From the Romans’ point of view the abiding impact of Boudica’s revolt was, quite simply, to increase their resolve of the Romans to subdue and Romanise Britannia – a feat which was to a large degree accomplished under Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD 40–93), governor AD 77–84. The establishment of fortress York in AD 71 with the IXth as its garrison is one earlier powerful manifestation of that policy and objective, and an unmissable projection of Roman power. The penetrating advances into the Derbyshire hills and the east Pennines are two more.
There were also economic benefits to taking the northern reaches of Britannia – for example, the exploitation of the raw materials latent in this decidedly inhospitable region. But the prime motive was military. The belligerent Picts and Scots, the Brigantes and the Parisi were kept down by stationing the Roman IX Legion to the south at York; consequently, most of the Roman settlements north of the Humber were military stations. The Romans built military settlements in the Pennines at Ilkley, Castleshaw and Slack to control the Brigantians, and temporary Roman military camps on the North York Moors at Cawthorne and Goathland. There were, however, signs of incipient civilising as seen in Roman villas around Derventio, Petuaria and in the area around present-day Bridlington; these suggest a degree of settled and civilised Romano-British concord.
Marcus Vettius Bolanus (c. AD 33–76) was governor of Britain AD 69–71. The increasingly restless Brigantes presented Bolanus with a second insurrection in the shape of Venutius. We have seen how Cartimandua, Venutius’ former wife and queen of the Brigantes, had been a client ruler loyal to the Romans for twenty years; the Romans had defended her against an earlier revolt by her ex-husband. This time, however, Bolanus could only send auxiliaries. Cartimandua had to get out, leaving her kingdom in the hands of the seriously anti-Rome Venutius. Friendly buffer state had instantly turned into a significant military threat. Northern protection for the Romans offered by the Brigantes was a thing of the past: Roman policy in Britannia would have to change dramatically.
Back in Rome, by the end of AD 69 Vespasian had emerged from the civil war turmoil, establishing himself as emperor at the expense of the other three pretenders to the throne, and set about restoring control over troublesome tribes fomenting trouble around the empire; one of the tribes on the hit list was the Brigantes. The XIVth Gemina was again withdrawn from Britain in AD 70 to help put down Batavian unrest on the lower Rhine, and the mutinous Marcus Roscius Coelius was replaced as commander of XX Valeria Victrix by Gnaeus Julius Agricola. Bolanus remained as governor until AD 71. The poet Statius (c. AD 45–c. 96) tells (Silvae 5,2) how Bolanus established forts, watchtowers, walls and ditches and captured a breastplate from ‘a British king’, which suggests that he reconquered some of the territory lost in the Brigantian revolt. In his Agricola (8, 16), Tacitus suggests that Vettius Bolanus was not really up to the job, saying that
he governed more mildly than suited so turbulent a province . . . nor did Vettius Bolanus, even as the civil wars wore on, trouble Britain with discipline. There was the same lethargy with regard to his operations against the enemy, and similar unruliness in his camp. Bolanus was an honourable man and nothing about him made you dislike him but he had won popularity at the expense of control.
Caution, however, is required with these accounts which cannot be regarded as wholly objective or impartial: Tacitus was Agricola’s son-in-law and Statius’ poem is a eulogy to Bolanus’ son, Crispinus.
Bolanus was succeeded by Quintus Petillius Cerialis (c. AD 30–after 83); he went on to be governor of Asia in AD 75–76. Vespasian, having quelled uprisings in Judaea and the Netherlands, appointed Cerialis governor of Britannia; Cerialis, a relative of Vespasian, was accompanied by the II Adiutrix, until then garrisoned in Nijmegen and formed from the I Classica, a legion levied by Nero among the marines of the Classis Misenensis, but later completed by Galba. Cerialis stationed the legion at Lincoln, replacing the IXth which was posted to Eboracum. Cerialis was supported by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, commander of XX Valeria Victrix, later to be governor. Agricola dealt efficiently with the Ordovices and took Anglesey. In preparation for the continued drive north he established the fortress at Chester – strategically important for incursions into North Wales and access to the Irish Sea and as a springboard for assaults on the Brigantes from the west.
