User:AnjelicaRae/Roman invasion of Caledonia 208–210

[Feedback from Dr Austen - a good start here, and I completely agree with your peer reviewer in that you have done a good job based on the scarcity of information here. I'm thinking that some of the information on ancient sources from the class slides on Septimius Severus will be of use to you for this article? You should also take a look at the Tomlin textbook - remember, available as an ebook in the Library catalogue - on this topic. Adding in some of the epigraphical evidence for these campaigns would be a really great addition!]

My notes:


 * Added citation for Cassius Dio quote for Week 6 exercise of adding to an article
 * Main objectives now to improve Roman invasion of Caledonia (208-210) are to keep adding references and maybe find some more helpful maps/images. Overall could not find much scholarship on this specific invasion, most sources I found only briefly mentioned it and a lot of the info (timeline of events) was already part of the original article
 * Original article has mistaken Hadrian's Wall as the Antonine Wall, will edit that part and associated reference accordingly
 * Added wikilinks to Praetorian Guard and epigraphical evidence [epigraphy]

Background
The Severan campaigns of 208-11 utilized members of the British garrison, the Praetorian Guard and some Continental armies, making it one of the largest military forces at the time. The cause of Severus' invasion of Caledonia (modern day Scotland) was a massive increase in raids and attacks on Roman Britain. This was possible because in 195 Clodius Albinus, the Roman Governor of Britain, had led most of the British legions into Gaul during his revolt against Severus. Severus had sent them back to their posts after defeating Albinus, but they had suffered large casualties at the Battle of Lugdunum. This left Hadrian's Wall undermanned and made it easy for the Caledonians to raid into Roman Britain. The Caledonians were also able to gather more men for these raids than before as there is evidence of increased cooperation among the different northern tribes.

Invasion of Caledonia
In 208 Severus arrived in Britain with around 40,000 men and marched north to Hadrian's Wall. Once at Hadrian's Wall Severus initiated a massive rebuilding project which finally made the whole wall into stone (before the western portion had been mostly turf and timber) and served as a barrier against more attacks. After starting the project Severus marched north and occupied all the land between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall. After completing the occupation Severus began another reconstruction project but this time on the Antonine Wall.

In 209 Severus led his army north into the highlands and roughly marched the same way Agricola had invaded over 100 years before. Severus suffered heavy casualties due to the guerrilla tactics used by the Caledonians. Because of this Severus began a plan of holding down all the territory he could by the reoccupation of many of Agricola's old forts and devastating all the territory he couldn't. This led to many of the tribes attempting to reach a peace agreement with Severus because of fear of extinction through Roman genocide. Peace talks failed and it looked as if the war would continue until all the tribes had submitted to Rome or been exterminated.

In early 210 Severus' son Caracalla led a punitive expedition north of the Antonine Wall with the intention of killing everyone he came across and looting and burning everything of value. The plan was for Severus to follow his son's army and permanently occupy all of Caledonia. In 210 Severus became ill and went to York to rest and recover. He kept getting worse until 4 February 211 when he died. Caracalla then called off the war against the Caledonians and headed back to Rome to consolidate his power.

The Romans never campaigned deep into Caledonia again because they lacked spare forces to continue dealing with attacks as most manpower was redirected to secure other occupied lands. They soon withdrew south permanently to Hadrian's Wall.

'''Some epigraphical evidence exists for these military campaigns that show an anticipation of victory against northern tribes. The inscription is presented to the goddess Victoria Brigantia.'''