The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Roman Britain: military dimension
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north of the fort, though little is known of what took place in its interior. Within, beyond and
partly overlapping the annexe, is a series of temporary camps (3, 5–7, 9), some elements of which
are still visible on the ground. The largest camp, covering 52 ha (9), is the latest and replaces a
25.5 ha camp and its attached annexe (8) that it partly overlies, though both probably relate to
campaigning in the early third century by the Emperor Septimius Severus.
INTERRELATIONSHIPS
The process of Romanization, or more correctly of acculturation between the Roman invader
and the indigenous native population, is central to the study of Roman Britain and will be
highlighted in Chapter 9. In the military context, the topic has three principal aspects:
• What was the impact of the Roman army on those areas that it occupied?
• What was the nature, extent and effect of contacts with peoples beyond the frontier once it
had been established?
• What role did the army play in the process of Romanization?
The hypothesis that the Roman authorities played any part in the deliberate fostering of
Romanization has come under considerable challenge in recent years. There is, however, sufficient
evidence to suggest that the view that would explain the changes as entirely driven by the indigenous
population is extreme (Hanson 1994 contra. Millett 1990). If the Roman authorities did indeed
promote and assist the process of Romanization, then the military, as the primary arm of that
administration, are likely to have been involved. It has long been argued, for example, that fort
sites may have influenced the subsequent location of Roman towns, though this is likely to have
been a passive rather than proactive process. It is also possible that direct military assistance was
given to urban building projects, even though the evidence for this is disputed (cf. Blagg 1984).
More certain, however, is the indirect military role in the general acculturation process. Once the
army of garrison became relatively static, the practice of inter-marriage and local recruitment
will gradually have resulted in the army itself becoming increasingly Romano-British. Occasionally
a tombstone can reveal something of this process, as for example that of Tadius Exuperatus
from Caerleon in Gwent (Collingwood and Wright 1965, no. 369) (Figure 8.1), who died while
serving with the second legion on an expedition in Germany. He was commemorated beside the
tomb of his father by his sister and mother, Tadia Vallaunius, whose cognomen (surname) is of
Celtic origin. The fact that he took his mother’s nomen (first name) probably indicates that he was
the offspring of an illegal local liaison, since serving soldiers were not allowed to marry until the
time of Severus. It is unfortunate, therefore, that relatively little is known about the nature,
growth and development of civil settlements (vici and cannabae) outside Roman forts and fortresses,
though on the northern frontier they appear to flourish during the lengthy period of peace
through the third century that followed the Severan campaigns. Few have been extensively examined
by excavation in recent years, though aerial reconnaissance has given some indication of the
overall plan of several examples (e.g. Figure 8.8).
The military impact on Britain varies according to the area concerned. Because of the relatively
short period of occupation involved, this impact is likely to have been very limited in the southeast
and the extreme north. Whether the longer term presence of the army stimulated the local
economy by encouraging the production of a surplus to supply the military market, or depressed
it by placing demands on the local system that it could not sustain, depends upon both the natural
environment and the social and technological development of the area concerned. In northwestern
England, for example, the effect of the military presence seems to have been largely