History is relatively silent around the turn of the millennium, suggesting that, despite Scotland having been ceded by the Romans, Britannia had been effectively subdued and Romanisation was seeping into the fabric of British society. The mighty Roman war machine that had subjugated Britannia was now complemented by an equally formidable administrative engine, the purpose of which was to efficiently subsume and organise new territories fresh from defeat. Julius Caesar had had none of this; Claudius and his successors had it in spades.
However, in around 105 there appears to have been a serious reverse at the hands of the tribes of the Picts of Alba: we have evidence that several Roman forts were torched, with human remains and battle-damaged armour unearthed at Trimontium (Newstead). Auxiliary reinforcements may have been sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the time is inscribed on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan’s Dacian Wars may account for troop reductions or even total withdrawal, which led to slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unsubstantiated military defeat. Furthermore, the Romans sensibly destroyed their own forts during orderly withdrawals to deny them to the enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Tyne-Solway isthmus around this time.
The Troublesome Brigantes – Again
The tribes making up the Brigantes continued to make trouble for the Romans well into the second century. The Roman satirist Juvenal, writing in the early years of the century (Satires 14, 196), describes a Roman father urging his son to win glory by destroying the forts of the Brigantes. Such an action was clearly deemed a pinnacle of military achievement by the Romans. There was a rebellion in the north sometime in the early reign of Hadrian, but details are lost. A revolt by the Brigantes has often been posited as the explanation for the mysterious disappearance of the IXth legion, stationed at York. It is plausible that one of the motives for building Hadrian’s Wall from 122 was to confound attempts by the Brigantes to communicate with, and encourage sedition with, the tribes further north. The emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161) is said by Pausanias to have defeated the Brigantes after they fomented a war against Roman allies (Description of Greece 8, 43, 4), maybe even provoking the building of the Antonine Wall (142–144).
Trajan died in 117; his reign can be characterised in Britannia as one of withdrawal from Caledonia and consolidation of all territories south of that. Hadrian, his successor, continued in similar vein, reinforcing frontiers and dealing efficiently with troublemakers within those boundaries. He created municipia and established coloniae throughout his empire. In pursuit of this, Hadrian spent much of his time actually visiting and inspecting his territories rather than getting embroiled in politics in Rome as emperors before and after him often did. For Hadrian it was the establishment of communities, the civil engineering infrastructures and military projects which appealed: inevitably, it was only a matter of time before Britannia figured on his never-ending itinerary, and for Britannia Hadrian had big plans.
Hadrian, like Trajan, was a provincial from the same provincial city as Trajan, Italica in Hispania Baetica. This gave him a less Rome-centric view of his empire – Rome was mightily important but it was not the be all and end all of the Roman Empire, which other emperors believed to be the case. Hadrian’s view of his world was more universal; a bigger picture gaze which embraced the whole empire rather than just a few square miles in Italy. Indeed, Hadrian did more than anyone to demonstrate that Rome, even with its prodigious and cumbersome civil service, was a mobile, portable entity: where Hadrian was Rome was. Traditionalists took a dim view of this: to them Hadrian was shirking his responsibilities and they carped, as they had done with an itinerant Nero some sixty years earlier, when he travelled to Greece. In the Historia Augusta – a late Roman collection of biographies of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers of the period 117 to 284 – Hadrian is described as ‘a little too much Greek’, too cosmopolitan for a Roman emperor.
Hadrian and Trajan were two very different men; Trajan’s comfort zone was enshrined within the restrictions dictated and imposed by the mos maiorum: conservative and averse to too much change too quickly, continuing the age-old tradition of progress through empire-building conquests. Not so Hadrian; Hadrian built in the grand style like Trajan but his buildings were often characterised by aesthetics over utility; Hadrian’s love was for Greek culture (and for the Greek youth Antinous). Hadrian was not for expansion; his ambitious focus was on unification and for making the empire a one nation empire in which defence was the order of the day all around the world; seventy-five years of relative peace says that Hadrian’s policy was an unmitigated success. There were of course exceptions to this view: for example, the Jews would never have considered Hadrian a champion of their culture but, by and large, Hadrian was what was called ‘a good emperor’.
