| Caesar and Britain No 6. |
Tacitus describes in unconvincing detail the course of this famous struggle. The whole of Caledonia, all that was left of Britannia, a vast host of broken, hunted men, resolved on death or freedom, confronted in their superiority of four or five to one the skilfully handled Roman legions and auxiliaries, among whom no doubt many British renegades were serving. It is certain that Tacitus greatly exaggerated the dimensions of the native army in these wilds, where they could have no prepared magazines.
The number, though still considerable, must have been severely limited. Apparently, as in so many ancient battles, the beaten side was the victims of misunderstanding and the fate of the day was decided against them before the bulk of the forces realised that a serious engagementhad begun. Reserves descended from the hills too late to achieve victory, but in good time to be massacred in the rout.
The last organised resistance of Britain to the Roman power ended at Mons Graupius. Here according to the Roman account,"ten thousand of the enemy was slain, and on our side there were about three hundred and sixty men". The way to the entire subjugation of the island was now open, and had Agricola been encouraged or at least supported by the Imperial Government the course of history might have been altered. But Caladonia was to Rome only a sensation: the real strain was between the Rhine and the Danube.
Dio Cassius, writing a century later, describes how they were a perpetual source of expense and worry to the settled regions of the south, he stated -
"There are two very extensive tribes in Britain, the Caledonians and the Maetae dwell close up to the cross-wall which cuts the island in two, the Caledonians beyond them. Both live on wild, waterless hills or forlorn and swampy plains, without walls or towns or husbandry, subsisting on pastoral products and the nuts that they gather. They have fish in plenty, but do not eat it. They live in huts, go naked and unshod, make no separate marriages, and rear all their offspring. They mostly have a democratic government, and are much addicted to robbery. They can bear hunger and cold and all manner of hardship: they will retire into their marshes and hold out for days with only their heads above water, and the forest they will subsist on bark and roots".
We know that for almost three hundred years under the Roman system the Britons enjoyed a most tranquil time. The internal squabbles were almost at an end and times were most enlightening. Dangers at the frontiers still existed but force was mostly very subdued. It appeared that this was the best way forward for the new Province. Wales was held down by the Chester legion and the other at Caerleon-on Usk. There were less than forty thousand Roman soldiers and civilians occupying the province and after a few generations the force was locally recruited and was almost entirely of British birth.
In this period the well-to-do persons lived a better life than did thier ancestors. From the year 400 until the year 1900 no one had experienced the pleasures of centrally heated residences and very few had baths. A British-Roman citizen who had the wealth to build a hypocaust regarded it as indispensible. For fifteen hundred years his descendents in cold unheated residence mitigated by occasional roastings from gigantic wasteful fires.
In culture and learning Britain in those times was a pale reflection of the Roman scene, not so lively as the Gallic. There was law here; and also order, a large factor to any successful community: there was peace too: there was food and a long-established custom of life. Importantly the population was free from incursion of barbarism both within and without. Culture spread from village to village, skills never before known were taught and used to its extreme.
Roman habits perculated and settled with the people who had now become accustomed to thier way of life, Roman utensils were now widely used and even Roman speech steadily grew. The British considered themselves as good Romans as any. It could be asserted that the inhabitants of Britain, as some of the Indian population under the British Empire, eventually regarded themselves as citizens of those who conquered. We can see the result of that this day and had it not been for the abandonment of the province in the 5th century A.D we may well have regarded ourselves as of Roman extraction. It is known that legionaires who had come to the end of their career decided to settle here and made their home permanent, thus marrying and intermingles their blood within the British line.
The British legionaries and auxiliaries were rated equally or second only to the Illyrians as the finest troops in the Empire.