Roman Invasion

Julius Caesar invaded England in BC 55, but it took about one hundred and thirty-five years before the Romans were ready to assault Scotland in 80 AD - the same summer that the Coliseum was opened and one year after the disaster at Pompey. The Romans called Scotland 'Caledonia' because the dominant tribe of Picts ( the local tribes ) they encountered was the Calidonii. The name is a Romanisation of the actual tribal name and it is therefore difficult to know its meaning ( if any ), to the Romans. My personal belief is that the name had no particular meaning to the Romans, in the same way that 'Apache' has no particular meaning in English - it is simply the name of a tribe. The title Caledonia is still used today in a romantic way - in songs and poetry about Scotland.

The picture painted of the Caledonians by the Romans, was that they were barbarian savages, but the more we learn of them the more historians have come to understand that they had an advanced, cultured society. There was no slavery amongst them and women for instance had a higher standing than in Roman society. Caledonian women had the right to choose husbands or to refuse offers of marriage, because the Picts had a system of matrilineal line of succession. As later, they inter married with the other peoples of Scotland this recognised descent through the female line instead of the male, would eventually lead to their virtual disappearance as a separate people in historical records. At the time of the Roman invasion there was no unified nation in Scotland, only a collection of related horse-war tribes who were skilled in the working of bronze and iron into weapons and implements. The Caledonians were made up from a total of eleven highland tribes, while the lowland Caledonian tribes numbered about nine.

In 1850 a powerful storm removed tons of sand from a beach area in the Orkney Islands in the far north of Scotland and exposed for the first time the oldest complete Neolithic site in Europe; a village called Scara Brae - built 3,000 years BEFORE the Roman invasion. The stone houses were of a high standard, they had indoor water storage capacity, indoor tanks to keep fish alive until they were required and even had indoor toilets and underground drainage systems. The people of Scara Brae did not live in isolation, but were part of a wider cultured society, a society that studied astronomy and 2000 years before the Roman invasion of Caledonia erected standing stone circles aligned by the stars and compass points, a society that had trade links all the way to the Middle East. By no means were all villages like Scara Brae, but the peoples of Caledonia still had an advanced civilisation that pre-dated that of the Romans. When Rome was literally in the Stone Age - Scara Brae was flourishing.

The cause of the Roman invasion of Caledonia was the need of the Emperor to gain prestige in the Senate and popularity with the people of Rome. The man charged with subduing Caledonia named General Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Governor of the Province of Pretania ( Britain ), crossed the River Tweed, and in the first year of the invasion went as far as the estuary Taus ( Tay ) before falling back to the line of forts between the Clota ( Clyde ) and Bodotria ( Forth ) estuaries. The following summer he led his army north once again and continued up the fertile farmlands in the East side of the country - often called the 'granary of the north' - right through the heart of Pict territory. He kept relatively near the coast in order to get supplies from the Roman Fleet for his 20,000 legionnaires - about one tenth of the total Roman army. When the number of sailors including soldiers onboard the fleet is added to the total, the whole invasion force was possibly about 30,000 men. Tacitus relates that Agricola, 'had sent his fleet ahead to plunder at various points and thus spread uncertainty and terror'.

As Agricola lay down that first night in Caledonia, he may have comforted himself with the knowledge that Rome had either conquered or was in the process of conquering, most of the known world, including the ancient empire of Egypt; Greece with its entire civilization; Carthage with its war galleys and elephants and most of Europe from Spain to the Rhine. Perhaps he lay on his bed wishing that he had been born in earlier times, wishing that he had been the one to have conquered those great empires. He may have had a tinge of sadness, that all history had left him to subdue was this little wooded land called Caledonia. As he fell asleep, he probably expected sweet dreams of triumph and honours - but unknown to anyone in the empire, Caledonia was about to plunge Rome into a 300 year long expensive, army draining, casualty mounting nightmare. In all the history of Roman invasions this little country was to prove itself unique.

The resoluteness of Roman determination to conquer the Picts is proven by their invading Caledonia THREE times and by no less than the Emperor Severus taking personal control of leading the invasion of 40,000 Roman troops into Caledonia in 209 AD. The army of Severus was double the number available to Agricola and 10,000 more than it took to subdue the much larger tribes of modern England. In light of these later events, Tacitus claim that Agricola conquered Caledonia begins to look like a ridiculous piece of propaganda.

During the longest occupation of Caledonia the Romans were unable to stay more than about 10 years; they had to build around 60 permanent fortified military camps and forts, build two massive defensive walls the entire width of the country, suffer defeat three times, retreat three times and then suffer the indignity of having to pay the lowland tribes not to make war with them. After all the efforts, all the expense, all the building and all the years of war - Caledonia would still be defiant, unconquered and free. Agricola was about to awaken a formidable enemy - one the Roman Empire would come to wish it had never disturbed.

