This cohort is known in Britain only from military discharge certificates or diplomata for the years 103 to 178 AD. The first evidence of unity in Britannia is based on a diploma dated 103. The diploma lists the cohort as part of the troops (see Roman forces in Britannia ) that were stationed in the province. Additional diplomas dated 122 to 178 attest to unity in the same province.
What does the name Cohors Tertiae Lingonum mean?
- Cohors : The cohort was an auxiliary infantry unit in the Roman army .
- Tertiae : The Roman numeral stands for the ordinal number third ( Latin tertia ). Therefore, the name of this military unit is pronounced as Cohors tertia ..
- Lingonum : the Lingones . When the unit was formed, the soldiers in the cohort were recruited from the Lingone people in the territory of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica .
- equitata : partially mounted. The unit was a mixed unit of infantry and cavalry. The addition appears in an inscription.
- Since there is no evidence of the addition of milliaria (1000 men) to the name, the unit was a Cohors quingenaria equitata . The target strength of the cohort was 600 men (480 infantry and 120 cavalry), consisting of 6 Centuries of infantry with 80 men each and 4 Turmae of cavalry with 30 cavalry each.