Cerialis, like Vespasian, was a veteran of Britannia: he had his first experience here as legate of Legio IX Hispana under governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. In the Boudican rebellion, Cerialis suffered a serious reverse when attempting to relieve Camulodunum which was taken by the Britons before he arrived. Tacitus (Annals 14, 32) says: ‘The victorious enemy met Petillius Cerialis, commander of the ninth legion, as he was coming to the rescue, routed his troops, and destroyed all his infantry. Cerialis escaped with some cavalry into the camp, and was saved by its fortifications.’
The appointment of the dynamic Cerialis was one of the key strands in a more aggressive, proactive policy. To Tacitus this was the start of a succession of great commanders and armies (Agricola 17), boosting morale in the province and invigorating the soldiery. Another key factor was the construction of that legionary fortress at Eboracum, a strategic fortification that was both defensive and offensive; it was built on the site of a short-lived Roman base established under Vettius Bolanus. A fort at Danum (Doncaster), at a strategic crossing over the River Don, was also built. The Romans were methodically and patiently inching north, advancing along the road that ran along the Wolds from Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) and then crossing the Humber to land at Petuaria, (Brough) on the north bank, west of modern Hull, the capital of the Parisi tribe. Cerealis capitalised on the goodwill of the pro-Roman Parisi who afforded him access to the adjoining Brigantian territory. He moved up from Brough to Malton (Derventio), east of York, where evidence for a vexillation fortress has been found, and to Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough) – the Brigantian stronghold, later capital, – and finally to Eboracum.
The date for the new fortress is AD 71; it was of wooden construction in the traditional playing-card plan, occupying about 25 hectares. York was identified as a significantly strategic site on the confluence of the rivers Foss and Ouse and on a strategically important glacial moraine above the surrounding marshy Vale of York. Bolanus’ construction apart, it seems probable that the Romans found little if any pre-existing native settlements here; this gave them a blank canvas on which to work. Virgin land and meadow scrub enabled them to build their castra (forts) exactly how they wanted them. The Romans, of course, were experts in these civil engineering projects. Later, military builders could refer to technical camp building handbooks such as the De Munationibus Castrorum – On the Fortifications of a Military Camp by Pseudo-Hyginus from the middle of the second century; this was a practical, detailed manual on how to lay out a military camp, written specially for the high-ranking officer. For example, the author explains how much space is needed for each soldier or horse. In the fifth century, Vegetius added to the expertise with his De Re Militari and its Epitoma rei militaris, About things Military – a veritable military encyclopedia including how to fortify and organise a camp. Of course, neither would have been available to the surveyors (agrimensores) or architecti, chief engineers at nascent York, but it is very likely that other, similar works which are not extant, would have been on hand and consulted on site.
The IXth was duly installed here as the vanguard in the new governor’s strategy to subdue the island north and west of York. The fortress and its garrison allowed the Romans to monitor potential uprisings by both the Parisi to the east and south and the Brigantes to the west and north. From now on Eboracum would be the jumping-off point and supply centre for military activities in and well beyond the immediate vicinity. It was the largest town in northern Britain and, in time, prospered to become command headquarters for the north, capital city of Britannia Inferior and win the status of colonia.
From York, Cerialis attacked the Brigantian canton on both flanks then pushed north to Cataractonium (Catterick), and then on to the huge British fortification at Stanwick near Richmond and Piercebridge in the Tees Valley, which is the site of the fortified river crossing where Dere Street crossed the River Tees. In addition, we have evidence of marching camps way to the west in the Stainmore Pass. From all of this we clearly see the rapidity and efficiency which characterised Roman military progress: roads, forts and bridges were built with seeming effortless ease to facilitate the now relentless Roman advance up through Britannia. A veritable blitzkrieg. At least twenty-eight forts were built from North Yorkshire up to the Tyne and from the Mersey to the Eden. Cerialis may also have penetrated some way along the Chester to Carlisle road if the evidence provided by three marching camps is anything to go by.
