Forgotten Wars - The Roman Invasion of Scotland ⚔️ ALL PARTS (79-84 AD)

The Romans had first set foot upon the Isle of Britannia with Caesar's expeditions in 55 and 54 BC. Yet it would be almost a century before Emperor Claudius launched a proper invasion to conquer southern England and Wales. The Britons would resist them staunchly over the years with raids, pitched battles, and full-scale revolts. Ultimately, however, they would find themselves crushed by the weight of the inexorable legions. Unseated by this conquest, the Romans now sought new foes in yet uncharted regions, pushing the bounds of the empire to its most northern extent in history. Today, let us bring to life Agricola's famous invasion of ancient Scotland. For now, I wanted to share with you the creation of a fellow world builder who actually turned their work into a book called Symphony of the Sojourn. To set the stage, the book takes place in the Sojourn Sea, an archipelago in the midst of a vast ocean between large trading empires and old world powers. Having been discovered 200 years ago, it now sits at the vortex of a feverish rush by outside forces to stake their claim and colonize a land with potential to reshape the world's balance of power. Such is the call of the Church of Weavers, whose mission is to seek out and deify unique individuals capable of precipitating monumental historical shifts. The book's framing is inspired by the Canterbury Tales, wherein multiple storytellers shed light on the tapestry of the world and contribute to a larger arc. The plot itself unknots the mystery behind the adventurer's treasure hunt, which culminates in a grand confrontation with destiny. You can find out more about this novel and this world by clicking the link in the description below where you can check it out for yourself. So I hope you read it and enjoy. For context, it is worth briefly summarizing the political landscape of ancient Britain. Celtic culture had arrived in Britain around the second millennium BC and gradually spread to become the dominant culture across what is now England, Wales, and Scotland. The Britons were divided into several tribes, such as the Iceni and Burgantes, who regularly competed with one another for supremacy over the span of centuries. By the time our story takes place, the Romans had been fighting in Britain for four decades. The famous Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD under the Emperor Claudius, who ordered a campaign against hostile tribes in the south under the pretext of protecting Rome's allies and trade interests in the region. Over the following years, the Romans steadily ground their way through any tribe that opposed them, creating the province of Britannia. However, they faced stern resistance across their many campaigns, and in 60 AD, all of their efforts came under serious threat when a large uprising broke out, led by Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. The Briton rebels caused significant damage throughout the province, raising its three key settlements to the ground, but were quickly and bloodily brought to heel by the Roman general Suetonius Paulinus. Nevertheless, Boudicca's rebellion had caused considerable damage across Roman Britain, and it would take time to rebuild. Meanwhile, the empire continued to face resistance from unconquered tribes to the north. Nevertheless, a succession of governors were able to continue Roman expansion and consolidate what gains had been made over the years, while also continuing the steady process of Romanization in the province. However, in 77 AD, these efforts were about to be redoubled by a new, more energetic general. Britain's new governor was Gnaeus Julius Agricola, a man who had already made a name for himself in the province long before his appointment. Agricola hailed from a politically well-connected family of senatorial background, with both his mother and father's side having a distinguished history. He is traditionally said to have been born in the old Roman colony of Forum Julii in Gaul in 40 AD. However, some more recent scholarship has argued that he was actually born in Rome itself. Nevertheless, it is clear that Agricola's formative years, at least, were spent in Gaul, though we unfortunately know very little about this early stage of his life. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, who notably was also his son-in-law, Agricola showed an early interest in philosophy while studying in Massilia, reportedly pursuing it with such enthusiasm that his mother felt it necessary to restrain his studies out of fear it would impede the rest of his career. Agricola formally began his career in public life in 58 AD at the age of 18 by following the traditional Roman path of serving as a military tribune. He was appointed to one of the four legions stationed in Britain and served under the famous governor Suetonius Paulinus. He thus likely saw action during the Roman assault on the island of Mona in 60 AD, where Paulinus defeated the ancient druids. However, news of the uprising of Boudicca forced the Romans to divert their forces back to the south before they could properly consolidate their gains, allowing Mona to eventually fall back into the hands of the Britons. Agricola would have then been present at the final battle against Boudicca, which saw her rebellion crushed, as well as during Paulinus' brutal reprisals against the Britons who had backed the insurgency. Agricola returned to Rome in 62 AD, continuing his political career and also marrying his wife, Domitia Decadiana. He then served as quaestor in the province of Asia in 64 AD, a tribune of the plebs in Rome in 66 AD, and finally a praetor in 68 