November 29, 2019 by AdamAH

The World of The Stolen Throne- Part I – Isca Dumnoniorum: A Brief look at Roman Exeter

Salvete, readers and history-lovers!

Welcome to The World of The Stolen Throne!

In this five-part blog series, we’re going to be taking a look at the research that went into the latest Eagles and Dragons novel, The Stolen Throne.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll take you on a journey from the world of early third-century Roman Britain to the lands of Dumnonia. As The Stolen Throne is a more mysterious episode in the Eagles and Dragons series, we will also be looking at relevant parts of Celtic mythology, in addition to some history and archaeology related to the story and setting of this book.

In this first post, we’re going to be taking a brief look at one of the settings in The Stolen Throne. The Roman town of Isca Dumnoniorum serves as a sort of gateway to the unknown in the story, a final vestige of the Roman world before the characters continue on their journey.

Many towns in Roman Britain tend to eclipse Isca Dumnoniorum, but this settlement played an important role in the early stages of Romanization of the island. How was it established and what purpose did it serve?

Let’s find out.

The First Roman Invasion of Britain – illustration by James William Edmund Doyle (1864)

In 55 and 54 B.C. the forces of Julius Caesar attempted to reconnoitre and invade the mysterious and unknown, until then, land of Britain. The second campaign experienced some success, but the full-scale invasion of Britannia did not occur until nearly a hundred years later with the Claudian invasion of the island.

In A.D. 43, Emperor Claudius’ forces landed on the shores of the island, changing the course of history for good this time. Four Roman legions and auxiliaries landed in what is now Kent. The force is said to have consisted of over 45,000 men.

Many battles were fought, and peace treaties were signed with the tribes southern Britain. It was during this time that the future emperor, Vespasian, stormed the southern hill forts of Britain, particularly in the lands of the Durotriges and Dumnonii. The great hillforts of South Cadbury Castle and Maiden Castle were a part of this offensive campaign.

Aerial view of Maiden Castle, Dorset – photo by Major George Allen (1935) Wikimedia Commons

This invasion was just the beginning of what was to be a forty-year campaign to subdue the Britons and bring the island into Rome’s Empire.

One of the legions commanded by Vespasian in his southern sweep was the famous II Augustan legion.

The legion’s first, permanent base, a forty-two acre castrum, was established at Isca Dumnoniorum, or modern Exeter, in around A.D. 55, with smaller forts being established in the surrounding region in the Quantock and Brendon Hills, and the Vale of Taunton Deane.

Isca Dumnoniorum was the largest base in the southwest. It had everything one would expect from a large, legionary base, including barracks, granaries, and workshops, which were made of timber. There was a stone, military bathhouse which was fed by an aqueduct leading from a nearby natural spring. Archaeologists have also discovered a cockfighting pit in the remains of the palaestra (outdoor exercise yard) which was attached to the bathhouse. Seems like the men of the legions enjoyed a bit of sport when off duty!

Artist impression of Isca Dumnoniorum

Like other Roman settlements in Britain, Isca’s beginnings were martial, and not long after it was established, one of the most violent episodes of this period occurred.

In A.D. 60, Queen Boudicca of the Iceni led her revolt against Rome and during that time, settlements across the land such as nearby Lindinis shored up their defences.

According the Tacitus, Poenius Posthumus, camp prefect of the II Augustan, based as Isca during the Boudiccan revolt, refused to support Governor Suetonius Paulinus against the rebels because of a personal argument, or because he did not want to threaten the tenuous peace he held over the Durotriges of Somerset.

Poenius Postumus, camp-prefect of the second legion, informed of the exploits of the men of the fourteenth and twentieth, and conscious that he had cheated his own corps of a share in the honours and had violated the rules of the service by ignoring the orders of his commander, ran his sword through his body. (Tacitus, Annals, XIV, 37)

It was not a proud moment for the II Augustan, after their strong showing in the initial invasion. Nevertheless, the legion based at Isca would go on to form part of the military backbone of Roman Britain for a long time afterward.

Artist impression of the early fortress defences of Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter City Council Archaeological Field Unit)

When the smoke of the Boudiccan revolt eventually cleared, the Roman peace in southern Britannia could begin to take hold.

One of the ways in which Rome brought their newly-conquered subjects into the fold was through the establishment of civitates, administrative centres based on old tribal regions.

The three civitates of the southwest were Corinium Dobunnorum (capital the Dobunni at Cirencester), Durnovaria (capital of the Durotriges at Dorchester), and Isca Dumnoniorum (capital of the Dumnonii at Exeter). These civitates, and others like them across the land, were an important part of the process of Romanization, as well as citizenship, and the spread of Roman ideals.

Council members

As part of the process, a vicus (civilian settlement) began to form outside of the fortress’ walls where tradesmen and families of the troops lived.

