#A2ZChallenge Y is for the Year of the Four Emperors!

Y is for Year of the 4 Emperors A.D. 68/69

Theme: Ancient Roman Scotland during the Flavian era

June A.D. 67.

Emperor Nero must have believed that the province of Britannia was sufficiently stable and well monitored because he removed one of the four legions which had been stationed there. He ordered the Legio XIV Gemina Martia Victrix to quit Britannia probably with the intention of using it to strengthen his forces in the Balkans where he was intending war with Parthia. That doesn’t appear to have happened since events were not going in Nero’s favour. He seemed to be heartily disliked by the middle and upper classes, since the taxes he demanded from them for his ambitious building programmes were a huge bone of contention. The Great Fire of Rome of A.D. 64 devastated huge areas and Nero was determined to rebuild in a more spacious fashion, with better 'spread-of-fire prevention methods' but that meant money from sources that were not his own funds. Some of the general populace favoured his organising of games and theatre events, but in general he seems to have gained more enemies than friends. Across the empire the legions began to take sides with prospective new candidates for the job of emperor.

Galba - Wikimedia Commons

June A.D 68
New Emperor 1  - Servius Sulpicius Galba (lasted 7 months June 68-Jan 69)

Roman civil and military officials declared the 66 year old Servius Sulpicius Galba the new emperor, Galba having the support of some of the legions. Nero could see no way out of his predicament, wanted to commit suicide on June 9th A.D. 68 but couldn’t quite do it. He died, so it’s written, with a bit of help from his freedman secretary.

The death of Nero meant the end of the Julio/ Claudian dynasty but from this period on it wasn’t actually necessary for a candidate to be present in Rome when declared the next emperor. Control of the empire rested on having the support of the 30 or so legions; the Senate in Rome and the Praetorian Guard.

Sulpicius Galba only had tenuous support from some of the legions for a short while. His fragile health – maybe gout – and a weakness in decision-making, i.e. a tendency to let others sway his judgement, made him a poor emperor. After about 7 months, January A.D. 69, he was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard who bore a grudge against Galba for not being paid for services rendered when creating him emperor.

Otho - Wikimedia Commons

New Emperor 2- Marcus Salvius Otho (lasted 3 months Jan 69-Apr 69))

Next up as emperor was Marcus Salvius Otho. His coup, supported by the Praetorian Guard, was even shorter lived. He soon found out how much support Aulus Vitellius had across the empire, and especially from legions in Germania. After a failed conciliatory attempt to offer to share the emperor’s job with Vitellius, Otho prepared for war against the legions in support of Vitellius.

At the Battle of Bedriacum Otho could see he wasn’t going to win and committed suicide leaving the job of emperor to Vitellius.

(possible) Vitellius - Wikimedia Commons

New Emperor 3 - Aulus Vitellius (lasted 8 months Apr 69- Dec 69)

To become emperor Vitellius had the support of legions in Germania and soon after legions in Britannia, Gaul and Raetia also pledged their support to him.

Aulus Vitellius only lasted 8 months before being murdered by the troops of Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the man who commanded the eastern legions.

I love looking at this painting of poor Vitellius being dragged through Rome before his assassination.

Vitellius dragged through the streets of Rome by Rochegrosse
Wikimedia Commons 

New Emperor 4 -Titus Flavius Vespasianus the elder (lasted almost 10 years Dec 69-June 79)

Vespasian- Wikimedia Commons

Vespasian (Titus Flavius Vespasianus the elder) assumed the title of emperor at the age of 60. He was the first emperor to have come from an equestrian background but his military capability was not in doubt. He settled the empire down fairly quickly, especially the problems that had been ongoing in Judea for some time, with the help of his elder son Titus.

Details for his emperorship are a bit hazy but he seems to have gradually gained the support of virtually everyone he needed to keep a firm control of the whole empire, including all of the 30ish legions. He began a programme of filling Rome’s coffers which included re-introducing the not altogether popular urine tax (money does not stink!), and with his son Titus’ help he secured the flow of grain supplies that Rome needed from Egypt, though stabilising that eastern region had been a difficult and long campaign.

He ordered the destruction of some of Emperor Nero’s excessively lavish buildings and in the place that Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden Palace) had stood he started the building which became the Colosseum using funds from the spoils of the Jerusalem/Judea campaigns. The Templum Pacis (Temple of peace) was built, as was a temple to the deified Claudius whom he had served under during the A.D. 43 invasion of Britannia.

What did the Year of the Four Emperors mean for Britannia, and in particular with regard to my Celtic Fervour Series of novels which starts in AD 71?

When the cat's away...the mice will play! 

In AD 68, the Governor of Britannia was Marcus Trebellius Maximus who had assumed the role in AD 63. During the five years of Maximus' 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 Camulodunum, after the ravages of Boudicca’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 in Rome began in AD 68, for the position of Roman emperor, Britannia sent no successor as the other Roman regions had done. Though it appears that the province of Britannia itself remained relatively calm, mostly regarding the natives in the south, Trebellius Maximus and Roscius Coelius, commander of the Legio XX, were constantly quarrelling. The situation became so troublesome between them that eventually Trebellius Maximus, no longer in control of the troops, fled from Britannia and appears to have joined Aulus Vitellius in Germania. Interestingly, though, when it came to Vitellius' turn to become emperor the Britannic legions seem to have favoured him. 