AD. Agricola was then swept up into the tumultuous Year of the Four Emperors in 69 AD, which saw a succession of Roman generals compete for control of the imperial purple following the death of Nero, during which his mother was tragically killed by Roman sailors loyal to the usurper Otho. Agricola decided to back the general Vespasian in his bid for the throne, a choice which proved to be well-timed as Vespasian's forces were able to secure Rome for him by the end of the year. Perhaps as a reward for this show of loyalty, Vespasian supported Agricola's political and military advancement by appointing him as the legate of the 10th Legion Valeria Victrix around 70 AD, which saw Agricola return to Britain where his career had begun. Agricola served with distinction there, reimposing discipline on his legion, which had grown lax over the past months of civil war and a recent mutiny, and then leading it on campaigns against hostile tribes to the north alongside the governor Quintus Batilius Carialis. Agricola remained in Britain until 73 AD, when he returned to Rome and was made governor of Gallia Aquitania. Three years later, he was recalled to Rome and made a Suffolk consul to replace the previous consul, who had recently died of natural causes. Yet the peak of Agricola's career was just approaching, for in 77 AD Vespasian decided to appoint him as Britain's next governor, probably inspired by Agricola's loyalty to his regime, as well as his extensive experience in the region. Agricola arrived relatively late in the year, when the traditional summer campaigning season had already passed. As a result, the Roman troops in Britain had grown relaxed and distracted, assuming that no further operations would take place for the rest of the year. This lax attitude was quickly noticed by Rome's enemies, who sought to exploit this moment of vulnerability by raiding the frontiers, while within the province itself, the Ordovices tribe rebelled and nearly wiped out a unit of auxiliary cavalry stationed in their territory. As his first task as governor, Agricola restored the army's discipline and then moved to check these new threats to Roman Britain, starting with the Ordovices. Agricola assembled an ad hoc army composed of legionaries on detached service from their units across the province, along with a small force of auxiliaries he was able to gather to his side quickly. This hastily gathered army might seem a very poor force to lead against an entire tribe. However, Agricola probably wanted to crush the Ordovices' rebellion as quickly as possible in order to discourage any further uprisings, and thus was forced to resort to using whatever troops were immediately available to him. In this case, he was following standard Roman doctrine for suppressing revolts, by bringing as large a concentration of force as possible to bear on the rebels as quickly as he could. Agricola's army was sufficiently formidable to discourage the Ordovices' tribe from facing him in open battle on the plains, and they instead stuck to the hills around the tribe's territory. Undeterred, Agricola led his troops into the difficult ground, with Tacitus claiming he personally led the army from the front ranks. Unfortunately, we have no details about the fighting that took place, aside from the fact that the Romans won an overwhelming victory and decimated the Ordovices' army. It is likely that they had not expected the Romans to venture into the rough terrain, and so may have been caught completely by surprise by Agricola's assault. Next, the Romans set their sights on the island of Mona, which had once again become a stronghold for Britain's resisting imperial rule. This operation was again conceived hastily, and unlike Paulinus before him, Agricola did not have a fleet with which to transport his army to the island. However, his auxiliaries did include cavalrymen who were accustomed to swimming in shallow waters with their horses and full kit, and it would be these troopers upon whom Agricola would primarily rely to retake Mona. The cavalry found a suitable location to ford over to the island, which succeeded in catching the Britons completely off guard. In the end, no fighting was necessary, as the shocked Britons opted to negotiate with Agricola, surrendering Mona to Rome without bloodshed. These two victories cemented Agricola's reputation across the province as an effective governor, as he had surprised everyone by immediately rushing into action. Agricola also made further efforts to try to prevent future discontent against Roman rule. First, by reorganizing the distribution of grain and the collection of taxes across the province, and also by an overhaul of the provincial administration, whose poor performance and discipline Agricola blamed for the recent rebellion. In the summer of 78 AD, Agricola began his famous string of campaigns that would lead him further and further north towards what is roughly today Scotland, known at the time as Caledonia. It was also probably around this time that Agricola assembled the field army he would use in his campaigns, likely totaling around 20,000 men. There does not appear to have been any serious fighting during the first campaign season, with the Romans largely focused on launching raids against hostile Briton communities. Agricola quickly became popular among his troops, and he was personally involved with scouting ahead of the march column, selecting the sites for camps, and was quick to praise and reward good discipline and deeds as swiftly as he punished any lackluster performance. The winter months were spent building new forts to consolidate Roman territory and improving relations between Rome and the Britons