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This book looks at three of the later battles during the Roman conquest of Britain – the last stand of Caratacus probably somewhere in the Welsh borders, the invasion of Anglesey (Mona) and the battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland.
It’s a sign of the relative lack of sources for this period that we only have a clear name for the last of the three battles, and we don’t actually know where Mons Graupius actually was! However it is possible to produce coherent accounts of all three battles using our fairly limited sources combined with what we know about how the two sides fought. This is less possible for the initial invasion, where we only have a single source, presumably this is why we skip those battles.
Difficult terrain is a feature of all three battles. Caratacus and the Caledonians both took advantage of high ground, while the invasion of Mona began with an opposed amphibious landing.
The picture that emerges is of a rather mis-matched clash. The professional Roman army was able to defeat the often very experienced Celtic Britons in every major battle, even when the Britons had the great advantage of chosing the battlefield. The key appears to be that the Britons had developed a form of warfare that worked well when they were fighting each other, often serving to reduce the level of casualties in near constant low level warfare. We thus get an emphasis on individual prowess, and even individual challenges. This failed when it came up against the Romans, who by this point had several centuries of experience of fighting Celts and Gauls. The author makes a good point about the success of the Roman army of this period owing much to the presence of both the heavily armed and armoured Legions and the lighter Auxiliary forces, allowing commanders such as Agricola to pick the right troops for particular problems. However the Roman ability to win pitched battles was rarely decisive. Caratacus’ allies continued to resist the Romans after his defeat. Mona had to be invaded a second time. Most dramatically the Romans soon abandoned their conquest of Scotland, and ended up with a border close to Hadrians’ Wall.
This is a useful account of three key Roman battles, with good background material that explains the different nature of the rival armies, good reconstructions of the battles themselves, and an analysis section that acknowledges that the Roman success in battle didn’t actually complete the conquest.
Chapters
The Opposing Sides
Caratacus’ Last Stand AD 50
The Invasion of Mona AD 60
Mons Graupius AD 83
Analysis
Author: William Horsted
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 80
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2022