rb 8 northern frontier
TRANSCRIPT
Defending the Northern Frontier
Walls
The Wall
Home on the Wall
Hadrian
IMP(ERATORIS) CAES(ARIS) TRAIAN(I) / HADRIANI AUG(USTI) / LE(GIO) II AUG(USTA) / A(ULO) PLATORIO NEPOTE LEG(ATO) PR(O) PR(AETORE)
This work of the Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus (was built by) the Second Legion Augusta under Aulus PlatoriusNepos, propraetorian legate.
Hadrian and Britannia
122/134 Addressing the troops
122 Arrival in Britain 134 Britannia
119 Defeat of rebels?
Purpose?
• Military
• Economic
• Border
Wall – Early Years
Period Construction Width (ft.)
Section
122-126 Broad WallNarrow WallTurf WallFortlets
108
20
Wallsend to Irthing RiverIrthing to Burtholme BeckTo Bowness
After 122 Forts, mile castles, turrets
By 138 Turf Wall replaced by stone
~140 Abandoned – ditches covered at intervals
~161 Reoccupied
Types of Wall
X-Section
Components of Wall
• Wall
– Forts
– Turrets – signal towers
– Fortlets or milecastles
• Ditch (N)
• Vallum (S) with protecting mounds
Types of Wall
• All c.15’ high
• Broad Wall (10’)
• Narrow Wall (8’ on a 10’ base)
• Turf Wall (18’ wide)
– Later rebuilt in stone
N
Forts
• Newcastle (Pons Aelius)
• Benwell (Condercum)
• Halton Chesters(Onnum)
• Housesteads(Vercovicium)
– Built after broad foundations but before narrow wall
• Great Chesters
– Replaced a milecastle
Forts
• Carvoran
– A Stanegate fort that was near but not on the wall
• Birdoswald
• Castlesteads
– Only fort not attached to the wall, garrisoned by auxiliaries
• Stanwix (near Carlisle)
– Built by VI Victrix but garrisoned by a miliary cavalry unit
Forts Added after Wall
• Wallsend (Segedunum)
• Chesters (Cilurnum)
– Wall crosses the Tyne
– A cavalry fort
• Carrawburgh (Brocolitia)
– An early addition
• Burgh by Sands (Aballava)
– Added to reinforce lines near Solway
• Drumburgh
• Bowness
– Terminus of the wall
– Possible supply-depot
Fort Astride Wall
Benwell
Milecastles
XX Valeria Victrix II AugustaVI Victrix
•Milecastles have arched gateways.
•House from 8 to 32 legionaries.
Milecastle 42
Ditch
Turret
Turf Section
Turf and Stone
Amiens Patera
Rudge Cup uncolored replica in British Museum
Staffordshire Moorlands Patera
Hadrian’s Wall Forts
The Rudge Cup• A.MAISABALLAVAVXELODUMCAMBOGLANSBANNA• A. MAIS ABALLAVA VXELODUM CAMBOGLANS BANNA
The Amiens patera• MAISABALLAVAVXELODVNVMCAMBOG...SBANNAESICA• MAIS ABALLAVA VXELODVNVM CAMBOG...S BANNA ESICA
The Moorlands patera• MAISCOGGABATAVXELODVNVMCAMMOGLANNARIGOREVALIAELI
DRACONIS• MAIS COGGABATA VXELODVNVM CAMMOGLANNA
Drumburgh ? Stanwix CastleheadsBirdoswald Great Chesters
Wall – Middle Years
Period Events
~140 Abandoned – ditches covered at intervalsForay into Scotland
~161 Abandon Antonine wallReoccupy and rebuild – Use of British labor in rebuilding and maintenance
Vindolanda Fort
Signaling
Short Range Communication
• Trumpets– Charge, retreat
• Cornets ( played by cornicen)– Motion of colors
• Classicum or buccina (horn)– Used by commander, salutes, executions
• Tuba (played by tubicen)– Signal trumpet
Vegetius, De Re Militari
Trajan’s Column
Longer range communication
• Beacons
• Semaphores
• Coded signals
• Manpower needed?
• caelum crebris imbribus ac nebulis foedum
Signaling
The other 'evidence' from field archaeology, aerial photography and excavations for Roman military signalling systems is hypothetical, and varies from the ridiculous to the inconclusive.