After twenty years based there, the men of the II Augustan legion moved to what would become their permanent base at Caerleon (Isca Silurum), in southern Wales. However, Isca Dumnoniorum remained as an important settlement and centre of administration and trade, especially when it was made an official civitas.

As a civitas, Isca was governed by a council known as an ordo, a sort of small senate. The members of the ordo, the decurions, were responsible for local justice, public shows, religious festivals, public works such as roads, water supply and building, taxation, and the census. Ordo members also represented Isca’s interests in the provincial capital of Londinium.

Roman Roads in Britain with the Fosse Way in Green, running from Isca Dumnoniorum to Lindum (Wikimedia Commons)

Isca Dumnoniorum was well-placed to become a thriving settlement. It was near the mouth of the river Exe where it led to the sea, and it was located at the end of the Fosse Way, one of the earliest and most important roads built by the Romans in the southwest of Britain. This linked the sea routes and Isca to the other fortresses and settlements (such as Lindinis and Bath) across Britannia, all the way to Lindum (modern Lincoln).

When the II Augustan left Isca, it became a civilian settlement with more permanent buildings being built within the wall of the military fortress. New baths were built in the southeast quarter, and the walls were expanded with a bank and wall to accommodate the growing civilian population so that it grew to enclose an area of 92 acres. And as was the pattern and requirement of other civitates, Isca received a proper forum and basilica.

Roman pottery and tile finds from Exeter (Exeter City Council)

Located as it was, in a place that connected the sea to a major land route, Isca Dumnoniorum was a thriving centre of trade where livestock and various crops were bought and sold at the market, as well as locally-produced pottery. Archaeology has also uncovered evidence for a copper and bronze-working industry at Isca.

Numismatic finds from Exeter indicate that Isca Dumnoniorum was at its peak in the early fourth century, but that it experienced a rapid decline around A.D. 380. Still, the Romans remained there for over three hundred years, setting Isca firmly on the map with its own little place in history.

In The Stolen Throne, set during the early third century, Isca Dumnoniorum is a thriving town, bustling with trade, off-duty troops, and citizens going about their daily business. It is also a gateway to a world beyond, to Dumnonia and the moors of what are now Devon and Cornwall, where the Roman presence was very slight, and the Britons still lived as they had done prior to the invasion so many years before.

For our Roman protagonist in the story, there is certainly a feeling of leaving the world behind as he leaves Isca Dumnoniorum to travel over the moors, for he knows he is heading into the unknown.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this short post about Roman Exeter. There are more posts to come in The World of The Stolen Throne blog series, so stay tuned.

The Stolen Throne is now available in e-book and paperback from all major on-line retailers. If you haven’t read any books in the Eagles and Dragons series yet, you can start with the #1 bestselling A Dragon among the Eagles for just 0.99! Or get the first prequel novel, The Dragon: Genesis, for FREE by signing-up for the newsletter HERE.

Thank you for reading.

January 1, 2017 by AdamAH

The World of Warriors of Epona – Part II – Trimontium: The Place of Three Peaks

The Legions are on the move once more in this second part of The World of Warriors of Epona.

In this post, we’re going to take a brief look at the site of Trimontium, which is located at Newstead.

Trimontium is the site of a Roman fort in what are today the Scottish Borders, north of Hadrian’s Wall. This was not a full legionary base, but rather a fort that housed about 1500 troops at its peak usage, cavalry in particular!

Trimontium fort site, below Eildon Hill

However, it was a major stopping point on the route north, located as it was along Dere Street, the major Roman road in the region.

I first became aware of Trimontium as part of my master’s degree thesis research while at St. Andrew’s University. In researching a theory about the activities of an historical ‘Arthur’ in the region, I came across this remarkable Roman fort set in a beautiful and dramatic setting.

A site visit was definitely in order!

If you have ever been to the Borders, you will know that the region’s pastoral beauty belies its warlike past.

Scott’s View

As I drove south from Edinburgh on the A68 (which follows the line of Roman Dere Street, bulbous green and treeless landscapes gave way to fertile fields lined with hedges and accented with summer wildflowers. It was a bright, sunny day, which was often not the case in Scotland, and so I could see for some distance.

As we approached the River Tweed, the three peaks of the Eildon Hills came into view with the river sparkling in the summer sun. I was finally there, having followed in the footsteps of the legions.

Trimontium from the A68 with Tweed river and bridge

This area is loaded with wonderful places to see such as Scott’s view, a favourite place of reflection for Sir Walter Scott and a great spot from which to see the Eildon Hills, Dryburgh Abbey, Melrose Abbey (where the heart of Robert the Bruce’s heart is buried), and myriad country paths.

But it was the Roman presence that concerned me on this trip.

