Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/62

Chap. IT. OP MANCHESTER, & changed into CUnetio by die Romans; and as the Kermet itfelf is* ftil4 popularly denominated the Kunnet among the inhabitants of the neighbouring region The garrifbrt appears to have once confifted, and: we may therefore reafonably pfefome it to have ordinarily confifted, of a fingle cohort. Artiid the period of uninterrupted peace which the Romans of Mancunium enjoyed to the time of their de- parture, there mufl always have been the fame realbn for keep- ing the fame number of troops in the garrifbn. And in the Ndtftnr we find fcventeen different cohorts forming feventeen different garrifbns in the kingdom. The j cohort whieh was ftationed at Mancunium was Cohort Prima Frifinorum, ah auxiliary cohort belonging to fome legion, and'the firft which had been raifed among the natives of Frieftand. This* cohort* appears from an inferiptioa which was difcovered in the Caftle-field * to have been in garrifon there. This cohort therefore we may reafcnfrWy prefome to have refided therfc, asi it certainly continued in the iltend % even to the final departure of the Romans* from the ftation* The Romans feldona fhiftcd the quarters df their troops within the iftand* as. is clear to a de-*: motifhration from the hiftory of the twentieth and the fixth legions • and the fkfl wing of the Afti. The. firft of thefe appears to have : garrifbned Deva for nearly two centuries futce&velyv And die two laft appear to have refided at Eburacura and Condercum for nearly three The auxiliaries- of a legion confifted both of mfcatry and of cavalry. The cavalry of the auxiliaries, which was double in number to the cavalry of the legion *, was thrown into inde- pendent troops of four or five hundred men* The in- fantry 6f tfoe auxiliaries was exa&ly the fame in number with the infantry of the legion % and like it was divided into fcveral * cohorts. : : But the cihorts-of the legion were ten in number 7 * arid the cohorts of the auxiliaries only eight* The eight co- horts of the llatavi are exprefsly mentioned by Tackus as die auxiliaries of the fourteenth legion And* upon a fobjeft fo uamhtt m itfelf and fo little explained by the Rattans, foch a* ): '■ mention.