Donaldson, “Signalling, Communications and the Roman Imperial Army” 1988
• Probable Method: pony express
Vindolanda
Resources
• Find slag
• Find coal in 2nd C.
Where?
The Place
When? Stages
Period Dates Size Occupants
I c AD 85-95 3 acres Coh I Tungrorum
II c AD 95-100 5 acres Coh VIIII Batavorum
III AD 100-105 5 acres Coh VIIII Batavorum
IV AD 105-120 8 acres Coh I Tungrorum; Vardulli cavalry +Legionaries;
V AD 120-130 5 acres Coh I Tungrorum ; stone fort
VI c AD 130-160’s 3.6acres Possibly Coh II Nerviorum
VIA c AD 160-200 4 acres. Unknown – Possibly North African in origin or Coh II Nerviorum
VIB c AD 208-211 1.5acres Unknown
VII c AD 212-280 3.6acres Coh IV Gallorum
VIII c AD 300-367 3.6acres Coh IV Gallorum
IX AD 367-410 3.6acres Unknown –Riacus
X c AD 410-600 3.6acres Unknown – Brigomaglos and Riacus only known occupants
Who?
Leading Cast
• Flavius Cerialis, Prefect
• Aelius Brocchus, another prefect (off-stage)
Roman Names
Forename Family name Nickname, local name
or tribal name
Praenomen gentilicium or nomen Cognomen
? Flavius Cerialis
Acquired Roman
Citizenship after
accession of first
Flavian, Vespasian
From Petillius Cerialis
Significant Others
• Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Flavius
• Claudia Severa, wife of Aelius
Their Home
Correspondents
• Felicio, a centurion
• Priuatis, a slave
• Caecilius September, prefect of a cavalry unit
The Extras
• Types of auxiliary units
– Quingenaria or milliaria
– Equitata
• VIIII Batavians
• I Tungrians
• Itinerant cavalry, legionaries, other units
Cavalry Present
Bronze military diploma
Malpas, Cheshire 103 CE
To:
Reburrus, a Spanish decurion in the 1st
Pannonian cavalry
Military Diploma
From Hadrian for the units:
which are in Britain…. … soldiers who have served twenty-five years and received an honourable discharge …. To them and to their children for posterity has been granted … citizenship.
Marriage
Life at VindolandaThe Written Record
Not Written on Stone
• Papyrus
• Vellum
• Wax tablet – business and legal use
• Ink tablet – ephemeral use
Wax Writing Tablet/Styli
Found in or near the
River Walbrook, London
1st or 2nd century
Wax Writing Tablet-Vindolanda
Writing Tablets and Scribes
PROC AVG DEDERVNT
BRIT PROV
'The imperial procurators of
the province of Britain
issued this
Ox Goad Or Pen?
Challenge-Reading the Tablets
• Conservation
• Dirt: Infra-red photography
• Reading script
• New words, new spelling
• Filling in missing parts– Formulaic writing
– Standard abbreviations
– Recognized names
Script
Cerialis Seeks Advancement
Now (?), in whatever way you wish, fulfil what I expect of you and ... so furnish me with friends that thanks to you I may be able to enjoy a pleasant period of military service.
Wishing Cerialis Success in his Upcoming Meeting with the Governor
Expenses
• Dinners with Brocchus
• Hunting
• Distribution of beer to the decurions
• Chickens
– Dinner guests
– Holidays
Account
Account - Details
• Cloaks, number 6, 11 /2 denarii each, total 69 denarii
• Skillets, number 4, denarii 2 7/8 and 1 as each, total 11¾ denarii.
• Scarlet curtain (?), measuring 11 ½ , total 54 ½ + denarii
• Hair, 9 pounds in weight, 5¾ denarii per pound, total 51¾ denarii.
• Drawers, number 10, 2 ½ denarii each, total 25 denarii.
Supplies – Detailed List
•Wheat
•Hides from tannery at Catterick
•Send cash
•Delivery delay because the bad roads would have resulted in injuries to the animals
Inventory
Buying Food for the Holiday, etc.
•Barley
•Beer
•Wine
•Fish-sauce
More for the Saturnalia
Severus to his Candidus, greetings. Regarding the ... for the Saturnalia, I ask you, brother, to see to them at a price of 4 or six asses and radishes to the value of not less than 1/2 denarius. Farewell, brother.’