Britannia provides another exception. There is little aesthetic about the great wall that was erected after Hadrian’s visit in 122, but it is an unmissable and powerful symbol of defence and defiance, an emblem of Roman power and influence; it has been called the most military barrier in the Roman world by more than one historian. Hadrian may have been attracted by the opportunity to quell disturbances by insurgents from 119 to 121, during the governorship of Q. Pompeius Falco (118–122); these may have been fomented by disaffected collaborators from within. Inscriptions tell of an expeditio Britannica involving major troop movements, including the dispatch of a detachment (vexillatio), made up of some 3,000 soldiers. Fronto writes about military losses in Britannia at the time. Coins of AD 119–120 attest that Falco was sent to restore order.
A formidable defensive wall was seen as the way to put a stop to this once and for all. Scriptores Historia Augustae, Hadrian 9, 2 in the fourth century tells us that Hadrian wanted to build the wall to separate the barbarians from the Romans. The policy to curtail the extension of empire and a need to reduce defence costs, as a wall was a much cheaper way of deterring attacks than financing a border army, were surely other motives; moreover, a wall was just as useful in controlling cross-border trade and for collecting excise and supervising immigration. By the end of 122, Hadrian had done his work and concluded his visit to Britannia. He never saw the famous wall that bears his name.
As befits its high military and political status, Eboracum was visited by the emperors of the day. Hadrian of course came in 122 en route to his great wall project, bringing with him the VIth legion to replace the incumbent IXth. Septimius Severus arrived in 208, using the fortress as his base for his Scottish campaign. The imperial court was based in York until at least 211 when Severus died and was succeeded by his querulous sons, Caracalla and Geta. Severus was cremated in Eboracum.
The later third century saw the Western Empire embroiled in political and economic turmoil with Britannia occasionally ruled by usurpers independent of Rome. Emperor Constantius I subdued these pretenders and came to Eboracum in 306, winning the unfortunate reputation of becoming the second emperor to die here. ‘See York and die?’ military men and officials must have pondered back in Rome when contemplating postings. His son Constantine was proclaimed as successor by the troops in the fortress. It has long been thought that Constantine rebuilt the southwest front of the fortress with polygonally fronted interval towers and the two great corner towers, one of which – the Multangular Tower – still stands, as we have just seen, in all its glory. However, rebuilding of the defences in the third and fourth centuries is doubted. The Multangular Tower is now thought to date to the early third century, and this dating probably applies to the entire south-west stone defences.
Eboracum was the major military base in the north of Britain; politically it was just as important as London: as noted, after the third-century division of Britannia, it became the capital of northern Britain, Britannia Inferior. By 237, Eboracum was elevated to a colonia, the highest legal status any Roman city could attain, one of only four confirmed in Britain. At around the same time, Eboracum became self-governing, with a council made up of affluent local merchants and veteran soldiers. In 296, Britannia Inferior was divided further into two provinces of equal status with Eboracum the provincial capital of Britannia Secunda.
The Legion
The word legion derives from the Latin legio, meaning a selection, a levy of troops, a legion. We know that four legions were part of the initial invasion force in AD 43 – some 20,000 –25,000 troops. A legion, numbering approximately 5,000 men, consisted of ten cohorts, a cohort was 480 men made up of six centuries, each of eighty men commanded by a centurion. The basic unit was a contubernium – eight men who shared a tent when on campaign and a barrack room when in the fortress; ten contubernia made a cohort. The legionary troops comprised mostly infantry, but a cavalry unit was also attached.
Legionaries were Roman citizens with all the benefits and privileges that conferred. The soldiers, if they weren’t killed or severely disabled, were required to serve for twenty-five years before retirement as a veteran. A long time, but worth waiting for as veteran status brought land in the colonia and land unlocked the door to political and social advancement as well as a worthwhile gratuity. Detachments of auxiliary troops were key to the legions – just like reservists in today’s British Army; these were recruited from the indigenous populations of the various provinces of the Roman Empire and included special forces such as archers or marine commandos who excelled in swimming with full armour, literally armed to the teeth. Auxiliaries were not Roman citizens; they were enlisted to fight in support in cohorts or alae (wings) of 500 men or so. After twenty-five years they retired and were granted Roman citizenship, as were their dependents.
