#Agricola wonders - was #Pytheas right?

#Welcome Wednesday greetings! 

My blog has been quiet of late since I'm trying very hard to devote as much free time as I have energy for to new writing. 

As I’m typing away about General Gnaeus Julius #Agricola making decisions on where to place his next marching camps on his northern campaigns in Britannia, in Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour Series, I’ve been wondering where he got advance information from. He was determined to conquer every Roman foot of the land, yet he was just as determined to have his navy, the Classis Britannica, circumnavigate the whole island of Britannia. I’ve also read (somewhere) that he wanted to corroborate information written about the Greek explorer #Pytheas (c.380 B.C. - c.300 B.C.)

There isn’t a lot of research material to go on regarding Agricola’s campaign plans, nor is there much documented about the travels of Pytheas, but part of the desire of them both was to venture to pastures new and see what natural deposits they could exploit—either for their country, or probably more in the case of Pytheas for commercial gain for an employer.

Pytheas, it appears, wasn’t rich enough to fund his own voyages and depended on richer ship owners to give him the opportunity to go exploring. Whether he really was the first seafarer to ply the seas around Britain or not, doesn’t really matter to me, his observances give me useful information for my writing. 

Agricola was campaigning in Britannia about 300 years after Pytheas would have made his voyages and probably not all that much had changed in the interim- apart from the Ancient Romans having already invaded and stabilised the southern part of the island of Britannia. 

But back to Pytheas…

One of Pytheas’ main tasks was probably seeking supplies of tin (Greek: kassiteros), in his time very valued, along with copper, as a constituent of bronze: bronze being the main ‘metal’ used for weapons, tools, ornamentation and coins across Europe. Of course, he wasn’t looking to be the first to ship tin from ‘Britannia’ back to his native Marseilles (Greek colony/Massalia) because that had already been done centuries earlier. The southern shores of Britannia (Cornwall) had long been known to the Phonecians who had written about trading tin with the people of the area. e.g. The Greek historian, Herodotus (484 - 425 B. C.), wrote about the valuable tin that could be acquired in the Kassiterides.

So, by the time Pytheas was sailing past the southern shores of Kassiterides (Cornwall) the deposits in Cornwall may have already been quite exploited which meant travelling on along the Britannic shores to find more deposits. Essentially, though, Pytheas was an intrepid explorer who was thirsty for knowledge of new horizons. (Yes, by then he knew the world really was round and not a rectangle with an edge that silly sailors might fall off!) It may also have been his observations of the people Pytheas encountered on his journey around Britain that sparked Agricola's determination to venture to the extremities of Britannia. Agricola maybe didn't manage that but he certianly got to Aberdeenshire, where I live, and about a hundred more miles further north after that.  

It's also interesting to read that it may be from Pytheas' observations that the first references of Bretannike appears. Etymological changes are made, mistakes in copying the name are made and we eventually get...Britain!

Historically speaking, there certainly does seem to have been information available to Agricola from people writing about Pytheas, even if the writing of Pytheas didn't survive. Pytheas was a mathematician and competent astronomer, his use of the gnomen (~ships's compass) fairly precise an his figures were hotly debated and disputed for centuries.

It may even have been the doubts raised later by Pliny, Strabo or Diodorus of Sicily that sparked Agricola’s enthusiasm and curiosity.

I’m currently imagining how Agricola’s conversation is going with his trusted trierarchi- his ship captains.

Of course, I’m struggling just a wee bit to decide if Agricola’s Classis Britannica mainly consisted of triremes, or was it liburnians, or maybe more of the navis actuaria? I think I might feel a blog post coming on sometime soon about the Roman Navy.

Ah, the joys of a historical author. (*smiley face here ) 

Slainthe! 

#Aye. Ken it wis like this…with #Agricola and #Pytheas

Aye. Ken it wis like this…

I thought I had a guest booked for today but, since that failed to happen, I've written a post myself to keep the pot boiling! 

I can't do history without the geography – Agricola and Pytheas what a combination!