Back: To Candidus, slave of Genialis the prefect, from Severus, slave of ?
Recipe
Found in kitchen
•Garlic
•Spiced wine
•Olives ?
•Salt ?
New Year’s Day Sacrifice
FootwearEarly
Late
Lepidina’s ‘Designer’ Sandal
Birthday Invitation
On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present (?).
To Sulpicia Lepidina from Claudia Severa, wife of Aelius Brocchus
Birthday Letter
Child’s Sock
HW
INTEREA PAVIDAM VOLITANS PINNA
TA .VBEM segn.Meanwhile, the winged [bird, rumor], flying though the trembling city. Virgil IX
473 Slack
Neglecting HW?
Damaged pottery
From Graufinesque, S. Gaul
The Rank and File
Roll call
18 May, net number of the First Cohort of Tungrians, of which the commander is Iulius Verecundus the prefect: 752, including centurions 6 of whom there are absent:
[list numbers of absentees and where they are]
Work
Three groups
•Building a hospitium
•Working at lime-kilns
•Getting clay for making wattle fences
Recommendation Letter
Clothing
I have sent (?) you ... pairs of socks from Sattua, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants, two pairs of sandals ... Greet ...ndes, Elpis, Iu..., ...enus, Tetricus and all your messmates with whom I pray that you live in the greatest good fortune
Expense Account
•Wine
•Barley
•Wagon-axles
•Carriage
•Accommodation
•Vests
Travel
Account of Loan(?) of Wheat
Request for Leave
I ask, my lord Cerialis, that you consider me a worthy person to whom to grant leave
Masclus’ Request
P.S. My fellow soldiers have no beer. Please order some to be sent.
Purchases by Lower Ranks
•Pepper
•Tallow
•Towels
•Overcoat
•Thongs
Complaint
I want you to know that I am in very good health, as I hope you are in turn, you neglectful man, who have sent me not even one letter. But I think that I am behaving in a more considerate fashion in writing to you ... to you, brother, ... my messmate.
Mistreatment - Complaint
I implore your majesty not to allow me, an innocent man, to have been beaten with rods… I implore your mercifulness not to allow me, a man from overseas and an innocent one, about whose good faith you may inquire, to have been bloodied by rods as if I had committed some crime.
Intelligence on the Britons
... the Britons are unprotected by armour (?). There are very many cavalry. The cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons
(Brittunculi) mount in order to
throw javelins.
British Uprising
VicusFort
Development of Vici
Traditional model
• Extra mural area with bath house and a few traders and camp followers
• Economic development
• Some political independence– Survive dismantling of the fort
• Military annexes or fortified civilian annexes
Extramural Vindolanda
• Antonine (~160)
– Defensive enclosure perhaps to facilitate wagon parks, horse lines
• Severan (~210)
– Stone fort
• 3rd century
– Settlement
Vindolanda 3-4 C.
Baths
Baths
Footwear for the Baths
Roman-Celtic Temple
Model altar and stands
Brooch and pendant
The Environment c. 180 CE85-92 CE
Traditional View
• Fort – combatants
• Vicus – noncombatants
– Merchants
– Women
In the vicus or nearby
• Oxherd; keeper of pigs
• Brewer
• Veteran
• Guesthouse
Finds in barracks
• Female shoes – not just associated with prefect
• Bracelets and beads at Catterick
Shoes in barracks2nd C.
21% smaller sizes
Women in the fort - 3rd & 4th C.
• Weaving work
• Not just associated with prefects or centurions
• Fort boundaries porous in both directions
Antonine Wall
Severus
Division of Britannia
Antonine Wall
Hadrian’s Successors
Antoninus
Antoninus never willing made warPausanias
They prefer to preserve their empire rather than extend it indefinitely to profitless, barbarian peoples
Appian (~96-165)
They surround the empire with a circle of great camps
Aelius Aristides (120-189)
Antoninus Pius
• Generally shied away from military adventure
• Pressure from the north
• Reconstruction of base at Corbridge
• Victory over barbarians
• Antonine Wall
Corbridge – New Construction 139
AntonineOccupation of
Scotland
Military Occupation – Antonine Period
Interests of the Military
• Rank and file – pensions and booty
• Commanders of equestrian class
– Patronage
– Better posts in the Mediterranean
Reuse of Gask Ridge Forts
Elements of the Antonine Wall
• Rampart
• Ditch and mound to the north
• Military road to the south
Antonine vs Hadrian Walls
• Forts interspersed with smaller stations.
