1
00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:14,600
'78AD. The most powerful army
in the world arrived here -

2
00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:18,680
'a land of strange tribes
and savage beasts.

3
00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,120
'A place they called Caledonia.'

4
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:25,520
They would have
terrorised the locals.

5
00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,400
They believed that
they had a divine right to rule.

6
00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,240
'The mighty Roman legions
had conquered all before them.

7
00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:38,800
'By warfare, repression,'

8
00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:40,840
bribery, genocide.

9
00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:46,560
But when they got to here,
they stuttered to a halt.

10
00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:50,240
For over 300 years,
the tribes of Northern Britain

11
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,960
proved the most frustrating
and formidable of adversaries.

12
00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:00,360
'I'm Dr Fraser Hunter.
I'm an archaeologist.

13
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:05,040
'I've spent 20 years
uncovering our earliest histories.

14
00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:09,280
'The Roman invasion fascinates me.

15
00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:14,760
'How a voracious superpower took
on the tribes of Iron Age Scotland.'

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00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:18,080
CLAMOUR OF BATTLE

17
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,320
'A conflict from ancient history.

18
00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:25,560
'But a conflict that
resonates with our own world.'

19
00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:29,560
This was a battle of

20
00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:31,560
empire against insurgency.

21
00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:36,200
A battle of control.
Of division.

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00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:37,600
Of conquest.

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00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:45,760
Tales from the edge of empire.
The story of Rome's final frontier.

24
00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:00,440
'Our story begins here, in the heat
and dust of North Africa,

25
00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:05,280
'at the ancient Roman city of
Volubilis, in Morocco -

26
00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:09,240
'the southwest corner
of the empire.'

27
00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,400
From here it's 2,500 miles

28
00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:19,520
to the eastern edge of
the empire in Syria.

29
00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,280
1,500 miles north,
to the land they called Caledonia.

30
00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,760
And strange as it may seem,

31
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:27,560
these ancient ruins hold a unique

32
00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:31,720
and fascinating piece of evidence
about the history of Scotland.

33
00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,400
'This arch was built to celebrate
the self-styled

34
00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,040
'conqueror of the Caledonians,

35
00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:42,000
'the Emperor Caracalla.

36
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,360
'He and his father,
the Emperor Severus,

37
00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:50,280
'had led massive military campaigns
into third-century Scotland.

38
00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:54,720
'A great statue of Caracalla
once stood above the arch.'

39
00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,160
So what we see today, is impressive,
although it's restored,

40
00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:02,440
but it's only a fragment of how
it would have looked

41
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,720
cos the inscription
that sits there at the moment

42
00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:07,200
would have had...
would have been built into

43
00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,560
a much larger structure
and on top of that,

44
00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,080
you have this enormous,
great, bronze statue.

45
00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,800
'A fragment of cloak from
Caracalla's statue has survived.

46
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:22,920
'Housed in the archaeological
museum of the city of Rabat.

47
00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:27,200
'It includes an early depiction
of that great national stereotype,

48
00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,800
'the long-haired
Caledonian warrior.'

49
00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:35,000
And here he is.

50
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,720
The giveaway
is the checked leggings...

51
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:44,480
..the first ever
depiction of tartan.

52
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:45,920
And the shields too.

53
00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,760
They're Celtic in style,
this guy's a Caledonian.

54
00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:52,400
You can see his head,
cloak over the shoulders.

55
00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:56,640
But look at the arms.

56
00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,800
They're bound behind the back.
This guy's a captive.

57
00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,720
He's a prisoner from the vicious
campaigns of Severus and Caracalla.

58
00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,120
'And some of these men
would have been force-marched

59
00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:14,720
'for months on end
to all parts of the empire.

60
00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:17,120
'Living trophies of
the Emperor's success.

61
00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,600
'Some might have been traded
as slaves in the great markets.

62
00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,880
'Others were even less fortunate.

63
00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:29,000
'This mosaic from Tunisia

64
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,280
'shows how one
unfortunate Caledonian met his end.'

65
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:36,360
Captured...

66
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,240
marched for months to
this desert province...

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00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:41,000
sent to the amphitheatre.

68
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,520
Killed by wild animals as exotic
entertainment for the locals.

69
00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:53,640
We've long had a curious,

70
00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,360
rather cuddly relationship
with the Romans.

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00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:59,840
Hot baths, straight roads - all very
Monty Python.

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00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:02,720
In the western world
we often see ourselves as

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00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,280
the inheritors
of Roman values and Roman culture.

74
00:05:06,280 --> 00:05:09,480
But this evidence
from North Africa reminds us,

75
00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,360
the Romans were invaders -

76
00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,120
colonisers.

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00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:15,840
Their strategies encompassed
everything up to

78
00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:19,000
and including genocide.

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00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,440
For the local tribes, the Roman
arrival in what we call Scotland

80
00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:26,120
must have been absolutely
terrifying.

81
00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,680
'That arrival
came around the year 78AD.

82
00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,760
'35 years after
landing in England,

83
00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:42,960
'the Roman armies turned
their attentions to

84
00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:47,200
'conquering the north, and marched
into modern-day Scotland.

85
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,120
'Here, at Pennymuir,
they built a temporary camp -

86
00:05:55,120 --> 00:06:00,040
' massive enclosure to protect
20,000 men on the move.'

87
00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,120
To the locals,

88
00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,920
this must have seemed like an army
from a different planet.

89
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:12,840
More people than they had ever
seen in the one place together.

90
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:16,240
An army with weapons that could
kill you, at a great distance.

91
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:21,320
This was first century
shock and awe.

92
00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:27,600
'The Caledonians
would have been amazed.

93
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:27,640
'An army of some 20,000 men,
all of them armed to the teeth.

94
00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:38,280
'An advancing column of soldiers,
five miles long.

95
00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:41,280
'Thousands of horses
and pack animals.

96
00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:45,240
'The creak and crash of wagons
full of supplies.

97
00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,760
'The colourful flags,
the gleaming helmets,

98
00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:54,800
'the bright brassy harness,
the sound of an alien tongue.

99
00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:57,160
'The Roman Empire had arrived.

100
00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,000
'The Emperor Vespasian
had ordered the invasion.

101
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,080
'To be led by
the Governor of Britain - Agricola.

102
00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,240
'And Agricola's life story survives.

103
00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:13,760
'Written by his son-in-law,
Tacitus.'

104
00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:18,480
So not the most unbiased of sources,
nor always the most reliable.

105
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,800
Tacitus records
that over the next few years,

106
00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:26,240
the forces of Agricola drove deeper
and deeper into Scotland.

107
00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:29,920
LATIN QUOTATION IN TRANSLATION:

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00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,400
"Repeated and successful battles

109
00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:35,080
"had conquered tribes
up to that time unknown."

110
00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:42,240
Agricola's invasion of Scotland
was an uneven battle,

111
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:46,560
between a highly disciplined army
with every technological advantage,

112
00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:50,200
and local tribes unused to
this scale of threat.

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00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,720
'In modern military jargon,
it's called asymmetric warfare.

114
00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:59,040
'Powerful, regimented armies,

115
00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:02,240
'against unpredictable,
small militias.

116
00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:07,360
'Major General Andrew Mackay led
British forces in Afghanistan.

117
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,000
'He knows, from experience,
the challenges

118
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:12,640
'Agricola would have faced.'

119
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,280
He's got to start gaining
a bit of intelligence.