The commanding officer, the legatus legionis, was always of senatorial rank, in his thirties serving a three to four year posting as a stage on his cursus honorum, the career path taking in pre-ordained military and administrative posts culminating in the consulship. The second-in-command (tribunus laticlavus) would also be of senatorial rank and in his early twenties. There were usually five other senior officers: tribuni augusticlavii who were equestrians (one down from a senator) and who served for three years. The most important was the camp prefect, praefectus castrorum, who looked after the smooth running of the camp, training, discipline and equipment.
The demographics of the Roman army changed significantly between the first and second centuries. In the first half of the first century, sixty-five per cent of the military were from Italy; this had diminished to less than one per cent by the second century, so at any one time the soldiers in York and other major military settlements would have been a very diverse group. This is reflected on a number of headstones and altars. At the same time, we can estimate that the empire-wide Roman army numbered 155,000 legionaries and 218,000 auxiliaries.
The VI Victrix Legion
And so Hadrian’s wall was built under the auspices of the new governor, Aulus Platorius Nepos, and of the VIth Victrix legion, which he brought with him to replace the IXth Hispana, the fate and final whereabouts of which remain elusive.
When it arrived with Hadrian in AD 120, the VIth Victrix would have been swiftly redeployed to Hadrian’s Wall and its hinterland after establishing itself in fortress York and taking the handover from the IXth. It was founded in 41 BC by Octavian and was the twin legion of VI Ferrata (Ironclad) which was also known as Fidelis Constans, ‘loyal and steadfast’.
The legion cut its teeth with Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars; as noted, it later battled at Perusia in 41 BC with Octavian, fought against Sextus Pompeius in Sicily and at Actium against Mark Antony. In the early days of the empire, the legion participated at the end of the conquest of Hispania in Augustus’ war against the Cantabrians, from 29 BC to 19 BC. The legion remained in Spain for the best part of a century and received the surname Hispaniensis, founding the city of Legio (León). Soldiers of the VIth and X Gemina were colonists of Caesaraugusta – modern-day Zaragoza. After the mid-first century, it was stationed at Neuss under Quintus Petillius Cerealis, soon to become commander of the IXth at York in AD 71. In AD 70, Vespasian dispatched a large expeditionary force to the north: VI Victrix was one of the legions involved and at Xanten, where it replaced XXII Primigenia, it won a hard-fought battle commemorated in an inscription that mentions the new emperor, Vespasian, and the commander of the VIth, Sextus Caelius Tuscus. Units of VI Victrix were deployed to the Danube: one inscription suggests that a subunit of the VIth was part of a task force with the other legions from Germania Inferior, I Minervia and X Gemina from Bonn and Nijmegen.
Domitian awarded the legion the additional and highly prestigious title pia fidelis, dutiful and faithful, after its support for him in the revolt by Lucius Antonius Saturninus – a legionary commander based in Germany. We can see this on many tiles from the York workshops which were stamped with PF as well as VIC. The cognomen Victrix (Victorious) dates back to the reign of Nero; when the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba, declared his intention to overthrow Nero; the legion supported him and he was proclaimed emperor in the VI Victrix camp.
From AD 110 to 119, the legion was stationed on the Rhine in Germania Inferior. Around 120, Hadrian relocated the legion to northern Britannia, to reinforce those legions already quelling the resistance there. Victrix played a key role and, as we have seen, replaced the IXth Hispana at Eboracum. In 122, the legion started work on Hadrian’s Wall; twenty years later, it helped construct the Antonine Wall and forts such as Castlecary.
