Chapter XXIII: Section VI: The Roman Period

After the attempt of Julius Cæsar in B.C. 55 to conquer Britain, nearly a century elapsed before another invasion of the island was essayed. In the year A.D. 43, the conquest of Britain was begun; but proceeded at a slow pace. The tribes in the southern division of the island faced the Roman legions and fought bravely; and for many years little advance was made. A number of tribes collectively called by the Romans the Brigantes, occupied the extensive region now known as Yorkshire, Lancaster, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland, and extended into the border counties of modern Scotland; and the tribes to the north of this and inwards were called by the Romans the Caledonians. The Brigantes contested the advance of the Roman legions and fought bravely. By the year 77 the Roman province had been extended nearly to the Solway Firth, and the legions were making great efforts to subdue the inhabitants.

In the year 78 Agricola was appointed to the chief command in Britain. He was an able and experienced general, and immediately engaged in the work before him. In the summer of 79, he probably marched north by the west coast of Cumberland, and advanced through the border counties of Scotland. In that region his advance was contested at every step by warlike tribes, habituated to strife and battle; but they were unable to stem the progress of the disciplined legions. During the winter Agricola was engaged in taking hostages from the tribes, whose territories the Roman troops had overrun, and in making arrangements to secure the subjection of the natives. The following year Agricola determined to advance farther northward and attack the Caledonians in their stronghold; but ♦the tribes made a vigorous resistance. He seems to have penetrated through Stirlingshire and passed the Forth, but it is doubtful if he advanced much farther; and he carefully secured some portions of the territories through which his army had passed, by erecting forts and forming camps as outposts in the most commanding positions. After Agricola had discovered the natural features of the country so far, and the spirit of the inhabitants, he fixed on the ground lying between the Firths of Forth and Clyde for his main line of defence; and the summer of 81 was spent in erecting a chain of forts along this line.¹

♦ duplicate word “the” removed

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._ pages 44‒45; _Caledonia_, Volume I., pages
103‒104; _History of Cumberland_, by R. S. Ferguson, M.A.,
pages 21‒22.

Afterwards the Roman General was engaged for several years in subduing the country between the Firths of Forth and Tay. He seems to have penetrated into some parts of Fifeshire, while his fleet sailed round the coasts; but the Romans failed to conquer the district between Kinross and Muckross. Afterwards he formed his army in three divisions, not far apart from each other, in order to meet the contingency of a surprise; and then, with the assistance of the Roman fleet, Agricola slowly advanced towards the Tay. The Caledonians, having ascertained the disposition of Agricola’s army, resolved to attack one of his divisions, the Ninth Legion. At midnight they assailed it, and fought their way through the gate and into the heart of the Roman camp; but Agricola himself, with the fleetest of the horse and foot came to the rescue. When day dawned the Caledonians had to fight the Ninth Legion on the one hand, and the reinforcement on the other; and the brunt of the struggle was at the gate of the camp, where the intruders had to fight their way out. The Legions were victorious, and the Caledonians retired under cover of the marshes; but they were not disheartened. Agricola learned, as the season passed, that the tribes were combining to strike a blow, and were removing their wives and children to places of safety. Both combatants were preparing for the struggle, which was to determine whether the Romans were to obtain dominion over the whole Island.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, page 45.

In the beginning of summer 86, Agricola sent his fleet round the coasts to ravage the seaboard, and alarm and intimidate the inhabitants. He then advanced with his army to Mons Grampius,¹ and there the Caledonians were posted for battle. The native troops numbered 30,000, men under the command of a leader called Galgacus; and as it was the custom for the leaders of armies to address their troops on the eve of a battle, so Tacitus, the historian, puts a speech into the mouth of the leader of the Caledonians, which is too important to be passed over:――“When I reflect on the causes of the war, and the circumstances of our position, I feel a strong persuasion that our united efforts this day will prove the beginning of universal liberty to Britain. For we are all undebased by slavery, and there is no land behind us; nor does even the sea afford a refuge, whilst the Roman fleet hovers around. Thus the use of arms, at all times honourable to the brave, now offers the only safety even to cowards. In all the battles yet fought against the Romans, our countrymen have reposed their final hopes in us; for we, the noblest sons in Britain, and therefore placed in its last recesses, far from the view of servile shores, have preserved even our eyes unpolluted by the contact of subjection.... The extremity of Britain is now disclosed, and whatever is unknown becomes an object of magnitude. But there is no nation behind us, nothing but waves and rocks, and the still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance we cannot escape by cringing and submission. Those plunderers of the world, after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean, stimulated by avarice if their enemy be rich, by ambition if poor, unsatiated by the east and by the west, the only people who behold wealth and indigence with equal avidity. To range, to slaughter, to usurp, they call empire, and where they make a desert, they call it peace.

