Given the number of people who lived in the towns of Roman Britain and the length of time they were occupied, surviving inscriptions are relatively rare. The largest number to survive from a single site are preserved in Chester. The tombstones had been used to repair the Roman wall and so were preserved from weathering, if not from having been broken up. Most are the tombstones of soldiers and, of those, the great majority commemorate men from Legio XX, as well as legionaries from Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, and Turkey.
