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An Agricolan Praesidium on the Forth-Clyde Isthmus (Mollins, Strathclyde)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

W. S. Hanson  and
G. S. Maxwell
W. S. Hanson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow
G. S. Maxwell
Affiliation:
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh
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Extract

Tacitus tells us that in A.D 81, during Agricola's fourth campaign, the Roman army paused in its northernward advance into what is now Scotland and sought to consolidate the conquest of those areas which had already been overrun. To ensure that such work went on undisturbed by incursions from Caledonia, a number of garrisons were deployed along the narrow neck of land between the estuaries of the Rivers Forth and Clyde – a line of natural strength later favoured by the builders of the Antonine Wall. The exact position of these Agricolan praesidia has long been a matter for debate, but until quite recently most historians would have agreed with Sir George Macdonald in assuming that they underlay the forts on the second-century frontier. In Macdonald's words, the Flavian garrisons ‘really determined the course of the Antonine Limes inasmuch as they fixed the points at which the Antonine castella were destined to stand’, and considerable effort, not to say ingenuity, has been employed to prove or disprove that not unreasonable assumption. However, the unexpected discovery of a new fort in the central sector of the Isthmus has provided a suitable occasion for the re-assessment of the evidence relating to the Agricolan ‘frontier’.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 11 , November 1980 , pp. 43 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © W. S. Hanson and G. S. Maxwell 1980. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 de vita lulii Agricolae 23.

2 The Roman Wall in Scotland (1934), 396.

3 cf. E. Birley, Research on Hadrian's Wall (1961), 132–50.

4 Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (1960), 29; ibid. (1961), 35.

5 e.g. at Newstead, Stracathro and Oakwood.

6 The authors are grateful to Misses L. Macinnes, A. Weatherston, A. Clark, C. Haughton and M. Kemp and Messrs A. Foxon, B. Kerr, G. Watson, J. Farish, E. McLeod and N. Sharpies for their assistance in the examination of the fort; and to Mr. J. N. Stevenson, Miss Sylvia Leek (now Mrs Stevenson), Mr. I. G. Scott and Miss Alison McGhie for the line-drawings that illustrate this report.

7 Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (1972), 35–6.

8 J. Horsley, Britannia Romana (1733), 158–9; G. Macdonald, op. cit. (note 2), 466–8; R. M. Ogilvieand I. A. Richmond (edd.), Cornelii Taciti: de vita lulii Agricolae (1967), 323–8; A. S. Robertson, The Antonine Wall (1973), 20–2 and Scot. Arch. Forum vii (1975), 4–5.Google Scholar

9 G. Macdonald, op. cit. (note 2), 271–3.

10 ibid., 267–9.

11 Britannia vii (1976), 301–2Google Scholar; Britannia ix (1978), 413–15.Google Scholar

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16 The suggestion that Flavian coarse pottery was found at Balmuildy made by the first-named author in his paper in Akten des XI Internationalen Limeskongresses (1978), ed. J. Fitz, was based on a mistaken identification. The author would like to thank Professor A. S. Robertson for pointing out this error.

17 Britannia iii (1972), 7.Google Scholar

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21 By a curious coincidence, to say the least, on measuring out the standard interval from Castlecary beyond Camelon, one arrives at the approximate site of Arthur's O'on, an isolated Roman triumphal monument on the bank of the River Carron (Cf. Arch. Journ. cxv (1960), 99–110)Google Scholar, hitherto presumed to have been built to mark the completion of the Antonine frontier. (See also below pp. 340–43.)

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24 Most recently in Glasgow Arch. Journ. iv (1975), 125.Google Scholar