The ANTIQUARIAN REPERTORY; or, No. VIII. "Antiquam exquirite matrem." The ROMAN Invasion, and Military Antiquities of that People in BRITAIN. Respectfully inscribed to A. CARSON, Esq. F. A. S. A Gentleman eminent for his knowledge of our Classical Antiquities. WHEN we contemplate for a mo ment those vast and mighty empires, those formidable nations, and warlike armaments, which yielded to the overwhelming power of ancient Rome, we are astonished to think that a small and circumscribed island, such as Britain, devoid in a great measure of military resources, should have been able to cope with, and finally to arrest the progress of their unconquered legions. After subduing the southern extremity of the island, Agricola, in his third campaign, is said to have pushed his conquest as far northward as the "Estuarium Taum," and even to the "Ptoroton of Ptolomy." This theory rests solely on unfounded assertion, and controvertible evidence; for, in the first place, no Roman remains have been found beyond the extremity of the Damnii, much less in the remote kingdoms of the Vicomagi, or Epedeii. Secondly, the generic name, Tuum, has been completely misunderstood by the commentators on Tacitus. Tau, in the Cambro British, signifies merely an expansion, an æstuary, an inland sea, and is not applicable to the River Tay in particular, more than to the Solway, or the estuary of the Deva, or Dec.Had Agricola penetrated to the Caledonian Taum in his third expedition, Dec. 1816. occasion for him to have retreated so there would certainly have been no far backward as to the dominions of the Briganta, the boundaries of Cumberland and Northumberland: as it is well known, that his attack upon the Novanta was made from that kingdom. The Solway Frith appears sufficiently obvious to have been the extremity of the Roman conquest, in this their third campaign, so that Agricola never saw the Tay till after the celebrated battle of the "Mons Grampus." In his fourth campaign, Agricola, A.D. 81, explored and overran that immense mountainous region lying between the "Itana Estuarium," (the Solway) and the "Glotta Estuarium," (the Clyde), which flows so far into the interior of the country, as to leave only a very narrow isthmus: here he formed, with immense labour, a formidable Pratentura, and exiled the warlike remains of the Damnii, and the Atta. cotti, into a now insulated region Much yet remained to be done before the untamed spirit of the mountains could be broken, and the eagles of Rome build their eyries in safety, on the battled summits of Ben-Cruachan, or Ben-More. Those immense regions extending to the west, inhabited by the Novanta, the Damniï, and a part of the Selgove, had, as yet, been impenetrable to their troops, and their warlike hordes frequently hung upon the wing, and harassed the ad vanced guard of the conquering army. Agricola, in order that the annexed provinces might remain in safety, resolved to invade those. western dominions, and reduce them solely to the Roman power; for this purpose he prepared to carry on his invasion both by sea and land, embarked his forces on the opposite coast at a place called "Kill-bride Bay," in Cumberland, and landed at "Loch-brow," near the Vita Agric. XXIII, Pow Powfoot, in the kingdom of the Selgova. Being now in the midst of a bold and hitherto unconquered people, it became necessary to throw up ramparts, and dig ravines and fosses for his defence. Accordingly, traces of a hitherto unnoticed vicinal way leads off from this place due north, below Whitecroft, past Dalton, and so on, till it joins the grand western iter on Berren-Gael Moor. This immense fosse is upwards of twenty feet in breadth, the sloping bank on each side being raised nearly ten feet, and must have been cut the whole way through an extensive forest; as a chain of morasses stretches from Powfoot to the river Annan, in this direction. One part of the army appears to have filed off by this passage, to join the main body of the troops encamped on Berren-Gael, while the remaining cohorts directed their course due west, and began to penetrate the vast woods on the Locher. The first thing to be accomplished was to hew down the trees and construct a passage across the swamps and fens, formed by the choaked-up waters of this stagnant flood ‡; which, being That a landing was effected at this spot, and not at the mouth of the Locher, nearly seven miles to the westward, is evident, from vast quantities of that superior kind of brick for which the Romans were so famous in their manufacture, have been found near this spot, and fragments of pateræ, and other similar remains, have been met with in the vicinity. One of those bricks, of a very superior huc and texture, marked with hieroglyphic characters, is in the possession of J. R. Irving, Advocate, from Foot-man-brig †, in the neighbourhood of Powfoot. The Locher is a large stagnant river in Dumfries-shire, flowing through the midd of an immense morass, thirteen miles in length, by