Mons Graupius Identified
The Agricola Chapter 36
Key aspects;
Fighting gets underway in this chapter. Although among the last things to be mentioned the first action appears to have been by squadrons of the Roman cavalry engaging the Caledonian chariots who were probably hovering about throwing missiles at the auxiliaries and generally doing their best to unsettle the Roman infantry formation as it advanced.
This suggests that as the Romans infantry closed on the static Caledonian line this cavalry / chariot action became more peripheral on the flanks. Clearly the Caledonian hope that the chariots would upset the Roman battleline did not pay off.
Matters rapidly get very interesting and the detail Tacitus goes into here shows he clearly is working from a detailed after-action report.
The infantry fighting began, Tacitus tells us with an exchange of missiles. At this point the Romans were probably sheltering behind their large shields while the Caledonians showed skill at parrying the spears thrown by the auxiliaries, probably their heavy thrusting spears.
Things it would appear had rapidly got well and truly bogged down. The rear ranks of the Caledonian battleline were undoubtedly tasked with maintaining a barrage of missiles on the auxiliaries, and as the static Roman line stood a matter of yards away it is inconceivable that every tribesmen on the hill behind the main battleline with access to a sling or even stones from the ground would not now be taking the opportunity to bombard the Romans with a hail of missiles.
Watching this Agricola must have realised the Caledonians were not going to be tempted to charge and so Agricola has six of his cohorts ordered to “get going” and advance to close quarters.
Why six cohorts?
We believe these units (possibly in Agricola’s centre) at around some three thousand men were those facing the identifiable “formed” Caledonian battleline. What does this tell us of the Caledonian deployment?
It tells us that the tribal elite were just that, and if we for convenience equate their numbers roughly to the number of men in the cohorts ordered forward by Agricola then that would be 10% of their overall strength. We certainly would not expect the elite to number more than that in a mass call –out tribal army.
This appears to be confirmed when, inspired by the success of these units the other auxiliary units attacked the Caledonians “nearest to them”, clearly the looser formed elements of the tribes up the hill that were converging behind the front line and hovering on the flanks of the main action in the centre.
The fighting, tightly packed, favoured the Roman fighting stance, with short sword jabbing from behind a large shield that gave its bearer good protection. The Caledonians, who in battle would normally fight in open order seeking out individuals to fight, fared badly in this crush, in no small part due to their own rear ranks pushing forward. Their small shields offered little protection in this press while they had scant room to wield their swords and spears to good effect.
Tacitus account of the fighting here is pretty stock standard stuff similar to other accounts of Rome fighting Celts through the centuries, but there is little to doubt it probably records what happened at Mons Graupius.
As the Roman infantry moved forward it would appear they ran the risk of being outflanked and overwhelmed by the milling mass of tribesmen no doubt keen to get into the thick of it, and the Roman cavalry was sent in to attack the Caledonian flanks, probably intending to squeeze them in like book ends though in the process they themselves seem to have got bogged down as well – “quite unlike a cavalry action” says Tacitus.
Interestingly Tacitus admits to the solidity of the Caledonian ranks – indeed the only sure way to successfully face a cavalry charge - though he also blames the roughness of the ground as this clearly took place on the slopes of the hill up which the action was now slowly moving.
The impression is of a tightly packed scrum, the chaos increased for literary effect by riderless horses (suggesting Roman casualties) and runaway chariots colliding with the tightly packed struggling masses.
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First Published February 2009