120
00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:21,920
He's got to figure out,
who are the ruling elites?

121
00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:24,160
Who can I do the deals with?

122
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:26,080
Who's going to be opposing me?

123
00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:28,880
Who are going to be the more
difficult customers?

124
00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,680
Who am I going to have to squash?

125
00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:36,080
Who am I going to have to deal
with in a more amicable way?

126
00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,680
The Romans would be looking to use

127
00:08:40,680 --> 00:08:43,320
all the kind of equipment
and training

128
00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,400
and doctrine that had got them
so far

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00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,400
in creating
such an enormous empire.

130
00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:56,640
'Tacitus continued his account
of Agricola's invasion.'

131
00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,080
LATIN QUOTATION IN TRANSLATION:

132
00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:02,480
"The natives were harried as far
north as the estuary of the Tay.

133
00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:07,120
"Overawed by terror the enemy did not
venture to annoy our army...

134
00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,520
"though it suffered from
shocking weather.

135
00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:14,280
"Time was found also
for the planting of forts."

136
00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:22,960
'Forts were built as permanent
bases for holding down the country.

137
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:27,360
'This is Ardoch, just outside the
village of Braco, in Perthshire.'

138
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:33,920
Ardoch is remarkable
because so much survives.

139
00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:39,080
This is the best preserved earthwork
fort in the whole Roman Empire.

140
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,360
And even after almost 2,000 years,

141
00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:46,400
we still get a fantastic picture of
how the Roman army protected itself.

142
00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:50,160
At the bottom of these ditches,

143
00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:53,440
would have been the Roman
equivalent of barbed wire -

144
00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,640
sharp, thorny bushes,
nettles and other unpleasant things.

145
00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:02,320
An extra line of defence
was the rampart of turf and timber.

146
00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:06,560
And you'd only enter the fort,
through narrow causeways like this.

147
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:12,280
'Forts, were just one part
of a massive logistical operation

148
00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:13,760
'to conquer Scotland.

149
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,120
'The fort at Ardoch was surrounded
by enormous temporary camps.

150
00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:24,040
'These provided
overnight accommodation

151
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,000
'and a safeguard against attack.

152
00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,520
'Dr Rebecca Jones is an authority on

153
00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,920
'these formidable
Roman constructions.'

154
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,560
We've got a fort here,
and that would have been occupied by

155
00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:39,280
about 500 men in timber buildings,

156
00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:41,640
who are garrisoning the territory -

157
00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:45,280
newly conquered territory -
and actually placing themselves,

158
00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:48,640
occupying it, staying here for 10,
15, perhaps 20 years.

159
00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,080
To the north of the fort,

160
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:52,800
there's a whole series of camps

161
00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:56,240
occupied at different times
by soldiers who were coming through

162
00:10:56,240 --> 00:10:58,920
this area, when they were
in various conquest phases.

163
00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:02,000
The camps are vast in size.

164
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,760
One of them holds, potentially,
up to 30,000 men.

165
00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:08,800
And what's the role of these camps?

166
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:11,360
Soldiers needed an overnight
halting place obviously,

167
00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:13,520
but also it's
a mark in the landscape.

168
00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:15,240
This is the Romans,
they've arrived.

169
00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:16,800
This is where we're conquering,

170
00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:19,120
this is where we're travelling
through.

171
00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,960
And while they were here, they would
have terrorised the locals,

172
00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:23,560
got the supplies that they needed,

173
00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:25,640
they would have carried some
supplies with them,

174
00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:27,680
but 30,000 men, would have required

175
00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:29,280
an awful lot of additional supplies

176
00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:31,040
that they'd have got from
the locals.

177
00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:34,000
When they're campaigning from one
site to another,

178
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:35,600
they would have departed one site,

179
00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:37,840
and the head of the column,
as they marched along,

180
00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:40,760
would potentially arrive at the next
site, some 20 miles away,

181
00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:43,160
whilst the tail
was actually leaving the camp.

182
00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:46,360
Which must have been quite a
tremendous sight in the landscape.

183
00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:53,720
'From Ardoch, the Romans
headed along the Gask Ridge,

184
00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:55,680
'skirting the southern Highlands.

185
00:11:56,880 --> 00:11:59,360
'Then, they
marched northeast -

186
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:00,800
'along Strathmore,

187
00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,720
'in the good land
south of the Grampians.'

188
00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,400
A lot of people think
the Roman Empire

189
00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:13,480
began and ended at Hadrian's Wall.

190
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:17,200
In fact the Roman army drove
deep into northeast Scotland.

191
00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:21,640
'This is Stonehaven.
A town just south of Aberdeen.

192
00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:23,880
'The Romans were here.

193
00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:29,160
'And Agricola's advancing army
was relentless.'

194
00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:36,280
LATIN QUOTATION IN TRANSLATION:

195
00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:38,680
"Caledonia must be penetrated.

196
00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:40,560
"The furthest shores of Britain

197
00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:44,240
"must, once for all, be discovered in
one continuous campaign."

198
00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:50,160
Just, there is a gap here.

199
00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,720
That looks believable as well.

200
00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,240
'Professor Bill Hanson
of Glasgow University

201
00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:58,640
'has been studying Roman Scotland
for almost 40 years.

202
00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:03,400
'He's come to meet me,
in the misty hills above Stonehaven.

203
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:08,000
'The site of
a Roman marching camp, Raedykes -

204
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,480
'one of a series of camps
on Rome's northern frontier.

205
00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:18,080
'This bank and ditch, are part
of a massive Roman marching camp.'

206
00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:22,280
This unremarkable grassy field,
was once the temporary home,

207
00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:24,840
for some 20,000 Roman soldiers.

208
00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:29,000
It was a huge, logistical operation.

209
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:30,400
Food and other supplies,

210
00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,800
a baggage train pulling
all kinds of things,

211
00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,520
advanced weaponry, catapults,
a field hospital.

212
00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:40,600
It begs the question.
Why did they come here?

213
00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:41,720
It really boils down to,

214
00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:46,160
trying to finish off
the conquest of the island.

215
00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:50,560
Whether they were after economic
gain, is much debated.

216
00:13:50,560 --> 00:13:54,640
Certainly it's clear that, the
area that they did consolidate

217
00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:58,480
after the, after this,
firs-century campaigning,

218
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:03,160
was the area of Scotland that has
the richest agricultural land.

219
00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:07,280
But there may also have been
an interest in acquiring resources,

220
00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,600
particularly minerals,
particularly metals.

221
00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,400
There was gold in Scotland.

222
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,600
Lead, in particular, and silver
because the two often go together.

223
00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:16,720
So they well may have been
looking for that,

224
00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:20,040
but there's some considerable debate
about the extent to which

225
00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:22,480
those sort of economic drivers
were behind the process.

226
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:25,120
At the end of the day, it really
is about conquering the world.

227
00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:29,120
They believed that they had
a divine right to rule.

228
00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,720
'To rule Scotland, Agricola would
have to deal conclusively with

229
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,920
'the Caledonian tribes.

230
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,040
'Six years into the Roman invasion,

231
00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:43,840
'the two sides met at
Mons Graupius -

232
00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:47,680
'the first recorded battle
on Scottish soil.'

233
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,600
Tacitus brings to life a great
war leader of the Caledonians -

234
00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,440
Calgacus,
Scotland's first Braveheart.

235
00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,120
"We stand now as one,
the last of the free.

236
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:04,480
"There is no other race beyond us.