Cerialis then campaigned through most of Brigantian territory, with mixed success according to Tacitus who records ‘many battles, some very bloody’ (Agricola 17), probably including a major action against Venutius.
Tacitus (Agricola 17) reports the Roman progress in glowing terms:
When however Vespasian had restored unity to Britain as well as to the rest of the world [in AD 69], the presence of great generals and crack armies crushed the enemy’s aspirations. They were at once panic-stricken by the attack by Petillius Cerialis on the Brigantes, said to be the most prosperous tribe in the entire province. There were many battles, some very bloody, and his conquests, or at least his wars, consumed a large part of the territory of the Brigantes. Indeed he would have totally overshadowed the activity and renown of any other successor; but Julius Frontinus was equal to the task, a great man as far as greatness was then possible, who subdued with his army the powerful and belligerent tribe of the Silures, overcoming the difficulties presented by the terrain and the bravery of the enemy.
Julius Frontinus
Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. AD 40–103), civil engineer, author, soldier and senator, was a major player with Quintus Petillius Cerialis in suppressing the Gallic revolt of Gaius Julius Civilis in AD 70 and later tells us (Strategemata 4, 3, 14) that he received the surrender of 70,000 Lingones, a Gallic tribe. He succeeded Cerialis as governor of Britain (AD 74–77 ) where he subjugated the Silures of South Wales, built a fortress for Legio II Augusta at Caerleon and most probably engaged the Brigantes. He was also a capable civil engineer with special expertise in aqueducts and water supply for which he was appointed to the highly prestigious office of curator aquarum (supervisor of the aqueducts of Rome) by Emperor Nerva; he was also a noted military strategist. In AD 99 he was made consul ordinarius with Trajan – a high honour which illustrates the regard in which he was held. Works include De Aquaeductu and Strategemata, a manual of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, for the use in the field by commanders.
How to Win a Siege or Prosecute a War – the Roman Way
There was, of course, plenty of advice to be had on strategy and tactics and the right and proper way to prosecute a war. Apart from Julius Caesar expatiating on the conflict in Gaul and the civil wars, there was the Strategikos of Onasander, Polybius’ work on camps (Histories 6, 19-42), the Strategemata by Frontinus, the De Re Militari of Vegetius, and the Byzantine historian Zosimus (fl. AD 490s–510s). Taking siege warfare as an example, Onasander recommends restraint when it comes to plunder, and not to threaten massacre as both just lead to a more defiant and intractable enemy; prisoners of war should be spared, at least for the duration of the war, for the same reasons. Indeed, all prisoners should be shepherded into the besieged city to exacerbate food shortages and hasten starvation. Onasander is not averse to brutality when it is necessary (Strategikos 38). Zosimus (Historia Nova 1, 69) records how Lydius, at the siege of Cremona in AD 278, evicted all the prisoners, young and old; the Romans sent them back, only for Lydius to hurl them to their deaths into a ravine. Frontinus advocated terrorising the besieged (Strategemata 2, 9, 2-5).
The pursuit of terror tactics and blitzkrieg generally was a strategy not lost on Britannia’s next governor, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in his first year in charge, according to Tacitus (Agricola 20).
