Although it is likely that many black people came to Britain in Roman times, the archaeological evidence is scarce.

However, there is archaeological evidence of an early black presence in Britain in a Roman military garrison at Aballava, modern-day Burgh-by-Sands, at the western end of Hadrian’s Wall in Cumbria. The site was occupied from around the second century to the fourth century AD, and a fourth-century inscription tells us that the Roman auxiliary unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum ('unit of Aurelian Moors') was stationed there. This unit had been mustered in the Roman province of Mauretania in North Africa - modern Morocco.

The Roman Empire

It is often forgotten that Rome’s African provinces were some of its most important, and there was probably even a black emperor: it is generally accepted that the emperor Septimus Severus was born in Numidia. Several inscriptions found in Britain mention Septimus Severus, and it is possible that the unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum was brought to Britain around AD 193—211, during his reign.

The inscriptions

The inscription mentioning the unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum was found in 1934 at the village of Beaumont, two miles east of Burgh-by-Sands on the banks of the River Eden. Carved into an altar stone dedicated to the god Jupiter (king of the gods), it is written in the stylised Latin of a standard Roman military inscription. It reads, in translation:

'To Jupiter Best and Greatest and the Majesty of our two emperors, to the genius [guardian spirit] of the unit of Aurelian Moors … Caelius Vibianus, cohort-tribune in charge of the above-mentioned numerus, [set up this altar] through the agency of Julius Rufinus, senior centurion.' (See photograph, left.)

The reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180), in whose honour the unit is named - and which was recently popularised in the film Gladiator, with Marcus Aurelius played by Richard Harris - was a period during which the Roman Empire was constantly at war. It is unlikely that the unit was formed just to be placed in one of the Empire's farthest postings, and they had probably already seen active service before they were sent to Burgh-by-Sands. More than likely the unit had been blooded in battles in Germany (Germania) and the Danube (Dacia), where inscriptions mentioning a unit of Moors have been found.

The evidence of the Beaumont inscription is confirmed by a passage in the Notita Dignitatum, a Roman list of officials and dignitaries, which refers to a 'prefect of the numerus of Aurelian Moors at Aballava'.

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Genetic evidence

It was recently suggested that African DNA might be found in the populations near to Hadrian’s Wall, for instance in Burgh-by-Sands. But Sir Walter Bodmer, a leading geneticist, points out that current technology could not distinguish between the genetic traits of North African Roman soldiers and those of any later African influxes.

So until there are further excavations at the site to recover skeletons of the soldiers, or advances in DNA technology as a result of the Human Genome Project, archaeologists will be forced to continue relying on the older and more 'scholarly' pursuit of epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) to answer these questions. And the epigraphic evidence firmly places a unit of Moors at Hadrian’s Wall, although the precise date of their occupation of the fort of Aballava is unknown. The size of the unit is also unknown, although a small fort like Aballava could hold upwards of 500 men. We do not know where the unit was stationed before Aballava, or where it went afterwards. But we do know that it was there.

Richard Paul Benjamin, postgraduate researcher, University of Liverpool

Alan M Greaves, lecturer, University of Liverpool

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Bibliography

Breeze, D, & Dobson, B, 2000, Hadrian's Wall, Penguin, London

Frere, S, 1987, Tabula Imperii Romani-Britannia Septentrionalis, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Frere, S, 1995, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain II: Instrumentum Domesticum, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud

Maxfield, V, 1981, The Military Decorations of the Roman Army, B T Batsford Ltd, London

Snowden Jr, F, 1970, Blacks in Antiquity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA

Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, volumes 1923, 1936, 1939, Titus Wilson & Son, Highgate

Van Sertima, I, 1990, African Presence in Early Europe, Transaction Books, USA

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To find out more about Haridan's Wall go to http://www.hadrians-wall.org