Cassius Dio and Herodian on Severus’s Scottish campaign.

Cassius Dio

Cassius Dio (full name Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus) was a Roman consul who spent considerable energies writing histories covering Rome’s history from its foundation up to 229 AD. He was born some time in the late mid 2nd C AD.

Dio held positions of authority from Commodus through to the reign of Alexander Severus and was well placed to comment on the contemporary campaigns of Septimius Severus of whose expedition he is likely to have had access to official reports.
Tracts of his work – like Herodian’s – rely on hearsay and gossip in the slightly fantastical descriptions of the tribes of ancient Scotland, however the whole text smacks of a report – from the Roman perspective – not far removed from the mark.

He wrote in Greek and his work was saved and rewritten by the Constantinople monk Xiphilinus in the 11th C AD.

Herodian

Herodian was a minor civil servant and Greek historian who is thought to have lived around 170 –240 AD.

Like Cassius Dio he is contemporary with the events of Severus’s campaign in Scotland and while some of the detail in his work appears to have been derived directly from Dio’s work, substantial elements of his work - books 3 and 4 of his classic “Roman History - flesh out further detail that is lacking in Dio’s work.

Both historians elsewhere provide interesting “prologue” information which pre-dates the events of 208-211 AD and which we have included here (dated) as it provides insightful background information into the events surrounding Severus’s invasion.

One to note is Herodian’s claim that Severus split the governorship of Britannia between two men as early as 197 AD, whereas academia generally dates the creation of Britannia Inferior and Superior to 213 AD under Caracalla – 18 years later and post dating Severus’s failed attempt to complete the conquest of the island once and for all.

Cassius Dio

75.5.4: 197 AD
The Caledonians instead of honouring their promises had prepared to defend the Maetae, and Severus at that time was concentrating on the Parthian war; so Lupus had no choice but to buy peace from the Maetae for a considerable sum of money, recovering a few captives.

76.10.6: 207 AD
When Severus was told of these various activities, he was angry that while other men were winning wars for him in Britain, he was losing to a brigand in Italy.

76.11.1: 208 AD
Severus, seeing that his sons were changing their way of life and that the armies were becoming slack through inactivity, undertook a campaign against Britain, although he knew he would not return.
This knowledge came chiefly from the stars … and from what he was told by the seers….. He did not return but died in the third year after this. He took a great deal of money on the expedition.

76.12.1
In Britain there are two very large (free) nations, the Caledonians and the Maetae, and the names of the others have become included in these. The Maetae live by the wall which divides the country into two halves (Hadrian’s Wall) and the Caledonians beyond them; and they both inhabit wild and waterless mountains and lonely and swampy plains, without walls, cities, or cultivated land.

76.12.2
They live by pasturing flocks, hunting, and off certain fruits; for although the stocks of fish are limitless and immense they leave them untouched. They live in tents, unclothed and unshod, sharing their women and bringing up all their children together.

76.12.13
Their government is for the most part democratic, and because their especial pleasure is plundering, they choose the bravest men to be their rulers. They fight both in chariots with small, quick horses, and on foot, when they run very fast and also stand their ground with great determination.
Their arms are a shield, and a short spear with a bronze apple (hollow sphere) which they can shake and make a din with to dismay the enemy, and they also have daggers.

They can endure hunger and cold and hold out for many days with only their heads above water, and in the forest they live off bark and roots; and for any crises they prepare a sort of food, and when they have eaten a portion of this the size of a bean they do not become hungry or thirsty.

76.12.5
Such then is the island of Britain, and such its inhabitants, at any rate in the hostile part. For it is an island, and had then clearly proved to be so, as I have said. Its length is 7132 stades and its breadth 2310 at the widest point and 300 at the narrowest (a stade is 625 Roman feet or an eighth of a Roman mile). Of this area we hold a little less than a half.

76.13.1 209 AD
Severus, therefore, who wanted to conquer the whole of the island, invaded Caledonia. As he crossed it he had untold trouble cutting down the forests, levelling the high ground, filling in the swamps and bridging the rivers; for he fought no battle and saw no enemy drawn up for battle.

76.13.2
The enemy put out sheep and cattle which the soldiers went to seize and so, as the enemy intended, were lured on until they were worn out; they were caused great suffering by the waters, and when they scattered they came under attack. Then when they were unable to walk, they were killed by their fellow soldiers so that they would not be captured, and consequently as a many as a full fifty thousand perished.

76.13.3
But Severus did not give up till he was close to the end of the island, and there in particular, he observed most closely the change in the suns course and the lengths of the days and nights in summer and winter.

76.13.4
After thus being carried through practically the whole of the enemy’s country (for he was literally carried for much of the way, in a sort of covered litter, because of his lack of strength), he forced the Britons to come to an agreement whereby they were to abandon a considerable part of their country, and returned to friendly territory.

76.15.1 210/11 AD
When there was rebellion in the island again, he summoned his soldiers and ordered them to invade the rebels’ territory and kill everyone they met, and he used this quotation:

“Let no-one escape utter destruction at our hands;
Let not the infant still carried in its mothers womb,
If it be male, escape from its fate.”

76.15.2
When this had been done, and the Caledonians had joined the rebellion of the Maetae, he prepared to make war on them in person; but while he was occupied with this his sickness carried him off on the fourth of February, with some assistance they say from Antoninus (his son later known as Caracalla).
At any rate before his death Severus is reported to have spoken these words to his sons – I give the actual words without embellishment:

“Agree with each other, make the soldiers rich, and ignore everyone else.”