We who are about to kick Roman butt
- Salute you !

Agricola went up the east side of Scotland past Stirling, the Ochils and the Tay, along the edge of the Grampians, perhaps as far as Inverness. He built a system of over sixty forts and stationed garrisons to defend the territories. He had brought his son-in-law the historian Tacitus with him on the invasion. Tacitus wrote that the natives had 'fair or reddish hair' - though of course even brown hair would have appeared reddish to the Romans - and he recorded that they had 'large limbs' - he thought they were of the same stock as the German Tribes.

The Picts responded to the invasion by being the first to attack; their boldness shocked and alarmed the Legions and was a taste of what was to come. Tacitus states that the Picts 'advanced to attack our fortresses, and thus challenging a conflict, inspired us with alarm.' He wrote that the Caledonians were so effective that many of the Roman leaders - fearing defeat - counselled the Army to retreat south.

Tacitus admits that the early battles of the Roman invasion, 'abated nothing of their [ Caledonian ] arrogant demeanour.' That the Picts set about, 'arming their youth, removing their wives and children to a place of safety and assembling together to ratify, with sacred rites, a confederacy of all their states.'

Agricola wanted one thing above all else, the one thing the Romans excelled at - a pitch battle in open country. For most of the time the Caledonians fought a guerrilla war but eventually when they realised that the Romans had no intention of leaving, Tacitus records, 'They had realized at last, that common action was needed to meet the common danger, and had sent round embassies and drawn up treaties to rally the full force of all their states, all the young men and those whose old age was hale and vigorous, famous warriors with their battle honours thick upon them'. They all came together to meet the Romans in a large-scale battle at Mons Graupius, somewhere in the Grampian Mountains, ( a mountain range in the northeast of the country ). Tacitus tells us that before the battle, 'one of the many leaders', whom the Romans named Calgacus, ( meaning 'The Swordsman' ), 'a man of outstanding valour and nobility', gave a speech to the tribes, a speech that Tacitus claims was translated for him to record. Calgacus said :

'When I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that today, this union of yours will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. Slavery is unknown to all of us. We, the most renowned nation in Britain, dwelling in the very heart of the country, out of sight of the shores of the conquered, have even kept our eyes unpolluted by the defilement of slavery. We are the last people on earth and the last to be free. Our very remoteness in a land known only by rumour has protected us up till this day ... But now there is no people beyond us, nothing but tides and rocks and more deadly than these, the Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Our goods and fortunes they would collect for their tribute, our harvests for their granaries. They plunder, they butcher, they rape ... Which will you choose, to follow me into battle, or to submit to taxation, labour in the mines and all the other tribulations of slavery? Whether you are to endure these forever or take a quick revenge, this battle must decide. Since then you cannot hope for quarter,' ( a hint that Roman orders were that no quarter was to be given to Picts who were captured or surrendered ), 'take courage ... Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered people, never likely to abuse our freedom, show forthwith at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has in reserve. [ the Roman army ] is held together by success and will be broken up by disaster.'

Tacitus records that, 'This speech was received with enthusiasm, expressed, as barbarians express it, by shouting, singing and confused applause.' and that 'the multitude gathered around him' [ Calgacus ] 'clamouring for battle'.

The Caledonians were farmers, traders, hunters and warriors who had become part-time soldiers in order to defend their land, families and homes. The Roman army was a professional, well-drilled and disciplined unit who were commanded ruthlessly and fought as a single entity. The Roman Empire was brutal and was built on slavery, the soldiers were treated brutally and they acted brutally. As an example; when the Romans invaded Gaul ( the Roman name for France ), under the leadership of Julius Caesar, modern historians reckon that over 1 million Gauls, men, women and children - were butchered. To stop this terrible slaughter, Vercingetorix, the leader of the resistance surrendered himself to the Romans. Caesar had him dragged to Rome in chains and at the procession to celebrate Caesar's return - he was publicly strangled. The brutality of Rome encompassed even its own army, if the leaders of the army felt that the legionnaires didn't fight hard enough during a battle they could get the army to line up and sound off from 1 to 10. Every decimus ( tenth man ) was then ordered to be beaten to death - by his nine comrades. This Roman practice brought the word 'decimate' into our language. The 'uncivilised' Caledonians had no such practices.