¹ There has been much conflict of views as to the locality
where this battle was fought. Chalmers placed it at the
camp at Ardoch; Professor John Stuart, of Aberdeen, placed
the locality of the battle above the town of Stonehaven,
Kincardineshire. He maintained that the Roman army was
posted upon the extended plain, exactly above Stonehaven,
and the Caledonians upon the face of the hills above Urie
House, directly opposite to the Romans. _Archæologica
Scotica_, Volume II., page 300. Dr. Burton abandoned the
attempt to fix the site of the battle as hopeless. Dr. Skene
has placed it:――“On the peninsula, formed by the junction
of the Isla with the Tay, are the remains of a strong and
massive vallum, extending from the one river to the other,
with a small Roman fort at one end, and enclosing a large
triangular space, capable of containing Agricola’s whole
troops, guarded by the rampart in front, and by a river on
each side.... On the heights above the plain are the remains
of a large native encampment, capable of containing upwards
of 30,000 men.” _Celtic Scotland_, Volume I., pages 52,
53. Dr. Skene thinks that this site agrees with Tacitus’
description better than any other locality in Scotland.

“Our children and kindred, by the decree of nature, are rendered the dearest of all things to us, and these are torn away by levies to serve in foreign lands. Our wives and sisters, though they should escape the violation of hostile force, are polluted under the names of friendship and hospitality. Our estates and possessions are consumed in tributes, our grain in contributions, and even our bodies are worn down, amidst stripes and insults, in clearing woods and draining marshes.... Since then all hopes of mercy are vain; let those at last assume courage to whom safety, as well as to whom glory, is dear. The Trinobantes, even under a female leader, had force enough to burn a colony and storm camps, and if success had not damped their vigour, would have been able to throw off the yoke; and shall not we, untouched, unsubdued, and struggling not for the acquisition but for the security of liberty, show at the first onset what men Caledonia has reserved for her defence? Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave in war as they are licentious in peace? Acquiring renown from our dissensions, they convert the faults of their enemies to the glory of their own army――an army composed of the most different nations, which, as success alone has kept together, misfortune will certainly dissipate, unless you suppose that Gauls and Germans and Britons, who, though they expend their blood to establish a foreign dominion, have been longer its foes than its subjects, will be retained by loyalty and affection? No! terror and dread alone are their weak bonds of attachment, which once broken, they who cease to fear will begin to hate. Every incitement to victory is on our side. The Romans have no wives to animate them, no parents to upbraid their flight; most of them have either no home or a distant one. Few in number, ignorant of the country, looking around in silent horror at woods, seas, and a haven itself unknown to them, they are delivered by the gods, as it were, imprisoned and bound into our hands. Be not terrified by an idle show, and the glitter of silver and gold, which can neither protect nor wound. The Britons will recognise their own cause, the Gauls will recollect their former liberty, the rest of the Germans will desert them, as the Usipii have lately done. Nor is there anything formidable behind them――ungarrisoned towns, colonies of old men, municipal towns――distempered and distracted between unjust masters and ill-obeying subjects. There is a General, here an army; there tributes, mines, and all the train of punishments inflicted upon slaves, which, whether to bear eternally or instantly to revenge, this field must determine. March then to battle, and think of your ancestors and of your posterity!”

