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The Agricolan Occupation of North Britain1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

The current view of the Agricolan occupation of Scotland is conveniently summed up in Furneaux's declaration that ‘it is impossible to suppose that the conquest had been as thorough as is suggested [by Tacitus].’ York is sometimes alleged to have been the farthest point that was permanently secured, and a German historian has solemnly rebuked the Roman general for the fundamental fault of pushing forward without consolidating the ground that he had won. This scepticism as to Agricola's military capacity and achievements was justifiable enough so long as the historical notices stood alone. Moreover it appeared to be perfectly consistent with the ‘perdomita Britannia et statim missa’ of Tacitus himself. And, when archaeology made its first contribution to the discussion, the new evidence promised to be merely corroborative. The little Agricolan fort on the Bar Hill, discovered by a happy accident in 1903, was garrisoned for only a brief period, and had been abandoned fifty or sixty years before Lollius Urbicus built the wall from Forth to Clyde.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © George Macdonald 1919. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 111 note 2 The Agricola of Tacitus, p. 50.

page 111 note 3 Schiller, , Gesch. der röm. Kaiserzeit, i, p. 526Google Scholar.

page 111 note 4 Hist. i, 2.

page 111 note 5 See my Roman Wall in Scotland, pp. 188 ff.

page 111 note 6 Ibid. 383 ff.

page 111 note 7 See Bushe-Fox, , Archaeologia, lxiv, pp. 310 and 312Google Scholar.

page 112 note 1 A Roman Frontier Post, pp. 340 ff. Possibly even the third occupation may have been pre-Antonine. Mr. Curle tells me that the evidence of date was not conclusive.

page 112 note 2 Ibid. p. 401 and p. 415.

page 112 note 3 Edinburgh Review, April, 1911, pp. 480 f. Cf. Arch. Anzeiger, 1911, pp. 292 f.

page 112 note 4 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot, lii, pp. 203-276.

page 113 note 1 In the discussion that follows I have made no reference either to the ‘Redoubt’ or to the least ‘Western Vallum,’ marked upon the plan. No satisfactory information regarding either was obtained during the excavations, and the latter at least is doubtfully Roman.

page 113 note 2 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxvi, pp. 182-242.

page 113 note 3 Ibid. p. 212.

page 115 note 1 Agricola, cc, 29 ff.

page 115 note 2 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. lii, pp. 233 f.

page 116 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Sect. xxxvi, p. 227.

page 117 note 1 Ibid. p. 209.

page 117 note 2 Fig. 4 is slightly reduced from the original plan, now in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

page 117 note 3 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxvi, p. 214.

page 119 note 1 Ibid. p. 214.

page 119 note 2 Arch. Ael. xxv, p. 230.

page 119 note 3 The breadth of these shorter sections of ditch is not stated in the Report. But, to judge from the plan, it must have been considerably greater than that of what I take to be an ‘annexe’ ditch.

page 119 note 4 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxvi, p. 214.

page 119 note 5 At Newstead, for instance, one of the centuriae measured 205 feet by 24 feet, the others 190 feet by 35 feet.

page 121 note 1 Hist. of Scotland, i, p. 199.

page 121 note 2 Tour in Scotland, part ii, p. 70.

page 121 note 3 ix, pp. 485 ff.

page 121 note 4 iv, p. 138.

page 121 note 5 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxvi, pp. 182–203.

page 122 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxii, pp. 399-476.

page 122 note 2 Ibid. p. 447.

page 122 note 3 Ibid. p. 448.

page 124 note 1 Ibid. p. 449.

page 124 note 2 The sketches represent a post-hole and a sleeper-track actually found at Ardoch. The wood-work is, of course, conjectural.

page 127 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxv, pp. 329-417.

page 127 note 2 Op. cit. p. 345.

page 127 note 3 Ibid. p. 346.

page 129 note 1 Ibid. p. 366.

page 129 note 2 Mr. Buchanan, I am able to say, fully agrees. The lines that appear were (he tells me) laid down against his own better judgment and in deference to a weight of opinion which he was not in a position to resist.

page 129 note 3 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxv, p. 377. What is there stated was emphatically confirmed, in enquiry, by Mr. A. Mackie, who acted as clerk of works.

page 130 note 1 Ibid. P. 345.

page 131 note 1 Ibid. p. 373.

page 131 note 2 The difference is indicated on fig. 10 by the presence of a black line between each buttress and the wall against which it has been built.

page 132 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxv, p. 376.

page 132 note 2 Ibid. p. 377.

page 132 note 3 Roman Wall in Scotland, pp. 395 ff.

page 133 note 1 Tac. Agricola, c. 40Google Scholar.

page 133 note 2 Cf. the ‘inventa Britannia et subacta’ of Agricola, c. 33.

page 133 note 3 Ibid. c. 24; Saepe ex eo audivi legione una et modicis auxiliis debellari obtinerique Hiberniam posse.

page 133 note 4 Archaeologia, lxiv, p. 303.

page 133 note 5 Second Interim Report (1911), p. 65.

page 133 note 6 Yorkshire Arch. Journ. xxvi, pp. 1–92.

page 133 note 7 The possibility that troops were withdrawn from some of the Yorkshire forts to garrison Hadrian's Wall was discussed by Prof. Haverfield, in Yorks. Arch. Journ. xxiii, pp. 395398Google Scholar, where he suggested c. A.D. 125 for the evacuation of Slack.

page 134 note 1 Edinburgh Review, clxxxix. (1899), p. 376Google Scholar.

page 134 note 2 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. lii, pp. 241 f.

page 134 note 3 Proc. Dumfr. and Gall. Nat. Hist, and Ant. Soc. 1897-98, p. 17. The plan is reproduced in the Second Interim Report on Castleshaw (plate 6).

page 134 note 4 Second Interim Report (plate 5).

page 135 note 1 Scottish Hist. Rev. xviii, pp. 80 f.

page 135 note 2 Agricola, c. 38.

page 135 note 3 Gough's, Camden (1806) iv, p. 48Google Scholar; Arch. Scot. v, App. pp. 24 and 28.

page 135 note 4 Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain (1793), plate xi.) For the date 1755 see my paper in Archaeologia, lxviii, p. 172.

page 136 note 1 So A. Schulten in Neue Jahrbücher für das klass. Altertum, 1914, p. 617. And the point had frequently been noted before. I may take this opportunity of saying that Schulten has not convinced me that Birrenswark was ‘ein britannisches Numantia’

page 136 note 2 Deutsche Altertumskunde, iv, p. 51.

page 137 note 1 A Disquisition on Ptolemy's Geography of Scotland (Stirling, 1911), p. 48.

page 137 note 2 Agricola, c. 19.

page 138 note 1 Itin. Ant. 31 and 56.

page 138 note 2 Op. cit. 297.

page 138 note 3 iv, 28.

page 138 note 4 iii, 9, 4.