South Shields vicus, Roman tombstone

HER Number:
897

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields vicus, Roman tombstone

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Tomb

Site Type: Specific:
Tombstone

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Tombstone, 23 inches x 40 inches, found in two pieces - the gable in Cleveland Street, the rest in 1885 about 100 yards away at the junction of James Mather Street and Cleveland Street. Beneath a pediment the deceased, in tunic and long robe, reclines on a couch, and holds in his right hand a bunch of leaves, in his left a cup. Below the couch a boy stands, holding up a cup. Its inscription reads: D(is) M(anibus) Victoris natione Maurum / ((a))nnorum XX libertus Numeriani / ((e))q(u)itis ala(e) I Asturum qui / piantissime pr((ose))qu((u))tus est; To the spirits of the departed (and) of Victor, a Moorish tribesman, aged 20, freeman of Numerianus, trooper of the First Cavalry Regiment of Asturians, who most devotedly conducted him to the tomb.

Easting:
3649

Northing:
6755

Grid Reference:
NZ36496755

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 897 >> R.Blair, 1885, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2, X, 196-7 JC. Bruce, 1885, On the recent discoveries in the Roman Camp on the Lawe... Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, X, 249 W.T. Watkin, 1886, Roman Inscriptions discovered in Britain in 1885, Archaeological Journal, XLIII, 275-6 J.C. Bruce, 1887, Roman Inscribed Tombstone from South Shields, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 2, II (for 1885-86), 7 D. Smith, 1959, A Palmyrene Sculptor at South Shields?, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XXXVII, 203-10 R.G. Collingwood & R.P. Wright, 1965, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, 1064 E.J. Phillips, 1977, Great Britain, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Vol. I Fasc. I no. 248 P.T. Bidwell, 1988, The Civilian Settlement...of the Roman Fort at South Shields, nos. 10-11