My Celtic Fervour Series is set during the invasions of northern Britannia, my novels beginning in AD 71 around the time that the legions of the Ancient Roman Empire flooded the federation of tribes named the Brigantes.

Agricola- Frejus, France
(Narbonensis)

During the writing of the first couple of books in the series, the related geography I was most interested in was that of Brigantia – what we would now term north England: Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Northumberland. However, by the time I was writing the third and fourth books, I was much more interested in what knowledge the Ancient Roman General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola might have had of the whole of Britannia, the interior and the coastal exterior.

Agricola was no stranger to being stationed in Britannia, in fact he spent the best part of twenty years in it, but my interest was in working out what physical, and what intellectual, knowledge of it he actually had before arriving, and how much he gained afterwards. If he already had a familiarity before setting foot on Britannia, how did he come by the information?

Agricola was likely to have first arrived to Britannia at around the age of 18 in AD 58. He (probably) became a tribune of the Legio II Augusta, though his function seemed to have been as a special military aide, a staff member of General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus who was then in command of the Roman armies in Britannia. That first tribune post lasted about four years, after which Agricola was recalled to Rome.

Emperor Vespasian

Agricola's military and political career was not solely in Britannia, some time was spent in other parts of the Roman Empire as he rose through the ranks and followed a fairly usual career path. He returned to Britannia in AD 69 (after Vespasian became Emperor) to take command of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix, and was in this post until AD 73. These two senior postings alone would have given him a reasonably good physical knowledge of the geography, and of the political situation, of a good chunk of England and Wales, if not of all of it.

It's not certain, but it may be possible that during the governorship of Vettius Bolanus (AD 69-71), or Quintus Petilius Cerialis (approx. AD 71-74) , Agricola was involved in sending exploratory Roman troops into what is now termed southern Scotland –recent archaeological explorations are pointing to some form of occupation during this time (small fortlets being created or re-timbered) Whether he accompanied any of these troops, I feel confident that Agricola would have been in a position to keep abreast of any new knowledge of recently explored territory.

When Agricola returned to Britannia in AD 77/78, to take up the roles of commander of all of the Britannic legions and as Governor of the province, his intent seemed to be clear. His aim was to subdue any resisting tribes in what we now call England and Wales, but he also intended to invade and dominate the whole of the island of Britannia. By then he had been in different posts, both administrative and with direct military command. However, I feel that the desire to invade the whole of Britannia came from much deeper in Agricola's past and wasn't born purely of military intent to extend the Roman Empire's boundaries.

What would make me think this?

Cornelius Tacitus

Agricola's son-in-law, Cornelius Tacitus, wrote that Agricola was said to have taken 'an unhealthy interest in philosophy', possibly like the father he had never known and who was dead before Agricola was even walking or talking. Looking at an issue from many approaches, to find practical answers, may not have been typical of all military oppressors but if Agricola enjoyed philosophy as a youth, perhaps that was why it was also written that Agricola was skilled at organising, and encouraging, the civic structure that Rome imposed on subdued tribes across southern Britannia when they were absorbed into the Roman Empire.

Agricola was educated in Massilia (Marseilles) before being sent to Britannia as a tribune. I believe it would have been entirely reasonable that he had been told of, or read of, the Greek explorer Pytheas during his time in Marseilles. Pytheas had been one of Massilia's famous (to some infamous) inhabitants.

Pytheas - Marseilles

During the fourth century BC, Pytheas, a mathematician and seafarer from the Greek colony of Massilia, voyaged into the North Sea. His incredible voyage was known in antiquity but the details of it have now been lost, and we only know of it via some later Roman and Greek writers. Pytheas was said to have been seafaring in search of trading goods, probably including tin, which at the time of his travels was a valuable constituent of bronze. Apart from noting some sources of tin in southern England, it seems Pytheas' voyage was maybe not a complete commercial success.