within their province, in which Agricola was reportedly so successful that it led to a wave of provincials eagerly adopting Roman customs. In 79 AD, Agricola led his army into contact with peoples who had yet to be encountered by Rome. Again, our sources are unfortunately very light on details, but it is likely that these new foes were mainly composed of the Dunoni, whose territory Agricola raided up to the river Te. At this point, the governor decided to pause his advance, and the entire next year was instead spent securing the new gains made over the past months before resuming the advance in early 81 AD. This time, Agricola struck into the region known today as Galloway, probably aiming to secure the vulnerable western flank of the territory he had recently gained. Here, the Romans encountered the tribe known as the Novonti, and for the first time appeared to have faced serious resistance, as Agricola was forced to win several battles while securing this area. The governor then brought his army up to the shoreline facing Ireland and is said to have contemplated launching an invasion of the island. According to Tacitus, Agricola believed, probably over-optimistically, that the entirety of Ireland could have been secured with just a single legion and a sufficient force of auxiliaries, and that he foresaw it acting as an ideal military base for Rome from which the rest of Britain could easily be policed. Regardless of whether or not he had such lofty goals, however, Agricola had more pressing matters to attend to in the north, and so the Roman advance continued in 82 AD. Agricola began the year by building new forts and consolidating fresh gains around the 4th, after which the Romans kept pushing north. During this phase of the campaign, Agricola is said to have made extensive use of the Roman navy to support his ground forces, using the fleet to secure many towns along the coastline. Tacitus also notes that a friendly rivalry soon developed between the Roman army and the marines serving aboard the fleet, with the two forces often camping together and comparing their past achievements. The Caledonians now began to step up their attacks on the Romans, harassing many of their forts and beginning to muster in larger numbers. Some of Agricola's more cautious officers urged him to withdraw back to the line along the 4th, rather than risking moving even deeper into unfamiliar, hostile territory, but the confident general dismissed their concerns. Agricola then divided his army into three separate columns, likely in order to ease his army's logistical burdens. However, this was quickly noted by the Caledonians, who began probing the Roman army for a weak point to isolate and overwhelm. They determined that the column containing the famous 9th Legion Hispania was the most ideal target, and the Caledonian warriors launched a devastating nighttime assault on the 9th's camp. For a time, the situation appeared dire for the surprised legionaries, as the sentries on the camp walls were quickly overrun and the defenses breached, leading to a chaotic melee inside the camp. Fortunately for the 9th, Agricola's scouts soon learned of the debacle and informed the who promptly gathered a relief force to aid his beleaguered troops. The Caledonian ambush now paradoxically ended up working against the attackers, as the men of the 9th stubbornly held out throughout the night, which led to the Caledonians becoming trapped between them and Agricola's relief army in the morning. The Caledonians now began to panic as their situation grew more desperate and their army began to rout. The 9th seized upon the opportunity to pushing the enemy all the way back to the camp gates, where fierce fighting continued for some time. However, eventually, the pressure on the Caledonians grew too great and their survivors broke and fled into the surrounding woods and marshes after suffering heavy casualties. This victory emboldened the Roman troops even further, with even more cautious members of Agricola's command now appearing even more confident about a successful push further north. With victory fresh on their minds, Agricola and the Roman army marched ever deeper into Caledonia. The Romans had long heard rumors of what lay to its distant north. Over the years, several commanders had tentatively ventured further and further into the lands of Britannia. However, it would be the general Gnaeus Julius Agricola who in 78 AD sought to push Roman frontiers to their furthest reach yet. Composed of 20,000 men, the first phase of this expedition saw him bring to heel many rebellious tribes. Resistance culminated in an ambush on the 9th legion which very nearly wiped out his forces. However, Agricola managed to save his men, breaking the enemy and paving the way for his continued advance. In the next phase of the invasion, the general would push to the very ends of the island where he would fight the climactic battle of Mons Graupius, the last stand of the ancient Scots. With their confidence soaring after their recent victories, the Romans redoubled their efforts and once more pushed into Caledonia in early 83 AD. Agricola also received the unfortunate news that his son, who had been born just a year before, had died. But he bore this loss with stoic determination and pressed on. He first sent his fleet to raid the Caledonian towns located along the coast, intending to sow terror and confusion ahead of the advance of his main army. However, these raids, as well as their defeats in the previous year, failed to shake the resolve of the Caledonians and their various tribes who now united to oppose the Roman invasion. They were led by a man named Calgacus, of whom we