How did the locals react to the overrunning of their islands, or more likely on a local level, to the occupation of their native lands and what did the Romans do to get them on side? The tribes obviously reacted differently to the Romans depending on their individual circumstances and long-term objectives. As we have seen, some, such as the Brigantes and Iceni, rebelled but over the next ninety years, although force was always a key option and threat, other methods were at the Romans’ disposal with which to retain control – mollifying tactics which the Romans knew all about from their centuries of conquest and Romanisation. These included bribery, goodwill, taxation, timely demonstrations of military might and power, and installing Roman and allied settlers. The Romans, it must be said, may not have had to try that hard to bring potentially winnable natives under their influence. All the circumspect but vacillating Briton had to do to see the fruits of collaboration was to pick up those reports from over the Channel and hear about opportunities for social mobility, comparative wealth, luxuries, even power and high status. The benefits of peace and cooperation were obvious, particularly when seen against the current lifestyle the tribes endured, notable for its constant intertribal and internecine warfare.
Julius Frontinus, as the next governor (AD 74–77), obviously believed that Cerialis, his predecessor, had succeeded in taming the north; this allowed him to focus on subduing the ever-turbulent Silures by sea and land, eventually bringing South Wales to heel, as shown by the evacuation of Gloucester and the establishment of a fortress at Isca Silurum, Caerleon, for Legio II. He appropriated good farming land from the defeated Silures while he constructed auxiliary forts in the territory of the southwestern Demetae who posed little problem. But the Ordovices in Snowdonia were a different matter, only to be addressed by the construction of the fortress at Deva, Chester, to garrison II Adiutrix, bringing the number of legions concentrated here to three.
AD 79 was a year of consolidation with the territory of the Votadini and Selgovae, north of the Tyne-Solway isthmus, firmly in the Romans’ sights. The Tavus (Tay) was reached: it seems likely that the plan was to execute a pincer movement from Carlisle and Corbridge concluding at Inveresk on the Forth and then advancing to Stirling via Strathallan and Strathearn and on to the Tay.
It was, however, Julius Agricola, the next governor who would lead this campaign (AD 78– 85). As we know, Agricola had been in Britannia twice before, as military tribune between 58 and 62 under Suetonius Paulinus and as commander of the XXth under Petilius Cerialis, so he was familiar with the territory and with the locals.
Agricola, ignoring cautionary advice and much to the probable consternation of the enemy, started as he meant to go on: he hit the ground running by attacking, and annihilating, the Ordovices (Agricola 18, 3). Anglesey, the target aborted all those years before by Suetonius Paulinus, was next with Agricola creating more astonishment and surprise by deploying special forces in the shape of the Batavians – those expert, fully armed, kit-carrying swimmers – when everyone was expecting a conventional invasion by ship. So, in two short operations Agricola had eloquently established his credentials: he had surprised and beaten his enemy with little Roman loss, he had established his reputation with his troops, he had conquered hitherto refractory territory, and he had impressed Vespasian at the expense of Corbulo.
Much of Agricola’s overall success as governor can be attributed to a judicious blend of aggression towards recalcitrants and adept selling of the benefits of Roman rule, seductively promoting the Roman brand. Tacitus embodies it in this description of Agricola’s management in AD 79: Agricola 21 is something of a template for the process of Romanisation as promulgated in Britannia by Agricola, although it must be viewed with the inevitability in mind that Tacitus was keen to ‘big up’ his father-in-law; just as interestingly Tacitus, as previously noted, cynically saw the process as just another form of servitude in which the locals turned soft:
The following winter passed without disturbance, and was employed in salutary measures. For, to accustom to rest and repose through the charms of luxury a population scattered and barbarous and therefore inclined to war, Agricola gave private encouragement and public aid to the building of temples, courts of justice and dwelling-houses, praising the energetic, and reproving the indolent. Thus an honourable rivalry took the place of compulsion. He likewise provided a liberal education for the sons of the chiefs, and showed such a preference for the natural powers of the Britons over the industry of the Gauls that they who lately disdained the tongue of Rome now coveted its eloquence. Hence, too, a liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the toga became fashionable. Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounging around, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance, they called civilization, when it was but a part of their servitude.