Legio VI was awarded the honorary title ‘Britannica’ by Commodus in 184 following his own adoption of the title. From now on, the full name of the legion was VI Victrix Pia Fidelis Britannica. The large fort at Carpow on the Tay was occupied from about 184 by Legio VI who completed the fort with the principia and praetorium. The legate of the legion in the late second century, Claudius Hieronymianus, dedicated a temple to Serapis in Eboracum in advance of the arrival of Septimius Severus in 208.
When Britannia temporarily became part of the Gallic Empire, the legion supported the Gallic emperors (260–274); when Britain became independent again, it supported usurpers such as Carausius and Allectus (286–297). After 297, the province was restored to the Roman Empire, and the soldiers served crown-prince Constantius I Chlorus. As we have seen, when he died in 306 in York, soldiers of the VIth proclaimed his son emperor: Constantine the Great (306–337).
In 402, the legion may have been withdrawn to the continent by Stilicho, the commander of the Roman forces in Western Europe during the reign of Honorius.
The IXth Legion: Where Did it Go?
The legion had a chequered career in its fifty or so years in Britannia. It probably came over with Claudius in AD 43 under Aulus Plautius and was one of two legions that defeated Caratacus at Caer Caradoc. Around the same time, the legion built a fort, Lindum Colonia, at Lincoln. Under Caesius Nasica it subdued the first revolt of Venutius between 52 and 57. The IXth was badly mauled at Camulodunum under Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the rebellion of Boudica (AD 61) when most of the infantry were slaughtered in a disastrous attempt to relieve the besieged city. Only the cavalry got out; the legion was later reinforced with legionaries from the Germania provinces. When Cerialis returned as governor of Britain ten years later, he took command of the IXth again in a successful campaign against the Brigantes in 71–72. Around the same time, it was the IXth who constructed the new fortress at York as evidenced by finds of tile stamps from the site.
The IXth was part of Agricola’s invasion of Caledonia in 82–83 where, according to Tacitus, the legion narrowly escaped total massacre when the Caledonians launched a surprise night raid on its fort. The Caledonians ‘burst upon them’ and in frantic hand-to-hand fighting the Caledonians entered the camp, but Agricola was able to send cavalry to relieve the legion. Seeing the relief force, ‘the men of the IXth Legion recovered their spirit, and sure of their safety, fought for glory’, repulsing the Caledonians. The legion also participated in the decisive battle of Mons Graupius. We know that the legion was at York in 107–108, rebuilding in stone the legionary fortress as recorded in an inscribed stone tablet discovered in 1864, but after that the trail goes cold.
Stamped tiles dated 104–120 tell us that it, or at least a detachment thereof, was at Nijmegen (Noviomagus Batavorum) from c. 120. This is supported by a silver-plated bronze pendant, found in the 1990s, that was part of a phalera (military medal), with ‘LEG HISP IX’ inscribed on the reverse. In addition, an altar to Apollo dating from this period was found at neighbouring Aquae Granni (Aachen), erected in fulfillment of a vow, by Lucius Latinius Macer, who described himself as primus pilus (chief centurion) and as praefectus castrorum (prefect of the camp), third-in-command of IXth Hispana. Eric Birley suggests the intention was to move it from York to Carlisle around 126 but that it was then posted to Jerusalem where it disappeared during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135), or in the wars of Marcus Aurelius in Parthian Armenia in 161 against King Vologases IV (Dio 71, 2).
Theodor Mommsen believed that the legion was annihilated in northern Britain soon after 108, from the latest datable inscription of the IXth found in Britain; this theory gained some traction from the 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth in which the legion is said to have marched into Caledonia, after which it was ‘never heard of again’.
Mommsen in turn cites the historian Marcus Cornelius Fronto for corroboration, writing in the AD 160s, who told Marcus Aurelius: ‘Indeed, when your grandfather Hadrian held imperial power, what great numbers of soldiers were killed by the Jews, what great numbers by the Britons.’ (Parthian War 2, 220).
