	The presence of this unit in Moresby is evidenced by a building inscription that could not be dated. The troops were then commanded by a prefect named Valerius Lupercus . An altar for Silvanus was donated by the tribune Gaius Pompeius Saturninus . The approximately 500-strong troop was originally recruited from the tribe of the Lingons who settled in the province of Germania Superior , in the region around today's Dijon (France). The unit is also known from an altar from Ilkley, Yorkshire. Presumably they provided the first garrison for Gabroism . In late antiquity, according to the Notitia Dignitatum , she was stationed in the Congavata fort on Hadrian's Wall.
2nd to 5th centuries AD?	Cohors Secundae Thracum equitata ("the second partially mounted cohort of the Thracians")	The troops were probably recruited from different tribes from the province of Thracia , which were resident on the coasts of the Aegean, the Black Sea and in the regions of southern Bulgaria, eastern Macedonia and west of the Bosporous. According to the Notitia Dignitatum , the unit was stationed in Moresby in the late 4th century. She belonged to the Limitanei des Dux Britanniarum and was commanded by a tribune at that time. Further epigraphic references to their presence in Moresby can also be found on an altar for Iupiter (donated by Prefect Mamius Nepos ), an inscription and a tombstone of the soldier Smertrius, son of Macer. Since the unit is still mentioned in the Notitia, it could have been here until the dissolution of the provincial army in the early 5th century.
2-4 Century AD	Classis Britannica ? (the British fleet)	Whether naval units or ships of the canal fleet were stationed in the port of the fort has not yet been proven due to the lack of relevant finds, but it is probable due to the location and function of the fort.

Vicus, burial ground and harbor

Like most Roman forts, the one in Moresby must have been surrounded by a civilian settlement ( vicus ). The foundations of a Roman building (9.4 × 4.7 meters) were discovered south of the camp during drainage work. It probably belonged to the vicus of the camp. It is believed to have been inhabited from AD 128 to the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. In 1725, William Stukeley reported on a gravestone of a soldier of the Thracian cohort from Moresby. John Horsley also inspected it in 1732, the stone at Ingclose-Field - a little east of Moresby Hall. Today it is missing, but suggests the existence of a burial ground near the fort. The garrison was probably mostly supplied via a port. Where it was is still unknown.

literature

William Camden: Britannia, or A Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. by William Camden, 1586, translated from the 1607 Latin edition by Richard Gough, published in London, 1789.
Samuel Jefferson: Allerdale Ward. 1842, pp. 447-448.
John Collingwood Bruce: Handbook to the Roman Wall. 1884.
John Collingwood Bruce: Archaeologia Aeliana: or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity. No. 5, 1861, pp. 138-139.
William Whellan: The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. 1860, Pontefract.
Eric Birley: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society. No. 48, 1948, pp. 42-72.
Eric Birley: The Roman fort at Moresby. 1948.
Albert Rivet, Colin Smith: The place-names of Roman Britain. 1979.
Brenda Swinbank: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society. No. 51, 1951, pp. 176-177.
Eilert Ekwall: The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names. Clarendon Press, Fourth Edition, Oxford 1980.
Richard Pearson Wright, Edward John Phillips: The Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in Carlisle Museum. Carlisle 1975.
Xavier Delamarre: Noms de lieux celtiques de l'Europe ancienne. Errance, Paris 2012.
Aileen Armstrong, Allen Mawer, Frank Stenton, FM Dickens-Bruce: The Place-Names of Cumberland, English Place-Name Society. Vol. XXII, Part III, 1952, p. 512.
David Breeze: Handbook to the Roman Wall. 14th Edition, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle 2006, ISBN 0-901082-65-1 .
J. Bennet, D. Bartlett, T. Holmes: A watching brief south-east of Moresby roman fort, 1980. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, 1987, pp. 256-258.

Remarks

RIB = Roman inscriptions in Britain

↑ Ravenna No. 107/3, Rivet / Smith 1979, pp. 364-365, Eilert Ekwall 1960, p. 1195, Delamarre 2012
↑ PARTON ROMAN FORT, CUMBRIA. Geophysical Survey, 1979, pp. 1-4.
↑ Camden 1789, p. 169, PARTON ROMAN FORT, CUMBRIA. Geophysical Survey, 1979, pp. 1-4, RIB 797 , RIB 798 , RIB 799 , RIB 805
↑ PARTON ROMAN FORT, CUMBRIA. Geophysical Survey, 1979, p. 2
^ Building inscription RIB 801 ; 128-138, RIB 802 , RIB 805 .
↑ , RIB 635 , RIB 798 , RIB 800
↑ RIB 797 122 AD - 300 AD, RIB 803 , RIB 804 , Notitia Dignitatum , XL, 50: Tribunus Cohortis secundae Thracum, GABROSENTI (GUBROSENTI) .
↑ Jefferson 1842, pp. 447-448, RIB 804 , Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 51, 1951, pp. 176-177.

Web links

[1] Ravenna No. 107/3, Rivet / Smith 1979, pp. 364-365, Eilert Ekwall 1960, p. 1195, Delamarre 2012

[2] PARTON ROMAN FORT, CUMBRIA. Geophysical Survey, 1979, pp. 1-4.

[3] Camden 1789, p. 169, PARTON ROMAN FORT, CUMBRIA. Geophysical Survey, 1979, pp. 1-4, RIB 797 , RIB 798 , RIB 799 , RIB 805

[4] PARTON ROMAN FORT, CUMBRIA. Geophysical Survey, 1979, p. 2

[5] Building inscription RIB 801 ; 128-138, RIB 802 , RIB 805 .

[6] , RIB 635 , RIB 798 , RIB 800

[7] RIB 797 122 AD - 300 AD, RIB 803 , RIB 804 , Notitia Dignitatum , XL, 50: Tribunus Cohortis secundae Thracum, GABROSENTI (GUBROSENTI) .

[8] Jefferson 1842, pp. 447-448, RIB 804 , Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 51, 1951, pp. 176-177.