HISTORICAL
In studying the Wall it is well to refresh our memory of Roman
history wherever it relates to Britain, to sit in our mental
"picture-house" as it were, and let scene after scene flit by us on
the screen.
First, in 55 B.C., we see Julius Cæsar, as governor of Gaul, arriving
to punish the interfering islanders of Britain for the help they had
given to the Gallic tribes in their resistance to him; meeting with
little success, and so withdrawing, only to return again the
following year, with five legions instead of two. Then we see the
British king, Cassivelaunus, whose capital was where St. Albans now
stands, uniting with hostile neighbours to meet the common foe. We
see him fixing sharp stakes in the bed of the Thames at the only
fordable point, in a vain attempt to check the Roman legions; which
stakes were still to be seen in the river-bed seventy years ago, and
are probably there still.
The next picture shows Cæsar's return to Gaul in the same year,
taking with him British hostages, {7} to ensure the payment of
tribute, and exhibiting as a trophy a corslet of British pearls.
After this there was what Tacitus calls "a long forgetfulness of
Britain," so far as conquest was concerned. He says of Cæsar that
"he rather discovered the island for his descendants than bequeathed
it to them." For ninety-seven years there was peaceful communication
with Rome, and the whole island, according to Strabo, became
"intimate and familiar to the Romans." The British king, Cunobelin,
the Cymbeline of Shakespeare, was brought up at the Court of
Augustus, and no doubt did something to introduce Roman laws and
customs. But still the people were as free as if Cæsar had never
landed.
Then, in 40 A.D., we see the demented Caligula (or "Little Boots,"
the nickname his soldiers gave him) deciding in a moment of caprice
to invade Britain, but returning after no more than a glance at the
white cliffs of the island, and with sea-shells from the beach at
Boulogne as his only trophy.
The Emperor Claudius comes next, in 43 A.D. Stirred up by
discontented British fugitives at Rome, he sent troops to Britain,
under Aulus Plautius and Vespasian. When the expedition succeeded,
he came in person, stopping only sixteen days in the island, but
celebrating a stupendous triumph on his return to Rome. On the
strength of his victorious campaign, he called his infant son {8}
Britannicus, and had the name of Britain stamped on his coins.
Aulus Plautius was the first consular governor of Britain. His wife,
Pomponia Græcina, was a Christian. Was she, perhaps, the first
Christian to land on our shores?
Ostorius Scapula succeeded Plautius, and it was into his hands that
the British king, Caradoc (or Caratacus), the son of Cunobelin, fell,
after offering a brave resistance for at least seven years.
Our next picture shows the entry of Caradoc and his family into Rome,
in 50 A.D., as prisoners of war. The noble bearing of the king alone
saved him from death in the arena.
After this the Romans began definitely to colonize Britain. Tacitus
writes in 97 A.D.: "The nearest portion of Britain was reduced little
by little to the condition of a province; a colony of veterans was
also planted; certain states were handed over to King Cogidumnus (who
has remained continuously loyal down to our own times), according to
the old and long-received principle of Roman policy, which employs
kings among the instruments of servitude."
Successive governors maintained or extended Roman authority, until
the eastern and southern portions were so far subdued that the
governor, Suetonius Paulinus, felt able to cross over to Mona (the
island of Anglesey) to bring into subjection this stronghold of the
Druids.
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Here was the opportunity of the British tribes, more restive than
they had seemed beneath the Roman yoke. Our next picture is a
terrible one. In 61 A.D., seventy thousand persons, "all Romans or
confederates of Rome," were destroyed by the Iceni, under Queen
Boudicca, in the Romanized towns of Camulodunum, Londinium and
Verulam (Colchester, London and St. Albans).
Paulinus returned hastily to the rescue, and "the fortunes of a
single battle restored the country to its ancient submissiveness."
So says Tacitus; but it was only a surface submission; the fire was
smouldering, not quenched.
A milder governor succeeded Paulinus, and under him and his
successors Roman civilization and Roman vices began to spread among
the Britons.
Then came two rulers of sterner type, who subdued the Brigantes (of
Lancashire and the north-west counties) and the Silures (of South
Wales).
Following them came Agricola, in 78 A.D., surely the greatest figure
in the history of Roman Britain! He was appointed governor by the
Emperor Vespasian, the foundations of whose own career had been laid
in Britain. Agricola, also, had served his apprenticeship to war in
the island, under Suetonius Paulinus, having passed through the
critical period when the Roman towns were burned and the populations
butchered.