Whatever, the IXth Hispana is not recorded during the reign of Septimius Severus (r. 193–211): the IXth was seemingly no longer in existence after 197. Two lists of the legions survive from the time, one inscribed on a column found in Rome (CIL 6, 3492) and the other a list of legions in existence ‘today’ provided by the contemporary Dio Cassius, writing c. 210–232 (Roman History 55, 23-24). Both these lists date from after 197, as both include the three Parthica legions founded by Septimius Severus in that year. Both provide an identical list of thirty-three legions; neither includes a IXth Hispana. It thus appears that IXth Hispana disappeared sometime in the period 120–197.
This 1969 limerick gives an indication of the exasperation felt by some scholars over this intractable mystery:
The fate of the Ninth still engages
The minds of both nitwits and sages;
But that problem, one fears,
Will be with us for years
And for ages and ages and ages.
What Did Those Legionaries Do All Day and Night?
Obviously, a lot of the time was spent away from the York fortress, any of the fortresses, in combat, subduing fractious tribes, building forts and walls to keep insurgents at bay. When in the fortress we can estimate that the legionary spent a lot of time on guard duty. In a unit of 800 men twenty per cent were on guard once every twenty-four hours, so 160 men every day. In a full legion, then, 1,200 men out of 6,000 would have been on guard every day. Patrols, parades, combat training, cooking, admin, maintenance and cleaning of weapons and armour occupied much of the rest of the time, as in any army: ninety per cent routine boredom, ten per cent action.
Attaining full complement must have been problematic with absenteeism caused by extra-mural exercises, secondments, and illness. One of the Vindolanda tablets (No. 154) records that in one instance of 752 men on the roll, only 265 were actually available for duties.
The northern wall in Britannia was not Hadrian’s first defensive barrier; his first and the first was built in Germany just before he came to Britain – a timber palisade bolstering the Taunus, Wetterau and Odenwald sections of the German frontier. Other such constructions may have been built by Hadrian in Africa (the Fossatum Africae) and Raetiae (in modern-day Alpine Austria).
Stanwix, near Carlisle, was the largest fort on Hadrian’s Wall and that is where the senior officer would have operated from, reporting to the legionary legate at York. The wall helped to provide a period of military stability in Britannia which, in turn, allowed Romansiation to prosper. Wroxeter is a good example where a forum dedicated to Hadrian was built on the site of a complex which was demolished and re-erected over the road. Indeed, we can be sure that Hadrian’s visit cultivated a surge in Romanisation province wide just as much as it fostered military calm. London, Leicester and Caistor-by-Norwich also benefitted at the time with new civic buildings while we can be sure that York, Aldborough and Brough-on-Humber too would have seen a vigorous construction programme of public works and amenities. Local administration was increasingly the responsibility of local communities, leaving the army to respond flexibly to any local emergencies. This in turn led to an increasing influx of administrators and service industries to support the infrastructure projects in towns and garrisons, bringing in increasing numbers of Romans from all parts of the empire. The more they came the more Roman ways were inculcated over the length and breadth of the province. Local men and women would also have profited, including many lower down the social scale, to fire the businesses and trades in the towns. The countryside and rural economies would feel the benefits too, working the iron, tileries and ceramics workshops, for example, as well as the land.
Antoninus and His Wall
Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus died in 138. He was succeeded by a senator noted for his financial prudence, honesty and devotion to duty: this was Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, or Antoninus Pius, who was to rule from 138 to 161. Significantly, an unpredicted resumption of expansionism was to lead to the construction of what we now know as the Antonine Wall, the Vallum Antonini, a 39 mile turf fortification on stone foundations between the firths of Forth and Clyde which was 10 feet high and 16 feet wide. The wall, therefore, pushed forward the frontier of the Roman Empire by some 100 miles and is celebrated as the sole act of expansionism by war in the reign of Antoninus. In fact, his lack of belligerence led scholar J. J Wilkes to write, ‘It is almost certain not only that at no time in his life did he ever see, let alone command, a Roman army, but that, throughout the twenty-three years of his reign, he never went within five hundred miles of a legion.’ Which just shows that you don’t have to be a serial warmonger to be a good Roman.