The processes which Tacitus describes were obviously long term, developing and evolving over time. Much of Britannia would have been seduced by the blandishments of Romanisation, and York too would have succumbed, and benefitted. For the rest of his governorship Agricola penetrated further and further north, absorbing parts of southern Caledonia and culminating in the battle of Mons Graupius in AD 84 (in the Grampian Mountains, perhaps at Bennachie by Inverurie) and all the while sowing the seductive seeds of Romanisation. As well as those who fought to the bitter end in the mountains, many of the Caledonians took refuge in the surrounding forests and mountains torching their houses and even going so far as to kill their own wives and children in fear of and to obviate Roman reprisals. On the following day Tacitus records, ‘the hills were deserted, houses smoking in the distance, and our scouts did not meet a soul.’ This was not be the last time the Scots were to suffer from scorched earth, slash and burn, and blitzkrieg.
Agricola had delivered the military part of his mandate with clinical precision and efficiency. Now throughout the province public buildings were constructed, Roman education was introduced, the attractions of civilisation Roman style were permeating the British aristocracies, slowly percolating down through the lower orders. The glue which held it all together, though, was unmistakably first and foremost military, as evidenced by the three fortresses at Eboracum, Caerleon and Chester and the two walled coloniae at Lincoln and Gloucester. Britannia was now a bona fide part of the Roman Empire, and York was a major place and had a significant role to play in that new outpost of empire.
Agricola was peremptorily recalled to Rome one year after his great achievement at Mons Graupius. Details after Tacitus for the next 300 or so years are comparatively thin but we can piece together a lot of what happened from archaeological evidence. In the years after Agricola’s departure the Romans pulled back to the more defensible line along the Forth-Clyde isthmus while there may have been troop reductions and withdrawals to repel crises elsewhere in the empire. A programme of fort rebuilding seems to have been undertaken along the new frontier.
Agricola was clearly a major force in the early occupation of Britannia. It is important to look more closely at the achievements of the governor and of his son-in-law, Tacitus, author of his biography, to give context to the pivotal role York played in his strategy to subdue and contain the north of England and southern Scotland.
Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD 40–93) was born in the colonia of Forum Julii (Fréjus), Gallia Narbonensis; as it happened, he began his military career in Britain, serving as military tribune (tribunus laticlavus) under the governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus from 58 to 62. Most likely he was attached to the Legio II Augusta, but was selected to serve on Suetonius’ staff and would have fought in the suppression of Boudica’s revolt in AD 61. Following that he was appointed quaestor in the province of Asia in 64, then plebeian tribune in 66, and praetor in 68. He judiciously backed Vespasian during the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 for which he was rewarded with the command of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix, stationed in Britain, to replace the wayward Marcus Roscius Coelius.
Coelius was the legate of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix in 68. He was at loggerheads with the provincial governor from AD 63, Marcus Trebellius Maximus. Trebellius continued the policy of consolidation and made no new territorial conquests. He also continued the Romanisation of Britain, restoring Camulodunum after the rebellion of Boudica; Londonium grew in stature as a trading centre. By 67, the province was stable enough to allow Legio XIV Gemina to be withdrawn, but inertia, and a noticeable lack of opportunities for booty, led to unrest among the legions that remained. Trebellius had failed to restore discipline, and a feud with Marcus Roscius Coelius further undermined his authority. Coelius had grasped the opportunity during the chaos of the Year of Four Emperors to foment mutiny against him. Trebellius lost all authority with the army, which sided with Coelius, and fled to the protection of Vitellius (another of the Four) in Germania sending units from Legio XX to fight for him. Vitellius also returned Legio XIV, which had sided with his defeated opponent Otho (another of the Four), to Britain. Coelius and his fellow legates ruled the province for a short time until Vitellius, now briefly emperor, posted Marcus Vettius Bolanus as new governor to Britannia in late 69 (Tacitus, Histories 2, 65; Agricola 7).