• No Vallum.
• Double the number of troops along smaller distance than Hadrian's Wall
• Turf not stone – stone reinforcement
• 14-16’ wide, probably 10’ high
Antonine Siege Fort
Wall at Rough Castle
Annex
Rough Castle
Principia, Bar Hill
Latrine, BearsdenArtist’s reconstruction
Wall with Fortlet
Distance Slabs
Bridgeness Distance Slab
Old Kirkpatrick
Summerston Farm, near BalmuildyIIIDCLXVIS = 3,666 ½ paces
Distance Slab Hutcheson Hill
Legio II Duntocher
Other victory commemorations
Consequences of Antonine Wall
• Forces involved ~6-7,000
• Pax Romana
• No evidence for native rule
• Increased use of stone construction
• New civilian communities follow the army
• Increased mining for iron and surface mining of coal
• Production of food for army
Continuation of Native Life
• Round houses
• No new concentrated settlements except near forts
• Natives reuse bronze but not iron from Romans
• Roman brooches
Roman Artefacts
Dunure (South Ayrshire)
Wigtownshire
Antonine Itinerary
• Fourteen numbered roads
• List stations along the roads with distances between them
Example
Iter III
(From London to the port of Dover)
Roman Name 1000 paces Miles Current Name
Durobrivis xxvii 31 Rochester
Duroverno xxv 28 Canterbury
Ad portum Dubris xiiii 18 Dover
Along the Way
• Mansiones, inns, every 30 miles or so– A bed for man and horse
– Food ” “
– A hot bath
– Storage of government goods
– Postal and police services
• Mutationes, changing stops
Chelmsford Mansio
Godmanchester
Mansio
Baths
80’
Dining room
Abandonment of Antonine Wall
• Under Governor Julius Verus the wall was abandoned (c. 154-8 CE)
• Hadrian’s wall was refurbished
• “Military Road” to supply Hadrian wall forts
• Outpost forts north of Hadrian’s Wall abandoned by 185 CE
Maintenance
Breach of Hadrian’s Wall?
Victory in Britain
Commodus• Breach of Hadrian's Wall
• C. 180 Governor Ulpius Marcellus sent to put down rebellions
• 184-5 Victory in Britain
• 185 Protest by British legions against prefect, Perennis
Numeri
• Non-citizens
• Small units
• Legionary officers
• Identified with nations
• No entitlement to citizenship
• Less-well armed than regulars
– Exploratores - scouts
Sarmatians
• 175 Brought to Britain by Marcus Aurelius
• Brougham cemetery
– Sword and belt fittings
– Horses
– Unusual burial - women
Archaeology • May/June 2005
Sarmatian Treasure - Gaul
Pertinax
• 126 Son of freeman and clothmaker
• c. 150 Teacher of literature
• 161 Volunteers for military, commander of auxiliary cohort, successful in battles in Asia
• 165 Legionary tribune in York, raised to equestrian rank
• 168 Procurator in N. Italy, Dacia
• Commander of units against Germans
Pertinax
• Made Senator and legionary commander
• 175 Consul
• 176 Series of governorships of provinces
– 185-187 Governor of Britain
• 189 Mayor of Rome
• 192 Consul
• Emperor1/1/193 to 3/28/193
Clodius Albinus
• c.140 Born near Carthage, Senatorial rank– 175 Governor of Bithynia
– 187 Consul
– 189 Governor fo Germany
• 191-2 Governor of Britain
• 193 Made Caesar by Septimius Severus
• 195 Severus names his own sons successors, forcing out Albinus– Supported by legions on German frontier and from Spain
– Defeated near Lugdunum (Lyon); suicide?
Lugdunum - SeverusSeverus
• Pannonia– XIIII Gemina
• Moesia– XI Claudia
• Germania Superior– XXII Primigenia
• Germania Inferior– I Minerva
– XXX Ulpia Traiana
Albinus
• Britannia– II Augusta
– VI Victrix
– XX Valeria
• Hispania– VII Gemina