When Agricola saw the lines of his enemy he was afraid of being outflanked, and extended his own line to the utmost. His front consisted of 8000 auxiliaries and 3000 cavalry on the wings; the Legions or Roman soldiers were held in reserve, and placed behind the centre. The native army was well posted on the heights, their front line stretched along the border of the plains, the second line on the side of the hill, and the reserve behind it and farther up the hill. On the plain the native charioteers and horsemen were moving and rapidly manœuvring, as if to provoke attack. The battle began and raged with great fury. While the fighting was with missiles at a distance the native troops held their ground, and the charioteers drove back the Roman cavalry and threw them into confusion; but Agricola sent forward five cohorts to charge the native footmen with swords. For this weapon they were not prepared, and their first line fell back; the whole Roman line then advanced to the charge. Still, Galgacus tried a flank movement with his reserve, but it failed; the chariots at last became entangled amongst the broken ground, and a defeat ensued. The Caledonians retired in order, and repeatedly attempted to check the pursuit of the Romans, but many of the natives were slain; and 350 of the Romans fell. The Roman General did not pursue the Caledonians far; and from various circumstances it seems evident that he had not achieved a decisive victory. After taking hostages from some of the tribes between the Tay and the Forth to prevent them from joining the native army, he returned to his winter quarters, south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, with his army. Shortly after he was recalled to Rome.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 46, 47, 48; _Caledonia_, Volume I.,
page 113.

It appears from the brief and vague notices of Roman writers, that the Imperial troops had to maintain an incessant struggle with the northern tribes in Britain. In short, the whole of the country which Agricola had overrun, in a few years resumed its independent state, and the Roman province on the north was limited to the same boundary as when he first commenced his campaigns. The northern tribes even between the Tweed and the Firths of Forth and Clyde seem to have been little effected by Agricola’s conquests. Between the years 120 and 138, the Romans built a wall from the river Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth, which is usually called Hadrian’s wall. It is about seventy-three miles in length, and consisted of a stone wall strengthened by a great ditch on its northern side, and an earthen rampart to the south of the stone wall; and military stations, forts, watch-towers, and roads for the accommodation of the legions, who manned the bulwarks, and the transmission of military stores. The stone wall and the earthen wall were generally within sixty or seventy yards of each other, but the distance between them varied with the nature of the ground. The stone wall was about eight feet in thickness and about twenty in height; and it consisted of a facing on each side of dressed stones, the core was of concrete filled in between the facing stones; the whole forming a solid mass which depended for its strength on the quality of the concrete. Connected with this great barrier there were a number of very large stations, fortified barracks with guard-houses, and upwards of 300 watch-towers at about a quarter of a mile from each other, with much stronger forts between every fourth or fifth watch-tower.¹ In short it appears to have been one of the most complete and massive lines of defensive works ever constructed by the Romans.

¹ Bruce’s _The Roman Wall_; _History of Cumberland_, by R. S.
Ferguson, M.A., pages 78‒97; 1890.

About twenty years later the Romans constructed another wall, which commenced at Bridgeness on the Firth of Forth and crossed the country to near West Kilpatrick on the Clyde, a distance of twenty-seven miles, and probably on the line of Agricola’s frontier; it ran along the ridge of the southern rising grounds. This wall consisted of earth and stone works, forming a rampart of about twenty-four feet in breadth at the base and some twenty feet in height; and a very wide and deep ditch ran in front of the wall along its whole course, which faced the region of the Caledonians. There was a paved way five feet broad close to the foot of the wall, and a series of watch-towers within call of each other in which sentinels watched day and night; and eighteen great forts placed on the most commanding positions at intervals of about two miles. A paved military road followed the line of the wall on the southward side.¹ This was the barrier especially intended to keep the Celtic tribes of Caledonia at bay; and from this time until the Romans left the island it was the northern boundary of the province.

¹ Roy’s _Military Antiquities; Caledonia_, Volume I., pages
116‒119.

