The Roman Emperors of Britain, page 9
Chapter Four
Emperor Hadrian
Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born c. 76. The family originated from Picenum in northern Italy. His grandfather married Ulpia who was aunt to the emperor. This gave him important connections to the imperial family. Hadrian’s father died before his tenth birthday and he was entrusted to two guardians, Publius Aelius Attianus and Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, the future Emperor Trajan. As a young man he served as military tribune in various legions on the Danube and Rhine. When Trajan became emperor in 98, Hadrian was 22 years of age. Two years later he married into the imperial family by taking the hand of Matilda Augusta, the emperor’s niece.
Hadrian is recorded as being tall and well built, bearded and austere looking. Physically active and energetic, he was skilled in weapons and hunting, once killing a lion with a javelin.1 He put on lavish gladiatorial shows and hunting displays. Especially keen on lions he once killed a hundred in one display. He was also an able administrator, taking a keen interest in Roman law. He made important changes to governmental positions elevating the role of equestrians at the expense of freedmen. This expanded and opened up the career paths for equestrians. His policies prioritised peaceful, stable and controlled borders protected by a well-trained and disciplined army.2
However, the general view of his personality was negative. He was described as unpredictable, envious, fickle and cruel, once stabbing a slave in the eye with a stylus for a minor offence.3 Soldiers and freedmen were executed for petty insults and he could be vengeful and vindictive. But perhaps the main reason for the negative view of him in the sources is he killed off many senators especially likely successors.
The militarily aggressive Trajan expanding the borders of the empire significantly. Hadrian rose up the cursus honorum, serving as a legionary commander during the Dacian Wars and as governor of Syria in the Parthian War of 114. He had received a suffect (part of a yearly term) consulship in 108 and was due a second term in 117 when Trajan died.
The day after Trajan’s death it was announced the emperor had formally adopted Hadrian, a claim which was met with some suspicion at the time. However with the endorsement of the emperor’s widow, Pompeia Plotina, and also the army, the senate had little choice. Like so many emperors he began by assuring the assembled senators of his good intentions. One of his first promises was to never to put any of them to death, a vow he broke within the year. A plot was uncovered and the perpetrators executed, although he claimed he was unaware of the orders.4
The new emperor abandoned Trajan’s expansionist policies pulling back from Parthia and leaving a client king in Armenia. He remained in Dacia and turned his attention to the northern borders. This new policy of avoiding external military action meant a strengthening of the border defences. Legionary soldiers started to perform a number of other ‘non-operational’ tasks, one of which was large building and engineering projects. Hadrian began a process of visiting provinces, strengthening the borders as he went becoming known as the ‘greatest of all imperial travellers’.5 He was the first emperor to see the empire from anything other than a Roman standpoint.
Figure 22. Bust of Emperor Hadrian. (Wikimedia Commons)
As he travelled he took a keen interest in army discipline which is reflected in his coinage, one example of which includes the words Disciplina Augusti.6 He created a distinction between mobile and static troops which was copied by later emperors. This is evident later in Britain when we see auxiliary troops manning Hadrian’s Wall with the Sixth Legion based at York, over seventy miles to the south.
The only serious war in his reign was the Jewish War of 132–6. Reprisals were severe: nearly 1,000 villages were razed to the ground and Cassius Dio numbered those killed to over half-a-million Jews killed in battle alone. Aside from the severe reprisals to that insurrection, Hadrian is not considered overly heavy-handed by historians even if senators at the time and later took a dim view of him.7 His visit to Britain occurred in the first years of his reign and it is to that we will now turn.
Hadrian in Britain
There is some evidence of military problems in northern Britain at the start of his reign:8 Sources tell us ‘the Britons could not be kept under Roman control’; coins showing BRITANNIA issued in 119 appear in the record suggesting a successful campaign; and Fronto, writing in 162, refers to a large number of soldiers being killed in this period. Supporting this is an inscription in Italy, dated to the reign of Hadrian, which shows 3,000 men from three different legions were sent to Britain.9 This in turn suggests a large number needed replacing and some have speculated the Ninth Legion was destroyed. However later evidence from the Rhine points to it’s presence on the continent several decades later.
More coins issued c. 122–3 refer to expeditio Augusti. This must refer to Hadrian’s presence in Britain which suggests, if taken at face value, a campaign whilst the emperor was present.10 What these coins and literary sources tells us is that after Trajan’s death significant unrest occurred in Britain. Whatever action took place in response must have been successful for coins to display BRITANNIA by 119. Was Hadrian’s visit in c. 122 in response to further unrest? The sources are silent but the numismatic evidence points to another successful campaign with Hadrian present in Britain. It was this visit that prompted the transfer and arrival of one of Roman Britain’s most famous legions, Legio VI Victrix, the ‘Victorious Sixth Legion’. It also prompted the construction of arguably one of the most famous walls in history, Vallum Aelium, Hadrian’s Wall.
Before we turn to that let us first look at the border before Hadrian arrived in Britain. As the legions pushed north and west in the first decades of Roman rule Legionary bases were built with those at York, Chester and Caerleon becoming the permanent base for most of Roman Britain. These bases were rebuilt in stone most likely under Trajan.11 In addition to these colonies for veterans at Gloucester and Lincoln were added to the one at Colchester. Agricola’s campaign in the north had culminated in the Roman victory at Mons Graupius c. 83–4.