unfortunately know almost nothing, but he must have been a well-respected and influential figure to be able to rapidly bring the Caledonian people together in this manner. Calgacus decided to face Agricola in a pitched battle and chose as the site of his stand a place known as Mons Graupius. Debate continues regarding what the modern day location of this battlefield may have been. However, one prominent theory is that Mons Graupius was the name for a range of hills in Scotland near Aberdeenshire. The area provided Calgacus with a natural advantage over Agricola as he was able to position his army on high ground overlooking the flat plains, which also helped negate the Roman advantage in cavalry. Agricola was undeterred by this, however, and quickly accepted Calgacus's challenge. The Battle of Mons Graupius was about to begin. Agricola's forces consisted of elements of the 2nd Audiatrix, the 2nd Augusta, the 9th Hispania, and the 20th Valeria Victrix Legions, supported by 8,000 auxiliary infantry, prime among them being the Batavian and Tungren cohorts from Germania, in addition to 3,000 auxiliary cavalry, as well as some recently recruited Britain allies. Since we do not know how large the legionary detachments were, we can unfortunately only guess at the total size of the Roman army. However, it is likely that it consisted of around 20,000 men. Agricola deployed his infantry into two lines, the first of which contained all of his auxiliary infantry, while the legions were held in reserve in the second line. The cavalry were divided evenly between the army's flanks. Tacitus claimed that one of Agricola's motives behind placing his auxiliaries in the front line was that he hoped to win the battle without having to resort to risking the lives of his legionaries, allowing him to claim he had crushed the Caledonians without shedding a drop of citizen blood. This has in turn contributed to the popular myth that auxiliaries were regarded as much more expendable by the Romans. However, it is clear from the service record of the Roman military, as well as Tacitus' own records, that their commanders did not show any considerable bias in placing either the legions or the auxiliaries at the forefront of the fighting. After all, both troop types were at the forefront of Roman battles in equal measure and were deployed in whatever manner was deemed most suitable for them by their generals. The legions, however, had a higher level of organization compared to the many individual auxiliary cohorts and thus functioned better as reserve troops, allowing Roman generals to quickly plug gaps in the line or reinforce hotspots. Furthermore, as Roman citizenship gradually spread or was awarded early to deserving auxiliary soldiers, thus breaking down the old social barrier between the legions and the auxiliaries, it is likely that a significant minority of the Batavians and Targaryens at least would have already been Roman citizens, meaning Roman blood would have been spilled regardless. Thus, while Tacitus himself may have interpreted Agricola's actions as trying to save Roman lives, in truth, this was simply a practical application of the troops the Roman general had available to him. Calgacus' army, meanwhile, consisted of 30,000 warriors who were almost entirely infantrymen but were still supported by numerous war chariots. Their infantry was arrayed atop the hills with the intent of intimidating the Romans by making their great numbers as visible as possible to their foes. It would have also been an ideal defensive position for the largely infantry-based Caledonian army, which also helped negate the Roman advantage in cavalry. Meanwhile, the Caledonian chariots were placed in the open plains, likely to harass the Roman lines in skirmishes. Overall, the Caledonian deployment was sensible and played well to the strengths of their army. However, Calgacus still had to be wary of the high quality of Agricola's troops, who enjoyed considerable advantages in terms of organization, equipment, and training, and whose morale was high in the wake of recent victories. Before the battle, both commanders gave speeches to their armies to inspire them for the coming bloodshed. It is likely that Tacitus' account of Calgacus' speech was entirely invented, as was indeed normal for many such speeches recorded by ancient historians. However, considering his close connections to Agricola, we can speculate that his account of Agricola quickly realized that he was outnumbered by a considerable margin, and ordered his first line to be extended in order to prevent his troops from being outflanked, despite the protest of his officers, who advised him to deploy the legions for battle. According to Tacitus, Agricola had his horse sent away and took position in the front ranks alongside his men. As with every battle in antiquity, Mons Graupius began with skirmishing between the light troops of both sides, exchanging volleys of javelins. Tacitus reports that the Caledonians displayed considerable skill in dodging the Roman volleys, or even swatting their javelins from the air using their swords. Aside from these acrobatic displays, nothing of note developed in these early clashes. Next, the Roman heavy infantry then charged at their Caledonian counterparts, who advanced down from the hills to meet their enemies in the plains. The assault was spearheaded by four cohorts of Batavians and two more of Tungrians, all of whom were battle-hardened veterans. Tacitus records the bloody results of the clash between the two sides as follows. These old soldiers had been well-drilled in sword-fighting, while the enemy were awkward at it, with their small shields and unwieldy swords, especially