237
00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,680
"Nothing
but the crash of sea upon the rocks

238
00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:13,040
"and more deadly still, the Romans.
They have pillaged the earth.

239
00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:18,600
"To plunder, butchery and rape
they give the false name of empire.

240
00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:22,400
"They make a desert
and call it peace."

241
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,760
The speech is pure Hollywood.
It's also pure fiction.

242
00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,040
It tells us more about Roman
propaganda needs

243
00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:35,120
than it does
about facts on the frontier.

244
00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,760
Supposedly
10,000 Caledonians killed,

245
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:41,760
but only 360 of our
plucky Roman heroes.

246
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:44,800
And they were playing the B team.

247
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:47,680
The legionaries,
the crack heavy infantry,

248
00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:50,120
supposedly weren't even involved.

249
00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:55,640
'The Caledonians didn't have
a written culture.

250
00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,160
'We can't read their account
of the battle.

251
00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,320
'But their history, their culture

252
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:05,960
'and the things that were important
to them, can all be uncovered.

253
00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:11,040
'I've come to Birnie,
just south of Elgin.'

254
00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:15,400
I don't get to work in places like

255
00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:18,040
the Parthenon
or the Valley Of The Kings.

256
00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:20,440
I work in places like pig farms.

257
00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,960
We've spent 14 summers digging here.

258
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:33,040
2,000 years ago, this was a thriving
community - farmer folk.

259
00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:38,040
Not Scottish or Caledonian,
they'd no notion of nationality.

260
00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:41,160
Essentially these were
small-scale societies.

261
00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:45,520
A land of big farms
controlling their local area.

262
00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:50,520
'Modern techniques
are giving us a much clearer picture

263
00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:53,640
'of how these Iron Age people lived.

264
00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:58,320
'Dr Matthew Nicholls
from Reading University

265
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:01,040
'has translated volumes
of archaeological evidence

266
00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:06,000
'into a digital version
of how this site may have looked.'

267
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,280
That's fantastic. That gives us a
great sense of some of the buildings

268
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:11,440
as we look down onto them -
these roundhouses.

269
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,080
These are really large
structures as well, aren't they?

270
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,080
Yeah, I think this is
the important thing.

271
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,280
People call them huts but these
are huge big houses.

272
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,200
I mean these are 16 to 20 metres
in diameter -

273
00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:23,640
absolutely massive and many of them
with more than one storey in them.

274
00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:25,440
You know,
you'd have an upper floor.

275
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:27,920
I've put a couple of shadowy
people into the centre

276
00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:30,440
of the area there to try
and give a sense of that scale,

277
00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:33,440
and buildings like this one
particularly are really huge.

278
00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:35,120
I think that this is the problem,

279
00:17:35,120 --> 00:17:37,760
we lose so much in this
kind of organic architecture

280
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:39,320
that just doesn't survive,

281
00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,000
whereas on a Roman site in stone
it does survive.

282
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:43,880
But of course you can do all
kinds of things

283
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:45,440
with organic architecture with,

284
00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:47,480
you know, fancy rope work
or fancy turf work.

285
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:51,040
It would have made these buildings
look big and grand and impressive.

286
00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,920
I tried to put in some evidence, or
some reconstructive imagery,

287
00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:57,320
of what led to the prosperity
of the site.

288
00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:59,360
So a suggestion of agriculture.

289
00:17:59,360 --> 00:18:01,480
Yes, the agriculture's
all important.

290
00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:04,200
But the craft activities are key
as well, and the iron smelting

291
00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,960
taking place over there,
the blacksmithing, bronze casting,

292
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,680
pot making, leather working, a whole
range of crafts are going on here.

293
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:13,880
Both for them to use
and to show off with,

294
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:16,080
but also to exchange with other folk
and, you know,

295
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,600
as a result, build their
connections, build their power.

296
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:23,120
'The people who lived here were
labelled "barbarians"

297
00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:25,040
'by Roman propaganda.

298
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:29,000
'The archaeology disproves that
completely.'

299
00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,880
'And when I'm not in a muddy ditch,
this is my office.

300
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,560
'The National Museum of Scotland.

301
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,960
'For me the great joy
of working here,

302
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,600
'is that when everyone's left for
the night,

303
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:50,640
'I can enjoy the exhibits on my own.

304
00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:56,520
'The archaeology we've unearthed
all across Scotland gives you

305
00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,880
'a real sense of what mattered to
the people living in

306
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:01,920
'these Iron Age communities.'

307
00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:05,720
Well this is one of
the nicest finds from Birnie.

308
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:10,160
Tiny wee glass gaming piece.

309
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:11,800
Just like a wee marble.

310
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:15,480
And it shows us these folk not only
had spare time on their hands,

311
00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,840
but this is a little masterpiece
of technology

312
00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:24,040
with these swirls of blue
and white glass set into it.

313
00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:27,920
These are skilled craft workers,
not just savages or simple farmers.

314
00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:33,960
This hoard from Blair Drummond
shows the craft skills,

315
00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:37,640
the power and the connections
of some people in Iron Age Scotland.

316
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,480
Locally made, gold
neck ornaments - torcs -

317
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:47,040
along with one that's
inspired by both Mediterranean

318
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:48,560
and local craft styles,

319
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,600
with its wonderful Mediterranean
style decoration in the terminals.

320
00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:57,760
The finds can tell us
what was important to these people.

321
00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:00,480
And this is part of a group of
horse harness fittings.

322
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,840
And horses and chariots
are one of the ways

323
00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:04,880
you'd show off in Iron Age society.

324
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:07,960
This is a strap junction.

325
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:11,280
You'd fasten two leather straps
from the horse harness together.

326
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,880
And, rather than just a plain,
boring old junction,

327
00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:15,520
they decorate these things.

328
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:19,040
So on this one you've got all these,
wonderful curving lines and...

329
00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,680
trumpet shapes
and enamelled decoration on it.

330
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:25,800
These folk decorated the things
that were important to them -

331
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:28,920
horse equipment, jewellery
and also weaponry.

332
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,720
A few folk were warriors

333
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,640
and for them
the sword was a symbol of status

334
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:39,040
and the sword scabbard showed that
off, with its wonderful decoration.

335
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:45,840
'Scotland's warriors had been
soundly beaten at Mons Graupius.

336
00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,960
'Their collected armies
had been massacred.

337
00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:53,720
'Large areas of Caledonia
had been conquered.

338
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:56,880
'And now, they were to be colonised.

339
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:03,720
'For the Romans,
a new phase of the operation began -

340
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:08,640
'to mop up resistance,
to police the native population

341
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,600
'and to push on into the Highlands.

342
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,200
'The very centre of that
new strategy was located here

343
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:16,840
'at Inchtuthil, near Blairgowrie.'

344
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:30,360
Here, on the banks of the River Tay,
was a massive Roman barracks.

345
00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:35,720
Big enough to take an entire legion
- over 5,000 thousand men.

346
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:38,480
You can maybe just see on
the far side of the field

347
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:40,280
where the Land Rover's parked.

348
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,360
That's the other side
of the fortress.

349
00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:47,160
That's the scale we're
talking about here.

350
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,680
'The fortress was 50 acres in size.

351
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:57,360
'Roughly the area of
25 football pitches.

352
00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:00,800
'Ten times the size of
the London Olympic Stadium.'

353
00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:13,800
It would have been a very dramatic
thing in the landscape. Yeah, yeah.

