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SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS – aims Aim: To identify the motives for Severus’ campaign in the North In the past decade debate has been rekindled regarding the aims of the Severan campaigns. The traditional view based on the Historia Augusta and Dio Cassisus, was that the aging emperor was trying to quell unrest amongst the Caledonians and the Maeatae, bringing them to battle, whilst also providing his two sons (Caracalla and Geta) with first hand experience of controlling a province. However, more recently (1995) it has been suggested that Severus aimed not to control the unruly barbarians, instead he sought to commit genocide and wipe them out by devastating their landscape (Colin Martin). The article below, “The Caledonian Campaign” by Stephen Murray, reviews both interpretations. Aim number 1: QUELL UNREST When Clodius Albinus, the governor of Britain, took an army to Gaul, in pursuit of his ambitions for the throne, Britain's northern frontier became vulnerable to attack. In 197, Albinus was finally defeated by Septimius This supports the view Severus, with heavy losses on both sides. There do not appear to have that the invasion aimed been sufficient troops in Britain to enable the new governor, Virius Lupus, to to settle unrest and is counter frontier incursions. Dio Cassius reports that: based on Cassius’ writings which suggest the Romans were having to buy peace "In as much as the Caledonians did not abide by their promises and had made ready to aid the Maeatae, and in view of the fact that Severus at the time was devoting himself to the neighbouring war [Parthia], Lupus was from the barbarians. compelled to purchase peace from the Maeatae for a large sum; and he received a few captives." Aim number 2: SHAPE UP THE SONS It seems that Antoninus was originally named Bassianus. In 196, however, Stephen Murray explains that another motive for the invasion was to Severus renamed him Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He is undoubtedly better known by the nickname Caracalla - after a Gallic cloak which he made fashionable in Rome. remedy the behaviour .... They outraged women and abused boys, they embezzled money, and of Severus’ two sons. In made gladiators and charioteers their boon companions, emulating each particular Severus was other in the similarity of their deeds, but full of strife in their rivalries; for if the concerned that legions one attached himself to a certain faction, the other would be sure to 1 were becoming lazy choose the opposite side... Severus, seeing that his sons were changing and idle, inspired by the their mode of life and that the legions were becoming enervated by sons. idleness, made a campaign against Britain, though he knew that he should not return. Aim number 3: TO BRING BRITAIN UNDER ROMAN RULE It was Severus' plan to, at last, bring the whole of Britain under Roman rule. According to Dio Cassius, in 208, he: "... invaded Caledonia. But as he advanced through the country he experienced countless hardships in cutting down the forests, levelling the heights, filling up the swamps, and bridging the rivers; but he fought no Dio Cassius tells us that Severus aimed to bring all of Britain under Roman control and so battle and beheld no enemy in battle array. The enemy purposely put sheep and cattle in front of the soldiers for them to seize, in order that they might be lured on still further until they were worn out; for in fact the water his caused great suffering to the Romans, and when they became scattered, men until he reached they would be attacked. Then, unable to walk, they would be slain by their the “extremity of the own men, in order to avoid capture, so that a full fifty thousand died. But island” and forced the Severus did not desist until he approached the extremity of the island. Here Britons to abandon parts he observed most accurately the variation of the sun's motion and the of their territory. length of the days and the nights in summer and winter respectively. campaigned with Having thus been conveyed through practically the whole of the hostile country (for he actually was conveyed in a covered litter most of the way, on account of his infirmity), he returned to the friendly portion, after he had forced the Britons to come to terms, on the condition that they should abandon a large part of their territory.... Aim number 4: GENOCIDE Recent archaeological research, into the pattern of forts and camps established during Severus' Caledonian campaign, has led Dr. Colin Martin Colin Martin Andrews Uni from St suggests to what is, perhaps, a startling conclusion. Writing in 'British Archaeology' (Issue 6, July 1995), he says: that Severus attempted genocide in the North "... Severus had no intention of bringing the Caledonians to battle, but and used forts as prison instead attempted to wipe them out by systematic devastation of the camps for hostages landscape. His policy, moreover, seems to have been successful, as peace beyond the northern frontier lasted for most of the following century... Severus' policy, in other words, seems to have been nothing short of an attempt at genocide of the Caledonian population." 