as the latter, having no points, were quite unsuitable for cut-and-thrust struggle at close quarters. The Batavians, raining blow after blow, striking them with the bosses of their shields and stabbing them in the face, felled the Britons posted on the plain and pushed on up to the hillsides. This provoked other cohorts to attack with vigor and kill the nearest of the enemy. Many Britons were left behind, half-dead or even wounded, owing to the very speed of our victory. While the Roman infantry continued its onslaught, the cavalry on the flanks engaged the enemy chariots. While these were certainly fearsome engines of war, manned by some of the most notable men of the tribes, it seems that their methods of combat were ill-suited for the nature of the Battle of Mons Grapius. Details are lacking, but it seems that the Roman auxiliary cavalry were swiftly able to close with a swarm of chariots, routing the Caledonian charioteers upon the first charge and thus depriving Calgacus of his army's already very limited mobility. Perhaps emboldened by this success, the Roman cavalry then charged into the Caledonian infantry up the hill, an action very rarely undertaken by heavy horse. Nevertheless, the Roman cavalry performed well under the circumstances, and the initial impact of their charge inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. However, after the impetus of the Roman assault began to fade, the table soon began to turn on Agricola. His infantry only had a tenuous foothold on the hills and continued to face stiff resistance, while the Roman cavalry charge had browned to a halt thanks to the difficult terrain and the depth of the enemy's ranks. Furthermore, the routed chariots were still proving to be problematic, as occasionally horses detached from their vehicles and ran amuck or out-of-control chariots would crash into the exposed sides of the Roman formations, causing much havoc. We can only begin to imagine the chaotic nature of such a fight when witnessed amidst the cacophony of yells and clashes at the ground level. For those caught in the melee, this would have meant a near-complete blindness to the overall events of the battle. Perhaps foreseeing this, the Caledonians had actually kept a substantial body of men in reserve at the highest point of the hills. Thus far uncommitted, they now began to march around the flanks of the Romans, threatening to encircle them. However, Agricola had come prepared for this as well, and once the Caledonians had advanced suitably far, he sprung his trap. Reserve units of auxiliary cavalry were sent into battle and managed to catch the Caledonians completely by surprise. This unexpected assault threw the Caledonians who had begun preparing to outflank the Romans into a rout, and exposed their comrades still engaged with Agricola's main force to a second Roman cavalry charge into their exposed rear. Discipline among the Caledonians now broke down, and they began to flee towards the hills and forests around the battlefield, suffering heavy casualties as they went. However, the Caledonians were not entirely beaten just yet, and they actually began to regroup in the relative safety of the woodland. Here they succeeded in surprising the lead units of Roman infantry that had eagerly pursued them, and clearly expected to only find defeated and demoralized barbarians. For a time, this led to a desperate struggle within the forests. However, Agricola's quick thinking prevented his pursuit from spiraling out of control. He ordered his lightly equipped auxiliary foot, supported by dismounted cavalry, to clear the Caledonians out of the forest while his heavy troops began to reform. As some of the Caledonians fled into more open areas, the still mounted cavalry were able to effectively pursue them. When the Caledonians finally saw that the Romans had recovered from their ambush, they lost all hope of victory and retreated. The Battle of Mons Graupius was over. This victory would mark the height of Agricola's campaigns. According to Tacitus, the Caledonians lost over 10,000 men, while Roman losses were just 360, among them a At first glance, it may be tempting to simply dismiss these one-sided casualty figures as an exaggeration by Tacitus, meant to elevate his father-in-law's glory. However, we should bear in mind that ancient warfare was normally a relatively tentative affair, and not the wild, bloody melee popularized by Hollywood. As a result, casualties typically only became serious when one side lost its nerve and fled, allowing their enemy to massacre their disordered ranks more easily. In this context, it is thus actually quite likely that the numbers given by Tacitus are at least fairly close to the truth. The Romans spent the following night celebrating their victory, while on the Caledonian side, panic quickly spread as news of their crushing defeat reached more people. Entire settlements were rapidly abandoned and the tribes began to flee to the highlands, hoping to evade the Romans in the unfamiliar and difficult terrain. On the following morning, Roman scouts were met with an eerie silence wherever they went, discovering that much of the territory in their path had been thoroughly abandoned. Agricola, however, appears to have been undisturbed by this and marched ever deeper into Caledonia, spending the winter in the lands of a tribe known as the Baresti. It was also around this time that another notable milestone was achieved by the Romans, the entire circumnavigation of Britain. Even though the Romans had been in Britain for decades now, there remained much uncertainty over Britain's geography, including whether it was truly an island. Agricola's campaigns were