five in breadth. This place appears to have been formerly a large inlet, er arm of the sea; as several canoes similar Foot-man-brig, from the Celtic, Fealin, a grove; mean, the middle; and brig, a bridge, the middle of the grove. accomplished, they passed over and encamped right against Wardlawhill, the first Celtic fortress in that department of the country, a few miles to the north of that great bounding estuary "The Solway sea." This place has very erroneously been denominated the "Mons Uxillum," of Ptolemy, by former antiquaries; whereas, in fact, it scarcely deserves the appellation of a Cuer, or fastness, at all, much less of one of the most important British strengths in the western kingdom. But what is cer tainly worthy of notice, and has escaped the penetration of every writ er, whether ancient or modern, is, that here is the local site of “ Cadwriaeth," pronounced Catrail, rendered immortal, by the glorious, tho' ineffectual struggle of the Cimbric tribes, against the Saxons of Deira, and Bernicia. Cadwriaeth in the ancient Celtic simply signifies ward, or watch; and the Saxonised prefix law, a hill. From this situation Agricola sent out his detachments to explore the country, and cut a passage thro' the remaining parts of the woods; which, being done, he gave orders to strike the tents and ford the Nidus, (or Nith,) near to where Dumfries is rican Indians, have been dug up at the depth to those of the Esquimaux, or North Ameof eight feet below the moss, and at the distance of ten and twelve miles from the sea It appears to have been converted into a wood after the receding of the waters, as large trees are constantly found lying above the stratum of sleech and sand. There is every reason to suppose that Agricola opened a passage through the whole extent of this wood. The trees which were then cut down have been recently dug up several feet below the surface; and a causeway formed of these trees has also been discovered a little to the N. W. of Comlongan Castle, and pointing towards Caerlaverock, or Wardlawhill, in Nithsdale, where Agricola pitched his first camp. Dumfries, from the Celtic Drum, a ridge; and freyth, the frith, the ridge upon the frith. Statistical Account, V. 142. That the brass weapons found in the cairnes and tumuli of this island were of Roman origin, is a position altogether unauthenticated and erroneous. They used brass, but not in constructing their weapons of warfare. These weapons were undoubtedly of Celtic origin, as we find no mention of them made by any of the ancient Roman writers. “Liastati spargunt fastas hit ferreus imber," says Ennius, which plainly shews how much iron was superior to brass in their estimation; of course, all those brazen spearheads, axes, swords, and other implements, belonged exclusively to the northern nations, and are never to be found in Roman cairnes or tumuli, except in those where hecatombs of victims have been sacrificed, and their armour thrown into the Rogus, to propitiate the manes of the mighty dead. In various parts of this country where the imperial eagles never flew, vast quantities of brazen armour and domestic utensils have frequently been dug up, but especially in Cornwall, where are no traces of this great and mighty people. "Cambden's Brit. Corn." Even the Galea of the Romans were more frequently composed of iron than of brass; as we learn from the command of Cæsar issued to his troops at the battle of Pharsalia. "Faciem Ferri, Miles.”—Flor. IV. p. 2. The only brazen instruments made use of by this people were their military trumpets. These were the tuba, nearly similar to our Ten miles and a half in a southwest direction from the Moat of Urr, on the west banks of the Deva, or Dee, at modern trumpet; the cornu, similar to our French horn; the buccina, similar to, and used for the same purpose as our modern bugle, viz. to set the watches, and assemble the parade; and the lituus, or clarion, all of brass, from whence the trumpeters were designated Eneatores.-Vide Tacit. Hist. V. 22.-Lucan, VIII. 24-Livy, VIII. 35.--Hor. Ode. I. &c. Virg. Æn. VI. 167.-Suet. Jul. 32. and It is certain, from the concurring testi. monies of ancient authors, that the Goths, the Danes, and the Angles, used axes, that they were either buried or thrown inswords, and spears, exclusively of brass, and to the fire along with their dead; but those found in tumuli along with urns, inscribed with any of the following letters, are undoubtedly Roman, V. S. L. M.-M. O. D. -0. E.-O. 0.-0. D. A. V. which signify, "Votum Solvit lubens Merito.”—“ Marito Qllam Dedit."- “Olla Ossuaria.""Olla data a viro." &c. At a place called the Mill of Buittle, there was found, some years ago, three Roman coins of silver, one of Tiberius, one of Hadrian, and one of Commodus.Stat. Acc. XI. 71. About three miles north of Urr Moat, on the farm of Glenarm, there was discovered in a cavern, on removing a quantity of stones in a quarry, a Roman cinereal urn of a gravelly brown earth, six and a quarter inches in diameter, and five and a quarter inches in height, and which contained a black substance like tar. Several urns of the same kind were found along with it, but they were destroyed by the workmen.