This part-mounted unit was originally recruited from amongst the various tribes of the Gallic provinces, modern France. The Fourth Cohort of Gauls is attested on several stones from Chesterholm on the Stanegate in Northumberland dating from the early third century through to the fourth, where it is also recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum; the unit therefore had to be stationed at Risingham sometime before the third century. The regiment is recorded on two undated tombstones from Templeborough in South Yorkshire, which was clearly an earlier posting, and a couple of undated altarstones from Castlesteads in Cumbria, on Hadrian’s Wall. A detachment of the unit is also recorded on another undated building inscription recovered from High Rochester in Northumberland, the next station along the Roman road north into the Scottish Borders.
Evidence for the presence of Cohors Quartae Gallorum in Britain
- Burn 100; CIL XVI.65 military diploma dated: July 17th 122AD.
- L’Année Épigraphique 1997.1779b diploma dated c.126AD.
- L’Année Épigraphique 1997.1001 diploma dated 27th February 158AD.
- Templeborough (RIB 619 et 620 tombstones).
- Risingham (RIB 1227 altar?; 1249 tombstone).
- High Rochester (RIB 1298a vex. with Vex Coh II Nerv).
- Castlesteads (RIB 1979 altar; 1980 altar).
- Hadrian’s Wall (RIB 2062 altar).
- Balmuildy (RIB 2195 altar).
- Chesterholm (RIB 1685-1688 altars; 1705 213AD; 1706 223AD; 1710 276-282AD; Notitia Dignitatum).