thus also notable for the extensive efforts made to map out the remainder of Britain, and his governorship was subsequently famed for this achievement. Agricola sent his fleet in a detachment from his field army on this expedition, who likely departed from the Moray coast and appeared to have first sailed up to the Shetland Islands before turning south to begin the circumnavigation proper. During the voyage, the Romans encountered many new peoples previously unknown to them, but unfortunately, we know little else about this important expedition. After exploring the north, the fleet would have turned west and then sailed back towards its base at modern-day Richborough, where it may have ended its journey of perhaps one month in length. After all, the Romans already knew the coastline well and thus may have considered it already covered and not worth sailing back up as they had done recently with Agricola. Regardless of where it precisely ended, this expedition was significant, and the fact that it was done during Agricola's term as governor by his orders boosted his fame considerably. In 84 AD, Agricola continued his efforts to further consolidate his gains in Caledonia, building additional forts to garrison these lands. The most notable among them was the legendary fortress at modern-day Inchtutl, the remains of which are still visible today. However, while he was in the middle of these operations, Agricola received a new set of orders from the Emperor Domitian. The general was recalled to Rome immediately, ending his unusually long tenure as governor. Meanwhile, the Romans continued to garrison the parts of Caledonia that Agricola had conquered, but ultimately these gains were never consolidated and were abandoned by 90 AD. But why would Rome so quickly abandon these hard-won gains? After all, the Caledonians had been crushed in battle and were no longer a military threat, so in theory this might make holding on to northern Britannia appear easy. Tacitus was indeed convinced that this was a foolish move by Domitian, who only recalled Agricola out of jealousy. However, we should note that Tacitus was never very fond of Domitian in the first place, and this bitterness combined with his admiration of his father-in-law probably led him to have a biased view of the situation. In reality, Domitian's decision to abandon Agricola's conquest in Caledonia was sensible, given the situation the Roman Empire had found itself in at the time. For one, it allowed more troops to be freed up to go fight the resurgent Dacians on the Danube frontier, who were a far more pressing threat to Roman interest, targeting some of the Empire's most lucrative provinces. Indeed, this was the fate of many of Agricola's troops, such as the 2nd Audiatrix Legion. The territory that Agricola had occupied was also not especially valuable, and its population had largely fled to the highlands, where they would need to be rooted out in lengthy mopping-up operations, and were likely hostile towards Rome. Controlling such territory so far away from the center of Roman power would have been a considerable political and logistical burden, and so, with their enemies in the region defeated and Roman honor satisfied, Domitian made the pragmatic decision to pull back and redraw the frontier at a more stable location. Regardless, Agricola's achievements in Britannia cemented his reputation as one of Rome's foremost generals of the time, and he was rewarded with triumphal ornaments in recognition of his victory, as well as a public statue. Despite his fame, Agricola would never again command an army, although there reportedly was much demand from the public for him to return to the field to fight in the costly wars along the Danube. Ultimately, however, Gnaeus Julius Agricola would die in 93 AD, not long after the last of his conquests in the far north were left to the frontier until the end of Roman Britain during the 5th century AD. Several more campaigns were fought against the tribes in the region, as they would seek any opportunities to raid the wealthy Roman province to the south. A few emperors did show interest in expanding Roman control back into the north, but otherwise, the region was not considered important enough to invest the time and resources that would be required to fully occupy it. Instead, the Romans preferred to maintain a defensible frontier from which they could monitor and control movement in and out of the province. One could say that this was a policy literally set in stone when the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a massive wall along the northern frontier. From there, Rome would continue to exert its influence over the tribes in Caledonia through diplomacy and trade, while continuing its wars against those who rose to oppose them, until the very end of imperial rule over the isles. We hope you've found this episode both educational and entertaining. A ton of what we do is made possible by our talented artists. They actually run their own store with awesome merch, which I suggest you check out. All proceeds go to them, and it's a great way to ensure that they can keep supporting these sorts of creative endeavors. Consider also supporting the channel by joining our Patreon, where you can catch script previews, participate in polls, and grab HD downloads of all our art. A big thanks to the current patrons for funding the channel, and to the researchers, writers, and artists for making this episode possible. We couldn't have done it without this team and this community. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like and subscribe for more content, and check out these other related videos. See you in the next one.