However, his sailing journal was highly important as he sailed the coastline of what was named the 'Kassiterides Islands' (Britain). His journal details the trip up the east coast of Britain as far north as Orkney, Shetland and possibly a good way into the northern Atlantic towards Iceland and Greenland (Thule/ Hyperborea). Having decided it was impossible to sail through what was like 'water and slush ice', or walk over it; he turned around and sailed home. Derided by other scholars in antiquity, Pytheas' observations of the northern Atlantic deemed too fanciful, his notes are now regarded as being very perceptive of the places and peoples he visited, and relatively accurate in astronomical terms.

Pytheas also claimed to have circumnavigated the Kassiterides Islands and claimed he had 'travelled all over it on foot'. The former is likely, but the latter a whole lot less likely, though he may have set foot on some of it. However, whether Pytheas set foot on any of it, I think that Agricola had heard of the exploits of Pytheas and wanted to prove the seafarer's claim that Britannia was, indeed, a navigable island.

I like to think that the adventures of Pytheas gave Agricola some hunger to find out for himself what the whole island of Britannia was like. It's likely that Agricola's education in Marseilles would have included the military campaign history of the Republic and of the Empire, knowledge which I think he absorbed readily in advance of him coming to Britannia. I like to imagine that Agricola went as a young tribune to Britannia knowing about the landings of Julius Caesar in 55BC, and 54 BC. And he was sure to know a lot more about the invasions of the Emperor Claudius in AD 43 since that was not long after Agricola was born in AD 40.

His aim to control the whole island was ambitious and it was within his grasp, according to Tacitus, but Agricola's recall to Rome in late AD 84 (or early AD 85) probably put paid to Agricola proving his troops had been everywhere – unless new archaeological information surfaces to clarify that Agricola's troops didn't only march to the Moray Firth, but that they marched all the way to Caithness, as well.

What must Agricola have been feeling when he was ordered to return to Rome in late AD 84 (or early AD 85), if he had (personally) come so close to have covered the whole of the island, yet hadn’t quite controlled it all?

Writing about those potentially crushing feelings in Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour series has been a very difficult, but strangely rewarding process for me.

The launch of Book 4, Agricola's Bane, is due soon (summer 2018).

NB: This is a sneak preview of my cover design! 

Till next Friday, when I have a guest contributor, have an exciting week.

ps. My Celtic Fervour series is available in ebooks till Beltane/May 1st. at 99p/99c across Amazon

getbook.at/findhere

getbook.at/hereyouare

getbook.at/thisforyou

Slainthe! 

All images from Wikimedia Commons- including this new one https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyth%C3%A9as.jpg

#A2ZChallenge P is for Praetorium and Principia

P is for Praetorium and Principia

Theme: Ancient Roman Scotland during the Flavian era

Roman fortresses, forts and temporary camps sometimes had similar features, though none in 'Agricolan' Scotland were exactly alike. Some of the installations had a layout which included an area that was designated

1) as a praetorium

2) as a principia

 What were the functions of these two important areas?

In the case of the temporary camp the praetorium was the tent of the commanding officer. It would be situated somewhere close to the junction of the main roadways within the encampment, thus a ‘central’(ish) position. When General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola marched northwards in Caledonia with his legions, I imagine that some of the main meetings between Agricola and his officers would take place in the praetorium- the command tent. In Agricola's Bane, #4 of my Celtic Fervour Series I have Agricola meeting up with a number of his officers as they assess the local countryside they have recently invaded. 

The praetorium tent was likely to have been much larger than a normal tent, possibly not the typical ridge tent of the contubernia and maybe square or rectangular. There may have been a screened-off area for sleeping, with the bulk of the interior being the more ‘public’ area where the commander worked with his secretaries and met with those under his command. When Agricola was on his Caledonia campaigns he was also still in charge overall of the whole of Britannia and as such he must have conducted much of his Britannia business every single day from his tent area.

In permanent forts or fortresses in Britannia the praetorium was a substantial building. It tended to loosely follow the design of a typical Roman house with an atrium and peristyle – often interpreted as a series of rooms set around a rectangle with an interior courtyard. The praetorium held the quarters of the commanding officer, with adjacent rooms perhaps used as senior command visitor quarters, kitchen, storage etc.

