Pons Aelius

Pons Aelius was a fort and Roman settlement at the original eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, at the site now occupied by The Castle, Newcastle.

[10] The altar stones and inscriptions suggest the gods worshipped included Jupiter (two altar-stones), mother goddesses, of which one relief shows three seated female figures, and Silvanus.

[12] Two rare stone sarcophagi uncovered on the site of the former chapel are thought to have been used to bury members of a rich and powerful family from the fort of Pons Aelius.

[13] A possible detachment of the Legio VI Victrix (The Sixth "Victorious" Legion) may have resided here, although they were probably only responsible for building or rebuilding the fort in stone.

It is also mentioned on a dedicatory inscription which recorded reinforcements from the German provinces for Legio VI along with the other two British legions II Augusta and XX Valeria.

These supplementary troops were necessary to bolster the island's garrison after losses incurred around the year 150 when the northern tribes revolted, and may have arrived in the train of the governor Gnaeus Julius Verus circa 158, also mentioned on the stone.

[1] A dedication to emperor Hadrian's mother, Domitia Paulina, attests the presence of the Cohors Ulpia Traiana Cugernorum civium Romanorum (The Cohort of Ulpian Cugerni, Trajan's Own) as evidently being stationed at Pons Aelius at the beginning of the third century.

These were raised from among the Cornovii tribe who inhabited Cheshire and Shropshire, and were the only native British unit known to have been stationed on Hadrian's Wall.

[1] A stone tablet was found on the south side of Hanover Square in Newcastle that records the work of Cohors I Thracum on the vallum, but it is thought unlikely that this unit was ever permanently stationed here.