Eildon Hill from the ruins of Melrose Abbey

The fort at Trimontium was used as a marching camp by Agricola’s troops c. A.D. 80 and had eight subsequent phases of Roman occupation all the way to the time of Septimius Severus’ campaigns into Caledonia in the early 3rd century, the latter being the time in which Warriors of Epona takes place.

Trimontium is so-named because of the three peaks of the Eildon Hills that overshadow it. It was on the marching route to the north and provided a visible and central meeting place for the legions and auxiliaries. Some of the most important finds to come from the area are the horse harness and ornamental cavalry armour of the troops that were stationed there.

2nd century Roman cavalry auxiliaries (illustrated by Kawaleria Rzymska)

These finds are wonderful and some can be seen in the museum in Melrose, but mainly in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The cavalry masks discovered at Trimontium inspired some tweaks to Lucius Metellus Anguis’ own armour in the book.

The Newstead Cavalry Mask (wikimedia commons)

It was the obvious presence of Roman auxiliary cavalry that gripped my imagination then, and so it quickly became obvious that Lucius and his Sarmatian cavalry ala would be based at Trimontium during a portion of Severus’ Caledonian campaign, the final phase of use for Trimontium.

Crop marks showing outline of fort at Newstead

Though today almost nothing remains of the Roman fort (it’s mainly a great field), during the Antonine period, the fort at Trimontium had three defensive ditches and a rampart, a principia (headquarters building) that may also have served as an exercise hall just off of the via Decumana, barracks, stables, a commander’s house, and granaries.

There were also annexes on every side of the fort with a parade ground on the east side, and a mansio (a sort of hostel) and bath house on the west side.

Plan of the site and successive fort(s) at Trimontium (from Newstead 1996 – The Northern Vicus and the Amphitheatre Excavations and Survey; University of Bradford)

Trimontium did not only have a military presence. Wherever the Roman army went, there were others who followed – wives and children, merchants, prostitutes and others.

Outside the walls of the fort, as with many Roman forts, there was a vicus, a civilian settlement on the north side where the people mentioned above would have lived.

But one of the most interesting features of Trimontium’s fort is the presence of an amphitheatre beyond the north-east corner of the fortress, near the banks of the River Tweed. The outlines indicate that it was elliptical rather than round, and because of its location next to the military installation, it was likely used not only for games, but also for drills.

Artist impression of Newstead Amphitheatre

When you visit a site like the fort of Trimontium, there actually isn’t much to see when you are ‘on the ground’. It helps to do a bit of research beforehand so you know what you are looking at.

For someone like me, who is interested not only in the site, but the smell of the air, the sound of the wind and the view of the surroundings, it is magic for my creativity. But it also helps to get a bird’s eye view of the site.

If you don’t have a helicopter or bi-plane, the best way to do that is to climb Eildon Hill North, the biggest, broadest peak of the three and that which overlooks Melrose and the fort at Trimontium.

Eildon Hill North (Wikimedia Commons)

I drove the car as close as I could get to the base of the hill, having left the fort behind, parked, and began to climb.

From a distance, Eildon Hill North doesn’t seem so big, but when you get up close, you realized you have quite a workout ahead of you. I was glad of my hiking boots, let me tell you.

Once at the top, the world opens up before you. The view is magnificent.

But after the calm beauty of the farmlands down around the fort, the howling winds at the top of Eildon Hill North made for quite a contrast. It wasn’t a place to picnic when I finally got up there.

View from the top of Eildon Hill

This was a sacred hill to the Britons during the Bronze and Iron ages, and was the site of a hill fort that housed up to two-thousand people of the Selgovae, the tribe against which Lucius does battle at the beginning of the book.

When Rome came to the region and took the hill, they constructed a signal station at the top which had a round enclosure about it. However by the time of the Severan invasion of Caledonia, it seems that the signal station might have been out of use. That’s not to say I didn’t have plans for Eildon Hill North in Warriors of Epona!

After the long trek up and back down again, I made my way into Melrose for lunch, after which I visited the lovely little Trimontium Trust Museum.

If you have the time, you should definitely visit this little museum, if only to try on some Roman arms and armour, heft a scutum, unsheathe a gladius, and sit on a four-horned Roman cavalry saddle.

When I finally sat down to write Warriors of Epona, my memories of the fort at Triumontium, the setting, and the wind atop Eildon Hill North all rushed back into my mind as if it were only yesterday.

The site features at the beginning of the book, and though my time there is at an end, the memories of it will always be fresh and inspiring.

Be sure to join me for Part III of The World of Warriors of Epona when we will be looking at the various combatants in our story.

Thank you for reading.

Warriors of Epona (Eagles and Dragons – Book III) is out now in e-book! CLICK HERE to get your copy from Amazon, Kobo, or Apple.