The wall was, in effect, a potent symbol of the reconquest of southern Scotland from around AD 141. Lines of supply would have been an extension of those used for Hadrian’s Wall, leading through the difficult terrain in between the walls all the way back to Eboracum. The wall took about twelve years to complete; within twenty years it was abandoned and the garrison retreated to Hadrian’s Wall.
Why did the Romans build this wall when a perfectly serviceable wall already existed only ninety-nine miles to the south? It seems likely that Antoninus, like Claudius before him, was anxious to shine and, despite his innate aversion to conflict, to add a military achievement of some importance to his name. Hadrian’s Wall was the subject of ongoing bad press, relating to aspects of its muddled planning and cost. Antoninus’ Wall would eclipse this, and Antoninus would overshadow Hadrian: it would be a model of simple but effective frontier building. What is more, Antoninus was, as noted, a traditionalist and we have already seen how traditionalists – those adherents to the mos maiorum – were, more often than not, stolid advocates of extending Rome’s might through war. A new, more aggressive, policy was clearly needed to put an end to the troubles on the fringe of the empire; a new governor took over in 139, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, a native of Numidia and previously governor of Germania Inferior. Lollius invaded southern Scotland, winning some significant victories, before going on to build the wall. Pausanias may be referring to it when he mentions a war in Britain and an inscription honouring Antoninus, erected by Legio II Augusta, the legion which helped build the wall, and a sobering relief showing four naked prisoners, one of them beheaded. The recapture of southern Scotland won for Antoninus the revived ancient salutation of imperator; his place in Roman military history assured, he could then get on with the business of keeping the peace around the rest of his empire.
What went wrong to force the abandonment? As well as the uprisings in Mauretania and unrest amongst the Jews and Egyptians, trouble erupted closer to home in the Pennines amongst the Brigantes from 155, now headquartered in Aldborough near York. Fronto was later to say that, although Antoninus delegated the British campaign to others, he should be regarded as the helmsman who directed the voyage, whose glory, therefore, belonged to him. Moreover, it seems inconceivable that the plague which bears the name of Antoninus, and which wreaked so much devastation within the ranks and conscription potential of the Roman army was not a contributory factor: Roman troops were needed elsewhere and the Antonine Wall was seen as dispensable. For recent evidence of the plague in Britannia see Appendix 12.
Antoninus dealt with the rebellion as coins of 154–155 attest and Pausanias records the punishment meted out on the Brigantes for their attack on ‘the Genounian district’, the whereabouts of which is unknown.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland then, ended as a result of further trouble in 155–158, when the Brigantes revolted. With no hope of receiving reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south; the rising was suppressed by governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. The unrest appears to have continued into 158; there was then extensive military rebuilding under governor Calpurnius Agricola in the north at Corbridge and Chesterholm; in the west at Lancaster, Ribchester and Hardknott; and in the south at Ilkley and Bainbridge, some sixty miles west of York, in what we now call the Yorkshire Dales. What exactly happened is obscure but we know that the Antonine Wall was abandoned in 162 and burnt, and that there was more slaughter at Trimontium (modern Newstead near Melrose). Antoninus reacted by carving up the Brigantian civitas, thus emasculating the tribe politically, socially and militarily (Pausanias, Description of Greece 8, 43, 4).
All was not lost for the Romans: the large fort at Trimontium was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180. The second push north and the occupation may have been connected with Antoninus’ obligation to protect the Votadini.
Antoninus died of an illness in 161 and was succeeded by his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as co-emperors.
Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum)
Recent archaeological work is telling us that Aldborough was more important than first thought and that its prominence and thriving economy and society had implications for nearby Eboracum.
The Aldborough Roman Museum displays relics of the Roman town, including mosaic pavements. The famous Lupa and Romulus and Remus mosaic is in Leeds City Museum (dated c. AD 300).
The summer of 2011 was a significant time for our knowledge of Roman Aldborough; that was when archaeologists with geomagnetic scanners were able to report the discovery, after two years’ work, of what has been dubbed ‘the lost amphitheatre of northern England’. They revealed a tiered bank of seats below curving hummocks in a field at the top of Studforth Hill, an oval arena which would have combined spectacles and entertainments with a 360 degree view.
