Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T17:29:41.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Were There Two Antonine Occupations of Scotland?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

N. Hodgson
Affiliation:
Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum, South Shields

Extract

It is generally held that Hadrian's Wall was abandoned c. A.D. 140 in favour of a heavily garrisoned Antonine Wall, then reoccupied about A.D. 158 upon withdrawal of troops from Scotland and the Antonine Wall. Almost immediately troops returned to Scotland, though the northern garrison was thinner than before. This second, brief occupation of the Antonine Wall is now most often supposed to have ended at some date early in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian's Wall then being reoccupied.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 26 , November 1995 , pp. 29 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © N. Hodgson 1995. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 I record my thanks to Dr D.A. Welsby, who independently arrived at a critical view of Antonine I and II, and with whom it was originally intended to write a joint paper. While grateful to Dr Welsby for discussion, I am solely responsible for the present paper, the views expressed, and for any errors. I would also like to thank the following, who have read or commented on various versions of this paper, and offered support and constructive discussion: Mr P.T. Bidwell, Dr D.J. Breeze, Mr J.G. Crow, Mr CM. Daniels, and Dr V.A. Maxfield. Abbreviations used in the notes are: PSAS = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. RCAHMS = Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. TDGNHAS = Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society.

2 Hartley, B.R., ‘The Roman occupations of Scotland: the evidence of the samian ware’, Britannia iii (1972), 155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Steer, K.A., ‘John Horsley and the Antonine Wall’, Arch. Ael. 4 xlii (1964), 139.Google Scholar

4 P.T. Bidwell, Roman Exeter: Fortress and Town (1980), 35.

5 W. Glasbergen and W. Groenman-van Waateringe, The Pre-Flavian Garrisons of Valkenburg ZH (1974).

6 Macdonald, G. and Curie, A.O., PSAS lxiii (1929), 420–1Google Scholar; G. Macdonald, The Roman Wall in Scotland (2nd edn, 1934), 198; cf. Steer, K.A., PSAS lxxxxiv (1961), 91.Google Scholar

7 J. Clarke, The Roman Fort at Cadder (1933), 47–8.

8 ibid., 89.

9 ibid., 37.

10 Macdonald, op. cit. (note 6), 219–26.

11 Steer, op. cit. (note 3), 31.

12 Macdonald, op. cit. (note 6), 228.

13 Maclvor, et al. , PSAS CX (1980), 238.Google Scholar

14 ibid., 241.

16 Gillam, J.P., ‘Possible changes in plan in the course of the construction of the Antonine Wall’, Scottish Arch. Forum vii (1975), 51–6.Google Scholar

17 W.S. Hanson and G.S. Maxwell, Rome's North-West Frontier: The Antonine Wall (1983), 106–9; D.J. Breeze and B. Dobson, Hadrian's Wall (3rd edn, 1987), 103–4.

18 As suggested by Keppie, L.: Robertson, A.S. et al. , Bar Hill: A Roman Fort and its Finds, BAR Brit. Ser. 16 (1975), 26–7.Google Scholar

19 The inscription (RIB 2169) carries no dedication. As Macdonald pointed out (op. cit. (note 6), 424–5), this shows that it must have been set in the aedes, where its meaning would have been self-evident.

20 The unit, under the command of a centurion of legio II Italica, is attested on an altar found at Old Kilpatrick in 1969: Barber, R.N.L., Glasgow Arch. Journ. ii (1971), 117–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Bidwell, P.T. and Speak, S., Excavations at South Shields Roman Fort I (1994).Google Scholar

22 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 105.

23 e.g. Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 146–7; S.S. Frere, Britannia (3rd edn, 1987), 136–7.

24 Heslop, R.O. and Haverfield, F., Arch. Ael. 2 xxv (1904) 139–7Google Scholar; Haverfield, F., PSAS xxxviii (1904), 454–9.Google Scholar

25 Descr. Greece VIII.43.

26 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 146–7.

