On the left is a picture of the Emperor Vitellius. He was a friend of many emperors from Tiberius to Nero, In 69 A.D on 2nd January the legions of Upper Germany declared for him. It was no long before he was declared emperor in Rome. One of the units to support him was the Ala Sebosiana-this was a cavalry regiment which had recently been recruited in Gaul-modern day France. This unit was based at Worms before moving to Italy to support Vitellius. He was defeated in Northern Italy by Vespasian in A.D 69. Vitellius was not particularly popular with the Senate and was considered to be a bit of a glutton. He ended up being killed and his body was thrown ignominiously into the Tiber.
The Ala Sebosiana and Ala Petriana were dispatched to Britain fairly quickly and they ended up garrisoning Corbridge and Carlisle respectively. However, we now know much more about the Ala Sebosiana thanks to the discovery of some letters, which were found preserved in the soil at Carlisle. This discovery was reported in the 29th volume of Britannia. Britannia is a journal that is issued by the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies and it is issued every year. It concentrates on items connected with Roman Britain. Before we mention the significance of the Carlisle letters. We must thank our honorary President Professor Lawrence Keepie for putting us on the trail of the Ala Sebosiana. My friend Tom Hislop found a lead seal at Castledykes with the words ASEB on it. Tom and myself were mystified until Lawrence found out the answer and told us that the seal was linked with the Ala Sebosiana.
In Tomlin's article in Britannia he mentions a very interesting letter, this mentions that a trooper of the Ala Sebosiana had become a Singularis of Agricola.
The Equites Singulares to which he had become attached was a cavalry unit that was the personal bodyguard of the Provincial Governor. In this case it was Agricola that the unnamed trooper was serving. This begs a very interesting question did Agricola bring the Ala Sebosiana Gallorum to Castledykes. Previously it was thought the seal dated to the Antonine period.
Thanks to Professor Lawrence Keppie I have been supplied with more information about the Ala Sebosiana. According to Eric Birley the name Sebososus is likely to have an African origin, though the unit was recruited in Gaul. Birley thinks that the man who raised the unit was possibly L. Statius Sebosus who supplied much information to Pliny the Elder. However, there appears to be a freed-woman of a decurion of the Ala Sebosiana of the time of Caesar and Augustus. So it may be Statius's father who raised the regiment. The Spanish connection suggests that on Nero's death the unit supported the elderly Galba and then was transferred to Germany where it supported Vitellius. It can be said that the unit always supported the losing side. However, all that was to change when it was involved in Agricola's Scottish campaign. Another interesting item that I found out, is that the unit was transferred to Lancaster as there seems positive evidence to suggest that it was there by the time of the emperor Trajan. This would fit in well with what we know about the Trajanic withdrawal from Scotland. From Lancaster the Ala moved north to Binchester where it could protect the rear of those wall based units on the eastern flank.