2 To the south of Hadrian's Wall, on the Stanegate, was a Roman fort called Vindolanda. There were actually a number of forts built successively on the same site. The archaeological evidence suggests that, in the third century, the existing buildings were demolished and replaced with as many as three hundred 'native-style' circular huts. It is thought that the site became a prison camp, housing up to two thousand hostages taken during Severus' campaign. In their turn, the huts were soon demolished to make way for a new fort. Aim number 5: QUELL CONTINUING UNREST According to the classical sources despite Severus’ best efforts the inhabitants of the island again revolted. Accordingly, Severus summoned soldiers and ordered them to invade the rebels' country, killing everybody they met; and he quoted these words: "Let no one escape sheer destruction, No one our hands, not even the babe in the womb of the mother, If it be male; let it nevertheless not escape sheer destruction." However, Severus died before he could resume his onslaught and his son, Caracalla succeeded to the throne. It was said that “with the enemy he came to terms, withdrew from their territory, and abandoned the forts ....” The archaeological evidence indicates that, after withdrawal back to Hadrian's Wall, the outpost forts of Netherby, Bewcastle, Risingham and High Rochester remained in use. Aim number 6: SECURE THE PROVINCE The 'Historia Augusta' (credited to Aelius Spartianus) notes: "He [Severus] built a wall across the island of Britain from sea to sea, and thus made the province secure - the crowning glory of his reign; in recognition thereof he was given the name Britannicus... In the eighteenth year of his reign, now an old man and overcome by a most grievous disease, he died at Eboracum [York] in Britain, after subduing various tribes that seemed a possible menace to the province.... 3 1. According to Stephen Murray, what are the possible reasons for the Severan invasions? THE REKINDLED DEBATE British Archaeology, no 6, July 1995 The emperor Severus attempted genocide in Scotland, writes Colin Martin To Scotland then they came, burning The Roman historians Dio and Herodian were dismissive of the campaigns waged by the emperor Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla in northern Britain between AD208 and 211. No battles were fought, and following the death of Severus at York all the territories that had been campaigned over were abandoned. Yet Dio and Herodian seem to have missed the point. Recent archaeological research in Scotland suggests that Severus had no intention of bringing the Caledonians to battle, but instead attempted to wipe them out by systematic devastation of the landscape. His policy, moreover, seems to have been successful, as peace beyond the northern frontier lasted for most of the following century. The principal evidence consists of military bases associated with Severan activity. At South Shields, overlooking the Tyne estuary, a Hadrianic fort was reconstructed as a gigantic provisions depot. Up-river the great base at Corbridge, always a nexus for projected campaigns in the north, underwent major refurbishment which included the building of granaries. Far to the north, on the south banks of the Forth and Tay estuaries, forts were established at Cramond and Carpow. The purpose of these appears to have been to sustain by sea large armies campaigning north of the Forth, so avoiding the long and manpower-consuming lines of communication through southern Scotland which had characterised earlier Roman incursions. In addition, a number of temporary camps have been convincingly identified as Severan. At Ardoch in Perthshire, for instance, two large camps (covering 25ha and 55ha) - which post-date the annexe of a fort in commission until the mid-2nd century - seem to represent successive seasons of activity, and the most likely recorded historical context is Severan campaigning in 209 and 210. Fourteen other camps, similar in size, proportion and general layout to the 25ha camp at Ardoch, are known in eastern Scotland beyond the Forth. They trace lines north-eastwards through Strathmore towards Aberdeen, along the Angus coastlands, and into Fife. A similar pattern is followed by a series of 55ha camps, which thrusts inexorably from the Forth to the head of Strathmore. The camps are set on average 10 or 12 miles apart - a comfortable day's march for a big army. What were these camps for? Contrary to general belief the progressive movement of a single large force through the landscape was not the normal method of Roman campaigning; and such substantial and coherent groups of camps as these are without parallel in the Roman world. Hostile territory was most readily dominated by ensnaring it in a web of strongpoints and roads, which allowed Rome's most powerful weapons - literacy and communication - to prevail. It seems therefore that Severus and his generals had something completely different in mind than the control and exploitation of a subjugated landscape. 4 When plotted against a modern map of agricultural potential the putative (supposed) Severan camps run unerringly through the most productive land of eastern Scotland, and if a radius of 10 miles is drawn round each, virtually no hectare of prime agricultural ground remains uncovered. From the secure base represented by each camp, determined troops would have had little difficulty in systematically destroying the productive capacity of such an area - burning the standing or stored crops and killing the livestock. If the business was conducted around harvest time, the crops would have been at their most vulnerable and the army itself could live off the countryside it was laying waste. The American Civil War Unionist General Sherman pursued just such a policy during his infamous march through Georgia in 1864. No direct contact with the enemy, whom Dio and Herodian describe as elusive, would have been necessary. Few would have survived winter in the devastated landscape; and in the following spring, competition for what little remained, combined with a chronic lack of seed and breeding livestock, would have made the catastrophe self-perpetuating. Severus's policy, in other words, seems to have been nothing short of an attempt at genocide of the Caledonian population. Dr Colin Martin is a Reader in Maritime Studies at the University of St Andrews. 2. For what reasons does Colin Martin believe that Severus aimed to destroy the landscape and the barbarians with it? 5