27 By, for example, Gillam, J.P. and Mann, J.C., Arch. Ael.4 xlviii (1970), 13Google Scholar; Dobson, B., ‘The Brigantian Revolt’, Roman Northern Frontier Seminar VI (unpub. typescript, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne 1972), 56–9Google Scholar; Gillam, J.P., Arch. Ael.5 ii (1974), 34.Google Scholar

28 Hartley, op. cit. (note 2).

29 e.g. Mann, J.C., PSAS cxviii (1988), 131–7.Google Scholar

30 Trans. Architect. & Arch. Soc. Durham and Northumberland x (1953), 359–75.Google Scholar

31 The inscriptions are undated within the reign of Pius, contra RIB: Mann, op. cit. (note 29), 132 and n. 2.

32 S.N. Miller, The Roman Fort at Old Kilpatrick (1928), 34.

33 The earliest possible date of the latest second-century coins: Mann, op. cit. (note 29), 132.

35 Macdonald and Curle, op. cit. (note 6), 536–9.

36 Mann, op. cit. (note 29), 132.

37 Hermes lxxxxi (1963), 483–9.Google Scholar

38 S.S. Frere, Britannia (3rd edn, 1987), 152–3, n. 34; Mann, op. cit. (note 29), 134–5.

39 Hartley, op. cit. (note 2), 28.

40 As suggested in Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 197. The possible role of Castlecary as an outpost is very usefully discussed by Breeze, D.J., Scottish Arch. Forum vii (1975), 70–1.Google Scholar

41 V.A. Maxfield and M.J. Dobson (eds), Roman Frontier Studies 1989 (1991), 48–51.

42 Speidel, M.P., Britannia xviii (1987), 236–7.Google Scholar

43 SHA Marcus 8.7-8; SHA Didius Julianus 1.6–9.

44 CIL XIV.3610: see Alföldy, G., Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg viii (1983), 5567.Google Scholar

45 Speidel, op. cit. (note 42), 236.

46 ibid., 236–7.

47 op. cit. (note 41), 49.

48 Birley, A.R., Trans. Architect. & Arch. Soc. Durham and Northumberland NS iii (1974), 1325; D.J. Breeze, The Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain (1982), 98–9; Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 60–1, admitting other factors.Google Scholar

49 Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 17), 125.

50 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 145.

51 Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 17), 109.

52 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 151.

53 Is this also implied by the presence of the procurator Quintus Lusius Sabinianus (attested on RIB 2132 and a second, more recently discovered, altar) at Inveresk, probably in the Antonine period?

54 J.C. Mann in H. Temporini and W. Haas (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.I (1974), 531.

55 B. Isaac, The Limits of Empire: the Roman Army in the East (1990), 389.

56 Breeze, D.J., PSAS cxviii (1988), 322.Google Scholar

57 Breeze, D.J., Britannia v (1974), 130–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 Barbour, J., PSAS xxx (1986), 113–99.Google Scholar

59 A.S. Robertson, Birrens (Blatobulgium) (1975).

60 S.N. Miller, The Roman Occupation of South-West Scotland (1952), 187; Maxwell, G.S., Britannia vi (1975), 24–5.Google Scholar

61 Maxwell, op. cit. (note 60), 25–8.

62 RCAHMS, Lanarkshire (1978), 121.

64 Keppie, L.J.F., Glasgow Arch. Journ. viii (1981), 6870.Google Scholar

65 Jobey, G., TDGNHAS3 liii (1978), 7880; Breeze, op. cit. (note 48), 145.Google Scholar

66 Stevenson, G.H. and Miller, S.N., PSAS xlvi (1912), 46Google Scholar; Richmond, I.A., PSAS lxxxv (1953), 138–45.Google Scholar

67 Birley, E. and Richmond, I.A., TDGNHAS3 xxii (1942), 158–60Google Scholar; Birley, E. and Gillam, J.P., TDGNHAS3 xxiv (1946), 69; 78.Google Scholar

68 A.S. Robertson, The Roman Fort at Castledykes (1964); RCAHMS, op. cit. (note 62), 124–7.

69 Rae, A. and Rae, V., Britannia V (1974), 174.Google Scholar

70 ibid., 183.

71 ibid., 186–7.

72 ibid., 176.

73 ibid., 187–90.

