Mons Graupius Identified
Return march through conquered lands
Agricola’s stately return back south is of interest “…marching slowly in order to overawe the recently conquered tribes by the very deliberateness of his movements, placed his infantry and cavalry in winter-quarters”.
Recently “conquered tribes” has been ignored by those seeking to justify a location well to the north of the lands of the tribes involved in the battle and speciously changed to recently “defeated” tribes.
This is incorrect. The tribes so comprehensively beaten at Mons Graupius would need no further immediate actions by Agricola to “overawe” them. If they were indeed over-awed then the charnel house on the battlefield itself would have amply served to do that.
The line of his return south should be identified as passing through the lands of the tribes Agricola conquered in his years as governor. This refers to the tribes of southern Scotland, through whose land Agricola had to pass to get his legions back to their fortresses in England. This otherwise fairly unremarkable event is explained by Tacitus’s need to bring his record of events to a conclusion; to give closure to the military campaign in his narrative.
Where the Romans campaigned in the north and in what strength.
Interpreting and understanding the extent of (currently known) Flavian campaigning in Scotland interestingly lets us identify where Agricola may have been and certainly where he wasn’t.
Permanent forts by the time of Mons Graupius and the year preceding it had not extended past Strathallan, and indeed it is probable that the first attempts to construct forts here were acts that contributed to provoke the Caledonians to assault these - or realistically the labour camps of the troops engaged building them.
The permanent forts extending up to Stracathro from Strathallan are dateable to the tenure of Agricola’s successor. This indicates that the land held by the Romans during Agricola’s governorship- land pinned down with fixed garrisons- extended only marginally past the Forth – Clyde line in Agricola’s time.
Southern Scotland has the greatest number of Flavian marching camps.
Above the Forth –Clyde line securely datable marching camps of the Flavian period are located most heavily in the Central region from Falkirk to Dunblane, on the mountainous fringes of Stirlingshire and Perthshire bounding Caledonii territory in the Trossachs and Breadalbane and ominously clustered along the River Earn – where the largest Flavian camps are located- and which was clearly a highly strategic line.
North of this is a single series of medium sized camps (circa 30 acres) passing through Angus, crossing the Mounth into Aberdeenshire and extending through Buchan to Auchinhove near Keith (or possibly as far as Bellie on the Spey). None of these northern camps are big enough to hold even the auxiliary numbers Tacitus allowed Agricola at Mons Graupius.
These camps clearly belong to an operation after the battle, maybe the following year. Conceivably this is the only time a Roman force of such a size – on their own – could make a progression into deepest Caledonian territory in anything other than a state of grave concern for their safety.
The size of later Roman armies campaigning in the far north never fell beneath numbers requiring massive 100 acre plus camps, accommodating numbers similar if not greater than Agricola fielded at Mons Graupius. Clearly such extended operations, requiring great logistical planning beforehand as well as huge resource of manpower remained the preserve of either the Emperor himself or armies specifically formed under his instruction for the purpose.
Central Scotland therefore exhibits the highest concentration of Flavian activity attributable to the events leading up to the close of the campaign season in 83 AD and it is to these camps within this area that we should identify the activity of Agricola.
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©2009 Roman Scotland. All Rights Reserved
First Published February 2009
