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A Comparative Study of the Historiography of the Battle of Mons Graupius

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A Comparative Study of the Historiography of the Battle of Mons Graupius Advanced Higher History Dissertation A Comparative Study Of The Historiography Of The Battle Of Mons Graupius By Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Mearns Academy, 2005 Supervised by D. Malcolm © All rights reserved. Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Adv. Higher History A comparative study of the historiography of the battle of Mons Graupius Introduction “Today, nineteen centuries after the battle, curiosity about the location of the battlefield being undiminished, it may be appropriate to review the changing opinions of generations of scholars on the subject; to consider whether recent advances in archaeological investigation have brought us closer to a solution; and finally to ask if any other avenues of enquiry are open to us”- Gordon Maxwell, A Battle Lost, (1990)1 If we are to believe all that the Roman writer Cornelius Tacitus writes in his text “Agricola”2, the Battle of Mons Graupius was supposed to have been a massive set- piece battle fought in the hills of Scotland. It was the culmination of a campaign led by the governor of Britain, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in a bid to control Scotland and to rule over the barbarians of the North. There is only this one source from near the time the battle is alleged to have been fought, written by Tacitus, the son-in-law of the governor. There are many difficulties with using “Agricola” as a reliable source, issues which will be discussed later, but essentially there are areas in the text which do not quite add-up. Over the years, the location of the battle has baffled historians and archaeologists alike. Many texts have been written on the subject though as yet no-one has succeeded in pinpointing the location of the battle. Experts today, such as David Page 2 Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Adv. Higher History Wooliscroft, aren’t even sure if the battle happened on quite the scale Tacitus says it did. A few of the sites that are most commonly identified in a variety of books are Durno-Bennachie, Raedykes and Pass of Grange, though none have been conclusively argued. The quest to find the site remains one of history’s toughest mysteries and it is not only the location of the battlefield that puzzles the experts. My dissertation will compare a range of views from historians and archaeologists on various aspects of the much debated battle of Mons Graupius - including reasons as to why the battle was fought, the derivation of the name and ideas about the date, location and scale of the battle. The Name Of The Battle In his text “Agricola”3, Tacitus names the supposedly large set-piece battle with which Gnaeus Julius Agricola planned to complete his conquest of Northern Britain as “the battle of the Graupian Mountain” (or as it is more commonly known today as the battle of Mons Graupius). The very name of the battle is open to fierce debate and scholars have been deliberating it for many years. The first thing which should be pointed out is that in the Roman alphabet, they didn’t use the letter “g” in the same way that we do in translations today and this therefore suggests that perhaps what Tacitus was referring to was the battle of the Craupian Mountain or Mons Craupius. According to Rivet and Smith4, the word “Graupius” could be a Latinised form of an old Welsh word “crup” which essentially means bump/hump. However, Gordon Page 3 Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Adv. Higher History Maxwell5 makes the point that “Graupius” could derive from a variant of “crup” which is “graup”. He states this is related to a Greek word for a prominent feature i.e. a large hill. An additional explanation to the name Mons Graupius is that “Graupius” sounds a lot like “Grampian” which in turn creates the simplistic theory that perhaps the battle occurred somewhere within the peaks and summits of the Grampian Mountains. Historians who have written texts who hold this opinion include Gordon Maxwell6, Peter Marren7 and A J Church8. The problems with the name mainly stemmed from a time around the 1470’s in which hand-written copies of “Agricola”9 were created in Italy from a manuscript which came from Germany. Inevitably, given that hand-written copies of the book were being created, mistakes were made in transcription and translation and it is therefore possible that a spelling error/inaccuracy was inadvertently created leading to confusion. Nowadays, the battle is more usually known as Mons Graupius rather than the battle of the Graupian Mountain or anything else. Aside from the issue regarding the name, there are also questions about why the battle was fought. There is really only one reason given for the battle of Mons Graupius occurring and this comes from “Agricola”. David Breeze10 translated this, and in his interpretation it says that the reason the battle occurred was due to Agricola “fearing a general rising of the Northern nations”. Another recent translation says “there were fears that all the peoples on the further side might rise”11. Page 4 Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Adv. Higher History The latter translation as to why the battle took place is from the Penguin translation of “Agricola”. This text has previously come under scrutiny from Birgitta Hoffmann12, who suggests that although A R Birley did a fairly good job translating the text, he has made the whole “story” of Agricola sound too simplistic when the book itself is rather complicated for example; there is a discrepancy between the dates Tacitus gives in the text. He states Agricola was governor for 7 seasons however, other sources state he was governor from 78-84AD which would allow for only 6 seasons - it doesn’t quite add-up. Many historians and archaeologists wish to find the apparent site because it would bring a sense of closure to Agricola’s governorship of Britain - conclusive proof of the battle actually happening. Another positive aspect is that a proper comparison could be made between what Tacitus writes in his text “Agricola” and the actual archaeological remains found, thus testing the accuracy of Tacitus’ account. However, it might be argued that on the negative side, should the location of Mons Graupius be found one day, history would be deprived of one of its longest running and most intriguing mysteries. According to Jarret (1982)13, should the battle site of Mons Graupius be found, “Scottish antiquarian literature will be poorer, and the Scottish topography less well studied”. To some extent this is true – Maxwell14, for example, has been has been using aerial photography extensively, whilst other archaeologists in the field such as St Joseph15 have been comparing various existing sites to try and discover possible locations for the battle. Page 5 Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Adv. Higher History When Did The Battle Occur? The vast majority of historians and archaeologists agree that the alleged battle of Mons Graupius was fought in either 83AD or 84AD although there are varying perspectives on which year is actually correct. Tacitus, in the text “Agricola”16, says that the governor went to battle the year after he lost his infant son. It is commonly believed that Agricola lost his infant son in 82AD which would make 83AD the year of the battle. However the text additionally implies that Agricola was recalled in 84AD shortly after the battle of Mons Graupius. In this respect, the text contradicts itself to an extent and this highlights just one of the many inaccuracies and flaws within it. The dates generally don’t add-up. Authors with an archaeological background such as David J Breeze17 hold the general opinion that the battle may have taken place in 83AD. One reason for this is that much of the actual physical evidence available such as the camp at Durno-Bennachie (which is a possible location for the battle of Mons Graupius) dates from around the year 83AD. However, as was mentioned above, there are differing opinions on when the battle took place. An additional perspective comes from A J Church18 who holds the view that the battle took place in 84AD. Another view which agrees with that is Roger J A Wilson’s19 - he states quite blatantly that the battle most definitely occurred in 84AD. Page 6 Lynsay A Shepherd SCN: xxxxxxxxx Adv. Higher History The problem with the above is that these sources are ‘traditional’ histories. As Martin Millet20 says, traditional history texts are “attempts to write narrative history from the textual sources supplementing these with information from archaeological sources”. This then means that the texts consist of something another, earlier source has said merely using different words. The trouble with what A J Church21 and Roger J A Wilson22 have written is that they have relied on “Agricola” too heavily to create and account of Mons Graupius and the problem with that is you cannot rely on one source in this way unless you can trust its reliability. Too many of our modern histories of this period are based on this one source of dubious accuracy because Tacitus is clearly not reliable. An example of this is that he states the Caledonians were led by a leader named Calgacus. There is no evidence for this man ever existing- in fact it is commonly believed that he was entirely fictional23. It is true to say that no one really knows if the battle of Mons Graupius occurred in 83AD or 84AD and indeed even Tacitus may not have been entirely sure! Most of today’s archaeology-based opinions tend to suggest that it did actually occur in 83AD, they just can’t be certain.
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