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The Chattan War, the Brigantian Revolt and the Loss of the Antonine Wall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

M.P. Speidel
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii

Extract

A building inscription from the fort at Ribchester (Bremetennacum) in the Pennines is preserved in the following drawing (RIB 589):

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 18 , November 1987 , pp. 233 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © M.P. Speidel 1987. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 RIB 589; see also Saxer, R., Untersuchungen zu den Vexillationen des römischen Kaiserheeres von Augustus bis Diokletian (Köln, 1967), no. 151Google Scholar; Birley, A., The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford, 1981), 127.Google Scholar I wish to thank G. Alföldy, J. Cooke, C.M. Daniels, S.S. Frere and G. Stephens for their kind help with earlier versions of this paper.

2 I owe to G. Stephens the reading EQ instead of LEG. One could even read vex(illatio) eq(uitum) [German]iae[inf(erioris) et] I sup(erioris) in which case very many horsemen might have come to Ribchester.

3 AE 1956, 124 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), 68; CIL vi, 32933 = Dessau 2723 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), 44; CIL xvi, 164 = Saxer, op. cit. (note L), 43; CIL xvi, 75 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), 48; CIL iii, 4466 = Dessau 2515 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), 42.

4 Birley, E., Epigraphische Studien iv (1967), 103107.Google ScholarHerz, P., Jb.RGZM xxxii, (1985), 422435.Google Scholar

5 Perhaps together with Ala II Asturum; for Ribchester in the second century see Edwards, B.J.N. and Webster, P.V., Ribchester Excavations I (Cardiff, 1985).Google Scholar

6 Birley, op. cit. (note 1), 127. For Calpurnius Agricola being styled co(n)s(ularis) see RIB 1809; for a governor being mentioned in the ablative case without the preposition sub see RIB 1337.

7 Schallmayer, E., Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg ix (1984), 435470.Google ScholarEck, W., Die Statthalter der germanischen Provinzen vom 1–3 Jahrhundert (Bonn, 1985), 65f.Google Scholar G. Alföldy, Römische Heereskunde, Beiträge 1968–1986. (= MA VORS vol. 3), 406 ff. – Nachtrag zu ‘Caius Popilius Carus Pedo und die Vorverlegung des obergermanischen Limes'.

8 Breeze, D.J. and Dobson, B., Hadrian's Wall (revised ed., Harmondsworth, 1978), 124.Google Scholar

9 Frere, S.S., Britannia, A History of Roman Britain (2nd. ed., London, 1974), 165193.Google Scholar

10 RIB 1322 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), no. 62. See also Bogaers, J.E. in Hartley, B. and Wacher, J. (eds.), Rome and her Northern Provinces (Gloucester, 1983), 1332Google Scholar; Wilkes, J.J., ZPE lix (1985), 291295Google Scholar; Frere, S.S., Britannia xvii (1986), 329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Birley, op. cit. (note 1), 118-121.

12 RIB 1322. See Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), no. 62; Frere, op. cit. (note 9), 176; Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 8), 108.

13 Thus rightly Wilkes, op. cit. (note 10); Birley, op. cit. (note 1), 120.

14 Bogaers, op. cit. (note 10); Frere, op. cit. (note 10).

15 CIL xiv, 3610 = Dessau 1071 (Tibur); AE 1924, 74 = I. Ephes. VII, 1,3028 (Ephesus). See Eck, op. cit. (note 7), 60f.

16 Outstanding use: Alföldy, G., Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg viii (1983), 5567Google Scholar. Of Alföldy's dosest parallels, the one concerning Pompeius Falco has likewise been shown to be an added command by Eck, W., Bull. American Soc. Papyrologists xxi, (1984), 5567.Google Scholar The new interpretation of Pedo's titles given here, still gives him an extraordinary role in military affairs in Upper Germany and thus changes little in the question whether he created the outer limes, see Speidel, M.P., ‘Die Brittones Elantienses und die Vorverlegung des obergermanischen Limes’, Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg xi (1986), 309311Google Scholar; see also Alföldy op. cit. (note 7).

17 CIL x, 1202 = Dessau 2660 (Abellae): praeposit(o) numeror(um) tendentium in Ponto, Absaro; AE 1926, 79 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), 79 (Gurgu Mahale, Galatia): praeposito vexillationib[us] lllyricianis Perinthi tendentious; CIL xii, 2228 = Dessau 569 = Saxer, op. cit. (note 1), 108 (Gratianopolis); vexillationes … tendentes in Harb(onensi) prov(incia). See also Suetonius, Galba, 19,1: legionariorum … praesidiis qui multifariam diverseque tendebant (in Rome).

18 E.g. Lucius Apronius in 28 in Lower Germany (Eck, op. cit. (note 7), 112), see Tacitus, Ann. 4, 73: vexilla legionum e superiore provincia peditumque et equitum auxiliarium delectos accivit, ac simul utrumque exercitum Rheno devectum Frisiis intulit. Note that here, as with Pedo, the expeditionary forces are treated as a separate exercitus.

19 SHA, Ant.Phil. 8, 7: Catthi in Germaniam ac Raetiam inruperant. For the Chatti see J. Hoops et al., Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, (2nd. ed. vol. 4, 1983), 377-391; for an earlier British force fighting the Chatti see C1L xiv, 3,612 = Dessau 1025 (Tibur).

20 SHA, Ant. Phil. 22, 1: Gentes omnes ab Illyrici limite usque in Galliam conspiraverant. Zwikker, W., Studien zur Markussäule, (Amsterdam, 1941)Google Scholar; xlv XI, 349ff.20.

21 Frere, op. cit. (note 9), 179ff; Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 8), 120ff; A. Birley, op. cit. (note 1), 128. Hanson, W. and Maxwell, G., The Antonine Wall, Rome's North West Frontier (Edinburgh, 1983), 137151.Google Scholar

22 RIB 2100, Cf. RIB 2110. Birley, E., Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblätter xlv (1980), 7789.Google Scholar

23 See note 19. Unfortunately, the archaeological evidence for destruction in the German and Raetian forts of the mid-second century is difficult to date, see Schönberger, H., Bericht RGK lxvi (1985), 32497Google Scholar, esp. 401 ff. For settlements see W. Pietsch, ‘Zum Übergang vom Auxiliarvicus zum Civitas-Hauptort in Bad Wimpfen’, Akten des 14. Internationalen Limeskongresses Carnuntum 1986 (forthcoming).