Septimius Severus: First Hammer of the Scots

[Nemuragh]

[I]Septimius Severus In Scotland
. (There's a Roman fort on the Spey near Elgin, I didn't know the Romans got that far.)

Coincidentally, yesterday I cycled past the remains of a 1st century Roman camp/fort called Bochastle, just outside Callander. This is north of the Antonine Wall.

John

[ASinclair]

Very interesting. Thanks Richard.

[OC Richard]

Coincidentally, yesterday I cycled past the remains of a 1st century Roman camp/fort called Bochastle, just outside Callander. This is north of the Antonine Wall.

John

Thanks! Yes I see it on my Roman Britain map.

Roman marching forts are notoriously hard to date, generally impossible to know which unit built it, and impossible to know which direction they were marching. A Roman field army would built one every night on the march.

I see what appears to be a system of forts going Drumquhassie, Malling, Bochastle, Dalginross, Fendoch, and Inchtuthil sealing off the routes from which tribal raiding parties would come.

The usual Roman method to secure a border was to build a line of watchtowers within sight of each other, supported by a scattering of forts, and connecting roads. It's known that these watchtowers used signalling torches, what's not known is whether or not they had some sort of semaphore method for use during the day.

When a dodgy group was seen approaching word would get back to the nearest supporting fort and a rapid-response force would be sent out to meet the threat. (Watchtower systems, and indeed Hadrian's Wall, were manned by Auxiliary troops from across the Empire, not Legionaries. Auxiliary units were often cavalry.) This system was in place long before, during, and long after Hadrian built his walls around the Empire's borders.

The archaeological problem with forts is much worse with watchtowers. Like the temporary Roman forts the watchtowers were built of timber and leave even less behind to find.

[OC Richard]

Now I'm re-reading

Roman Britain

by Patricia Southern (2011)

It's interesting to read about the Romans' first incursion into Scotland.

It was the natural progression of the invasion of Britain in 43 AD, with the three Legions fanning out to the southwest, west, and north.

It wasn't until Wales was finally subjugated in 77 AD that Roman attention could be directed further north. Governer Julius Agricola, after pacifying the Pennines, headed into Scotland in 78 or 79 AD.

The timing of his seven seasons in Scotland and exactly where he went are unclear, except that he crossed the Tay in the third season. Evidently the fourth season was spent consolidating gains and building a string of forts along the Gask Ridge.

His fifth season was possibly spent in the west, occupying Strathclyde and building a string of forts along the Clyde-Forth line. Agricola's army was said to have reached a place where Scotland faces Ireland, and he considered invading the latter.

The sixth season was spent in the east, working his way north in co-operation with the Roman fleet which was raiding and harassing the natives.

Up until this time "the people of Caledonia" didn't risk engaging the Romans in battle, but retreated to the hills as the Romans advanced. However at some point the tribes began gathering in large numbers "and began arming themselves". When the natives acquired the intelligence that one of the three separated Roman columns was understrength they launched a night attack on the Roman camp. The Romans were hard-pressed but in the nick of time a relief column arrived and the natives, trapped between two Roman forces, retreated back into the mountains.

Agricola's seventh and last campaigning season started by pushing further north. The tribes were prepared this time. They had formed alliances and chosen a commander-in-chief named Calgacus (the Swordsman). When the Romans arrived at the place they called Mons Graupius the 30,000 man Caledonian army was waiting.

This was to be the first, and last, time that the Caledonian tribes formed up for battle in the open against the Romans. Agricola kept his Legions in reserve and advanced his Tungrian and Batavian auxiliaries. While these pinned down the Caledonian force from the front Roman cavalry attacked from the side and rear, resulting in a rout and slaughter of many of the tribesmen while the rest melted into the hills.

It being near the end of the campaigning season Agricola didn't pursue, but leisurely withdrew south into winter quarters.

Almost as soon as Agricola began consolidating his gains he was ordered to withdraw and to send much of his army to the Danube, due to the Dacians invading the Roman province of Moesia and defeating two Roman armies. The Roman forts north of the Clyde-Forth line were carefully demolished, anything of value buried or hauled away. Perdomita Britannia, statim missa.

The trouble about the great Battle of Mons Graupius is that we don't know where Mons Graupius was. The Romans spoke of being in the far north and of conquering "the whole island" of Britain but this is almost certainly not true.

The furthest-north Roman camps known are those between Elgin and Peterhead, the one at Auchinhove being dated to the right period and large enough to have held a large Roman force.

A line of Roman camps can be traced up the east coast to Aberdeen and from there through Inverurie and Huntly to a cluster of forts at Burnfield, Muryfold, Auchinhove, and ending at Bellie, the furthest-north known Roman camp AFAIK.

Is that where the Battle of Mons Graupius was fought?

The Romans did reach a northern coast of sorts, but certainly they could have looked across the Moray Firth and seen that they hadn't conquered "the whole island".

[Father Bill]

Now I'm re-reading

Roman Britain

by Patricia Southern (2011)

Thank you, Richard. I've just ordered it.

[OC Richard]

Thank you, Richard. I've just ordered it.

Awesome!

I'm a visual person and essential to me being able to follow along spatially was

Roman Britain by Ordinance Survey Historical Maps

Especially the Agricola and Severus invasions of Scotland are hard to grasp for me without a good map.

All the known Roman forts and marching camps are shown.

I went down the Roman rabbithole during COVID.

I tried to stick to more recent books because diggings are currently ongoing which are continuously adding to our meagre knowledge.

I really liked these

Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy

The Complete Roman Army also by Adrian Goldsworthy

Conquering Jerusalem by Stephan Dando-Collins (this book is incredibly interesting)

The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris (what came after the Romans)

[kilted2000]

Another writer I would look out for is Mary Beard, classics prof at Cambridge. All her books are good and SPQR is a good one to start with. Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars is also very good if you want to go with primary sources.

[OC Richard]

What's cool about some of the more recent books is that they're written by archaeologists who also have a firm grasp of the primary written sources (which for Roman Britain are often extremely sparse).

It's the putting together of the archaeology, the iconography, the epigraphic record, coins, writing tablets, itineraries, maps, and the primary written sources that gets us closer to knowing what happened.

Of course much of the time it's difficult or impossible for us today to line up these various bits of evidence into anything clear, or even coherent. But they're all pieces of the same puzzle and must fit together somehow.