So it was the strip of territory between these two walls that the Romans occupied in Scotland, and even there they were never long permitted to hold undisputed possession. In 182 the tribes of the north broke through the wall, slew the commander and a number of the soldiers who guarded it, and wasted a portion of the province. About the beginning of the third century the tribes of the north had overcome the legions, and were overrunning the province, laying it waste, and driving off booty. So in the year 208 the Emperor Severus arrived in Britain, and at once proceeded to take steps to restore order, and retaliate on the independent tribes. He concentrated all the available troops in the island; and advanced into Scotland with a great force, passed the wall which guarded the frontier, and marched forward and attempted to penetrate into the heart of Caledonia. Severus tried by throwing bridges over the rivers, cutting down the woods, and making roads in every direction, to render the country passable for troops. But this was more difficult than he had imagined. He may have advanced some distance northward of the Tay, along the east coast, but it is extremely doubtful if Severus ever reached the river Dee, far less the Spey or the shores of the Moray Firth. Let the circumstantial evidence be fairly considered, and it will appear highly improbable that Severus penetrated to the Spey.

Severus only arrived in Britain in the year 208, and his campaign beyond the frontier of the province in Caledonia could hardly have commenced before 209. It is stated, that after he concluded a peace with the native tribes, he returned southward and superintended the reconstruction, or at least the repair, of the wall between the Forth and Clyde. Having thus completed his work and settled everything, he then returned to York. After he had been some time in York, tidings that the Caledonians were again in revolt reached him, and we are told that he was only prevented from recommencing a war of extermination by his death, which occurred at York in 211.¹ Thus it appears that the duration of Severus’ campaign north of the Forth must have been very limited indeed, and at the utmost it could not have lasted much longer than one year. It is said that he lost 50,000 men during the campaign, although he fought no battle. If his army numbered 100,000 men, it is extremely difficult to conceive how such a number of men could have been supplied with food in the heart of a hostile country, especially without the co-operation of a fleet. If, within the limited period of one year, Severus and his army erected bridges over the principal rivers from the Firth of Forth to the Spey, constructed one great military road to secure his line of communication between the same points――through marshes, woods, and rocks――and made other roads in all directions, besides forming great camps here and there between the supposed points of the commencement and the termination of the campaign. In reality it seems most probable that the scene of Severus’ campaign did not pass beyond the limits of Perthshire; for if he had left this region unconquered behind him, the advance through the eastern Lowlands to the Spey would have been a military and political blunder which no Roman General was likely to commit. The only thing certain about Severus’ campaign is that it produced no permanent result whatever.

¹ Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_, Volume I., pages 82‒90.

After the death of Severus, his son Antoninus became Emperor, who made peace with the native tribes, and left the frontier, of which he had been in charge. A long period of silence as to the state of North Britain followed. Toward the end of the third century Caransius, a native of Belgium, who had risen to high rank in the Roman army, assumed the purple himself, and ruled Britain independently for a period of seven years. In the early part of the fourth century the Emperor Constantine seems to have been at war with the northern tribes; and by the middle of the same century the relative positions and the historic conditions had entirely changed, for Rome herself was fast verging towards dissolution. Toward the end of this century the northern tribes were sometimes called Picts, and at the same time the Scots and Saxons were mentioned among the assailants of the Roman province in Britain; the attacks of these tribes had become incessant, while the Romanised Britons were beginning to be left to their own resources. Disorder was rapidly spreading in all quarters of the empire. At this time the generals in command in Britain frequently assumed the title of Emperor, and always fought to obtain the purple and universal sway; owing to this the Roman province in Britain was completely drained of troops. The tribes outside the walls were constantly harassing the Romanised population, and in 407 Constantine advised the Britons to abandon the districts between the walls and to concentrate their efforts to protect the remainder of the province by manning the southern wall to the utmost of their power. He then passed over to Gaul, withdrawing all the available troops in Britain, and henceforth the imperial sway ceased in Scotland.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 53, 62, 63, 66, 68, 70, 75, 79,
80, 82, 83. In the early years of the fifth century the
local army in Britain set up three Roman Emperors――Marcus,
Gratianus, and Constantine――and the latter, as stated in the
text, crossed the Channel to Gaul with his army, and left
Britain utterly undefended. Long before this time, however,
several of the generals in Britain usurped the authority of
Emperors, as recorded in the passages cited above.