354
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:15,400
Very forbidding,
I would have thought.

355
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:17,040
Can we have a look at the fortress?

356
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:19,720
This gives us
a more close-in view of the fort.

357
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:22,040
64 different barrack blocks
there for the legionaries

358
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,320
to live in, about 5,500 men.

359
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:27,760
And then the tiled roofs -
headquarters building, hospital,

360
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:31,120
houses for the officers built
in a grand Roman courtyard style.

361
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:35,000
The workshop for blacksmithing
and wagon making activities.

362
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,600
In the middle of it all,
that's the headquarters building -

363
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:39,920
the principia - but slightly
smaller than we'd expect

364
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:41,320
for a fort of this importance.

365
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,960
And perhaps that's a sign
that they were going to rebuild it

366
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,960
on a grander scale, when they got
round to finishing the place.

367
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,840
Had they been here longer, we'd be
looking at a very magnificent

368
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,880
praetorium there - the house
of the commanding officer,

369
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,160
who'd be a very high ranking
general indeed.

370
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,480
Very important man,
friend of the Emperor.

371
00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:01,040
When they dug here
in the '50s and '60s,

372
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,120
they found a pit containing
over a million nails.

373
00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:06,800
Ten tonnes of nails.

374
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,240
And the effort involved in making
those, and then in shipping them

375
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:14,640
here, gives you some idea of the
scale of the Roman endeavour.

376
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:20,400
'The Romans thought
they were in Caledonia to stay.

377
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:23,280
'Their newly-built infrastructure
of roads,

378
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:27,200
'forts and signal towers
helped to keep the peace

379
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,480
'and connected Caledonia

380
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:32,000
'to the rest of the Roman world.'

381
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,000
This northern outpost was on track
to become a fully-fledged

382
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,680
province of the Roman Empire.

383
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:45,000
But only four years after
the battle of Mons Graupius,

384
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:49,880
the unstoppable forward momentum
of the mighty Roman Empire stopped.

385
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:57,840
'The armies that controlled
Scotland were needed elsewhere.

386
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,440
'And urgently.

387
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,440
'A rebellion that began
in modern-day Romania

388
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:07,480
'was becoming a genuine threat
to the stability of the empire.

389
00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:14,840
'With fewer men, the Romans could
control less of Caledonia.

390
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:19,840
'Inchtuthil and the whole northern
frontier was abandoned.'

391
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:24,960
'Elsewhere in the empire,

392
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,080
'these great fortresses
gave life to settlements.

393
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,480
'And over time those grew into towns
and cities.'

394
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:36,000
York, Vienna and Strasbourg
were all legionary fortresses.

395
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:41,480
These Perthshire fields could have
been a great Scottish city.

396
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,200
Inchtuthil might have been
Scotland's capital.

397
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,200
'Instead, the Romans headed south.

398
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,800
'The Highlands, the Central
Lowlands, were left behind.

399
00:24:57,920 --> 00:24:59,120
'Left for another day.

400
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,000
'A new frontier,
a buffer zone was created

401
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,840
'across the North of England.

402
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:13,040
'An area that's been studied for
decades by Professor David Breeze.'

403
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,280
'They added more forts,
smaller forts which are

404
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,680
'more to do with frontier control,
looking out...

405
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:23,840
'looking out for people,
moving in the landscape.

406
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,280
'And they added towers.

407
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:28,240
'Towers are to do with observation,'

408
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:29,320
keeping your eye

409
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:31,960
on what's happening
in the frontier zone.

410
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,040
So we can see, that this
is a frontier.

411
00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:37,520
Although it lasted
a whole generation,

412
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,520
it clearly wasn't sufficient
for the Romans because

413
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:44,360
then Hadrian came along and decided
he would add something new to it.

414
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:00,920
This is the best way of, actually,

415
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,760
creating
a system of frontier control,

416
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,000
otherwise your system
of forts and towers

417
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:12,840
have gaps in them, obviously, but a
wall is a very definitive statement.

418
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,080
Is this the first time
that's been done?

419
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:18,320
Hadrian came to Britain from Germany
and in Germany, we are told,

420
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,440
he ordered the construction
of a palisade or a fence,

421
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:23,000
which is not like a garden fence,

422
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,800
these are socking great timbers
a foot across.

423
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,480
So why does Hadrian build a wall
rather than expand?

424
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:34,760
It's probably, in part,
Hadrian's attitude of mind.

425
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:36,840
He very much favoured
Greek culture

426
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:38,240
and the Greeks, at the time,

427
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:40,480
were not expansionists,
unlike the Romans.

428
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:42,640
Also I think,
he's realising at the time

429
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:44,640
that there's a problem in manpower.

430
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,560
The Roman army's a voluntary army,
you see. So against that background,

431
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,720
he's building Hadrian's Wall in part
to say, "Right, OK,

432
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,720
"we're stopping here.
This is the end."

433
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,120
'Even today, almost 2,000 years on,

434
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:02,760
'Hadrian's Wall is mind-blowing.

435
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,120
'The local tribes-folk
must have been amazed.

436
00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:15,840
'Thousands of men, building a stone
wall 80 miles long,

437
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:17,200
'15 feet high.

438
00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:21,800
'Today, we think of it as
a defensive installation.

439
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,080
'But is that all it was?'

440
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:30,000
The Roman army
didn't fight from walls,

441
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,720
it preferred to go out into the open
to defeat an enemy

442
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:37,560
and there its superior training,
its high discipline,

443
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:43,160
its well-armed troops
was more likely to defeat an enemy.

444
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,440
Even a more substantial enemy.

445
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,440
So I think we should be careful
about the defence argument alone.

446
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:53,000
What's going to be really more
troublesome is raiding.

447
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,400
One of the interesting aspects
about the Roman Empire

448
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,160
and its frontiers,
along every frontier

449
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:58,680
we've got evidence for raiding.

450
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,040
And we have a really interesting
inscription from modern Hungary,

451
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,640
which says,
the frontier was built against

452
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,280
the actions of petty raiders.

453
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:12,360
But once it's here, I think we then
move onto another aspect of it,

454
00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,280
which is perhaps more bureaucratic.

455
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,400
You could only come into
the Roman Empire

456
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:19,040
at specified places.

457
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:22,240
And you could only proceed
under military supervision.

458
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:25,840
If I'm a tribesman,

459
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:30,800
for generations my family have
grazed their cattle over there.

460
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,160
We've raided cattle from over there.

461
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,120
We've got family on that side of
the wall,

462
00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:39,000
the sacred places are over there,
this wall stops all that.

463
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,200
Now, if I want to go and meet
the family, if I want to go to

464
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:45,960
one of the gatherings,
I have to ask permission.

465
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,440
I have to come to one of these
gateways through the wall.

466
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,480
I have to knock and in daylight
they might let me through.

467
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:56,000
If they like me.
And they'll search me.

468
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,400
And they'll take my weapons.

469
00:28:57,400 --> 00:28:59,600
And I need to get permission
to do anything.

470
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,600
And as soon as I enter the
Roman Empire, I need permissions,

471
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:06,640
I get taxed on things, they're
keeping an eye on me at every point.

472
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,200
And a squaddie's word is law.
I've got no comeback here.

473
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,240
This wall is a huge interruption
for us.

474
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,320
It would cause enormous resentment.

475
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,200
This bureaucratic element,
of controlling access to

476
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,520
Roman space, just as we are so
interested in controlling access

477
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,000
to our space.