However this was not to last and the withdrawal from north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus came shortly after c. 86. Coin deposits suggest it was complete by c. 88.12 A generation later and the Romans had retreated again, this time to the Tyne-Solway isthmus. Tacitus presents a golden opportunity wasted: ‘Britain was totally conquered, and then immediately let go’.13 How different might British history have been if the Romans had conquered the entire island and even gone one step further and crossed the sea to Ireland?
In the late 80s the Romans consolidated their new border. A major road was built, the Stanegate Road, connecting two strategically important forts. Corbridge in the east and Carlisle in the west. The Roman zone of influence likely extended much further and further forts were constructed along this line and further south in support. It is to this border that Hadrian visited in 122. Whilst we have seen signs of unrest just prior to his visit other evidence suggests there were not serious military problems on the frontier in the years directly after Agricola’s withdrawal.14 Part of this evidence comes from one of the forts positioned half-way along the Stanegate Road.
Vindolanda fort
Vindolanda sat on an escarpment on the Stanegate Road thirteen miles west of Corbridge and twenty three miles east of Carlisle. Placing it roughly half way between the Solway Firth and the North Sea. Just a smile south of where Hadrian’s Wall ran it is located near the picturesque village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland. The fort’s name is Brythonic: vindo means ‘white’ or ‘shining’ and evolved into the Welsh gwyn or Irish finn. Although no evidence has been found of any prior settlement.
The first fort was built c. 85 by the First Cohort of Tungrians, an infantry unit of 500. A larger fort was constructed c. 95 when a mixed unit of 1,000 Batavians moved in. This was the Ninth Cohort of Batavians who, together with the Tungrians, are referenced in the famous Vindolanda tablets. Both of these auxiliary units fought at Mons Graupius in c. 83. It was Batavian auxiliaries that swam across the River Medway in 43 when Vespasian led the second legion to victory. The Tungrians returned to Vindolanda in the early second century and again a larger wooden fort was built. This unit moved north a generation later when the Antonine Wall was built. A stone fort later replaced the wooden one.
It is thought that the Tungrians were replaced in the mid-second century, c. 150–200, by a cohort of Nervians, Cohors II Nerviorum Civium Romanorum.15 The final residents were the Fourth Cohort of Gauls, Cohors IV Gallorum Equitata, a mixed unit of 500, who remained until towards the end of Roman Britain.
Back in the first century a revolt by Batavian auxiliary units in 69–70 on the Rhine caused Rome major problems. Taking part in the final victory over the Batavians was legio VI Victrix who later accompanied Hadrian to Britain in 122. Some of the Batavian elite had remained loyal to Rome, including two cavalry commanders, Claudius Labeo and a Briganticus. The revolt was suppressed by Vespasian’s son-in-law, Petillius Cerialis. The Batavian commander at Vindolanda was named Flavius Cerialis and he may well be the son of one of the loyal Batavians, named after their benefactor.16
The Vindolanda Tablets
One of the most incredible archaeological finds in Britain were excavated in the 1970s and 1980s at Vindolanda Roman Fort, a short distance south of Hadrian’s Wall. Found up to four metres below the modern surface. Several ’tablets’, thin pieces of wood (0.5 to 3mm), most about the size of a postcard (10 by 15cm) were discovered. Dated to c. 85–130 and known today as the ‘Vindolanda tablets’ they gave a range of fascinating insights into life in the Roman army of the first century. In total 117 items were found: letters, documents, descripta tablets, and what are described as ‘texts of uncertain nature’, some illegible or indecipherable.17
Two of the tablets refer to the indigenous Brittones. One tells of the economic relationship involving wagons and the supply of corn. The other is disparaging, using the word Brittunculi, ‘wretched little Britons’. Tablet number 164 tells us the following: ‘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’. We get the impression of northern tribes still causing problems for the local garrisons.
On the other hand Tacitus writes that the Britons ‘submit readily to conscription’ and also implies Britons were fighting in Agricola’s army at Mons Graupius.18 It is likely this means auxiliary units as only citizens could join the legions. Indeed units of Britons, numeri Brittonum, are attested to on the German frontier by 140 and are thought to have arrived as early as 100.19
At he time many of these tablets were produced Hadrian’s Wall had not been constructed. Agricola had withdrawn his forces to a line roughly between modern Newcastle and Castle. A road, the Stanegate Road, connected two important bases, Carlisle in the west and Corbridge in the east.
Many of the tablets refer to these and other forts in the north: Binchester, Catterick, Aldborough, Ribchester, High Rochester and York. London is also mentioned and possibly Lincoln.
We get a fascinating insight into the strength of a regular auxiliary unit, the First Cohort of Tungrians, based at Vindolanda. The commander, Iulius Verecundus, served c. 92–7. It is the only known example of a strength report of an auxiliary cohors milliaria peditata (tablet 154). Dated 18th May it states the unit strength is 752 of which only 296 are present at Vindolanda. The others are spread out at other postings: guards of the governor (at London?) 46; at Corbridge 337. Of those at Vindolanda, 15 are sick, 6 wounded and 10 ‘suffering from inflammation of the eyes’. This leaves just one centurion and 264 men fit for active service at the fort. Thus only a third of the unit is available at it’s base fort.