76.15.3
After this his body, in full military uniform, was placed on a funeral pyre; the soldiers and his sons wheeled around it as a mark of honour; those who had soldiers gifts with them threw them on; and his sons lit the fire.

76.15.4
Subsequently his bones were placed in an urn of purple stone, taken to Rome, and deposited in the tomb of the Antonines.
There is a story that shortly before his death Severus sent for the urn and after feeling it said:

“You will hold a man for whom the inhabited world was not large enough.”

77.1.1
After this Antoninus (Caracalla) assumed complete control; in theory he ruled with his brother (Geta), but in practice he enjoyed sole rule from the start. He made treaties with the enemy, evacuated their territory, and abandoned the forts.

Herodian

3.7.1 196-7 AD
When he heard that Severus was moving quickly and was on the point of arriving, Albinus, who was leading a life of inactivity and luxury, was thrown into considerable confusion.
He crossed with an expeditionary force from Britain to the nearest part of Gaul and sent word to all the neighbouring provinces telling the governors to send money and provisions for the army.
Some obeyed and sent them – to their cost, for they paid the penalty in due course.
Those who ignored his instructions made their decision more by good luck than good judgement and were safe.
Their decision proved right or wrong according to how the war happened to go.

3.8.2 197 AD
Severus settled affairs in Britain and divided the authority there between two governors.

3.14.1 207 AD
Such was the life that his sons were leading. Severus was upset by this and their undignified enthusiasm for the public shows. This was the situation when a despatch arrived from the governor of Britain to the effect that there was a rebellion among the barbarians there.
They were laying waste the country, plundering and causing widespread destruction. The defence of the place required more troops or the emperor’s presence.

3.14.2
This was welcome news for Severus, since in any case by nature he enjoyed winning renown, and after the victories and titles he had won in the east and north he wanted to raise trophies over the Britons as well; but another factor was that he wanted to take his sons out of Rome, so that they might come to their senses in the disciplined life of the army, away from the luxury of the capital.
He therefore announced his expedition to Britain.

3.14.3 208 AD
Although now an old man and afflicted with arthritis, his spirit was as strong as any young man’s. He persevered with the journey, although carried most of the way in a litter, and never stopped to rest for long.
Together with his sons he covered the distance with astonishing speed, and sailing across the ocean he reached Britain; summoning troops from all directions he assembled a large army and made his preparations for the war.

3.14.4
The unexpected arrival of the emperor, and the news of the great army which had been collected to deal with them, alarmed the Britons, and they sent delegates to discuss peace terms, and tried to offer an explanation for their offences.

3.14.5
Severus however wanted to prolong his time in Britain and not return hurriedly to Rome, and furthermore it was his ambition to add to his victories and titles by a campaign against the British; so he sent the delegates away empty-handed, and put everything in order for the war.
In particular he attempted to divide up the marshy districts with causeways so that his men by running along them without difficulty could advance in safety and then have a firm footing on a secure platform while they were fighting.

3.14.6
Most of Britain is marshland, since it is flooded by the ocean tides. It is the custom of the barbarians to swim in these swamps, or to run in them submerged to the waist. Because the greater part of the body is naked they do not mind the mud.

3.14.7
They are unfamiliar with the use of clothing, but decorate their waists and necks with iron, valuing this metal as an ornament and as a symbol of wealth in the way that other barbarians value gold.
They tattoo their bodies with various patterns and with pictures of all kinds of animals. This is why they do not wear clothes, so as not to cover up the pictures on their bodies.

3.14.8
They are fearsome and dangerous fighters, defended only by a narrow shield and a spear, with a sword slung from their naked bodies.
They are unaccustomed to breastplates and helmets, believing them to be a hindrance in crossing the marshes.
A thick mist rises from the marshes, so that the atmosphere in the country is always gloomy.
It was for these conditions that Severus got ready what was suitable for the Roman army, and likely to damage or impede a barbarian attack.

3.14.9
When Severus considered that preparations for the war were complete, he left the younger of his two sons, Geta, in the territory which was under Roman rule, to see to the judicial and civil aspects of government, with a council consisting of his own older friends, and he himself took Antoninus and made war on the barbarians.

3.14.10
The army crossed the rivers and earthworks on the frontier of the Roman empire, and frequent battles and skirmishes took place in which the barbarians were put to flight.
But the Britons escaped without difficulty and hid in the woods and marshes; they used their knowledge of the country, and all this told against the Romans and prolonged the war.

3.15.1 210 AD
Severus was an old man and his arthritis now spread and forced him to remain in his quarters. He tried to send out Antoninus to manage the campaign, but Antoninus was only mildly interested in dealing with the enemy, and tried instead to gain control of the army.
He began to persuade the soldiers to pay attention only to him, slandered his brother, and used every means to court sole rule.

3.15.2
He had no sympathy for his father, who seemed to be a nuisance, very ill as he was taking a long time to die; and he tried to persuade the doctors and attendants to do the old man some harm while they were looking after him, so that he would be rid of him more quickly.
But eventually Severus died anyway, and in pain, although it was mostly grief that killed him.

3.15.3
As far as war was concerned, he had achieved, in his lifetime, the most distinction of any of the emperors; no-one before him had won so many victories against rivals in civil wars and barbarians in foreign wars.
He died after a reign of eighteen years, with two youthful sons to succeed him, and he left them more money than had ever been left before, and an invincible army.

3.15.6
Having no success with the army, Antoninus came to terms with the barbarians and granted them peace in return for guarantees. He left the enemy’s territory and now joined his brother and mother without delay.

SPQR