Fifth Cohort of Gauls

This French unit of 120 cavalrymen and 480 infantry came to Cramond Fort after 142 AD and was then subsequently stationed in South Shields at Arbria Fort in the third century. There are 100’s of artefacts in South Shields.

Cohors V Gallorum started on the Danubian frontier, then turned up in Britain by AD 122, with firm epigraphic footprints at Cramond (Edinburgh) in the Antonine/Severan period and later South Shields (Arbeia) on the Tyne in the 3rd century.

Timeline & places (with evidence)

Trajanic period (AD 110 & 114) – Pannonia Inferior (Danube): listed among units on Trajan-era diplomas from Pannonia; later noted as having left by the Hadrianic years.
After AD 119 – Moesia Superior: transferred from Dacia Superior across the Danube to Moesia Superior.
By AD 122 – Britannia: named on British military diplomas of AD 122 (and again 124, 135). Academia

In Britain (key sites & inscriptions)

17 July AD 122 — Britannia. Named on a British military diploma; marks arrival in the province. RIB source
c. AD 140–210 — Cramond (Scotland). Altar to Jupiter by the unit’s prefect Lucius Minthonius Tertullus (RIB 2134). RIB source
By AD 209 (inferred) — South Shields (Arbeia). Presence suggested by association of the unit’s sealings with imperial material dated ≤209; see commentary to RIB 3272. RIB source
AD 213 — South Shields (Arbeia). Imperial dedication to Julia Domna naming the cohort (RIB 3272). RIB source
AD 222 — South Shields (Arbeia). Aqueduct dedication for the ‘soldiers of the Fifth Cohort of Gauls’ (RIB 1060). RIB source
3rd century — South Shields (Arbeia). Multiple COH V G tile‑stamps (RIB 2473 series). RIB source