Agricola’s command ended in 73 when he was elevated to the patrician aristocracy in Rome and appointed governor of Gallia Aquitania. He was made suffect consul and betrothed his daughter, Julia, to Tacitus. When a magistrate resigned or died during his term of office, a successor had to be appointed for the rest of that year – this was called a suffectus. The following year, Tacitus and Julia married; Agricola was appointed to the College of Pontiffs, and returned to Britain for a third time, as its governor (Legatus Augusti pro praetore). As we have already noted, the final showdown at the Battle of Mons Graupius in 84 was where Agricola was victorious.
He was recalled from Britain in 85 after serving an unusually long tenure, rewarded handsomely with triumphal honours (one below a triumph), a public statue and a long citation. He retired from military and public life, tactfully declining the proconsulship of Asia under an unpredictable and insecure Emperor Domitian.
Agricola, then, was clearly the right man for the job which he executed with consummate efficiency, if we are to believe his son-in-law, and we probably can. He pursued a model cursus honorum and achieved his aim of a consulship with seemingly little trouble. York would have figured large in his life: his second stint here under Quintus Petillius Cerialis coincided with the establishment of the fortress – a major strategic decision in which he would have been involved, and from which he would have orchestrated his attacks on the Brigantes. Throughout his governorship too he would have used York as his command headquarters whence he would have travelled north with his legions into the unchartered north.
York would have benefitted socially and culturally from Agricola’s tenure. Agricola was a provincial Roman and he would have empathised with the provincial nature of York and with its provincial inhabitants. He was an ardent advocate of the civilising benefits of Romanisation so York would have gained much from his efforts in this area: for example an orderly programme of urbanisation in the Roman way as well as the diffusion of Roman ideas, culture and of Latin in the higher echelons of society.
Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 56–c. AD 120)
Tacitus was a Roman historian of the first order, up there with Livy and Sallust. He was the author of: (AD 98) De vita Iulii Agricolae (The Life of Agricola); (98) De origine et situ Germanorum (Germania); (102) Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory); (105) Historiae (Histories); and (117) Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annals). It is, of course, the Agricola which is of greatest interest to us: the biography of his father-in-law with particular focus on his governorship of Britannia from his headquarters in York.
Without Tacitus we would be considerably less well informed about early Roman Britain since the parts of the Histories and Annals which cover Agricola’s governorship of Britannia are lost, which only leaves Cassius Dio writing in the third century; Dio mentions Agricola twice (39, 50, 4; 66, 20, 1) and there are two inscriptions which bear Agricola’s name – one from the forum at St Alban’s and the other at the fortress at Chester. That is the extent of the literary evidence for early Roman York. Consequently, we owe much to Tacitus: without his Agricola most of the detail we have on the early conquest of the north from the base in York would be lost to us.
The Vindolanda Tablets
Vindolanda is extremely important in its own right but it is probably most famous for the Vindolanda tablets, preserved wooden leaf tablets that were, at the time in 1973 and 1993 when they were discovered, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. They gave us a hitherto unknown papyrus substitute, thin postcard-sized leaves of wood which were inscribed using pen and carbon-based ink with day-to-day book-keeping records and letters. They were scored down the middle and folded to form diptychs with ink writing on the inner faces; the ink was made up of carbon, gum arabic and water.
The 752 tablets dated between AD 90 and 120 offer a highly informative and vivid insight to life guarding the outpost of empire that was Britannia. They are sometimes mundane in their minutiae, but historically they are of seismic importance. They tell us much about the challenges faced by merchants and logistic operators and hauliers as well as military and administrative staff in the day-to-day running of a fort – lines of supply, procurement, materiel, service and social life are all there with first-hand descriptions from those facing the unpredictable and disaffected natives from further north.
