Manchester (Mamucio) Roman Fort
Flavian Auxiliary Fort (AD 69–96) and Vicus
Construction of Mamucium began around AD 79, during Governor Julius Agricola’s campaigns against the Brigantes following the collapse of a treaty. Archaeological evidence shows that the fort went through three major building phases: the first in AD 79, the second about AD 160, and the third around AD 200.
The original fort was built of turf and timber, designed to house an auxiliary cohort of roughly 500 infantry. These were not Roman citizens but foreign recruits serving in the Roman army. By the end of the 1st century and into the 2nd, a civilian settlement, or vicus, developed around the fort. Around AD 90 the ramparts were reinforced, possibly reflecting Mamucium’s growing importance after the neighbouring fort at Castleshaw was replaced by Mamucium and the nearby fort at Slack in the early 120s. The fort itself was demolished around AD 140, and the first vicus, which had expanded rapidly in the early 2nd century, was abandoned between 120 and 160. Both the fort and its civilian settlement were later reoccupied when the site was rebuilt.
The second fort, constructed about AD 160, was again of turf and timber but on a larger scale, covering 2 hectares (4.9 acres) and equipped with extra granaries (horrea). Around AD 200, the fort’s gatehouses were rebuilt in stone, and the defensive walls were given a stone facing. Excavations in the vicus revealed a concentration of furnaces within sheds, described as an early “industrial estate,” perhaps the first of its kind in Manchester. Mamucium was listed in the Antonine Itinerary, a 3rd-century register of imperial roads, and inscriptions as well as repairs to its buildings confirm that it remained in use through the first half of the 3rd century. The vicus appears to have been abandoned by the mid-3rd century, with buildings dismantled and their stone reused elsewhere.
Epigraphic evidence from Mamucium
There are three altarstones, one dedicated to Fortuna the goddess of good luck, one to Mother Goddesses Hananeftae and Ollototae, found in 2008 and another altar to an unknown deity. The Gods were often invoked to protect and preserve the garrison or the fort, a common practice in Roman military religion.
RIB 575 - Altar dedicated to Fortuna Conservatrix
To Fortuna Conservatrix Lucius Senecianius Martius, centurion of the Sixth Legion Victrix (set this up).
CONSERVA
TRICI
L SENECIA
NIVS MAR
TIVS 𐆛 LEG
VI VICT
This particular altar was misassigned to Bath in earlier scholarship (Collinson Somerset, i, 12, cited in Camden ed. Gough 1806, 1, 117). Manuscript evidence from Corpus Christi College, Oxford clarifies that the altar actually comes from Mamucium,
Brit40-3 - Altar dedicated to the Mother Goddesses Hananeftae and Ollototae
To the Mother Goddesses Hananeftae and Ollototae. Aelius Victor gladly, willingly, and deservedly fulfilled his vow.
This is the first British instance of the Matres Hananeftae, who are attested in Lower Germany at Cologne and Wissen.
RIB 576 - Fragmentary dedication
…, commander of the detachment of Raetians and Noricans, gladly, willingly, and deservedly fulfilled his vow.
[...]POSI
[...] VEXIL
RAETOR ET
NORICOR
V S L L M
Birley considers this to be probably a normal vexillation drawn from legio III Italica (Raetia) and legio II Italica (Noricum), and sent to Britain probably in a.d. 197 to help the work of reconstruction.
Military units stationed at the Roman Fort at Manchester
The stones mentioned below are “centurial” or “cohort” stones which record building work done by the various auxiliary units who used to garrison the Mamucium Castellum. Unfortunately none of these stones can be accurately dated.
Cohors Primae Baetasiorum – The First Cohort of Baetasii
The First Cohort of Baetasii were an auxiliary infantry regiment of around 480 men, recruited from a small Lower German tribe. It is evidenced in Manchester (Mamucium) through the building inscription below.
RIB 581 - Fragmentary dedication
The Emperor … Antoninus Augustus … First Cohort of Baetasians ..
[... ]NINVṢ [...]
[...]ẸTAṢ[...]
No commentary.
Cohors Primae Frisiavonum – The First Cohort of Frisiavones
Cohors Primae Frisiavonum (also spelled Frisiavones or Frixiavones) was a Roman auxiliary infantry cohort, likely recruited from the Germanic tribal group known as the Frisiavones—a people living in the lower Rhine region of what’s now the Netherlands. The cohort’s typical strength would have been around 480 men (6 centuries of ~80 men each). The inscriptions below suggest that detachments (centuries) from the cohort were actively engaged in building or repairing parts of the fort at Mamucium.
