@jeffyoung60

3 weeks ago

The Romans tried to secure the land beyond Hadrian's Wall by marching north some 100 miles and establishing the Antonine Wall. This meant a pacified, safe southern Scotland and the Romans almost abandoned Hadrian's Wall, but not in its entirety. It wasn't to last. Rome could hang on to the Antonine Wall and after Emperor Pius' death, abandoned the wall and returned to Hadrian's wall. Hadrian's Wall then confronted its greatest test just twenty years after its recommissioning. Around 181 A.D. Caledonian and Pict warriors launched a massive raid upon Hadrian's Wall. Historical sources are scant but evidently the native warriors were able to inflict much damage and even breach the wall. The Roman governor may have been killed. It was almost the perfect time for the Scots and Picts. The Roman Empire was in deep trouble on its Danube frontiers. The Parthian War lasted five years and returning legionaries brought back a devastating plague which ravaged the empire. It scoured the ranks of the Roman Army too. Throughout the 170s emperor Marcus Aurelius was hard pressed to repel numerous barbarian coalitions and tribes raiding across the Danube River in great strength. Roman manpower was scarce in the face of the early plague and heavy war casualties against the Parthians and the Germanic Marcomanni, Quadi, Iazyges, Sarmatians, Chatti, Chauci, Bructali, and other tribes. We can possibly assume that at this time, Britain's Roman garrisons may have been understrength. There had been peace for twenty years since the abandonment of the Antonine Wall. The sudden attacks on Hadrian's Wall must have taken the Romans completely by surprise. But in the end the Caledonian and Pictish invaders were either repelled or they left on their own accord. It was the start of rough times in Britain until a new emperor, Septimus Severus, in 191 AD entered Britain with a force of six legions intending to square the Caledonian and Pict problem in Scotland once and for all. History records that after particularly savage, brutal, and genocidal warfare which cost the Romans at least the equivalent of two legions; some say four, Severus was able achieve peace in Britain for the next eighty years.

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