Sulpicia Ulpius scripsit

okay i just looked this up - we got the cohors II Delmatarum equitata at Cavoran in the third century, (RIB1795 - which i am assuming is the dedication to Epona also, not having a copy of RIB nearby) and the cohors I Delmatarum equitata at Maryport, where i presume the depiction of epona is related to their presence (although i just noted we also got the cohors I hispanorium millaria equitata there under hadrian so that my blow my theory).

Epona at Carvoran

The dedication to Epona from Magnis (Carvoran, North Tyne, England, United Kingdom) unfortunately does not give a unit, or even a complete dedicant name, and its current whereabouts are listed as 'now lost' [Magnen & Thevenot #20]. It is a stone altar; on one side is carved a jug, on the other a sacrificial knife and axe. The altar is illustrated [Coulston & Phillips, plate 42]. The dedication ( in fact RIB 1777 not RIB 1795, also listed as CIL VII #747) simply says:

Deae / Epon/ae p(osuit?) So[ ]
To the Goddess Epona P... So... (set this up).

The units stationed at magnis, which was built as a fort for a cohors equitata, were:

• Legio XX Valeria Victrix

• Cohors Primae Batavorum equitata (70ce to second century)

• Cohors Primae Hamiorum Saggitariorum (Syrian archers, 43-158 ce and 163 onwards)

• Cohors Secundae Delmatarum Equitata (third century)

• Numerus Magnesium (late second to early third century?)

The Roman Britain.org site on Magnis has this footnote about the Epona inscription:

Epona is a Celtic goddess so this altar would not have been erected by the Hamians; the dedicator would most likely have been from the third century garrison unit, the Second Cohort of Delmatians, who were of Celtic origin.

I have been in contact with the author of this site [pers. comm.] and we do agree that the Hamians, who were not mounted, are unlikely dedicants. However:

1. there is no evidence that dedicants to Epona were exclusively or primarily Celtic

2. the place where a unit was raised does not indicate where it subsequently recruited (much more likely to have been where it was stationed)

3. the Delmations were not Celtic, but Illyrian, originally from that part of the modern Croatian coast near the modern town of Split.

Interestingly there is an Epona from Split, but this is more likely associated with imperial horse guards (equites singulares augusti) at the palace that Diocletian built there on the bay of Aspalathos in 295 ce.

The Batavians on the other hand as a group are well attested in the equites singulares augusti and are known to have made other Epona dedications [Speidel] despite being clearly Germanic in origin, not Celtic - they were from an island at the mouth of the Rhine. As an example, there is a substantial marble dedication to Epona at Thessalonini, dated 303 ce, by a tribune of the Batavii [Speidel pp. 72-74, 141 and plate 19] or an inscribed depiction of Epona from Cetate (Războieni-Cetate, Ocna Mureş, Alba, Romania) by the Ala I Batavorum. They are known to have been stationed somewhere on the Pannonian limes (where there is an excellent boast on an epitaph of a Batavian soldier).

So in conclusion it could be either the Delmatians or the Batavians who made the dedication - we do not know.

Epona from Maryport

The depiction of Epona from Alauna/Carvetiorum (Maryport, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom) has already been noted and illustrated. Its unique as the sole Gaulish-style sidesaddle representation of Epona in Britain.

The units stationed at magnis, which was built under Hadrian as shore fort, were:

• Legio XX Valeria Victrix (building the fort)

• Cohors Primae Hispanorum equitata (123 to 137) [more on them]

• Cohors Primae Delmatarum (137 to around 165) [more on them]

• Cohors Primae Baetasiorum civium Romanorum (160 to 180)

• Cohors Tertiae Nerviorum (138-161)

Of these, the Delmatae, Baetasians and the Nervians were infantry and thus unlikely to be concerned with Epona.

Also interestingly, D. Junius Juvenalis, who may be the Roman poet Juvenal, spent part of his career as tribune of cohors I Delmatarum in Britain. Juvenal later wrote a satire which mentioned Epona.

The Senhouse Roman Museum Maryport has much useful background on this fort.

References