Cohors Primae Dacorum

The First Cohort of Daci
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Cohors Primae Dacorum

This unit was a one-thousand strong infantry unit levied from among the various iron-age tribes of the Roman province of Dacia, which lay in the region of modern eastern Romania, including parts of south-eastern Hungary and northern Yugoslavia. The unit is attested in numerous inscriptions from Birdoswald in Cumbria, all dating from the early third century, on an altarstone dedicated to Jupiter from Bewcastle, also from a single undated building inscription from the vallum to the rear of Hadrian’s Wall, between Turret-7b and Milecastle-8. They are also possibly mentioned on a tombstone from High Rochester, north of the Wall, but the unit name may equally be Cohors I Dalmatarum.

Evidence for the presence of Cohors Primae Dacorum in Britain

  1. Bewcastle (RIB 991 altar).
  2. High Rochester (RIB 1289 tombstone poss. Coh I Dalmatarum).
  3. Hadrian’s Wall between Benwell and Rudchester (RIB 1365; 1392).

Cohors Primae Aelia Dacorum – The First Aelian Cohort of Dacians

This unit is believed to be synonymous with Coh I Dacorum.

  1. Military Diplomata c AD126
  2. Military Diplomata (AD 158)
  3. Birdoswald (RIB 1872, 1874-1894, altars; 1875 237AD; 1883 258-268AD; 1885 270-273AD; 1886 258-268AD; 1893 238-244AD; 1896 altar 235-238AD; 1898 altar; 1904 statue base; 1906 base; 1909 205-208AD; 1914 c.219AD; 1918; 1921 tombstone; 1929a altar 235-238AD; 1929b altar 276-282AD; Notitia Dignitatum).