“Take a look through these,” Grant said, handing me a pair of binoculars. We were kneeling in the high grass of a hill in Northumberland, England’s northernmost county. My companion was an assistant archeologist employed by the county council. I carefully focused the lens of the binoculars, expecting to see the remains of a 3rd-century A.D. Roman fort. Instead, I saw very modern barbed wire fencing penetrated by an access road along which olive drab jeeps and trucks rolled up to a guard post manned by red caps (British military police). Beyond them were barracks and squaddies drilling on open training grounds. With a shock, I realized that I was staring at Otterburn army base, Britain’s large training and testing facility for heavy artillery and long-range weapons systems. Several possibilities flashed through my mind, including arrest and incarceration for espionage or annihilation by a stray artillery shell. Angrily, I turned to Grant whose grin told me that, once again, he had indulged his passion for practical jokes by guiding me to the wrong location—a very wrong location.
“Don’t get your knickers twisted,” the archeologist said. “I thought you would enjoy a look at today’s British military.” As I had seen my share of army bases during my service in the U.S. Army, I was not impressed and told him so. I suggested we get on with our assignment, which was to survey the remains of Roman outpost forts upon which no excavation work or investigation had been done for years. An hour or so later, after making our way across the high moor, we came to another hill. On its summit were the remains of a low wall overgrown with grass and weeds. A dead tree leaned over the open gateway, giving the isolated spot a haunted look—barren and deserted. We were looking at Bremenium, an outpost fort that was part of the marvel of Roman military engineering that comprised the Hadrian’s Wall complex. Bremenium was located north of the wall, its primary function to gather intelligence about the activities of the unconquered British tribes that periodically threatened the peace of the towns and villas of the more civilized province to the south. It was built in the first century and not, therefore, originally a Hadriannic fort. A variety of units had served at Bremenium. In the third century, the fort was manned by the Germans of the First Cohort of Loyal Vardullians. They were Roman citizens, a privileged status not shared by the numerus (irregular troops) of exploratores (frontier scouts) also posted there. Of the vicus, or civil settlement which often grew outside the walls of Roman forts, there was no sign at Bremenium. We concluded that the surrounding countryside was just too rough and dangerous for the usual purveyors of “service industries” to risk settling there. However, the outpost could not have been entirely self sufficient. Periodic supply trains must have been dispatched to the fort.
 |
| The western gateway to Bremenium |
We speculated, as we often did, supplementing available recorded information and physical evidence with our own projections. As we did this, the images began to form in my imagination. I could see the pack mules and drovers making their way through the rugged countryside.
The gates of the fort opened and a cavalry escort cantered out to meet them. Perhaps it was a turma, a troop of thirty men commanded by a decurion and his deputy, a duplicarius. The sun would have glinted on their armor, each man wearing the lorica hamata (chain mail) common to auxiliary troops and the helmets of iron and brass. Before they could reach the supply train, it was attacked by Brigante tribesmen. Tall, well muscled men, they would have worn plaid trousers, close fitting and cross bound with strips of leather. Long hair, stiffened with lime, long moustaches, and swirling tattoos covering their bare arms and chests would have contributed to their fearsome appearance. Upon sighting the raiders, the decurion snapped an order, bringing the turma to the gallop. Out came the long spathas, or cavalry swords. Each man’s clipeus (oval shaped shield) swung to the front before they smashed into the attackers. It did not take long before the tribesmen broke and scattered, leaving behind their dead. Prisoners would have been forced to their knees, their arms bound with strips of leather. They would be brought back to Bremenium for questioning by the frumentari (intelligence officers). Those who survived the experience would be sold to the first slave trader to reach the fort.
A sudden rainstorm brought me back to the present. I stuffed my notebook and pen into my pack and we moved out to our next site, another outpost fort called Habitancum and another visit to antiquity.
0 comments:
Post a Comment