Caradoc

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Govenorship
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The Governorship of Scapula

Not much is known of Scapulas military career, but it is certain that his choice as commander was very much a case of who you know rather than what you know. His actions against the tribes were to prove,' hasty and ill considered even by the standards of military expediency. His growing frustration and anger which led to his death, prompts the view that he was a sick man on entering office.'⁹ This shows how vulnerable the Roman structure of command could be. To keep on changing commanders, and not necessarily for the better while not even bothering to consider the consequences of these acts undermines the whole Roman military system.

Caradoc now had solid support in the west, and if left to his own devices he would once more move towards the Midlands and the Northwest; therefore it became necessary to take into account any potential hostility which this may cause on the other tribes who came within the Roman sphere of influence. It is not clear how this was done but by the time of Scapulas arrival in Britain the Romans had an even distribution of forts holding all the main means of communication.¹⁰ Nevertheless Scapula faced a, 'serious disruption, hostile tribes had irrupted violently into the province'.¹¹

In the Latin text the Roman historian, Tacitus makes use of the word "turbidae", which has been taken to mean disturbance; however it is used elsewhere in the Latin to mean mutiny, and if this is the case then it does indeed look as if some kind of internal disorder had been planned to coincide with Caradoc's raids, this in turn showing how precarious the Roman system of client tribes could be¹².

With only four legions, Scapula had to use his mounted troops to try and break up the various bands of rebels and raiders, while also being obliged to carry out search and locate operations, which would bring Caradoc to battle. Moreover, since the province was now in such an unsettled state, he could not afford to split his forces into penny packets since this would allow for each part to be defeated in detail. Also Scapula could not move against Caradoc and leave revolt simmering in his rear, and to be effective against the British chieftain he would need at least two legions.

Tacitus, our only real source for this campaign, says that Scapula, 'Prepared to disarm all suspects and reduce the whole territory as far as the rivers Trent and Severn'.¹³ A interesting point here is that we are given a real demarcation line for the Roman frontier during this period, which, as one would have expected is based upon river lines, although whether the Romans considered that the Severn and Trent could keep out raiders is another matter; far greater barriers such as the Rhine and the Danube never seemed to have created a problem for the Germans and Gauls. The other thing here is the matter of disarming the suspect tribes. Under Roman law no one was allowed to carry arms with the exception of soldiers and officers. Here we must ask the question of just how this law was implemented? The problem was that since there would have been a great reluctance to hand over these weapons how did the Romans know that the spears, swords, bows and arrows etc that were handed in were not just old scrap items set aside for just such an occasion, while the real tools of war remained well hidden? The reason for implementing this law allowed Scapula to terrorize the Britons. He also forced the Icini tribe into a conflict in which the Romans defeated them with only their auxiliary troops. This later incident however would leave a lasting hatred, which would erupt into a full scale rising against Roman rule in A.D.60.

After subduing a rising by a faction of the Brigantes tribe, Scapula turned his attention to the Silures in South Wales where Caradoc had been operating with great success against Roman incursions. Now comes a passage in Tacitus that is hard to understand in military terms. He tells how Caradoc cleverly transferred his operations into the territory of the Ordovices tribe around what is today Merioneth and Caernarfon. This is quite puzzling because it is normally the attacker, in this case the Romans who would have the initiative, but here it seems to have been in the hands of Caradoc as he decided where the campaign should be conducted. We may consider that because of the tribal problems that Scapula had encountered Caradoc used this time to consolidate his forces and move into that part of the country where his greatest strength lay.¹⁴

Scapula's plan of campaign for the year A.D.51 was simple, with two strong military bases, one at Kingsholm in Gloucestershire, and the other at Wroxeter in Shropshire, the Roman commander would move his two legions, XIV Gemina and XX Valeria from south and north, squeezing Caradoc between them. For his part the British chieftain, possibly because he had to do something to keep his coalition of tribes together, and a decisive battle would do this, together with the promise of loot that this would engender, now offered battle on ground of his own choosing.

9 Graham Webster, 'Rome against Caratacus', page 15

10 See enclosed map.

11 Graham Webester,'Rome against Caratacus', page 20

12 Anthony Barrett, 'Historia', No 17, page 227

13Tacitus, 'The Annals of Imperial Rome', XII, 30-31

14 Tacitus,'The Annals of Imperial Rome', XX, 33.