Agricola in Britain, recounted by Tacitus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricola_(book)

and see:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Agricola
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Julius_Agricola
https://www.romanobritain.org/3_bio/bio_agricola.php
https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/people/julius-agricola/#battle-of-mons-graupius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Wywl2Oc1Y (40+ minute YouTube)
https://historiamag.com/the-victories-of-agricola

The history of Roman Britain is spotty at best.  Only parts of it were preserved in any surviving Roman reporting, and, as noted in our previous discussions, there never were any written reports by the Briton Celts.  We don't even know the names or accomplishments of many of those Romans who were appointed to the Governorship of the British Province. 

    



<--- Roman Governor Agricola, statue emplaced on a terrace in 1896 overlooking the Great Bath at the spa in Bath England.  Labeled "Agricola" but there's no contemporary clue of how he really looked .
We do have, however, good Roman reporting on the tenure of one of the most important and successful appointees, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who seems, also, to have been the longest serving Roman Governor of Britain.  In 77 AD, Agricola was appointed Governor of the Britania Province by Emperor Vespasian. (He and Vespasian had served at the same time in Britain under Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, and both Vespasian and Agricola had successfully commanded legions in Britain.) 

Agricola had supported Vespasian in the "Year of the four emperors" and Vespasian had won that contest.  Agricola's rewards for his support were command of a legion and later was the governorship of Britain, which lasted until the death of Vespasian, through the short reign of Vespasian's elder son Titus, and into the beginning of Domitian's reign.  But ---

                                                                    




Flavian Dynasty --->

Agricola was recalled to Rome by Vespasian's second son, Domitian, 84/85 AD during Domitian's reign as the third and last member of the Flavian Dynasty.  Everyone thought that Domitian, suffering  from insecurity, feared Agricola as a possible rival:  Agricola was gaining too much popularity for his British accomplishments, during his "abnormally long term", and Domitian thought that has own accomplishments in Germany were sufferring  in comparison. 

Appointees as Roman provincial Governors usually served about two years -- patronage jobs lasting any longer would restrict the Emperor's ability to spread the wealth among possible eligible
Patricians (and, later, eligible Equestrians).

Every Governor would envy one that might have a panegyrist on his staff, and it might get even better if that writer was a son-in-law.  Agricola's daughter was married to the Roman historian and politician Publius Cornelius Tacitus, who, today, is recognized as one of the most accurate, least biased historians of his time. 

Among the earliest writings of Tacitus, one of his shorter works, was Da vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae. (On the life and character of Julis Agricola, published ca. 98 AD, after Domitian was safely dead, he having been assassinated in 96 AD.)  For more on what is commonly known as "The Agricola" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricola_(book).

A full English translation of "The Agricola" is on the Internet at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Agricola.  

When Agricola was finally recalled to Rome, after his long trm as Governor, he quietly retired from public life and died, some said under suspicious circumstances, in 93 AC, five years before Tacitus's "Agricola" came out.  The book quickly became known as a panegyric, a praising, some said over the top, eulogy.

Agricola's story:
Agricola (AD 40-93) was the only Roman general who could claim to have subdued the whole of Britain.  A Roman general is known by his victories -- by his triumphs and honors. 
 





<--- Publius Cornelius Tacitus.  What we know about Agricola, aside from a few inscription for corroboration, comes from the Tacitus eulogy/ biography/travelogue/anthopology study of the
Briton Celts.

Tacitus almost certainly was with Agricola on campaign in Britain (at least for three or so years).  There is still academic warfare about how far his descriptions can be trusted, but when the Agricola was produced there were still witnesses alive who could debunk any falsehoods or exaggerations. 

So Agricola came to Britain more often and stayed longer than any other Roman.  He was there from 58 until 60 AD as a tribune, probably in Legio II Augusta, seconded to the Governor's Staff during his campaigns in Wales.  Then he returned to Rome and a civilian career until the end of the civil war of 69 AD (Year of the Four  Emperors).  Following that, he was named by victorious Emperor Vespasian as the new commander (and successful reformer) of the rebellious Legio XX Valeria Victrix and joining the northern campaigns of Governor of Britain, Quintus Petillius Cerialis.  Agricola led that legion from 70 until 73 AD. 

In 77 AD he was sent back to Britain again by Vespasian as Governor for an unprecedented extended tour from 77 AD until relieved by Domitian in 84. That made a total of at least thirteen on British battlefields, more than any other Roman.

In the first instance, according to Tacitus, Agricola participated, as a Military Tribune on the staff of Suetonius Paulinus, in the 60 AD suppression of the Druids in northern Wales.  Sites including sacred oak groves Druidic where rites including Wicker Man human sacrafices took place were burned.  Then the Romans crossed to Anglesy (Mona) Island where they finally extirpated the influence of the Briton Druids.


