Aballava

Aballava was a Roman fortress on Hadrian's Wall situated about one and a half miles south of the Solway Firth, guarding the Peat Wath and Sandwath fords [1]. The fort stood between Petriana to the east and Coggabata to the west [2]. In the 3rd century AD, it housed a contingent of North African troops called the Aurelian Moors [3]. A Roman altar found in 1934 near Beaumont records a dedication by Caelius Vibianus, commander of the Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum, dated to AD 253-258 [4][5]. The fort appears in the Notitia Dignitatum as Aballaba and in the Ravenna Cosmography as Avalana [6][7].