From my point of view as a fiction 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 – who had not already signed allegiance to Rome – would have exploited whenever possible.

After Vitellius took control of the Empire, Trebellius Maximus was replaced by Vettius Bolanus .The situation Vettius Bolanus inherited as Governor of Britannia in AD 69 wasn’t actually as peaceable as he may have wanted. 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 in the north 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 at all happy about their 'loyalty to Rome' status. So, not only was there civil war across the Roman Empire, but there was also civil war in Brigantia as well. 

King Venutius launched a successful second rebellion against the armies of Cartimandua and Vettius Bolanus had to send in his troops to rescue Cartimandua and remove her from the territory. What happened to her after that is unknown. For a short time King Venutius remained undefeated by Rome and maintained control of Brigante territory.

This the period when my Celtic Fervour Clan Saga begins. The Beltane Choice (Book 1)  introduces my warrior clan from the Brigante Hillfort of Garrigill and throughout the book there is the threat of war in Brigantia with Rome. At the end of The Beltane Choice my warriors go to battle against the armies of Rome at a place named Whorl. 

Rome's intervention to rescue Cartimandua seems to have been a turning point for Roman expansion of the north. During the time of Vettius Bolanus as Governor (A.D. 69-71) recent archaeology is pointing towards a determined campaign by the Romans to control the north. It seems highly probable that many of the Roman installations of small forts and fortlets that began to appear in northern Brigantia, and connecting road systems, were instigated by Bolanus at this time with the full approval of Vespasian. It's possible that some of the earliest fortlets in southern Scotland were also built in the time of Bolanus. Emperor Vespasian had plenty of personal experience of campaigning in southern Britannia so he was likely to have been aware of just how much more land there was for Rome to conquer in the north. Book 2 of the series, After Whorl: Bran Reborn takes place between A.D. 71- 73.

After Bolanus' term as Governor of Britannia, Vespasian sent in Quintus Petillius Cerialis (possible brother-in-law to Vespasian). Cerialis had already made his mark as a successful military man in Germania, even if he hadn't done so well earlier in Britannia during the revolt of Boudicca. Under the approval of the Emperor Vespasian, it looks very possible Cerialis continued the expansion of Roman troops into what we would now call southern Scotland during his term as Governor (A.D 71-73/74)  - even though Brigantia was still a volatile area and required a lot of subduing. The amount of Roman installations built across Brigantia (present-day Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Northumberland) are thought to have been because the natives were not entirely subdued at this point in time. During his governorship, Cerialis was campaigning in eastern Brigantia with the Legio IX, while Gnaeus Iulius Agricola as legate of the Legio XX was campaigning in western Brigantia.  

It's not clear if Sextus Julius Frontinus, the next Governor that Vespasian sent in, campaigned very much in southern Scotland. It's thought he spent most of his time subduing the Silures of Wales and was probably still heavily involved in grasping and maintaining control of Brigantia. If Frontinus did send in any of his troops to Southern Scotland during the period A.D 74-77, it was likely to have been with the full support of Emperor Vespasian. The main source for events at this time is the work of Cornelius Tacitus who doesn't specify that Frontinus had any engagement in Scotland. Tacitus does, however, indicate that it was his father-in-law, Gnaeus Iulius Agricola who did invade Scotland with the approval of Vespasian. Book 3 After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks takes place between A.D 73 and 84 during which period Roman expansion into Scotland was thorough and systematic.

Book 4 Agricola's Bane takes place in A.D. 84 and is set in the aftermath of a huge confrontation between the Ancient Roman legions of General Agricola and the Caledonian allies (The battle takes place at the end of Book 3) Book 4 investigates what Agricola does in north-east Scotland during a period that a number of large temporary camps were built in the area. 

The Year of the 4 Emperors was crucial to what eventually happened in northern  Britannia because there’s no way of knowing if one of the first three emperors (Galba, Otho, Vitellius) would have condoned the continued expansion of the north. Since the positions of authority in Rome and across the Roman Empire’s legions depended a lot on ‘who you knew’ there’s no guarantee that someone like General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola would have been in a position to march his troops all the way to central Scotland under someone who wasn’t Vespasian. I believe it was important that both Vespasian and Agricola had prior military campaign experience in Britannia long before the expansion of Roman troops into Caledonia.

Dog eat dog! Would you like to have been one of the contenders for the post of Roman Emperor in A.D. 69? 

Till one more post on the #A2ZChallenge...

Slainthe!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stockholm_-_Antikengalerie_4_-_B%C3%BCste_Kaiser_Galba.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_M._Silvius_Otho,_Roman_Emperor_by_Robert_Van_Voerst_after_Tiziano_Vecellio.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vespasianus01_pushkin_edit.png

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rochegrosse_Vitellius_tra%C3%AEn%C3%A9_dans_les_rues_de_Rome_par_la_populace,_1883.jpg