<--- Put a framed "Fine Arts" print of this John Harris Valda imagination of the Romans storming ashore on Mona Island for only $64 at https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-roman-attack-on-anglesey-john-harris-valda.html.
The attack on Mona, interrupted, but then resumed and completed by Agricola years after the eastern Briton Boudicca revolt, is viewed as a turning point in the Roman military occupation.
Tacitus wrote in his later book, the Annals, 14.37, talks of the methods of Suetonius Paulinus (who Tacitus clearly despised:
"the [Roman] troops gave no quarter even to the women: the baggage animals themselves had been speared and added to the pile of bodies.  The glory won in the course of the day was remarkable and equal to that of our older victories: for, by some accounts, little less than 80,000 Britons fell at a cost of some 400 Romans killed.

In the interlude of the eastern Iceni Briton revolt Paulinus did not get back east soon enough able to save his legion that he had left in garrison or to prevent the Destruction of Colchester, London, and St. Albans.  But he did eventually and viciously quell the revolt.  Agricola is thought to have participated in that effort.

Paulinus, as we've seen, was soon relieved of command for excessive brutality, and Agricola, his staff Military Tribune was mustered out. 

At some point during the times of the Welsh/Anglesey operations and the suppression of the Iceni revolt, Agricola interacted with Vespasion, whose own mission, successfully accomplished, had been to bring southwest Britain under Roman control.

 In 70 AD Agricola was called up again to fight in Britain.  His first job was  to suppress a mutiny of the XX Legion.  After bringing the legion back into line and given command  of the XXth, Argicola, Then he joined (according to Tacitus) the then Roman occupation Governor of Britania, Petilius Cerialis, in bloody battles against the largest and then most powerful Celtic Briton tribal alliance, called for convenience the Brigantes, who controlled central Britain. 

Cerialis split the Roman occupation armies into two columns and gave command of the western column to Agricola.  Both columns then worked their way north pushing the Brigantes ahead of them.  On reaching Carlisle, Agricola crossed back eastward through Stainmore Pass and with Cerialis brought the Brigantes to battle and neutralized them.  The battle is thought to have occurred at a stronghold called Stanwick Camp, an Iron Age hillfort. 

Agricola was again demobilized having participated in two successful
campaigns in Britain (both of which  memorialized by Tacitus).



Agricola was the called up once more by Vespasian in 77/78 AD to be the Governor of the Province (Legatus Augusti pro praetore -- Britain was an imperial rather than a senatoria province and home of four Legions). 

During his tenure, until 83/84 AD, he significantly expanded Roman control through his military campaigns in Wales, northern England, and souhern Scotland, culminating in the victory over the Caledonian tribes at the Battle of Mons Graupius.  He also focused on consolidating Roman rule by promoting infrastructure, Roman style towns, and education to Romanize the local population, an important policy that was documented by Tacitus.

Agricola took up his governorate office in midsummer of 77 AD and found that the resurgent Ordovices tribe of north Wales had almost destroyed the Roman cavalry unit stationed in their territory.  He quickly moved against the Ordovices and, having defeated them, campaigned against Anglesy and where he subjugated the entire island, thus completing the work begun almost two decades earlier when he had fought in the same area under the command of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus (who withdrew from Wales to put down the Iceni eastern revolt of 60/61 AD.
 Agricola also expanded Roman rule north into Caledonia (modern
Scotland). In the summer of 79, he pushed his armies to the estuary of the river Taus, usually interpreted as the Firth of Tay, virtually unchallenged, and established some forts. Though their location is left unspecified, the close dating of the fort at Elginhaugh in Midlothian makes it a possible candidate.
Excavated part of the Elginhaugh fort

Agricola established himself as a good administrator by reforming the widely corrupt corn levy as well as through his military successes. He introduced Romanising measures, encouraging communities to build towns on the Roman model and gave a Roman education to sons of native nobility; albeit, as Tacitus notes, for the cynical reason of pacifying the aggressive tribes in Britannia for the servitude of Rome.


Hibernia?

In 81, Agricola "crossed in the first ship" and defeated peoples unknown to the Romans until then. Tacitus, in Chapter 24 of Agricola, does not tell us what body of water he crossed. Modern scholarship favors either the Firth of Clyde or Firth of Forth. Tacitus also mentions Hibernia, so southwest Scotland is perhaps to be preferred. The text of the Agricola has been amended here to record the Romans "crossing into trackless wastes", referring to the wilds of the Galloway peninsula. Agricola fortified the coast facing Ireland, and Tacitus recalls that his father-in-law often claimed the island could be conquered with a single legion and auxiliaries. He had given refuge to an exiled Irish king whom he hoped he might use as the excuse for conquest. This conquest never happened, but some historians believe the crossing referred to was in fact a small-scale exploratory or punitive expedition to Ireland, though no Roman camps have been identified to confirm such a suggestion.