478
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:34,840
Countries build great walls to
protect their frontier zone

479
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:39,000
from, as they see, troublesome
people from the other side.

480
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,680
Generations of Scots have taken
a mistaken pride in this wall.

481
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:51,320
Thinking that it
justifies their warlike reputation.

482
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,400
That they were too tough
for the Roman Empire.

483
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:56,880
But you could take an opposite view.

484
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,400
That the Romans chose
not to stay in Caledonia.

485
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:03,760
Decided it wasn't worth having.

486
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,440
That there weren't the resources
there to keep them.

487
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,440
That this was a planned withdrawal,
not a retreat.

488
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,360
The truth, I think,
was a mixture of both.

489
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:20,480
From the Roman point of view, the
northern tribes were troublesome.

490
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,280
This was a restless frontier.
The wall is testament to that.

491
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,440
But in the end,
this was a pragmatic decision.

492
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,440
Caledonia was more bother
than it was worth.

493
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,400
'But Hadrian's successor
had other ideas.

494
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,640
'16 years after construction
of the wall began,

495
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,040
'Antoninus Pius came to power.

496
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:50,000
'A respected senator, and a man
with his own ideas on where best

497
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,360
'to place Rome's northern frontier.

498
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,360
'The new Emperor was faced
with two problems.

499
00:30:59,960 --> 00:31:03,400
'Continued conflict with
the Caledonians.

500
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:06,120
'And also the problem of
his own credibility.

501
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:09,640
'He had no military honours.

502
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,760
'Antoninus Pius would not be
the last leader

503
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:17,840
'to seek domestic popularity
from foreign military adventures.'

504
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,640
Caledonia was a place where
reputations could be won.

505
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,320
And there was little to be
won on Hadrian's Wall.

506
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,400
So, some 60 years after
Agricola's campaigns,

507
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,720
the legions ventured north again.

508
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,520
'In charge was a man called
Quintus Lollius Urbicus.

509
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,680
'He led his men into
Central Scotland.

510
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,080
'The lowlands between the Clyde
and the Forth.

511
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,720
'And the shortest space between
Britain's east and west coasts.

512
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,680
'The perfect location
to build another wall.

513
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,080
'Nowadays we call it
the Antonine Wall.

514
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,240
'It was made of turf and timber,

515
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:05,960
'so much less survives
than at Hadrian's Wall.

516
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:09,280
'But it was once
a formidable monument.

517
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:13,360
'The legions adorned the wall with
inscribed slabs

518
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,720
'to celebrate their part
in overpowering Caledonia.'

519
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,960
This is the most spectacular
of these discs and slabs.

520
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:23,560
From the east
end of the Antonine Wall,

521
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,880
at Bridgeness on the Firth of Forth.

522
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:30,600
And here the army marked their great
victory for the new Emperor.

523
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,840
This is their view
of that victory...

524
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:39,280
..with the locals defeated,
captured and slaughtered.

525
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,480
It's a classic piece
of Roman propaganda.

526
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,600
'For these poor subjugated locals,
this new wall

527
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,720
'was every bit as daunting
and disruptive as its predecessor.'

528
00:32:57,440 --> 00:32:59,920
First, you'd have to
get across these pits.

529
00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:03,200
And these would have been hidden
under branches and foliage.

530
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:07,240
If you fall through, you're falling
onto sharpened wooden stakes.

531
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:08,560
Seriously nasty.

532
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:16,040
Then there's this ditch, like we saw
at Ardoch earlier

533
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:17,600
but much, much bigger.

534
00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:20,840
Nine metres across,
originally four metres deep,

535
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,120
and with nasty, jaggy thorn
branches in the bottom of it.

536
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:27,440
And there's the wall itself.

537
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:31,600
Four metres high, near vertical
turf, palisade on top of that,

538
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:33,680
Roman soldiers on top of that.

539
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:37,840
'We call them Roman soldiers.

540
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:43,200
'But most of the men stationed in
Caledonia had never been to Rome.'

541
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,280
When we think about the Roman army,

542
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:51,680
most people
think about guys like these.

543
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:53,640
Roman legionaries.

544
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,160
Men from the Med with their swords
and sandals,

545
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:58,480
shivering in our
cold northern climate.

546
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,240
But they were the exception.

547
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,880
Most of the garrison of Roman
Scotland didn't come from the Med.

548
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,200
They came from all
around the Roman world.

549
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:14,320
'The empire recruited soldiers
from the territories it conquered.

550
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:19,120
'Along the Antonine Wall, recruits
came from England, France, Belgium.

551
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:21,840
'And even further afield.'

552
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:28,600
These battered fragments of pottery
come from a casserole dish,

553
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,280
of a style we still use today.

554
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,800
It's called a tagine,
a North African style of cooking.

555
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,600
And this was made and used
by North African soldiers,

556
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:40,840
serving in Scotland
for the Roman army.

557
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,720
There was also tremendous
social variation.

558
00:34:44,720 --> 00:34:47,480
The humble squaddie
would cook his own food,

559
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:52,480
and he'd be serving a rubbish wine,
in rubbish wine flagons like this.

560
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:57,040
And eating his burnt meal
from a pot like this.

561
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:01,080
The officer class would have their
meals cooked by slaves or servants.

562
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,600
And they'd be
dining on food eaten from

563
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:07,760
high quality pottery like this,
imported from France.

564
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:11,920
And drinking the best quality wine
in bronze flagons like this

565
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,000
work of art from the Mediterranean.

566
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,440
And sometimes with this Roman
material, you can get

567
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:21,640
so close to these dead soldiers
you could almost feel their breath.

568
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:26,880
On the bottom of this pot,
the owner carved his name -

569
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,200
Victorinus -
so that nobody would nick it.

570
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,960
There was a real
mix of people on the Roman frontier.

571
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,920
People from all around the
Roman Empire coming together

572
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:41,560
in Scotland, and you see this mix of
cultures as part of frontier life.

573
00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:44,880
This brooch is a really nice
example of that.

574
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:49,200
Cos you look at this swirling
decoration, typical Celtic art,

575
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:51,880
and yet the idea of putting it on
this kind of brooch

576
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:53,600
is a Roman one.

577
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,480
So what we're seeing here, is a
mixing of Roman and local styles

578
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,720
creating this new culture
on the frontier.

579
00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:03,440
'The Antonine Wall
brought cultures together,

580
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:06,600
'as much as it kept people apart.

581
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:12,160
'And for me the best example
of that is here, at Inveresk,

582
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:13,600
'to the east of the wall.

583
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:18,040
'The cemetery was laid out
on the site of a Roman fort.

584
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,840
'Matthew Nicholls has built
a fascinating picture of how

585
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,640
'soldiers and civilians would
have come together.'

586
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,800
Here's the fort on the higher
ground in the loop of the river

587
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,200
but spreading beyond it
is a civilian settlement

588
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,000
that started a Roman town, Vicus.

589
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,640
I think this is a really exciting
thing with Inveresk,

590
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:39,240
the fact that it's not just
a military stronghold.

591
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:40,560
Here we've got the evidence

592
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,840
for everything happening
round about the fort.

593
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,200
Lots of agriculture,
trade and industry activities,

594
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:49,200
bathhouse outside the fort possibly,
and also evidence for temples,

595
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:51,480
parade ground,
possible amphitheatre.

596
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,520
You really get the sense of life
here.

597
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:55,600
This isn't just
the soldiers coming in

598
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:58,280
and beating people up, there's a
whole community developing.

