DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0186
158
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1. Our literary sources contain no reference. Mommsen points to a
passage in the historian Cassius Dio (lxxvi. 12), a contemporary of the
Emperor Severus and his sons, who tells us that the Maeatae lived near the
wall,1 and the Caledonians behind them. " They dwelt," he says, " on wild
and waterless hills, or barren and marshy plains : in the marshes they can
endure for days together just keeping their heads above water." The passage
is plainly a trifle picturesque, but it certainly best suits the view that the
Maeatae dwelt between the two walls, and that Dio's Wall is the southern
one. North of that wall, wild moors and wastes and mosses, trodden to
this day by few but the sportsman or the shepherd, stretch far into Scotland,
and there, on the Cheviots and the Lammermuir hills, in Ettrick forest, and
the mosses of the south-west is the country which Dio describes as the
home of the Maeatae.
2. Secondly, the inscriptions found along the Vallum of Pius and on other
Eoman sites in Scotland, so far as they are datable (the new Barr Hill stone
is not), belong to the reign of Pius. The datable inscriptions on and near
the wall seem referable to the commencement of his reign ; those found at
Birrens in 1895 belong to its close to 158 a.d. One stone only, a Cramond
inscription of somewhat doubtful text,'- might possibly be connected with
Septimius Severus and his invasion, but, as at present informed, I do not
think this probable.
3. Coins tell the same tale. The annexed list, incomplete but not alto-
gether unrepresentative, shows the general distribution. Silver of Domitian,
Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius, and bronze of Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius, are
common on the vallum and in the chief Eoman sites ; Marcus Aurelius,
Commodus, and later Emperors are almost unrepresented. The meaning
of this is plain. The silver denarii of Domitian might go back to an
occupation by Agricola or after his conquests, but silver coins stayed long
in circulation and there is no need to suppose it : the rest of the finds very
clearly indicate an occupation in the reign of Pius which ended very soon.
The forts of the vallum, the outlying post at Ardoch, the three forts along
the great South Road, Cramond, Newstead, and Cappuck, the fort (if it was a
fort) at Carstairs, perhaps even Birrens, in short, the whole land north of
the Cheviots, must have been lost before or about a.d. 180. Two dates may
be suggested. Marcus on his succession (a.d. 161) inherited a British war,
and sent Calpurnius Agricola to deal with it, with what success we do not
know. We can trace Calpurnius at several places, but never north of
Hadrian's Wall. Twenty years later Commodus sent Ulpius Marcellus to
face an even worse trouble. The barbarians, as Dio tells us (lxxii. 12), burst
through the wall, " dividing them and the Eoman armies " (a curious phrase),
but Ulpius entirely worsted them. Dio does not describe his wall, but his
1IIp6s rijj diaretxto-fiaTi. Mommsen takes this to mean "south" of the wall, and
goes on to argue that the Maeatae cannot have lived south of Hadrian's Wall.
2C.I.L., vii. 1085.
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
1. Our literary sources contain no reference. Mommsen points to a
passage in the historian Cassius Dio (lxxvi. 12), a contemporary of the
Emperor Severus and his sons, who tells us that the Maeatae lived near the
wall,1 and the Caledonians behind them. " They dwelt," he says, " on wild
and waterless hills, or barren and marshy plains : in the marshes they can
endure for days together just keeping their heads above water." The passage
is plainly a trifle picturesque, but it certainly best suits the view that the
Maeatae dwelt between the two walls, and that Dio's Wall is the southern
one. North of that wall, wild moors and wastes and mosses, trodden to
this day by few but the sportsman or the shepherd, stretch far into Scotland,
and there, on the Cheviots and the Lammermuir hills, in Ettrick forest, and
the mosses of the south-west is the country which Dio describes as the
home of the Maeatae.
2. Secondly, the inscriptions found along the Vallum of Pius and on other
Eoman sites in Scotland, so far as they are datable (the new Barr Hill stone
is not), belong to the reign of Pius. The datable inscriptions on and near
the wall seem referable to the commencement of his reign ; those found at
Birrens in 1895 belong to its close to 158 a.d. One stone only, a Cramond
inscription of somewhat doubtful text,'- might possibly be connected with
Septimius Severus and his invasion, but, as at present informed, I do not
think this probable.
3. Coins tell the same tale. The annexed list, incomplete but not alto-
gether unrepresentative, shows the general distribution. Silver of Domitian,
Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius, and bronze of Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius, are
common on the vallum and in the chief Eoman sites ; Marcus Aurelius,
Commodus, and later Emperors are almost unrepresented. The meaning
of this is plain. The silver denarii of Domitian might go back to an
occupation by Agricola or after his conquests, but silver coins stayed long
in circulation and there is no need to suppose it : the rest of the finds very
clearly indicate an occupation in the reign of Pius which ended very soon.
The forts of the vallum, the outlying post at Ardoch, the three forts along
the great South Road, Cramond, Newstead, and Cappuck, the fort (if it was a
fort) at Carstairs, perhaps even Birrens, in short, the whole land north of
the Cheviots, must have been lost before or about a.d. 180. Two dates may
be suggested. Marcus on his succession (a.d. 161) inherited a British war,
and sent Calpurnius Agricola to deal with it, with what success we do not
know. We can trace Calpurnius at several places, but never north of
Hadrian's Wall. Twenty years later Commodus sent Ulpius Marcellus to
face an even worse trouble. The barbarians, as Dio tells us (lxxii. 12), burst
through the wall, " dividing them and the Eoman armies " (a curious phrase),
but Ulpius entirely worsted them. Dio does not describe his wall, but his
1IIp6s rijj diaretxto-fiaTi. Mommsen takes this to mean "south" of the wall, and
goes on to argue that the Maeatae cannot have lived south of Hadrian's Wall.
2C.I.L., vii. 1085.