A Pannonian auxiliary's epitaph from Roman Gordion

A funerary stele of a Pannonian auxiliary soldier recovered in 1996 at Gordion (Turkey) provided the first concrete evidence of Roman military activity at the site. The Latin epitaph on the monument revealed the presence of a unit (cohors VII Breucorum c.R. equitata), previously unattested in central Turkey, within the rural environs of northern Galatia. Little is currently known about the garrisons and movements of auxiliary forces in that region, and the monument's discovery permits a fresh examination of military deployment within Rome's comparatively lightly-garrisoned provinces of Asia Minor. New archaeological fieldwork in the Roman settlement at Gordion has provided a firm context for the stele, and recently published epigraphical finds relating to the soldier's unit and its deployment strongly link the monument's presence to activities surrounding Trajan's Parthian War (AD 114-117).