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Numeri Barcariorum: A Note on RIB 601

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

D. C. A. Shotter
D. C. A. Shotter
Affiliation:
University of Lancaster
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Extract

RIB 601 is a sandstone altar which was discovered in 1794 in the churchyard at Halton-on-Lune, three miles upstream of Lancaster. The stone, which is broken on its right-hand side, records a dedication made to Mars by a certain Sabinus and the men of a Numerus Barcariorum. It has been generally assumed that this is the same unit as the Numerus Barcariorum Tigrisiensium placed in the Notitia Dignitatum at ARBEIA (South Shields); this reference in the Notitia has been plausibly taken to apply to the late fourth century. This assumption of identity therefore entails postulating an earlier date for the unit's stay at Lancaster. As far as purpose is concerned, the usual assumption is that the function of the barcarii was one of transportation and lighterage. It is the purpose of this note to re-examine both assumptions.

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Articles
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Britannia , Volume 4 , November 1973 , pp. 206 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © D. C. A. Shotter 1973. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Text of RIB 601: DEO | MART[I] | SABINV[S] | P P ET MILIT[ES] | N BARC S C | EII VS PO[S].

2 See note of R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright to RIB 601 and I. A. Richmond, Roman Archaeology and Art, (London 1969), 34.

3 Not. Dign. Occ. xl, 22.

4 See Gillam, J. P., ‘Also, Along the Line of the Wall’, CW2 xlix (1949), 47.Google Scholar (Also Birley, E. B., CW2 xxxix (1939), 208Google Scholar and Stevens, C. E.CW2 1 (1950), 70 ff.)Google Scholar

5 For observations, see Watkin, W. T., Roman Lancashire (Liverpool 1883), 167 ff.Google Scholar; Johnson, Alice in Trans. Lancashire Cheshire Antiq. Soc. xxiv (1907), 5 ff.Google Scholar; Droop, J. P. and Newstead, R. in Liverpool Annals of Arch, and Anth. xv (1928), 33 ff.Google Scholar; Richmond, I. A. in Trans. Hist. Soc. Lancashire Cheshire cv (1953), 11–12.Google Scholar (Also Collingwood, R. G. and Richmond, I. A., The Archaeology of Roman Britain (London 1969), 56.)Google Scholar

6 The excavations of I. A. Richmond in 1958 and 1965, G. M. Leather in 1965-72 and G. D. B. Jones in 1971. Full reports are as yet unpublished, but summaries are to be found in JRS xlix (1959), 106-8, Britannia ii (1971), 254, and iii (1972), 312–13.

7 Richmond, I. A., Trans. Hist. Soc. Lancashire Cheshire cv (1953), 12.Google Scholar

8 R. G. Gollingwood and I. A. Richmond, op. cit. (note 5), 157.

9 CIL vii 137. See also Webster, G., The Roman Imperial Army, (London 1969), 158.Google Scholar

10 RIB 616 and 617. (See JRS xlvii (1957), 227).

11 In RIB 616 the dedication is to Deo Marti Nodonti; in RIB 617 to D M N. For the synthesis, cf. RIB 305.

12 Vegetius, De Re Militari iv, 37. (See I. A. Richmond, Roman Archaeology and Art, 90 ff.)

13 To be deduced from the tombstone of L. Julius Apollinaris (RIB 606), which from its formulae must belong to the second century, and on which the name of the unit has been almost certainly restored by B. J. N. Edwards as Ala Augusta. Although the suggestion is itself an old one, Edwards has been able to put it virtually beyond doubt on the basis of the drawings and notes of the eighteenth-century antiquarian, Father Thomas West (see JRS lix (1969), 235-6). Such a presence must antedate A.D. 188, when the unit is found at Olenacum (Old Carlisle)–see RIB 893.

14 Attested by tile stamps (CIL vii 1233), and by a dedicatory slab (RIB 605), the date of which has been shown by Birley to lie between 262 and 266 (see CW Z xxxvi (1936), 5).

15 Origines 19. 1. 19. ‘A Barca is a type of vessel which carries all of a ship's goods to the shore. The ship takes the Barca on board at sea because the swell is too great (for so small a boat).’

16 For example, the staged battle mentioned in CIL ii, 13.

17 For the importance of the Lune Valley (Contrebis), see Edwards, B. J. N., CW2 lxxi (1971), 17–34.Google Scholar

18 CIL viii 21568 = ILS 9227. I am grateful to Dr. J. C. Mann for drawing my attention to this reference and for his comments upon it.

19 Not. Dign. Occ. xxxv, 32.

20 Ibid., xlii, 15.