The invasion of Caledonia (Scotland)


The following year, Agricola raised a fleet, named as the Classis Britanica, and encircled the tribes beyond the Forth, and the Caledonians rose in great numbers against him. They attacked the camp of the Legio IX Hispana at night, but Agricola sent in his cavalry and they were put to flight. The Romans responded by pushing further north.

   

In the summer of 83, Agricola faced the massed armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Tacitus estimates their numbers at more than 30,000.

Agricola put his auxiliaries in the front line, keeping the legions in reserve, and relied on close-quarters fighting to make the Caledonians' long unpointed slashing swords useless as they were unable to swing them properly or utilise thrusting attacks.  Even though the Caledonians were put to rout and therefore lost this battle, two thirds of their army managed to escape and hide in the Highlands or the "trackless wilds" as Tacitus calls them. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be about 10,000 on the Caledonian side and 360 on the Roman side.

A number of authors have reckoned the battle to have occurred in the Grampian Mounth within sight of the North Sea. In particular, Roy, Surenne, Watt, Hogan and others have advanced notions that the site of the battle may have been Kempstone Hill, Megray Hill or other knolls near the Raedykes Roman camp; these points of high ground are proximate to the Elsick Mounth, an ancient trackway used by Romans and Caledonians for military manoeuvres. However, following the discovery of the Roman camp at Durno in 1975, most scholars now believe that the battle took place on the ground around Bennachie in Aberdeenshire.

After winnning at Mons Gropius:
Satisfied with his victory, Agricola extracted hostages from the Caledonian tribes. He may have marched his army to the northern coast of Britain, as evidenced by the probable discovery of a Roman fort at Cawdor
(near Inverness).
Agricola (2nd right) next to young Tacitus Among Roman Generals and Emperors in a frieze from the Great Hall of the National Galleries, Scotland, by William Brassey Hole, 1897.  The frieze, of which this is a segment, continues along the upper edge of all four sides of the Great Hall.

<--- The leader of the Caledonians at Mons Graupius, according to Tacitus, was a man named Calgacus (variously  spelled).  An image representing him is in the same frieze with Agricola and Tacitus.  Like those
others, we do not know how they really looked.

Calgacus is imagined just to the left of Tacitus in the frieze.

His name mention by Tacitus has honored him with the title of
the first Scotsman mentioned in History.


Agricola also instructed the prefect of the (Classis Britanica) fleet to sail around the north coast, confirming (allegedly for the first time) that Britain was in fact an island.  This voyage, described by Tacitus,  was a significant result for the Roman conquest and also a great accomplishment of the Classis Britannica (the name of the fleet).

Archeology:
In 2019, GUARD Archaeology (commercial archeology management) team led by Iraia Arabaolaza uncovered a marching camp dating to the 1st century AD in Ayr, used by Roman legions during the invasion of Roman General Agricola. According to Arabaolaza, the fire pits were split 30 meters apart into two parallel lines. The findings also included clay-domed ovens and 26 fire pits dated to between 77- 86 AD and 90 AD loaded with burnt material and charcoal contents. Archaeologists suggested that this site had been chosen as a strategic location for the Roman conquest of Ayrshire.

The Wikipedia page on the Battle of Mons Graupius is at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mons_Graupius.

An University of Chicago page is at  https://penelope.uchicago.edu/encyclopaedia_romana/br  itannia/monsgraupius/monsgraupius.html.

AView from the Scottish History Internet site at  https://www.scottishhistory.org/articles/mons-graupius-identified/.

Want to know where the battle really took place?So does everyone else who've heard the story. ----- at   https://www.scottishhistory.org/articles/mons-graupius-identified/.

After the Mons Gropius battle, some Scottish scholars say that Agricola marched his whole army to the northernmost extremity of Scotland. This is based on an obscure reference in Tacitus to the
otherwise never mentioned Boresti, which may have been referring to
those who lived in the farthest northern (i.e, most boreal) part of what the Classis Britanica had concurrently proven to be an Island.

Agricola's retirement:

Agricola was recalled from Britain in 85, after an unusually long tenure as governor of the province. Tacitus claims that  Domitian ordered his recall because Agricola's successes outshone the emperor's own modest victories in Germany.  Agricola re-entered Rome unobtrusively, reporting, as ordered, to the imperial palace at night. 

The relationship between Agricola and the emperor is unclear; on the one hand, Agricola was awarded triumphal decorations and a statue (the highest military honours apart from an actual triumph); on the other, Agricola never again held a civil or military post, in spite of his experience and renown. He was offered the governorship of the province of Africa, but declined it, whether due to ill health or (as Tacitus claims) the machinations of Domitian.

In 93, Agricola died on his family estates in Gallia Narbonensis (Provence) only at aged fifty-three. According to his son-in-law, Tacitus, rumours circulated attributing the death to a poison administered by emperor Domitian, but no positive evidence for this was ever produced.