Coria
About
Corbridge guarded the point where the Stanegate road crossed the River Tyne, on the main route north into Scotland. A Trajanic coin sealed beneath its rampart dates this second fort on the site to 103 CE or later, built just as Trajan was pulling troops out of Britain for his second Dacian campaign. The fort later grew into one of the best-supplied garrison towns on the whole northern frontier.
What happened here
Five hundred men, sometimes a thousand, recruited from a province rather than from citizens, and often stationed a long way from where they were raised. Cavalry units get a bigger fort and far more stabling; the smell tells you which kind you are in before the plan does. The layout copies a legionary fortress at a quarter of the size — headquarters, commander's house, granaries, barracks, a bath house usually built outside the walls because of the fire risk. Duties are patrolling, escorting, customs, and policing rather than pitched battle. After twenty-five years a man is discharged with citizenship for himself and his children, recorded on a bronze diploma he keeps for life. A village grows outside the gate within a decade.
In ancient writing
- Antonine Itinerary, Antonine Itinerary Iter I
Lists the station Corstopitum (Corbridge) on the road route through northern Britain, situated between Vindomora and Bremenium.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →