The earliest reference to the Roman fort at South Shields occcurs in the Notitia Dignitatum of the 4th/5th century, where the garisson fort Arbeia (vide infra) is listed between the entries for Verbeia (Ilkley, West Yorkshire) and an unknown station named Dictium. Arbeia is thought to be a Latinised form of a name originally from Aramaic - the native language of the last attested unit stationed at the fort - meaning 'the Place of the Arabs'.

The fort at South Shields has been identified with the Horrea Classis entry of the Ravenna Cosmology, which was a list of forts and posting stations compiled for the Severan campaigns of the early third century. This Latin name means 'The Granaries of the Fleet', which certainly describes the Arbeia storage depot, and possibly indicates that part at least of the Classis Britannia or the 'British Fleet' may have been based here in South Shields. This view is now discredited, however, and Horrea Classis is now thought to refer to the Severan fort at Carpow overlooking the mouth of the Tay in Scotland.

The sixteenth-century antiquary, John Leland, gives the name as Caer Urfa, which appears to be a simple corruption of the earlier Roman name, prefixed by Caer, a Welsh word meaning 'a fortified place' which is typical of the early Saxon era. The modern name is first recorded in 1235 as Scheles, which is a Middle English term for a group of makeshift huts or shelters, in this case probably used by fishermen; there were evidently more of these temporary dwellings on the opposite bank of the Tyne at North Shields.

During excavations over the years at the South Shields fort a number of animal bones have been uncovered, including those of domestic Ox, Sheep, Goat and Pig, also game such as Red Deer, Boar and Elk; the latter animals very likely being hunted and killed for sport and as a means of supplementing the soldiers' diet. As one might expect from a fort positioned close to the coast, a number of molluscs were also eaten at Arbeia, including Oyster, Mussel, Limpet, Winkle and Edible Snail. (See the article: The Roman Military Diet by R.W. Davies, in Britannia II (1971) pp.122-142).


Hadrianic Cavalry Fort / Severan Supply Base

Originally built during the reign of Hadrian c.AD129, Arbeia was the easternmost garrison fort of Hadrian's Wall, guarding a small seaport on the south bank of the Tyne Estuary near its outlet into the North Sea at South Shields. The first two units stationed here were both auxiliary cavalry 'wings', each containing around five-hundred troopers.

In AD208 the emperor Septimius Severus launched a series of campaigns against the troublesome Caledonian tribes, and the fort at Arbeia underwent a radical change in its usage. The attendant cavalry ala was withdrawn for the emperor's campigns through the Scottish highlands, to be replaced at South Shields by an auxiliary infantry cohort. This change in military function was obviously accompanied by a period of rebuilding, during which the fort was considerably altered:

The principia was rebuilt on the same site but rotated by 180°.
Apart from the double granary which was retained, all the other internal buildings were demolished and replaced by eighteen new stone-built granaries.

The original rear of the fort - which was now the front after the rebuilding of the principia - was extended by about one-hundred and fifty feet (45m).
Four new barrack-blocks (two double and two single) were built in the new praetentura.

The fort appears to have been temporarily abandoned towards the end of the third century, and not re-used until the end of the fourth, when Arbeia seems again to have been put to use as a storehouse, with its contents being shipped periodically inland along the course of the River Tyne and its tributaries.

The fort was finally abandoned c.AD400, pretty much about the same time as emperor Honorius informed the people of Britain that they must look to their own defence, and the Romans withdrew from the island never to return.