-Ibid. Account of the Ant. Society of Scotland, p. 11. p. 55. This cavern appears to have been a Roman cemetery. In the year 1776, a piece of a Roman sword of fine brass, and a round pin of the same metal, were found in Caer-lochan-Cairn, on a hill in the lands of Chapelearn, about four and a half miles S. W. from Glenarm." Ib.-Had the gentleman who drew up the account of these vencrable remains been at all conversant in Roman and Celtic Antiquities, he would certainly have known that the Romans ext cavated no caves or cemeteries in this country. That their urns, instead of coarse gravelly materials, were always of a superior texture and construction, and unvaryingly inscribed with sepulchral initials. But that ever a Roman sword or gladius of fine brass was found in a cairne, is an outrage against al at a place called Spyland, may be traced several Roman stations, all formed on this warlike Itcr. These camps are in the midst of innumerable British strengths, which seem to have been bravely defended against the encroachments of a foreign foe. On the farm of Little Spyland, there is a large British fort, of a circular form, surrounded by a vallum and fosse with a double rampart. A little more than a mile to the south of this ancient strength, at a place called Whinny legate, is a Roman camp; and on the farm of Bombie is another camp of a similar kind. Between these two Roman camps there is a large British strength, of an oval form. About three miles from hence, at the old church of Dunrod, there is another Roman camp; and in the surrounding districts there are innumerable British posts, which seem to have been piled in ages prior to the invasion of their country by the Roman army under Julius Agricola. Such then were the important strengths, the vast hill-forts and military stations, which girdled and intersected the powerful kingdom of the Selgova, and opposed almost insurmountable difficulties to the con all Antiquarian investigation. The Romans piled no cairnes. Their sepulchral mounds were the tumbon or tumuli of the ancient; even the very name of the place itself where these relics were found, goes to invalidate this surreptitious assertion, Caer-lochanCairne is derived from the British Caer, a Fort; and the Scoto-Saxon termination Lochan, by the water; so that Caer-lochan Cairne simply signifies, a pile of stones on the fort by the water. In the course of this route there was dug out of the earth at Gelston, a Roman urn, richly carved, and full of reddish coJoured ashes; and a fine pugio, or dagger, of brass, twenty-two inches in length, and plated, on the handle, with gold.-Stat. Acc. VIII. 305. Between the two camps at Whinneyleggate and Bombie, there are three British forts, one very large, and two smaller ones, which all derived much of their strength from the eminences on which they were situated.Stat. Acc. XI. 24. queror's arms. No place in Britain appears to have been better fortified, and the number of military ways and camps point out the great difficulties the Romans had to encounter in their colonization of this celebrated frontier dominion. The last and most important station of the Selgova, in this department of Caledonia, was at a place called Drummore - Castle, in the neighbourhood of Kirkcudbright. The ancient name of this British strength was Caer-pent-origen-a name highly descriptive of the nature of its situation. This fortress was in possession of the Romans under the Antonines, and remained till their final abdication of this province. It is situated on an eminence above Drummore, and commands an extensive prospect of the Solway frith and the adjacent countries, and is surrounded by a rampart and deep fosse, which are pretty entire. Near the base of the height on which it stands there was a large well, now built up with stones, and which supplied the fortress with water. The immense ruins of other times to be met with all over the southern parts of this great peninsula, from the eastern to the western extremity, fully prove, that Agricola invaded it from the south, and not from the north, as has been supposed, as there is not a single remain to be traced over the whole of its vast northern confines. The Romans, in order to invade the Navantine kingdom, must have crossed the Dee, not far from its influx into the ocean. Their country seems not to have been strongly-fortified, and a want of remains adds to this A little more than half a mile southwest of this Roman camp at Bombie, there is, on the summit of an eminence, a large British hill-fort, called Drummore Castle. About the same distance north-east, on the farm of Milton, there is another British fort. There are also several other British posts which strengthened this part of the Selgovean territory.-Stat Acc. XI. 27. |