His character has been very ably drawn for us {10} by his son-in-law,
Tacitus, who shows that the ideal of true greatness, in those days of
imperial luxury and vice, was as high as our own, and that there were
some who came near to attaining to it.
Unassuming, tactful, patient, incorruptible; kind and affectionate;
brave and energetic, and yet modest; strictly just, and yet merciful;
so great that it would be an insult to dwell upon his probity and
self-control--these are some of the qualities with which Tacitus
credits his father-in-law; and the ability with which he governed
Britain goes a long way towards proving the picture true.
Shortly before his arrival in Britain to take up the reins of
government, the tribes of the Ordovices, of North-west Wales, had
crushed almost to a man the regiment of cavalry encamped amongst
them. Such an incident could not be overlooked by the new Governor.
Now was the moment to show what spirit he was of! Supplementing
Roman troops with native auxiliaries, he marched to the hills where
the Ordovices were hid, and almost exterminated the whole tribe.
"Horrible!" does some one say? Yes; it was horrible. A soldier's
devotion to duty always gives him terrible work to do; and we in this
so-called Christian country can take no superior attitude, though
1800 years have passed.
Agricola then subdued Mona; and having thus {11} established a
reputation for courage and firmness he set himself to the task of
making peace more attractive to the Britons than war. His intention
was to habituate them to peace and quiet by turning their thoughts to
something better than war, and therefore he encouraged them to build
temples, houses and market-places.
"The rivalry for his compliments took the place of coercion." "He
began to train the sons of the chieftains in a liberal education, and
to give a preference to the native talents of the Briton as against
the plodding Gaul." But he did not neglect military tactics. "Time
was found also for the planting of forts. Experts noted that no
other general selected more shrewdly the advantages of site; no fort
planted by Agricola was carried by storm by the enemy, or abandoned
by arrangement and flight; as for a protracted siege, against this
they were secured by supplies for twelve months. Accordingly, winter
was shorn of its fears, and sallies were frequent; each commander
could protect himself, whilst the enemy were helpless, and therefore
despaired. They had been accustomed in most places to weigh the
'incidents' of winter against the summer's losses; now they were
repelled summer and winter alike."
So far, Tacitus.
But of all Agricola's notable achievements that which specially
concerns us now is his work in the {12} north. Here, in 79 A.D., he
constructed for military purposes the famous cross-road, which in
Saxon times began to be called the "Stanegate," or "Stone Way." His
chief centres, or advanced bases, were Corbridge (Corstopitum) and
Carlisle (Luguvallium) between which this road ran. His other forts
were on the same road line, but not generally on the line of the
Wall, as archæologists formerly thought. It may yet be proved that
two or three of the Wall forts were first built by him as outliers of
his chain of forts.
Later, in 81 A.D., he built a chain of forts from the Forth to the
Clyde, "the enemy being pushed back into a separate island, so to
speak," says Tacitus; and thus he initiated the barrier of Antoninus
Pius.
After Agricola's victory over the Britons at Mount Graupius, in 85
A.D., the Emperor Domitian, jealous of his successful generalship,
recalled him to Rome. Tacitus says that he "handed over a peaceful
and safe province to his successor." His seven years' rule had been
so fruitful that one cannot help wondering how much he would have
achieved if he had been allowed to continue his work of tranquil
colonization, and his conquest over the affections of the people of
Britain. He was only forty-five when recalled to Rome, and nine
years later he died, poisoned, as is thought, by the still jealous
Emperor.
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Tacitus cannot pity him: "The true blessings of life which lie in
character he had fulfilled"; and he closes his essay with these
magnificent lines, so often quoted and so eternally true, whether
spoken of the avowed Christian, or of the so-called pagan, who has
practised Christian virtues in a Christian spirit, and in doing so
has indeed been led by the Light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world:
"Vain alike and passing is the face of man and the similitude
thereof; only the fashion of the soul remains, to be known and shown
not through alien substances and arts, but in your very life and
walk. Whatever we have loved in Agricola, whatever we have admired,
abides, and will abide, in the hearts of men, in the procession of
the ages, in the records of history. Many of the ancients has
Forgetfulness engulfed as though fame nor name were theirs: Agricola,
whose story here is told, will outlive death, to be our children's
heritage."
And as, looking southwards from the line of the Wall, we trace the
course of his road and note the positions of his forts, we also can
be grateful for his upright life and his disinterested service.
