Divided Britain. A bit of History.

I got interested in the Roman IX Hispana Legion and how it disappeared in 117AD or thereabouts.

Britain the island was split up around AD122 by the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

Hadrian

Britain had been invaded successfully in AD43 following two unsuccessful invasions by Julius Caesar but in the early 100s was having problems in the north. The Northerners and Scots were killing good Roman soldiers. Lots of them.

Sometime before Hadrian visited, to sort out the problem, a whole legion of 5000 men had disappeared while stationed in the northern town of York. It was more likely they had lost 3000 men, still a significant quantity as Hadrian brought with him 3000 legionaries of the sixth infantry legion to replace the lost ninth. This would make the usual 5000 men in a legion. The ninth being written off due to their losses.

The wall also consisted of a ditch.

The wall is still there 1900 years later

It actually took 15,000 men about 5 years to build the wall.

The two walls between Roman England and Scotland

Once built its success can be shown in the difference of speed at which the two sides developed.
England developed rapidly with Roman influence, whereas, Scotland continued with a tribal infrastructure well into the 3rd century and beyond. England developed a major network of roads and towns and trade routes to most of Europe. Scotland traded with few places and mainly the Scandinavian countries.

Image made at a Scottish bike rally last week

The Scottish did get troublesome and in 209 the Emperor Septimus Severus and a massive force of over 40,000 men, killed thousands of Scots. He also lost around 50,000 men according to some historians that are poor at maths (50,000 from 40,000 does not go). These were massive numbers at the time even if well over exaggerated.

Severus

I do like this piece of recorded history though.

Julia Domna

Septimus’ wife Julia Domna who criticised the sexual morals of the Caledonian women, the wife of chief Argentocoxos allegedly replied: "We fulfil the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest”.

The one thing Celt women had that the Roman women didn’t was freedom (unless they got captured by the Romans). They were almost equal to men and could marry who they liked and own property and rule as queen. Roman women were the property of the husband and could do nothing and own nothing without their husband’s agreement.

Did you know in 40AD Caligula positioned a mighty army on the French coast and prepared for invasion. At the last minute he had all the legionaries collect sea shells. He was a little mad.

1900 years later another mad man had the same success with his invasion, but found fewer shells. Hitler.

All images are free to use from Google