My #Welcome Wednesday slot has no guest today but I'm writing about someone I'd dearly love to interview properly - the man being Marcus Vettius Bolanus.
I'd like even better to have an image of him - but, sadly, I can't find one. Since the times I'm writing about were turbulent and complicated, it helps me to understand them better when I write about them - so please bear with me...
As an author, I wish I could launch in immediately and give details about the life of Marcus Vettius Bolanus, the Roman
governor of Britannia from AD 69-71,
but as I’ve found with other historical figures I feel the need to explain first a
bit of his background, and the situation he inherited as Governor of Britannia.
 |
| Nero - Wikimedia Commons |
Around June of AD 67, the Emperor Nero believed the
province of Britannia Caucasus
regions. That doesn’t appear to have happened since events were not going in
Nero’s favour. By AD 68, Nero was overthrown; he committed suicide; and thus
followed a period of extreme unrest amongst the legions and governors of the
provinces who were fighting for supremacy as Emperor.
The death of Nero meant the end of
the Julio/ Claudian dynasty but the events following Nero’s death are notable
in that from this period on it wasn’t actually necessary for a candidate to be
present in Rome
when declared the next emperor.
 |
| Galba |
The Year of the Four Emperors (AD 68/69) was a turbulent time for the Roman
Empire . Governors of high rank, who had been in charge of
different provinces, vied for the supreme title of emperor but gaining that,
and retaining it, depended largely on the support of the legions and also on
the Senate in Rome .
Sulpicius Galba had the support of the Senate along with the Spanish
legions and was declared next emperor after Nero but, after about 7 months, he
was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard.
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stockholm_-_Antikengalerie_4_-_B%C3%BCste_Kaiser_Galba.jpg )
 |
| Otho denarius Wikimedia Commons |
Marcus Salvio Otho’s coup,
supported by the Praetorian Guard, was also a short lived 3 months because Aulus
Vitellius
was the victor when the legions of Otho and Vitellius clashed at the Battle of Bedriacum.
Otho committed suicide leaving the throne to be claimed by Vitellius- commander
of the legions in Germania Inferior.
However,
Vitellius only lasted 8 months before being murdered by the troops of Titus
Flavius Vespasianus, the man who commanded the eastern legions. It was something
of a ‘dog eat dog’ time.
 |
| Vitellius |
 |
| Vespasian as |
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aulus_Vitellius_(MRABASF_Matritum)_01.jpg )
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2104vespasianus.jpg)
What did the Year of the Four Emperors mean for Britannia
and in particular with regard to my Celtic
Fervour Series of novels which start in AD 71?
In AD 68, the Governor of Britannia was Marcus
Trebellius Maximus who had assumed the role in AD 63. During the five years of
his governorship (according to Tacitus) he didn’t claim any new territory but
consolidated the areas towards the south of Britannia which had already been settled
upon by the Roman armies. London
continued to grow as a Romanised settlement and he rebuilt Camulodonum, after
the ravages of Bouddica’s rebellion. However, not being a military man he had
little control of the legions who grew restive with no new campaigning and—it
appears—they also hated his meanness.
When the Civil War began in AD 69 for
the position of emperor, Britannia sent no successor as the other Roman regions
had done. Though it appears that the province
of Britannia
From my point of view as an
author, such a situation had to have been a lucrative one for the Celtic Brigante
tribes of the north. Any hint of the Roman governorship being weakened had to
have been a situation the tribes would have exploited whenever possible.
After Vitellius took control of
the Empire, Trebellius Maximus was replaced by Vettius Bolanus and the Legio
XIV was sent back to Britannia since that legion had been supporting the cause
of Otho. Back on Britannia's shores they would have been regarded as less troublesome to Vitellius.
The situation Bolanus inherited in
Britannia in AD 69 wasn’t actually
so peaceable. The south of Britannia (southern England )
might have been amiable and accepting of the strictures of Rome
but the north wasn’t (northern England ),
and neither was the west (Wales ).
Bolanus was immediately to find the supporters of King Venutius of the
Brigantes a sore trial to him. The Queen of the Brigantes, Cartimandua, had
been a loyal client- kingdom ruler for 20 years but her ex-husband King
Venutius wasn’t as happy about their suppressed status.
King Venutius launched a successful
second rebellion against the armies of Cartimandua and Vettius Bolanus had to
send in his troops to evacuate Cartimandua from the territory. It seems that Bolanus
only sent auxiliaries to do this and the best he could manage was to rescue
Cartimandua. At this point King Venutius was not defeated by Rome and remained in charge of Brigante
territory.
This seems to have been a turning
point for Roman expansion of the north. Till AD 69 conquering the north wasn’t
given much priority but events appear to have changed at this point.
Dendrochronolgy, and other more
recent dating techniques, of sites of Roman encampment, guard towers, fortlets
and forts in what was Brigante territory are pointing towards an occupation more
like AD 69/70, rather than AD 79 during the campaigns of Agricola. Being able
to use more than coin finds for dating purposes of these historical sites is very
exciting. It makes much more sense to me, as an amateur historian, that Roman
troops were being deployed to search and inhabit northern Britannic territory
long before Agricola sent his troops north.
Having been involved in
extricating Cartimandua from the north, it seems reasonable to believe that
Bolanus would have deployed troops in the north as soon as he was able in order
to stabilise the region and to conquer more territory for Rome- even if it was a piecemeal and slow
process.
The poet Publius Papinius Statius (Silvae) claims
that Bolanus claimed territory from a British king and established forts. If
that can be corroborated from other sources, then parts of northern Britannia
were conquered during the time of Bolanus rather than almost a decade later by Agricola.
I await the day when more archaeological finds declare that the troops of
Bolanus were in southern Scotland Scotland,
Slainthe!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading my blog. Please pop your thoughts about this post in the comment box. :-)