stirling-1963-vol-1/05_069

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE ROMAN PERIOD
including the finest surviving stretch in the entire limes from the east end of Tentfield Plantation
to Bonnyside House, and the fort and annexe at Rough Castle.
The general history of the Roman occupation of Scotland, which forms the setting for
these monuments, has been described at some length in the Inventory of Roxburghshire ¹ and
need not be recapitulated here. Nor is the time yet ripe for a fresh appraisal of the precise role
played by the Antonine Wall in that occupation. It is true that a good deal of new information
has emerged since the second edition of Sir George Macdonald's classic survey, The Roman
Wall in Scotland, was published in 1934, and that in consequence some of Macdonald's
conclusions are no longer tenable. Nevertheless, much more excavation is required before
even the main outlines in the history of the Wall can be regarded as securely established, and
in the meantime it is profitless to indulge in speculation. In the following account of the purely
local aspects of the Roman occupation of Stirlingshire, reference will, however, be made to
some of the principal discoveries that have come to light on the Wall as a whole since 1934.

THE FLAVIAN PERIOD
The first contact between the Roman army and the native tribes dwelling in Stirlingshire
occurred in A.D. 79, when, following a lightning advance through the Lowlands, Agricola's
leading columns penetrated as far north as the Tay; and in the next year the ground overrun
was consolidated by the construction of a line of fortified posts (praesidia) across the isthmus
between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. ² Actual structural remains of two of these praesidia
are claimed to have been found beneath the Antonine forts at Croy Hill ³ and Bar Hill, ⁴ but
whether Macdonald was right in thinking that the sites chosen by Agricola were in every case
identical with those later occupied by the Antonine garrisons is not yet certain. As far as the
Stirlingshire forts are concerned, the amount of 1st-century pottery found at Castlecary
(No. 117) seems to point to an Agricolan occupation, although structural evidence is lacking;
the evidence previously cited for Rough Castle (No. 115) is unconvincing; and recent excavation
at Mumrills (No. 112) has shown that the supposed praesidium there must now be discounted.
Outside the county, it is worth noting that no evidence for pre-Antonine occupation was
found at the Wall fort at Duntocher ⁵ during the extensive excavations of 1948-51.
In Agricola's scheme of conquest, the Forth-Clyde line counted only as a temporary
halting-place, and it might be expected that the praesidia would be less substantial than the
permanent forts, one of which was established at Camelon (No. 122) in the Flavian period to
guard the point at which the main road to the north crossed the River Carron. This early fort
is not well known, and has been largely destroyed by industrial development, but it seems
probable that it was rebuilt about A.D. 90, when the northern defences as a whole were re-
organised, and continued in use until the Flavian occupation of Scotland ended in a general
withdrawal of the Roman garrisons soon after A.D.100.

1 Pp. 23-32. The article in question is reprinted in the Inventory of Selkirkshire, pp. 142 ff.
2 Tacitus, loc. cit.
3 R.W.S., 267 ff. and fig. 34.
4 Ibid., 272 f. and fig. 35.
5 Robertson, A. S., An Antonine Fort, Golden Hill, Duntocher, 89.

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