"Arbeia" may mean the "fort of the Arab troops",[1][2][3][4] referring to the fact that part of its garrison at one time was a squadron of Mesopotamian boatmen from the Tigris, following Emperor Septimius Severus securing the city of Singara in 197.

The modifications are associated with Septimius Severus' Roman invasion of Caledonia (208–211), a series of campaigns against the troublesome Caledonian tribes, in which the fort may have served as his headquarters.

[12] When the fort was unexpectedly discovered in 1875 by an unknown amateur it made national news as the numerous finds near the centre of a Northern industrial town were of a quality that shocked archaeologists who found it hard to believe such a site could yield these treasures.

The Roman remains attracted crowds that flocked to the town and despite some believing that they were forgeries, further excavations proved that it was a sensational archaeological discovery.

[15] The final garrison was the Numerus Barcariorum Tigrisiensium who were transferred from Lancaster Roman Fort[16] and originally barge-men from the River Tigris in the Middle-East recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum.

[17] She was first the slave, then the freedwoman and wife of Barates, an Arab merchant from Palmyra (now part of Syria) who, evidently missing her greatly, set up a gravestone after she died at the age of 30 in the second half of the second century.

The museum also holds an altarpiece to a previously unknown god and a tablet with the name of the Emperor Severus Alexander (died 235) chiselled off, an example of damnatio memoriae.