 

Newstead/ Trimontium  - Nancy Jardine 

The Agricolan fort plan for Trimontium (Newstead) is hard to interpret. It’s unclear if the central square building was the principia with one of the longer nearby buildings being the praetorium. However, since Trimontium seems to have been an equestrian auxiliary fort thought to have been commanded by a tribune and the decurion in charge of the mounted force.

The principia was the main headquarters building (offices) where the business of the camp or fort was conducted. The most important administrators would work in the principia, and the central courtyard was used for addressing the assembled garrison. 

In addition to the general running of the fort, the principia also housed other important rooms. Of these the aedes was a well-used place. It housed the regimental standards, the sacred objects which were extremely important for the mental wellbeing of the legion. A statue of the emperor was also usual in the aedes along with altars to various gods and goddesses, whichever were popular with that particular legion or auxiliary unit. The strong room, where the money chest was kept, was also in the principia:  the soldiers’ pay distributed from that area.  The armoury was likely to have been in the principia and the tribunal was located at one end of the courtyard, the commanding officer standing upon it when he dispensed orders to the garrison.

 

Inchtuthil Agricolan fort- G. DeL Beydoyere 

 The huge supply fortress of Inchtuthil was never finished. There was sufficient space left near the centre for a large praetorium but the space remained empty when the fort was abandoned c. AD 86/87/

There was, however, a sizeable principia headquarters). The remains of a  number of rooms were uncovered but it's not clear which would have been which. The courtyard area was not big enough (I don't think) for a full garrison assembly but it was a good size for a large gathering.

For another P check out my older post on the mapmaker and adventurer Pytheas! His observations are most likely linked to the Agricolan campaigns of Caledonia.

Till tomorrow and another #A2ZChallenge post...

Slainthe! 

#7 Saturday Shorts – with #Gnaeus Iulius Agricola

It's Saturday again and today I have an esteemed 'guest' for my #Saturday Shorts interview.

General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, one of my main characters in Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour Series (to be published in 2018), has kindly agreed to sit on my comfy interview chair. He's never ever seen anything like it - not on his Campaigns in Caledonia and probably not in Rome either - so, bear with him, he'll probably do a bit of swinging around on it! 

I've tweaked the general author questions used for my Saturday Shorts interview to suit today's guest, though you'll read by only a little if you've been enjoying my other guests.

Welcome to my blog, General Agricola. Pop your helmet on the floor and please take a seat. I hope you can enjoy a little relaxation from your excessively busy campaigns during the interview.

Please introduce yourself:

Wikimedia Commons

My name is Gnaeus Iulius Agricola. I was born and brought up in the colonia of Forum Julii in Gallia Narbonensis, Gaul.  I was educated at Massilia. 

I have no permanent home, and will have none while I remain in the service of the Roman Empire- though I expect I may go back to Rome, or perhaps even Gallia Narbonensis, at some future date. 

I am presently the Governor of Britannia; Commander of all Britannic Armies and all vexillationes currently assigned to me.

When is your best time to work?

There is no best time, I work all day long. If a critical situation arises, I expect to be awakened from sleep. I plan and make decisions from dawn till dusk- both military and civic. I think while I am eating, I plan while on the march. On rare occasions, I am with my wife and…family but those are highly private.

Which forms of communication do you find most comfortable to use?

Communication? I wish I had regular communications. If so, my daily task list would be so much easier. While on campaign, I prefer verbal communication but sometimes details need to be recorded on wax: they are easily transferred to permanent records if required. If the details are travelling a short distance then wood is generally sufficient but coming from a long distance then scrolls travel lighter on the horse. Here in Caledonia the blasted problem is not the method of recording, or the weight of communications a horse may carry- the problem is not having roads laid down! Slow, slow, slow communications are the frustrating result!

www.123rf.com

Please tell us what your current campaign is about.