The maintenance reports and leave requests would be recognisable to soldiers in the British Army today. A report of the ninth Batavians records ‘all at their places who ought to be and their equipment intact’.20 A leave request to Cerialis, Commander of the Ninth Batavians (tablet 169), reads. Tablet 175 reads ‘I, Messicus ask, my lord, that you consider me a worthy person to whom to grant leave at Coria (Corbridge)’.
We read of travelling expenses and provisions bought: wine, barley, wheat, wagon-axles, a carriage, vests, salt and fodder. The locations they travelled through: Isurium, Isurium, Cataractonium and Vinovia, all on the road from York to Corbridge. Domestic items are listed: shallow dishes, 2; side-plates, 5; vinegar-bowls, 3; egg-cups; a platter a shallow dish; a strong-box; a bronze lamp bread-baskets; 4 cups; 2 bowls. Of the 200 persons named, around half, are Batavian or Tungrian, the two units known to have been present at the fort, and most have Celtic or Latin names.21
The soldiers weren’t officially allowed to marry so presumably the next tablet is from an officer’s wife. Claudia Severa, writes to Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Cerialis, the same Cerialis commanding the ninth Batavians we met earlier (tablet 291). Claudia invites her friend to her birthday celebrations ion 11th September. She sends greetings from ‘my Aelius and my little son’. She signs off: ‘Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail’.
Out last tablet hints at a tale of corruption and violence.22 The importance of it for this chapter is that there is a suggestion it can be dated to Hadrian’s visit to the north of Britain. The presence of writing on the back suggests this was a draft and, given where it was found, perhaps not even sent.
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.
The writer, apparently a civilian trader, addresses the letter maiestatem, which translates as ‘majesty’. It would appear soldiers poured his goods away and gave him a beating. The intriguing possibility is that the use of the word majesty suggests it could have been addressed to Hadrian himself when he was present in Britain which would date the letter to 122. Whatever the case, it shows the attitude of the complainant. He feels his treatment was unjust as he was an innocent man and ‘from overseas’. Does this imply a Briton could be beaten with impunity? There is clearly an expectation that his complaint would be considered although he states he received no ‘satisfaction from the beneficiarius or the centurions’. Was it eventually received and discarded by the commander at Vindolanda? We are left to wonder what became of our complainant. Perhaps he received redress and the soldiers were punished. Or perhaps the discarded letter found nearly 2,000 years later is evidence of a complaint dismissed and the trader lucky he received just the one beating.
Actions in Britain
In 121 Hadrian was in Germania Inferior overseeing the construction of defences on the Lower Rhine limes. The local governor, Platorius Nepos, was a personal friend. After the Batavian Revolt in 69–70 a new legionary base was built at Neuss, on the Rhine in modern Germany, the former base of legio XVI Gallica. One of the victorious legions, VI Victrix, was to occupy the fort through to the first quarter of the second century. It was the Sixth legion that Platorius used to build the Limes in Germania Inferior. Hadrian was present in the province when he oversaw the construction of the new defences.
Once completed Hadrian turned his eyes to across the Channel: ‘Then having reformed the soldiers in royal fashion [in Germany], he set out for Britain, where he corrected many things and, as the first to do so, built a wall for eighty miles, which was to separate the barbarians from the Romans’.23 It is likely both Platorius, appointed the new governor of Britain, and VI Victrix accompanied Hadrian when he crossed to Britain in the early summer of 122.24 Platorius remained governor for at least two years but was gone before 127.
We get little snippets of information concerning his stay in Britain. His journey across the sea no doubt started from Gesoriacum, Boulogne. As with previous emperors his likely arrival port was Rutupiae, Richborough in East Kent. When he arrived we are told he dismissed the guard prefect, Septimius Clarus, and the chief secretary, Suetonius Tranquillus, and ‘many others’, allegedly for disrespecting the emperor’s wife.25 The sources suggest a sense of paranoia with the emperor spying on many people, even his friends. If he dismissed officials these were likely in Londinium which by now had grown into a major Roman city.
The legionary commander of the Sixth in Lower Germany in 122 was Marcus Valerius Propinquus Grattius. He may have travelled with the legion to Britain as he is attested as governor of Aquitania the year after in 123.26 In Britain he handed command to Tullius Varro Varro who led XII Fulminata in Cappadocia. It was rare to command two legions so there may have been a specific reason. By 127 Varro had served as proconsul of Baetica, Treasury Prefect and consul. So we can date him quite tightly to the first years of the Sixth’s presence in Britain.
Did he have an expertise in large projects or was it his battlefield experience that made the emperor pick him? Around this time we see coins refer to Hadrian’s adventus and exercitus Britannicus, so it appears that some sort of campaign took place when he was present.27 This campaign can be dated to shortly after the arrival of the new governor, Platorius, and the Sixth legion, now led by Varro.