599
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:00,440
What's happening
over on the right there?

600
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,560
Down here, a parade ground, an area
perhaps for military displays

601
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,240
or town events with possible
religious buildings

602
00:37:06,240 --> 00:37:09,080
at one end of it.
Around that, agricultural buildings

603
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:10,320
and land for growing crops.

604
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,360
And here the vicus itself, the town
with its street down the middle

605
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:17,240
and buildings spreading off on thin
plots to the north and south.

606
00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:19,360
It really gives a sense
of a community here.

607
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,200
And when you think, also in here
would be all the industry,

608
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:24,280
the pottery kilns,
and the metalworking,

609
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,680
and also the facilities
the soldiers needed -

610
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,760
the fast food joints and where
their families are staying as well.

611
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:31,120
And the whole thing,

612
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,120
still dominated by the fort
up on the high ground at the top.

613
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:38,520
'At Inveresk, the camp followers
and merchants offered services

614
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,040
'and goods for sale to the soldiers.

615
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:44,720
'But this was only
part of the story.

616
00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:47,480
'This community
was at the sharp end

617
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,040
'of a huge imperial supply chain,

618
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:55,880
'transporting the choice
cuts of empire to the front line.'

619
00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:01,080
Excavations here found a massive
250 gallon wooden barrel,

620
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,120
once filled with German wine.

621
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:07,640
And work in the sewers of the Roman
fort at Bearsden showed that

622
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:12,320
the soldiers there had exotic
Mediterranean foods in their diet -

623
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:17,920
fig, celery, dill and coriander.
This was a good life.

624
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:19,600
'And Caledonian communities

625
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:22,440
'could themselves
get a taste of the good life.

626
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:28,120
'Here at Castle Craig, on a hilltop
south of Perth,

627
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:31,080
'a team of archaeologists

628
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,600
'led by Heather James has discovered
an Iron Age broch -

629
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:36,560
'a stone roundhouse -

630
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,000
'with evidence that the inhabitants

631
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,520
'had access to
a wider, wealthier world.'

632
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,600
It's very exciting to find

633
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,200
within the material

634
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,920
within the broch, not just
the artefacts you'd associate with

635
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:50,600
farming, like a sickle

636
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,800
and weaving combs
and spindle whorls.

637
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:58,240
But we also have Roman goods
like a brooch, Roman glass, pottery.

638
00:38:58,240 --> 00:38:59,440
So all these things

639
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,200
give an indication that the people
who live here are being given

640
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:05,240
some fantastic objects,
Roman objects,

641
00:39:05,240 --> 00:39:08,440
perhaps in exchange
for supplying goods

642
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:10,920
and food to the troops
that were up here.

643
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:15,720
This is at the top of the local
social pyramid

644
00:39:15,720 --> 00:39:19,000
dealing with the Roman world.
The Romans are marching up and down

645
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:20,440
that area over there.

646
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,360
And one of the ways they keep
this area quiet, is by making sure

647
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:27,080
they've got good relationships with
the local population.

648
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:28,440
Essentially bribing them,

649
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:30,720
paying them off,
keeping on good terms with them.

650
00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:33,160
Can I? Yes, please do.

651
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,440
That is stunning.

652
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,240
It's very heavy, isn't it? Yeah.

653
00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:41,960
Typical weight for 2nd-century
Roman.

654
00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:46,880
Made probably in northern Italy,
somewhere like that.

655
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,320
It's quite a flashy example,

656
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:51,720
the fact that you've got
the decoration there as well.

657
00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:54,600
In local context this is a real
way of showing off. You know,

658
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,880
very few folk would have had access
to those kind of things.

659
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,720
'For the Romans,
what happened at Castle Craig

660
00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:02,240
'and sites like it

661
00:40:02,240 --> 00:40:05,480
'was all about
winning hearts and minds.

662
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:08,600
'A strategy that's still
very much in use.'

663
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:10,200
You can give them land,

664
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:12,240
give them riches, give them money,

665
00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:17,120
allow them access,
allow them trading opportunities,

666
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,720
to ensure that the ruling
elites are those who support you

667
00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:22,800
and you absorb them within you.

668
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,840
I think the other thing is you've
just got to simply make sure

669
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:29,000
that the public goods
that you might...

670
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:33,880
introduce as part of your rule
are favourable to citizens.

671
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:38,240
If a citizen of a country is
relatively safe,

672
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:42,400
well, that's a...
that's a big bonus in your favour.

673
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,840
And they're unlikely to want to
side with someone

674
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,960
who's going to make life much more
insecure

675
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,120
when they can get about with

676
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:54,440
trading and living
a relatively peaceful life.

677
00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:01,200
The Roman invaders provided a natty
lifestyle for local bigwigs.

678
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:06,320
But the ruthless face of Roman
imperialism was never far away.

679
00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:11,200
Time and again, they showed they
were capable of unspeakable cruelty.

680
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:18,520
'Rome had crushed local uprisings
all across the empire.

681
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,440
'At Masada in modern-day Israel,

682
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,800
'they laid siege to a Jewish
sect in a hilltop fort.

683
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:29,560
'A thousand men and women
endured a three-month siege.

684
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:35,960
'Then committed suicide, rather than
surrender to the Roman aggressors.'

685
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,600
And Scotland might have had
her very own Masada.

686
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,840
I'm flying over Burnswark Hill,
just outside Lockerbie.

687
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:50,320
And from the air, you can clearly
see the two Roman camps

688
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,400
threatening the Iron Age hillfort.

689
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,840
'I think the two camps
were siege camps.

690
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:03,400
'The locals had resisted
or attacked the Romans.

691
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,920
'They had retreated to
their hillfort.

692
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:10,120
'And the Romans came to get them.'

693
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:14,360
The three circles just outside
the southern camp are the best clue.

694
00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:23,000
This massive earthen mound
was probably

695
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,520
the base for a piece of
Roman heavy artillery.

696
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,720
Some scholars argue
it was a training ground,

697
00:42:29,720 --> 00:42:31,280
a practice range if you like.

698
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:37,000
But I think the evidence suggests
there was a real siege here.

699
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,720
That the Romans took the time
to bring up

700
00:42:39,720 --> 00:42:44,320
their heavy technology
to terrify the locals.

701
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:49,200
'The invaders had a significant
technological advantage

702
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:52,200
'over the Caledonians.

703
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:58,880
'Every legion had 60 of these
deadly scorpion catapults.'

704
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:04,960
And how does it work?
This is a 27-inch bolt,

705
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,760
which the machine
was designed to shoot.

706
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:10,840
It has
a point which makes a small hole,

707
00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:14,320
and these are sharp corners
which will cut its way in.

708
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,800
It will penetrate plate armour.

709
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,680
Elevate more, more. That's it.
That's about right. Shoot there.

710
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:26,400
And we're off. Wow. That is about
140 metres. Just at a guess.

711
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,160
So you could reach the top of the
hill? You could reach the fort?

712
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:31,360
Yes, from here.

713
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:33,680
It's a deadly looking thing.
If you've got a row of them

714
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:36,000
along the ramparts,
a deadly looking thing.

715
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,960
So you've got 180 of these bolts
in the air at any one time.

716
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:40,760
And they would be battery shot.

717
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,680
They would be shot to an order.

718
00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:46,680
They would fire and they would pick
out weak spots in the opposition,

719
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:48,080
they would look for the chief.

