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[Mitchell-Atkins]

Besides the Moselle La Tene group, the Treveri and Mediomatrici tribe were found in this area. 

The Treveri were a Celtic (Gaulish) tribe from the Trier area of modern day western Germany. Gaulish cavalry units were used extensively throughout the Roman Empire because of their skills on horseback and fierceness in battle. wiki

There is evidence some Treveri were in Britain as part of the Roman Auxiliaries

The Lancaster Roman Tombstone: Interpretation inscription at bottom of this statute
"To the shades of the dead: Insus, Son of Vodullus, Citizen of Treveri, Cavalryman Curator of the Ala Augusta, troop of Victor." Domitia, his heir, had this set up.  

The first thing we can tell is that Insus was not a Roman citizen: he does not have the tria nomina, or triple name a Roman citizen would have. Citizenship was awarded on retirement from the Roman auxilia, so it seems likely Insus died in service. That his family could afford a quality memorial also suggests he was reasonably wealthy. His inscription records he was Treveri, from Trier in Western Germany. The Treveri had lost their independence after participating in an uprising against Julius Caesar’s Rome in 54/3BC, which the Romans put down, and they became a Roman colony from 16AD.

Insus was a Curator of his regiment: a supply officer equivalent to a quartermaster, a junior non-commissioned officer. This role required some responsibility and literacy. The Latin term Curator is still used in museums, where Curators are like quartermasters of museum collections: they ‘look after’ our objects, just as the Roman Curator ‘looked after’ military supplies, men, and horses.

There is no date on the stone noting when it was put up, but we can estimate this from Insus’ troop, the Ala Augusta ‘Victor’. Of the Ala, flanks or wings of infantry troops of about 500-1000 men, there were several called Augusta in Britain over the centuries. An Ala Augusta was stationed at Lancaster in the first century AD, and was only described as ‘Victor’ for a brief period, which allows us to estimate the date the tombstone was put up to 80AD.



Insus...presumably joined the ala [Ala was a cavalry unit of the auxiliary troops in the Roman army] on the Continent before it was transferred to Britain. Insus is not a Roman name and its presentation here in non-tria nomina format and with no reference to veteran status may suggest that Insus has been killed whilst still serving. The most straightforward assumption is that Insus has died in Britain and that the headless enemy is a Briton. Given what we know about bilingualism in the north-western provinces, it is likely that someone named Insus, son of Vodullus, from Gaul in c. AD 100 came from a family that was at least partly Celtic-speaking. Trier was capital of Gallia Belgica and we know that the Celtic languages of northern Gaul were closely related to the British Celtic spoken in Britannia. This Treveran citizen, who is proudly presented in a north-western Roman military and Latin guise, would perhaps have found much more in common linguistically and culturally with the beheaded Briton than this portrayal might lead us to believe.

A reconstruction of how Insus may have appeared in life by Graham Summers



Here it is sans severed head