RIB 578 - Centurial stone of Quintianus
From the First Cohort of Frisiavonians the century of Quintianus (built) 24 feet.
FRISIAVO
𐆛 QVINṬỊẠṆỊ P XXIIII
4. The mark before p xxiiii is more likely to be a symbol or stop than a misread letter R.P.W.
RIB 577 - Centurial stone of Masavo
From the First Cohort of Frisiavonians the century of Masavo (built) 23 feet.
𐆛 MASAVONIS
P XXIII
Bang, Die Germanen im römischen Dienst … (1906) 46 includes Masavo among the names of Germans.
RIB 579 - Centurial stone of Cudrenus
The century of Cudrenus from the First Cohort of Frisiavonians (built) … feet.
[...]RIS[...] P [...]
1. For Cudrenus see a mortarium-stamp from Corbridge reading cvdre (Birley and Gillam, Arch. Ael. 4th Ser. 26 (1948) 178).The script is cursive. If the supposed half-line at the top contained letters, this presumably recorded an individual soldier, as on RIB 409 and 467, but in these two instances from Britain the name follows the unit. Further, since the recorded letters do not make sense, it may be easier to regard them as the misreading of a roughly-cut border. The same solution seems to apply to the lowest marks on the stone.Gough’s comment, that ‘under the letters the stone is hollowed as a bason’, may indicate a secondary use.
RIB 580 - Centurial stone of Candidus
The century of Candidus (built) 24 feet.
[...]DES XX
IIII
It is assumed that RIB 580 should also be assigned to Coh I Frisiavonum although the unit is not mentioned.
Cohors Tertiae Bracaraugustanorum
The Cohors Tertiae Bracaraugustanorum (Third Cohort of Bracara Augusta) was an auxiliary unit of the Roman army raised from the Bracari, a Celtic people of north-western Hispania (modern northern Portugal and Galicia) in the Roman province of Lusitania. Their chief city was Bracara Augusta (modern Braga, Portugal), founded as a Roman settlement under Augustus.
2469.i - Tile-stamp of Cohors I Bracaraugustanorum
[Property of] the <b>Third Bracaraugustan Cohort</b>.
The regiment is also recorded on tiles recovered from the fort at Castleshaw (Burn 30b).
Tile-stamp of Legion XX Valeria Victrix
Two tile stamps of Legio XX Valeria Victrix have been found at Manchester. These stamps indicate that some of the building materials used at Mamucium were manufactured by the legion’s tile-works, most likely at their permanent base at Deva Victrix (Chester). This does not mean that the legion itself was ever stationed at Manchester. Rather, it shows that supplies, construction materials, or prefabricated elements were distributed from Chester to outlying auxiliary forts in the region.
Numismatic Evidence from Manchester
The Roman coinage from Manchester has been recovered from a variety of sources. Excavations in 1907 produced 18 coins, while a further 36 came from the Deansgate excavations of 1972, and another 39—of which 8 are illegible copper issues—were recovered in digs since 1977. In addition, some 222 coins have been identified from at least thirteen hoards or private collections, though the provenance of several of these is uncertain. Altogether, the assemblage spans a wide range, from two Republican silver coins dating before 44 BC to a copper issue of Emperor Valentinian (AD 364–375).
Significantly, many of the excavated coins date well beyond the mid-3rd century, a period when the vicus had already gone into decline and most of the civilian population had departed, with buildings dismantled and stone repurposed elsewhere. Later coins include issues of Gallienus (AD 253–268), Postumus and the Gallic Empire (AD 260s–270s), and even early 4th-century pieces struck under Constantine the Great (AD 306–337). The presence of this coinage suggests that although the settlement contracted sharply after about AD 250, Mamucium retained a diminished garrison into the late 3rd and possibly the early 4th century.