720
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:51,120
They would look for an attack,
and they would then barrage,

721
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:53,240
fire, shoot at that.

722
00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:59,000
'The Romans had a range of heavy
artillery.

723
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,800
'Catapults,
mounted on the earth mounds,

724
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,400
'fired murderous stone balls
far into the hillfort.

725
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:10,720
'Slingers used lethal lead shot
to pick people off.'

726
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:18,160
Up here on top of the hill,
it must have been terrifying.

727
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,560
Crammed in with your extended
family, your children,

728
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,280
probably running out of food,

729
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:29,560
with the iron grip of
the Roman army all around you.

730
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:37,440
There's no record
as to what happened.

731
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:41,160
But it's unlikely it ended
well for the defenders.

732
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,880
The Roman army didn't really
believe in prisoners.

733
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:47,880
Men would most likely
have been killed.

734
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:51,320
Women and children
sent into slavery.

735
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:56,400
'The Romans always saw
themselves as the good guys.

736
00:44:56,400 --> 00:45:00,200
'But they were an army
of occupation.

737
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:04,200
'And of course some of the
Caledonians would have resisted

738
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:05,560
'and become more warlike.

739
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:10,720
'The Romans had created a problem

740
00:45:10,720 --> 00:45:13,320
'that they themselves
would have to solve.

741
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:19,160
'And it was a problem
they'd have to solve with less men.

742
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:23,440
'Once again, troops had been sent to
countries of greater importance.

743
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:29,200
'And so, only 20 years after
beginning construction,

744
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,800
'the Romans gave up
the Antonine Wall

745
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:34,480
'and retreated back to
its predecessor.

746
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:41,640
'Rome needed a new kind of solution
to the problem of Caledonia.

747
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:45,760
'Not manpower. But money.

748
00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:50,880
'And at Birnie
in the summer of 2000,

749
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,640
'we uncovered amazing evidence
of just that.'

750
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:57,880
It was a dreich afternoon.

751
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,000
We were digging around here
at the base of the plough soil,

752
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:03,760
and what we found,
was truly spectacular.

753
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:10,880
And here it is.

754
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:15,120
A hoard of Roman silver
from the heart of a Caledonian farm.

755
00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:17,760
And the following season
they found another hoard.

756
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,080
Buried in two bags
just a few metres away.

757
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:26,920
It looks to me like a series of
payoffs to a powerful local leader.

758
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:29,320
Rome couldn't fight everybody.

759
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:33,840
Battles or sieges like Burnswark
took a lot of resources.

760
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:36,880
And they could also use diplomacy,
or bribery if you like,

761
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:39,560
as a way of dealing with
the local tribes.

762
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:44,320
This policy was used across northern
Scotland in the trouble spots.

763
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:47,240
And in the years after
the Antonine withdrawal,

764
00:46:47,240 --> 00:46:50,480
it helped to bring peace,
at least for a while.

765
00:46:55,240 --> 00:46:58,840
'50 years after
the death of Antoninus Pius,

766
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:03,160
'a man raised in the bustling olive
oil cities of North Africa,

767
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:06,440
'would be the next
to attempt a conquest of Caledonia.

768
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:11,880
'The Emperor Septimius Severus.

769
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:18,920
'The Governor of Britain wrote to
Severus saying that the Barbarians

770
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:23,040
'were in revolt, destroying
virtually everything on the island.

771
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,000
'The Emperor went on the offensive.

772
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:33,400
'He and his son Caracalla would
lead a massive assault.

773
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:38,320
'The third major Roman
invasion into present-day Scotland.

774
00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:44,360
'The final surge.
The last throw of the dice.

775
00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:48,440
'This was a military operation
on a truly epic scale.'

776
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:52,680
ANCIENT GREEK QUOTATION
IN TRANSLATION:

777
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:54,960
"Let no-one escape
sheer destruction.

778
00:47:54,960 --> 00:48:00,320
"Not even the babe
in the womb of the mother."

779
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,600
'These fields, at
St Leonards in the Scottish borders,

780
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:06,440
'were a key part of that campaign.'

781
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:15,480
There's nothing to see here.
Absolutely nothing.

782
00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:18,840
But this field hides the biggest
marching camp

783
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:21,360
known in the entire empire.

784
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:23,760
The sheer scale of it is amazing.

785
00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:27,600
It would take me 40 minutes
to walk round the perimeter.

786
00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:34,360
'This was one of
the largest armies

787
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:38,000
'ever assembled for battle in the
history of the British Isles.

788
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:42,600
'Rome's last chance
to colonise Scotland.'

789
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:48,960
We don't know exactly how
the camp was laid out,

790
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:51,120
or what units Severus had with him
on campaign,

791
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:53,160
but from reading through
ancient sources,

792
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,480
I'd put about 35,000 people
into here, with the tents arranged,

793
00:48:56,480 --> 00:48:58,360
as we know they did in orderly line,

794
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:02,040
separated by type of unit, type of
soldier. Baggage train, hospital,

795
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:03,920
and here in the centre,
the Emperor's tent,

796
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:05,440
right in the middle of the camp.

797
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:08,240
Also very near the highest
point of the camp.

798
00:49:08,240 --> 00:49:12,120
It does make the point that this was
the Emperor himself on campaign,

799
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:13,440
you know, for a while this was

800
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:15,800
the heart of the Roman Empire,
for at least a day or two.

801
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,840
Yes. Leading the troops in person -
at that stage getting on in years

802
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:21,040
and he had gout and he had problems
with his sons -

803
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:22,920
but he was nevertheless here
and trying to

804
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:25,240
lead the Roman Empire
forward against the enemy.

805
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:27,520
And all around him
thousands of his loyal troops.

806
00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:35,960
Severus gathered his forces
at Carpow,

807
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:38,000
on the southern bank
of the River Tay.

808
00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:48,080
And what happened next, became
the stuff of Roman military legend.

809
00:49:48,080 --> 00:49:51,360
The heartland of the troublesome
tribes lay to the north.

810
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:56,200
To get at them, Severus did
what a modern army would do.

811
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:01,160
To get across the river, he built
a pontoon, a bridge of boats.

812
00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:09,480
'This first ever Tay Bridge,
was commemorated in a Roman coin.

813
00:50:11,240 --> 00:50:14,400
'The Emperor's troops
were poised to flood north.

814
00:50:16,040 --> 00:50:19,640
'To finally and conclusively conquer
Caledonia.

815
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,920
'And yet it didn't happen.

816
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:26,000
'Once again,

817
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:30,880
'the legions were thwarted by
the Caledonian insurgents.'

818
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:33,640
GREEK QUOTATION IN TRANSLATION:

819
00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:36,000
"It was easy for them to escape.

820
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:39,440
"To disappear into the woods
and marshes

821
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:41,440
"because of their knowledge
of the terrain,

822
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:45,000
"but all this hampered the Romans."

823
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:51,080
Severus died in York
before the campaigns were finished.

824
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:56,040
And it's said his sons
"came to terms with the barbarians".

825
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:59,120
A phrase that suggests sweeteners
and subsidies rather than

826
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:01,840
the crushing military
victory of Roman propaganda.

827
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,440
Once more the Romans fell back
on Hadrian's Wall.

828
00:51:07,720 --> 00:51:11,080
But this conflict had created
more problems than it solved.

829
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:15,600
'Three campaigns -

830
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,360
'first Agricola,
then Antoninus Pius,

831
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:22,560
'and finally Severus -
had all failed.