Although the Caledonians had superior numbers they had never fought a pitched battle against Roman tactics and methods. Basically the Romans preferred to be attacked at the beginning of a battle, to keep their line in good order and to present a wall of shields to the enemy. They used a relatively short sword and a very large shield, which almost entirely covered the legionnaire and led to the development of their style of fighting. The sword training of the legionnaires was designed to inhibit the natural inclination to slash with the sword, the sword was effective when used as a slashing weapon and was sometimes used in this way, but the training was about using the point of the sword to stab and thrust at the enemy, chiefly at the head and neck with the eyes being the favoured target. That way the shields could continue to be held in close order, whereas slashing with the sword would mean the shields would have to separate to give room for the swing, not only exposing the soldier but exposing his comrades on either side. Of course in the heat of battle no tactic was perfectly adhered to, but the training helped keep the discipline of stabbing not slashing, thrusting not swinging. As one Roman historian put it, 'we Romans have proven that whenever those who use the point of the sword meet those who use the edge of the sword, those who use the point triumph'.

The Roman Army was made up of Roman citizen legions and of Auxiliary legions ( men from lands the Romans had conquered, who were promised Roman citizenship when they retired from the Army ). The Auxiliary Legions generally fought at the front of the battles, with the Roman citizen legions either fighting behind them or being held back as reserves for tactical manoeuvres in case a battle was going badly. If you were an Auxiliary you were not given the classic Roman plate armour we associate with the Roman army, that was only worn by the Roman citizen legions, instead you would have worn an inferior chain mail tunic that could be easily penetrated at close range, as well as the helmet shield etc. The auxiliaries faced a greater risk of death because they were always put on the front line, and so were constantly in the thick of the fighting, and their pay was only about a third that of a roman citizen. A German Auxiliary Legion called the 'Usipi' were brought over to fight the Caledonians, but they found them so difficult that the whole Legion revolted, murdered their Roman officers, seized three warships from the Roman Navy - and set sail back to Germany. Tacitus writes, 'they embarked on board three swift galleys with pilots pressed into their service. Under the direction of one of them - for two of the three they suspected and consequently put to death - they sailed past the coast in the strangest way before any rumour about them was in circulation.'

When the battle was joined the Caledonians met with initial success but mainly because of an outflanking manoeuvre by Roman cavalry, the Caledonians were defeated at the end of the day. It is worth noting that had the Caledonian leader Calgacus been slain in the battle, Tacitus would most certainly have recorded it, the fact that he did not, means that we can safely assume that Calgacus lived to lead the guerrilla war. It seems the Picts never forgot that it was the organised manoeuvrability of the Roman army that gave them the advantage in a pitched battle in open country.

The name of the place where this first battle with the Romans was fought was 'Mons Graupius'. To read the exciting details of the battle and make your own decision between historical fact and Roman propaganda click the link at the bottom of the next page ( Caledonians 2 ).

In response to Roman tactics - from this point on - the Caledonians changed their tactics. They probably called a war council and decided that the hill forts could not stand against Roman sieges and should not be relied upon. They realised that the only way the tribes had any hope of beating the Romans was to conduct a united prolonged war. They probably also decided that large scale battles on open ground were favourable to the Romans and should be avoided, it seems their decision was to conduct a guerrilla war and to remain as mobile as possible. They may have been at a bit of a loss to know exactly how to prosecute the resistance, but through probing raids they found a way that seemed crazy at first, but turned out to be the ideal tactic.

The solution that the Picts agreed on was unique as a long term strategy in the fight against subjugation by Rome. Here it is in a nutshell - Don't mass attack the Romans where they appear to be weak, that is, in the fields and hills - confront the lion in his lair - mass attack the Romans in those places where they appear to be at their strongest, their fortresses, military camps, and later against their Walls. It was a bold strategy. Who would be so foolish as to attack the hornet's nest, to constantly attack settled Roman strongholds ? Why did the Picts use this strategy ? Probably because the Romans in these situations were robbed of 'manoeuvrable options'. The Picts must have decided that one of the main strengths of the Roman Army lay in its organised manoeuvrability, take that away by keeping them at a fixed line ( in the confines of a fort or defending a wall ), and the Romans were not so special.

It is of interest to note that the greatest defeat the Roman Army ever experienced was where similar tactics were employed by the Cherusci ( a large German tribe ) and their allies, led by Arminius ( meaning 'the Hammer' ), who was only 27 years old. Trapping the Roman Army in the dense Teutoburg Forest near Hanover in modern Germany in the summer of 9 AD, the Legions could not employ their manoeuvres in the battle, not only because of the thickness of the forest but also because of an impassable swamp on one side of the Legions' positions. In three days of fighting the Cherusci allied with the Marsi and the Chanci tribes, annihilated the 17th, 18th, and 19th legions, three squadrons of cavalry and six cohorts of auxiliaries - about 20,000 men in all. When the Emperor heard of the massacre he broke down and wailed through tears, 'Give me back my Legions! Give me back my Legions!'

Continued . . .

The Picts take the offensive; Roman expansion grinds to a halt and goes into reverse gear,
the disappearance of the IX Legion and the building of the Roman walls.
| Caledonians 2 |

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