74 Maxwell, G.S., PSAS civ (19711972), 176.Google Scholar

75 Miller, op. cit. (note 60), 126.

76 Richmond, I.A. and Joseph, J.K. St, TDGNHAS3 xxx (1952), 116.Google Scholar

77 Richmond, I.A., PSAS cx (1981), 286304.Google Scholar

78 Thomas, G.D., PSAS cxviii (1988), 139–76 and fiche.Google Scholar

79 JRS lxxxvii (1947), 165–6.Google Scholar

80 Steer, K.A. and Feachem, R.W., PSAS lxxxxv (1962), 213.Google Scholar

81 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 17), 148.

82 Miller, op. cit. (note 60), 105–7.

83 Clarke, J., TDGNHAS3 xxvi (1949), 140–7.Google Scholar

84 Richmond, I.A., PSAS lxxxiv (1950), 14.Google Scholar

85 Newall, F., Glasgow Arch. Journ. iv (1976), 117.Google Scholar

86 Robertson, A.S., TDGNHAS3 xxxix (1962), 45–6.Google Scholar

87 RCAHMS, op. cit. (note 62), 136.

88 JRS xl (1950), 93–4.Google Scholar

89 JRS xlv (1955), 123.Google Scholar

90 JRS xliv (1954) 86.Google Scholar

91 Keppie, L.J.F., Britannia xiii (1982), 97–8.Google Scholar

92 Macdonald and Curle, op. cit. (note 6), 426–8.

93 ibid., 436–8.

94 Macdonald, op. cit. (note 6), 199.

95 ibid., 198; Macdonald and Curle, op. cit. (note 6), 420–1.

96 Steer, op. cit. (note 6), 92–3.

97 ibid., 99, n. 1.

98 Christison, D. and Buchanan, M., PSAS xxxv (1901), 329417.Google Scholar

99 V.A. Maxfield in D.J. Breeze (ed.), Roman Scotland: Some Recent Excavations (1979), 32.

100 Keppie, L.J.F. and Walker, J.J., Britannia xii (1981), 143–6; 160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

101 Christison, D. and Buchanan, M., PSAS xxxvii (1903), 304–6; Macdonald, op. cit. (note 6), 241–52.Google Scholar

102 Macdonald, G., PSAS lxxi (1936), 3271.Google Scholar

103 Cohors I Hamiorum are revealed as the dedicators of RIB 2166 in a new reading published by Keppie, L.J.F., PSAS cxiii (1983), 393.Google Scholar

104 G. Macdonald and A. Park, The Roman Forts on the Bar Hill (1906).

105 Keppie, L.J.F., Glasgow Arch. Journ. xii (1986), 4981.Google Scholar

106 Clarke, op. cit. (note 7), 36.

107 ibid., 35–6.

108 ibid., 44–8.

109 ibid., 49.

110 ibid., 43.

111 Wilkes, J.J., Glasgow Arch. Journ. iii (1974), 5165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

112 S.N. Miller, The Roman Fort at Balmuildy (1922), 31.

113 ibid., 25.

114 ibid., 40–1.

115 Keppie, L.J.F., Glasgow Arch. Journ. iv (1976), 99102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

116 D.J. Breeze (ed.), Studies in Scottish Antiquity (1984), 32–68.

117 A.S. Robertson, An Antonine Fort, Golden Hill, 'Duntocher (1957).

118 S.N. Miller, The Roman Fort at Old Kilpatrick (1928), 25–7; 55–9.

119 P.T. Bidwell, The Roman Fort at Vindolanda (1985), 54–6, describes an aborted building foundation. The plan of the baths at Bearsden was changed during construction: Breeze, op. cit. (note 116), 60–1.

120 Miller, op. cit. (note 118), 16.

121 ibid., 16–17.

122 ibid., 28–9.

123 Following O.G.S. Crawford, Topography of Roman Scotland North of the Antonine Wall (1949), 38.

124 Christison, D. et al. , PSAS xxxii (1898), 399435.Google Scholar

125 G.S. Maxwell, The Romans in Scotland (1989), 167–8.

126 S.S. Frere and JJ. Wilkes, Strageath: Excavations within the Roman Fort 1973–86 (1989).