Nerva succeeded Domitian, and was in his turn succeeded by Trajan,
who reigned till 117 A.D. At about this date the forts of Agricola,
which had held the country for thirty years, were entirely swamped
during a great native rising. The Ninth {14} Legion, then stationed
at York, disappears from history, having been annihilated by the
Britons.
And next comes Hadrian, the actual inventor of the Roman frontier
system. He became Emperor in 117 A.D., and initiated his policy in
Britain about two years later. It is now generally agreed that he
was responsible for the works of the Vallum, as well as for the Stone
Wall, with its forts, mile-castles and turrets.
Here was an Emperor who lived no life of self-indulgent ease, nor
used his imperial rank merely to serve his own private ends.
He was indefatigable in his journeyings through his empire, to
reorganize and reform. Every province came under his personal
supervision, and traces of his activity are to be met with
everywhere. He was also undoubtedly a great builder. The largest
temple ever erected in Rome, the temple of Venus and Roma, owes its
origin to him, as also do the Pantheon and the Castle of St. Angelo.
He was therefore quite capable of conceiving and carrying out such a
project as the Great Wall.
He visited Britain in person, towards the close of 121 A.D., or early
in 122, but the works were only completed after he had left, under
the direction of Aulus Platorius Nepos, his proprætor.
Antoninus Pius succeeded Hadrian in 138 A.D. He was himself a man of
peace, and left the settlement of disturbances to his provincial
governors. {15} Under him Lollius Urbicus built the turf wall
between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, along the line of the forts of
Agricola. This is known as the Antonine Wall. In mediæval times it
was called Grahame's Dyke.
Britain was very disturbed from 161 A.D. to 193 A.D. during the
reigns of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher, and his son and
successor, Commodus. The Wall and its forts and turrets suffered
much during this period.
Under Septimius Severus there was still trouble, and the Emperor came
over in person, in 208 A.D., bringing with him his sons Antoninus and
Geta. The former is usually called Caracalla, from a Gallic mantle
which he had made fashionable in Rome. Severus was an African by
birth, and a soldier by profession, having risen from the ranks, but
he was a splendid administrator. On arriving in Britain, he
collected troops, repaired the roads, and rebuilt, where necessary,
the forts and the Wall.
Then we have a pathetic picture of the old Emperor, hampered by gout,
and obliged to be carried in a litter or a closed chair, distracted
by the quarrels and ambition of his sons, and yet advancing far into
the enemy's country, under inconceivable difficulties, and with a
great loss of men. Finally he died at York, in 211 A.D., "worn out
with sorrow more than with disease." It is said of him that he had
"a greater tenderness for his children {16} than for the republic;"
and yet it was no secret that his elder son had once endeavoured to
stab him in the back, and, failing, had tried to bribe his physicians
to poison him. On their father's death the sons returned to Rome, to
succeed him, but in less than a year the elder had contrived the
murder of the younger.
The inscribed stones which have been found bring out very clearly
that Severus left behind him an impulse towards the restoration of
the Wall and its forts which continued until 240 A.D.
Britain was now left to herself. Rome was too much occupied with
troubles at home to pay much heed to her island province, and
peaceful conditions prevailed.
Taking advantage of Rome's preoccupation, Carausius, who had charge
of a Roman fleet, under Diocletian, to repress the Saxon pirates,
betrayed his trust, and assumed the sovereignty of Britain in 287
A.D. For six years he ruled an independent kingdom, to be betrayed,
in his turn, and murdered by his minister Allectus, who succeeded
him. Three years later Rome resumed her authority, and Allectus was
slain.
Constantine is accused by the historian Zosimus of having withdrawn
the soldiers from the forts of Britain to the towns, where they
became effeminate. Now Emperor succeeded Emperor in rapid
succession. Soon Rome had all she could do to keep {17} the Goths at
bay; and, in 410 A.D., Honorius wrote to the Britons to tell them
they must look to themselves for safety.
Experts differ as to when the Romans actually abandoned the island,
but it is safe to say that it was early in the fifth century.
Rome's hold on Britain had thus lasted nearly four centuries; and
when we remember that it is not much more than four centuries since
Columbus discovered America, we can better realize how thoroughly
Roman in that period the island and the people must have become.
"Under the _Pax Romana_, established by Agricola," writes Mr. H.
Rushton Fairclough in _Art and Archæology_, Vol. I. No. 2, "Roman
temples, forums, dwelling-houses, baths and porticoes had sprung up
everywhere; and, above all, Roman schools, where the youth of the
land learnt with pride to adopt the tongue and dress of the
conquerors." And this was when more than three centuries of Roman
rule were yet to come!
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