Two Roman auxiliary regiments, the Ninth Cohort of Batavians and, before them, the First Cohort of Tungrians, are the stars of the tablets. Among the 400 officers and other ranks named, the Batavian prefect Flavius Cerialis features prominently, together with his wife Sulpicia Lepidina, who received the celebrated birthday party invitation from her friend Claudia Severa, wife of Cerialis’ colleague and fellow hunting aficionado, Aelius Brocchus. The tablets shed priceless light on officers and their families, their friends, and their colleagues; it reveals the daily grind of ordinary soldiers; their names and duties; military routine, duty reports, leave, and deserters; the supply of food, drink and other goods; merchants and contractors; army wife life; visitors and entertainment; as well as leisure activities such as hunting and religion. The first tablet excavated (No. 346) in 1973 happened to be about socks, sandals and underpants:
I have sent you ... pairs of socks from Sattua, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants, two pairs of sandals ... . Greet ... ndes, Elpis, Iu ... enus, Tetricus and all your messmates with whom I pray that you live in the greatest good fortune.
Other tablets are more edifying: one of the letters is from one slave to another regarding payment for some items needed for the all-important Saturnalia festival; there is an account of food supplies possibly for the fort commander’s residence: it includes fish sauce (the ever-popular garum), lard for cooking, beer and barley for the household’s livestock. In another letter, a man complains to a friend that he has yet to hear back from his previous letter. Tablet No. 164, a memo, is especially interesting:
the Britons are unprotected by armour. There are very many cavalry. The cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins.
As is No. 343, possibly from a civilian trader complaining, somewhat fawningly, to the governor that he had been flogged by a centurion:
he beat me all the more ... goods ... or pour them down the drain. As befits an honest man I implore your majesty not to allow me, an innocent man, to have been beaten with rods and, my lord, inasmuch as I was unable to complain to the prefect because he was detained by ill-health I have complained in vain to the beneficiarius and the rest of the centurions of his unit. Accordingly I implore your mercifulness not to allow me, a man from overseas and an innocent one, about whose good faith you may inquire, to have been bloodied by rods as if I had committed some crime.
We also hear from such demanding characters as, for example, Octavian (No. 343), a merchant dealing in wheat, hides and sinews, possibly a civilian contractor. At this time soldiers were not officially permitted to marry on service, but many did, building relationships with local women and starting families with them. One of the most fascinating tablets shows that wives of officers clearly did accompany their husbands on service overseas: Claudia Severa sent that famous birthday party invitation to her sister Lepidina asking her to make her day special by coming along on 11 September on tablet No. 291:
On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present. Give my greetings to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send him their greetings. [A second hand writes] I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail. [Written on the other side, in the first hand] To Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Cerialis, from Severa.
Claudia’s handwriting also appears in Nos. 292 and 293; here, she seeks permission to visit Lepidina:
. . . greetings. Just as I had spoken with you, sister, and promised that I would ask Brocchus and would come to you, I asked him and he gave me the following reply, that it was always readily permitted to me, together with ... to come to you in whatever way I can. For there are certain essential things which ... you will receive my letters by which you will know what I am going to do ... I was ... and will remain at Briga. Greet your Cerialis from me. [Written in the second hand] Farewell my sister, my dearest and most longed-for soul. [Written on the other side, in the first hand] To Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Cerialis, from Severa, wife of Brocchus.
Apart from providing copious and invaluable information relating to provincial military life and administration, the tablets give us a fascinating insight on literacy among officers and their wives, rank and file soldiers, and civilian contractors. Most of this would have been recognisable to soldiers and their families garrisoned at York.
One of the Vindolanda tablets gives us our earliest written reference to York, datable to about AD 100, occurring as Eburacum, as it does in the Antonine Itinerary and Ravenna Cosmography, two Roman ‘road atlases’ that list place names along the highways of the empire.
Most importantly, though, there is nothing to suggest that the daily life on Hadrian’s Wall adumbrated by the tablets was so very much different from what was going on in York, mundane as some of it might have been. The tablets give a clear and revealing picture of garrison life throughout the province.