THE DISAPEARANCE OF THE XI LEGION ( Part 2) (D.M) Build A Wall - No - Two Walls ! The Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in 122 AD bringing with him a vast number of soldiers, but decided that Caledonia was too much trouble for only a little reward ( yet they had thought it rewarding enough to invade three times ). In a decision designed first and foremost to block the constant punitive raids and daring invasions by the Picts into the Roman provinces, but possibly also ( like the main purpose of the Berlin Wall ), to stop the continual defection of peoples from the occupied territories, he gave orders to the army to abandon Caledonia and to mark and protect the northern boundary of the Roman Empire by building a massive wall the entire width of Britain, near the present border of Scotland and England. The tide had turned, the hunters were now hunted - the Picts had pro-actively seized the offensive. Hadrians Wall was an impressive structure, showing just how serious the threat from the Caledonians was. More than 80 Roman miles / 120 kilometres long ( 1,618 yards in a Roman mile; our mile is 1,760 yards ), the majority of it was built of stone, over four metres high, never less than 8 feet thick, with a shorter section in the west of turf but almost as high. It had in front a ditch, up to 12 metres wide and 4 meters deep and to the north a mound of earth parallel to the wall. On or near to the wall were sixteen forts, each one holding between 500 and 1000 troops. There was a network of mile-castles and turrets between them, and an infrastructure of roads to service and protect it. Sixteen years after Hadrian had ordered the wall to be built, he died, and the wall was still being built. In all it is reckoned that the Romans had to mine and move about 2 million tons of stone, rock and soil, to build this most massive and unique frontier structure in the Empire. Most historians who are pro-Roman, have minimised or failed to realise that Rome taking on such a massive expensive, defensive project, proves they had a very high opinion of the fighting skills of the Picts, especially when you consider that no such expensive wall was built on any other Roman frontier and the fact that the Romans built not just one - but TWO walls to defend against the Caledonians. The walls are in reality a coast to coast Roman monument to the Picts, if not for their counter-attacks on the Empire - there would be no Hadrian and Antonine Wall. The Romans tried again to suppress Caledonia. They moved about 120 miles north to the point where the West Highland Way begins, just above Glasgow. Here another wall was built named after Emperor Antonius Pius, the Antonine Wall, whose ruins can be seen near the start of the West Highland Way. This wall was thirty-seven miles long, from Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde to Carriden on the Forth and needed about 20,000 to guard and defend it. About 20 forts were built along its length. The Romans re-occupied much of the lands originally taken by Agricola but after less than 10 years of guerrilla war the Roman Legions were mass-attacked once again, with the wall and all 20 of its forts being lost. Roman casualties must have been exceedingly high. The Romans later returned to the wall, repaired the damage and set the 2nd, 6th and 20th Legions to defend the forts, but they were again attacked, overrun by the united Picts and forced to move back to Hadrians Wall in modern England. Caledonia was gaining quite a reputation in Rome. In 208 AD ( 128 years after the invasion by Agricola ), 40,000 Romans ( double the force of Agricola ), led personally by Severus - Emperor of Rome, returned to ruthlessly punish the Picts. Not just by war but by destroying their fertile agricultural land. His strategy was simple - ethnic cleansing of all Picts by sword and starvation. In the words of Dr. Colin Martin, Severus policy seems to have been nothing short of an attempt at genocide of the Caledonian population. In actual fact, through giving orders to his 40,000 men to cut down large areas of forest - Severus foolishly created more fertile land. No doubt at the beginning of his campaign he butchered many small helpless villages, killing the elderly, women - even pregnant women and innocent little children, but soon when the Picts learned of his butchery they would have evacuated everyone in his path. The Roman historian Deo Cassius states that Severus, fought no battle and beheld no enemy in battle array. It became obvious that time was on the side of the Caledonians as things started to go wrong for the Romans. In what can only be described as poetic justice, the Romans began to run out of food, and experienced countless hardships. It appears that the Picts used a scorched earth policy just as they did after the battle of Mons Graupius. Deo Cassius writes that the Picts sometimes deliberately left a few cattle in the path of the hungry army to draw them ever deeper into the heart of the country, presumably drawing them away from their supply fleet. The Picts shadowed and harried the Roman army using hit and run tactics, attacking stragglers or those who were separated, scattered or lost, but they kept their discipline of avoiding a pitched battle. Severus took ill and had to be carried most of the time in a litter. Deo Cassius records that those Romans who were too exhausted or too ill to walk, presumably as a result of hunger - were slain by their own men in order to avoid capture. Severus called for a truce in order to agree a treaty and on the way to the meeting, as the Pict army watched his approach his own son tried to kill him in full view of the Caledonians. Deo Cassius notes of this event that, the enemys force were likewise spectators. The Romans made a treaty with the Picts who agreed to allow some forts and occupation troops to stay in central Caledonia. This treaty is often said to show only that the Caledonians ceded territory to Rome, but by implication it means that the Emperor himself, in return for this limited concession of the smaller part of the country - agreed to give up Romes ambitions for all the rest of Caledonia. It seems it was a Pict war strategy to make a temporary treaty with a butcher like Severus - at least until they got the next harvest in. According to the Romans the truce was broken a year or two later, so Severus prepared once again to personally lead the invasion of Caledonia. Deo Cassius recorded Severus raging orders, Let no one escape sheer destruction . . not even the babe in the womb of the mother, if it be male; let it nevertheless not escape sheer destruction. His bloody plans never reached fruition; the butcher died at Eboracum ( York ) in modern England on 4 February 211 AD. The Roman historian Spartianus, writes of Severus son Antoninus who succeeded him that, With the enemy ( Picts ) he came to terms, withdrew from their territory, and abandoned the forts. What terms ? The Romans withdrew - end of story. Unless the terms were, Dont attack Hadrians Wall ! Oh no, said the Picts, we would never do that. The Romans retreated from Caledonia - never to return ! The Picts had won the 130 year war of Caledonia - it was then that the war against Roman occupation of the southern British provinces began. Scots Dance on Roman Graves When miners were levelling the ground to build Bridgeness Miners Welfare Club ( to be used for social events and dances ), about 1919, a Roman graveyard was uncovered. When the graves were opened by Officials of the Scottish National Museum, they were found to contain the skeletons of Roman soldiers and numbers of coins and other articles. The coffins being made out of 2 inch thick slabs of stone were too heavy to transport and therefore still lie beneath Bridgeness Miners Welfare Club to this day. I think the Caledonians would have approved. In fact, I think that through the mist I see a forest of spears being shaken and hear the deafening sound of tens of thousands of Brass Apples rattling
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 04:02:38 +0000
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