Classical References to Manchester (Mamucio)
Manchester is not listed among the nine Brigantian towns mentioned by Ptolemy, and first appears in two – out of fifteen – of the British military routes detailed in the Antonine Itinerary of the late second century. The Second Itinerary, entitled “the route from the entrenchments to the port of Rutupiae“, is the longest in the British section and details the 37 Roman road-stations along the 501 mile route between Blatobulgium (Birrens in Dumfries & Galloway) 24 miles beyond Hadrian’s Wall (“the entrenchments”) all the way to Rutupiae in Cantium (Richborough in Kent), where the Roman visitor would board a galley headed for one of the nearby ports in Gaul. About a third of the way along the items listed in Iter II there occurs a station named Mamucium, located some 18 miles from Cambodunum (Slack, South Yorkshire) and 18 miles from Condate (Northwich, Cheshire).
Manchester also appears towards the end of the Tenth Itinerary, “the route from Glannoventa to Mediolanum“, which details the stations between the fort at Ravenglass in Cumbria and the market town of Whitchurch in Shropshire. In Iter X the name appears as Mancunium, this time listed some 17 miles from Coccium (Wigan, Lancashire) and again 18 miles from Condate/Northwich, beyond which the Tenth Itinerary terminated at Mediolanum/Whitchurch after a further 19 miles.
The Roman name for Manchester next appears in the Ravenna Cosmology of the seventh century, this time as Mantio (R&C#109), between the entries for Ardotalia (Melandra Castle, Derbyshire) and Alavana (Watercrook, Lancashire).
Visiting Manchester (Mamucium) Roman Fort
Today, the remains of Mamucium are found in Castlefield Urban Heritage Park, just a short walk from central Manchester. The most visible parts are the reconstructed gateway and ramparts, rebuilt in the 1980s on the original foundations. You can see stretches of Roman wall and gatehouses, with information boards explaining their history. Nearby, the lines of the fort’s ditches and walls are still visible in the landscape, and excavations have revealed granaries, barracks, and the vicus (civilian settlement) that grew outside the fort. The area is free to explore, and while not on the scale of Hadrian’s Wall forts, it offers a tangible link to Manchester’s Roman origins.
A visit here is best combined with the Science and Industry Museum, located on part of the former Roman site, which sometimes includes displays about the Roman history of the area. Walking around Castlefield, you can trace the Roman fort’s outline among canals, warehouses, and modern buildings, reflecting Manchester’s long evolution from a Roman outpost to an industrial powerhouse. If you’re interested in archaeology, look out for inscriptions and centurial stones from Mamucium in the collections of the Manchester Museum, which hold evidence of the very units who built and occupied the fort.
References for Mamvcivm
- The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965);
- The Romans in Britain An Anthology of Inscriptions by A.R. Burn (Oxford 1969) p.25;
- Roman Coins from North-West England by David Shotter (Lancaster 1990) pp.20-29.
Map References for Mamvcivm
NGRef: SJ8397 OSMap: LR109
Roman Roads near Roman Manchester
SE (21) to Aqvae Arnemetiae NNW (26) to Bremetenacvm (Ribchester, Lancashire) SE (21) to Bvxton (Buxton, Derbyshire) Itinera II et X: SW (20) to Condate (Northwich, Cheshire) NNE (37) to Ilkley (Ilkley, West Yorkshire) ENE (12) to Rigodvnvm (Castleshaw, Saddleworth, Greater Manchester) Iter X: WNW (16) to Coccivm (Wigan, Lancashire) E (13) to Melandra Castle (Melandra Castle, Longworth, Derbyshire) Possible road: WSW (15) to Wilderspool (Cheshire) SW (20) to Nantwich
Sites near Manchester (Mamucio) Roman Fort
- Margary 7 (1 km)
Roman Road - Ardotalia Thermae (18 km)
Bath House - Melandra (Ardotalia) Roman Fort (18 km)
Antonine Auxiliary Fort (AD 138–161), Bath House, Flavian Auxiliary Fort (AD 69–96), Mansio and Vicus - Ardotalia Mansio (18 km)
Mansio - Ardotalia Vicus (18 km)
Vicus - Castle Shaw (Rigodunum) Roman Forts (20 km)
Flavian Auxiliary Fort (AD 69–96) and Fortlet - Wilderspool Roman Town (25 km)
Iron-work, Minor Settlement, Pottery and Temple Or Shrine - Wigan (Coccium) Roman Settlement (26 km)
Minor Settlement - Northwich (Condate) Roman Fort (30 km)
Flavian Auxiliary Fort (AD 69–96), Salt working and Vicus - Slack (Cambodunum) Roman Fort (32 km)
Flavian Auxiliary Fort (AD 69–96) and Vicus