When I came into the post of Governor of Britannia, seven summer seasons ago, my task was to ensure the tribes on the fringes of the Roman Empire’s western boundary were subdued- especially the Ordovices. When that was established my next task was to move northwards and acquire more land and subsume more tribes into the Roman Empire.  

Was that a simple process?

Simple? Nothing is simple about bringing the virtues and values of Rome to barbarians. The Brigantes and their neighbours still need to be monitored carefully but by my third and fourth seasons the might of my Roman legions was sufficient to cow the Selgovae, the Novantes and those of southern Caledonia.

I had heard the Votadini were easier to subdue. Is that correct?

Of course. My predecessors- Frontinus and Cerialis - had made seasons worth of treaties with them, so yes, it was easier to march my troops up the east coast of southern Caledonia.

You mentioned you are in your seventh summer of campaigning. Can you describe for my readers those last few seasons?

Certainly. My legions now have control of the southern Caledonian tribes, those of central Caledonia not yet mentioned like the Damnonii and the Venicones of the east. I am currently subduing the Taexali and the Vacomagi of the Varar Aestuarium.

Did anything in particular influence you to undertake this present campaign?

Of course. I want to extend the Roman Empire western boundary and have every step of every mile of the island of Britannia under Roman domination.

What has helped you conduct these campaigns in Caledonia ?

Not a thing. I am the advance forces and I create the new itinerary of Caledonia and its place in Britannia. The barbarian north is unknown till I tame it and call it Roman and I want to prove that the ancient seafarer Pytheas was correct about Britannia being an island.

Who, currently, is your main enemy?

Enemies. The craven Caledons and their allies- the Taexali, Venicones, maybe Vacomagi and who knows who else – who skulk in the Craupian mountains since the confrontation at Beinn na Ciche.

What’s the greatest weakness of your enemies?

They have no structure. The have no proper army, or established discipline, or civic awareness. They do not even have proper trade established in northern Caledonia. They will have none of this till after I defeat them!

What are your enemies’ greatest strengths?

They are sneaky, stealthy and - I really would rather not admit it - good at petty raids and devious murderous attacks on my patrols. Their cowardice in not capitulating is also a strange strength and until we have treaties in place they remain a hidden threat.  

Do you regularly report your achievements to Rome?

Of course I do, when I have something of merit to send. If the Emperor Domitian acknowledged my success more often, I would report more frequently to him. I fear that he is not particularly interested in Britannia.

Wikimedia Commons

What’s your favourite pastime?  

Bathing. I have not had that pleasure for months now. I do not expect such comforts while on campaign but my civic measures and developments in subdued southern Britannia are already establishing daily Roman rituals. The progress being made in the bath complex at Aquae Sulis should make bathing a safer occupation.

I’m confused. Are you saying that bathing is not a safe occupation? Yet, you are promoting it?

Make no mistake. The bathing process is an excellent one. Not only is your body exercised, massaged and well cleansed it is the opportunities for social discourse that are also the huge advantages of public bathing. Civilised. They are civilised proceedings. It is miscreants stealing the property of an individual when he is bathing that must be stamped out. I have organised civic measures to ensure this type of theft is eradicated.

Do you have a favourite place to ‘hide’ out from life?

On campaign? – None at all.

Do you have a favourite food and a favourite drink?

I suppose I’ve learned to suppress any craving when on campaign because the likelihood of fresh grapes or the summer fruits of Gaul are just not possible. The wine transported to Caledonia by the Roman Army is inferior quality so again it is wise to not think about a fresh white Baeterrae wine from my near Gallia Narbonensis - but I do highly recommend it!

Thank you so much for allowing me to interview you, today General Agricola. It's such a pleasure to meet you. I'll let you get back to the business of subduing the Taexali and Caledon barbarians.

Of course, my readers can look forward to a lot more of you in Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour Series - Agricola's Bane- when it's published! 

Details are coming soon of huge changes to my Celtic Fervour Series- look out for that in a few days. 

Slainthe!