832
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:26,120
'And now, all across the empire,

833
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:29,440
'Roman control
was under increased threat.

834
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:34,560
'From the Goths. The Saxons.

835
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:37,120
'The empire was in mortal danger.

836
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:39,800
'And in Caledonia,

837
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:43,760
'the Roman invaders
were set to face a new challenge.

838
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:48,480
'The Caledonian tribes had been
shaken by the Roman attacks,

839
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:53,400
'and reformed into new,
more threatening groups.

840
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:55,800
'The Romans called them Picti -

841
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:57,960
'the painted people.

842
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:01,440
'Nowadays we call them the Picts.

843
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,520
I've come to see this Pictish
symbol stone at Abdie Kirkyard

844
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:10,320
in Fife, an ideal place

845
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:13,760
to meet up with Dr Alex Woolf
of St Andrews University -

846
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,560
a leading authority
on these mysterious people.

847
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:20,960
To begin with, back in the days
of Agricola

848
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:22,680
and some of his successors,

849
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:25,120
the Romans probably
thought that they were gradually

850
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:28,440
going to be expanding the frontier
and take over the whole island.

851
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:31,520
They saw the Picts, or the people
who would become Picts,

852
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:34,120
as simply other tribes
that would be subdued.

853
00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:35,880
And as that frontier
became permanent,

854
00:52:35,880 --> 00:52:38,280
and they realised that
they couldn't penetrate,

855
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:41,400
for any length of time, north of
the Forth into the fringes of

856
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:46,560
the Highlands, they probably
began to idealise the Picts

857
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:47,880
as an unbeatable barbarian,

858
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:50,240
more savage than anyone
they'd encountered before.

859
00:52:50,240 --> 00:52:53,960
We have the British Latin writer
Gildas.

860
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:56,320
He describes the Picts as
foul hordes,

861
00:52:56,320 --> 00:53:01,600
coming out of their rocks like worms
and almost subhuman.

862
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:04,720
And that's very different
from the way say Tacitus presented

863
00:53:04,720 --> 00:53:06,920
Caledonian leaders like Calgacus.

864
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:10,320
There they were seen as
noble opponents.

865
00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:12,240
But by the late Roman period,

866
00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:14,960
they've become
almost subhuman savages.

867
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:17,120
And that to some extent
is a way of the Romans

868
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:20,520
legitimising their own failure,
in being unable to pacify this area.

869
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:23,760
'Under sustained attack,

870
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:27,160
'the once mighty empire
was becoming desperate.

871
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,760
'No price was too high
to retain control.

872
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:36,320
'Rome was quite prepared to sell
the family silver.

873
00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:41,400
'This remarkable hoard
was found at Traprain Law,

874
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,680
'the site of an early hillfort
east of Edinburgh.'

875
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:50,240
This is barely a quarter
of the Traprain treasure.

876
00:53:50,240 --> 00:53:54,040
The biggest and most spectacular
hoard of Roman silver known

877
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:57,040
from beyond the edge of the empire.

878
00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:02,040
And it can tell us the story of the
death throes of Roman Scotland.

879
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:06,960
It dates to the middle of
the 5th century or so,

880
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:11,080
and consists of really flashy,
elite Roman tableware -

881
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:13,800
plates and bowls and cups
and spoons.

882
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:15,840
But look at the condition of it.

883
00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:18,400
Bent, broken, battered.

884
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:21,320
Almost all of it was in bits,
when it went into the ground.

885
00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:26,040
Now, when it was first found, this
was thought to be loot,

886
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:27,480
that our barbaric ancestors

887
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:29,680
had descended on the Roman world
as it died,

888
00:54:29,680 --> 00:54:33,600
looted and plundered the rich
villas, and chopped these treasures

889
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:36,600
to pieces because, of course,
they were barbarians,

890
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:38,760
who couldn't understand
proper classical art.

891
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:42,600
This seems a pretty dodgy argument
now.

892
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,040
There's plenty of good parallels
from this elsewhere,

893
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:46,680
and other suggestions are possible.

894
00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:49,000
So why do we have all this
material here?

895
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:50,440
It might be a bribe.

896
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:53,000
It might be similar to the coin
hoards we saw earlier.

897
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:54,720
But it could be payment.

898
00:54:54,720 --> 00:54:57,080
Payment for services rendered.

899
00:54:58,240 --> 00:55:02,480
A lot of this silver is chopped
into particular weight units.

900
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:06,160
The weight unit you'd use in dealing
with the Roman world.

901
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:09,360
Whoever had this silver
was dealing with Rome.

902
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:14,400
And a likely scenario, is that this
is payment for soldiers.

903
00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:16,520
That the people in Traprain Law

904
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:19,600
are acting as warriors
for the Roman army.

905
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:23,800
So this is the bounty
of a late-Roman mercenary

906
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:27,760
serving to protect the last
remnants of the Roman frontier

907
00:55:27,760 --> 00:55:30,560
from the Picts lying to the north.

908
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:36,640
'For more than three centuries,
the Roman invaders enjoyed

909
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:40,600
'a technical, financial and,
above all, military superiority.

910
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:46,240
'But somehow it hadn't been enough.'

911
00:55:46,240 --> 00:55:52,000
We've seen throughout counter
insurgency, that the large,

912
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:56,160
well-equipped army isn't necessarily
the army that wins through.

913
00:55:56,160 --> 00:56:00,000
Because large armies
do find it very hard to adapt,

914
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:02,800
to change the status quo
and to adopt a different course

915
00:56:02,800 --> 00:56:06,360
because the current course
is the one that's always worked.

916
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:10,640
And I would imagine part of
what made Roman life very difficult

917
00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:14,520
for the Romans here, was that
inability to constantly adapt

918
00:56:14,520 --> 00:56:18,800
against an insurgency
that was adaptable.

919
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:20,840
So the things
that made them successful

920
00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:23,720
are the things that crippled them
in the end? Inevitably.

921
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,280
'By the 5th century,
the Roman Empire

922
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:35,080
'was little more than a memory
for the people of Caledonia.

923
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:42,560
'In time, Rome would become
a byword for civilisation.

924
00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:47,080
'Pictish artists
copied Roman styles.

925
00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:49,240
'Pictish kings took Roman names.

926
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,880
'Rome was no longer a threat.

927
00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:57,080
'But its influence
lived on for centuries.'

928
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:09,440
'1,800 years ago, tartan clad
Caledonians

929
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:12,840
'were marched to
the deserts of North Africa -

930
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:15,840
'the spoils of a faraway war.'

931
00:57:19,040 --> 00:57:22,520
To celebrate, the Romans built this
great triumphal arch.

932
00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:28,400
But there was no great triumph.
Scotland was never conquered.

933
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:30,880
The empire always had
bigger fish to fry.

934
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:34,040
But Scotland was certainly
transformed by

935
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:37,240
three centuries of contact
and conflict with Rome.

936
00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:43,000
Like every superpower since, the
empire manipulated local societies,

937
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:47,080
created tension and strife.
Some people got seriously rich.

938
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:50,440
Some got seriously annoyed
and fought back.

939
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:56,480
So in the end, how should we assess
Rome's influence on Scotland?

940
00:57:56,480 --> 00:58:00,200
For me it was both a force of
aggression and a force for change.

941
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:04,080
A golden opportunity
AND a mortal danger.

942
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:07,280
Two sides of exactly the same coin.

943
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:32,800
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