According to Martin Millett, Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, speaking to The Guardian on 17 August of that year:
Its discovery leaves little doubt that Isurium Brigantium . . . was the civil capital of the Britons known as Brigantes, effectively the population between Derbyshire and Hadrian’s Wall . . . York is much better-known for Roman remains . . . but the evidence suggests that it was the military base. Civil power and society, and the most important place for Roman Britons in the northern province, was likely to have been here.
The article, written by Martin Wainwright, continues:
Aldborough was thought for years to have been a Roman fort because of its impressive town walls, which include a long remaining stretch with curved lookout towers. The strategic position on Dere Street . . . also pointed to a largely military function. But a series of small 19th-and 20th-century excavations, many in gardens and allotments, began to build a more complex picture, and the discovery of the town’s Roman name – meaning the ‘main city of the Brigantes’ – shifted opinion towards a large civilian settlement.
The website www.aldboroughromantown.wordpress.com, concludes:
Our work seems to show a rather different picture of Isurium Brigantium than hitherto suggested. The town is conventionally seen as geographically marginal in the Roman province, and of secondary importance to York – arguably a second-rate abandoned fort converted to a mundane town. However, we now begin to see indications of a pattern of planning, with major hillside terracing and grand houses with sophisticated design and decoration; such elements are not yet evident from the archaeology of York itself.
Might it be that we need to rethink Roman Aldborough as a place of more significance and interest with a distinctive character of its own?
In 175, a sizeable force of Sarmatian cavalry, 5,500 strong, disembarked in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian’s Wall was breached by the Caledonians and the governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus (161–192).
Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus was Roman emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father’s death in 180, and then reigned solo until 192. Ulpius Marcellus was posted as replacement governor, and by 184 he had restored the Roman frontier to the Antonine Wall and won a new peace. The turbulent years of the reign of Commodus, who was inaugurated in 183 as consul with Aufidius Victorinus, saw war erupt in Dacia in which two future contenders for the throne, Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, both distinguished themselves in the campaign. In Britannia in 184, despite the new peace, Ulpius Marcellus found that the legionaries were having none of it and revolted against the harsh discipline they were having to endure and acclaimed another legate, Priscus, as emperor (Dio 73, 10, 2). However, Priscus turned them down and Perennis had all the legionary legates in Britain cashiered – a ritual and humiliating dismissal. In 185, a detachment of 1,500 soldiers from Britain who had been posted to Italy to suppress brigands denounced Perennis to the emperor for allegedly plotting to make his own son emperor; Commodus allowed them to execute Perennis as well as his wife and sons. Sextus Tigidius Perennis (AD 125–185) served as Praetorian Prefect under Commodus. He wielded an inflated influence over Commodus and was effectively in charge of the Roman Empire.
The future emperor Pertinax was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and had some early success in regaining control, but when a riot broke out among his troops he was left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192. The death of Pertinax, in turn, encouraged several rivals to bid for the emperorship, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia who started well by winning over the natives as well as four legions which reinforced his claim, making him a significant claimant to the crown. The legions were II Augusta, VI Victrix and XX Valeria Victrix from Britain, and VII Gemina from Spain.
The Antonine Plague was the first of three devastating pandemics which ravaged the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire, the others being the Plague of Cyprian (AD 249–AD 262 ) and the Justinian Plague (AD 541–542).
It was never only the booty which victorious troops returning from war brought back to the homeland and their families and friends. Sexually transmitted infections and other diseases were sometimes incubating in the soldiers and infecting their baggage trains, only too ready to spread into new populations. The Antonine Plague, or the Plague of Galen, which was probably smallpox, took hold during the golden reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. AD 161–180), and devastated the Roman army with direct or indirect effects on every garrison the empire over including York; it may have killed over five million people in the Roman Empire after the army came home from the war in Parthia (161–166). It has even been suggested that a quarter to a third of the entire population of the empire perished, estimated at 60–70 million. For recent evidence of its presence on Hadrian’s Wall see Appendix 12.