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Deadline: April 30th, release June 18th.Image

Theme: the campaigns of Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Introduction: Jasper Oorthuys, 'Agricola's campaigns: historical setting'. Download here (right-click and select 'Save as')

Imagethe Source: Jona Lendering, 'Tacitus and the Agricola'
‘The Romans create a desert and call it peace’: this is probably the most famous line from the Agricola, the charming little treatise that the Roman senator Cornelius Tacitus devoted to the achievements of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, one of Rome’s most successful commanders in Britain. The famous line comes from a speech by a British chieftain and has often been interpreted as a condemnation of imperialism (for example by Robert Kennedy, who quoted these words in a speech on the war in Vietnam). However, it would be wrong to think that Tacitus doubted Rome’s right to conquer the world. As an old-fashioned senator, he believed in Roman expansion. To understand the Agricola, we must first understand its author.

the Campaign: Jasper Oorthuys, 'Combined arms: Agricola's naval and land campaign'
It is self-evident that there would not have been a Roman Britain without an extensive naval effort during the invasion. That effort was the genesis of a permanent fleet in the English channel; enter the Classis Britannica. Under the overall command of Julius Agricola, it was to show that such fleets could still do useful front-line duty, even when deployed against an opponent who had no warships to speak of.

the Warrior: Adrian Wink, 'Batavian auxiliaries of Agricola’s army'. Illustrated by Johnny Shumate.Image
The Batavian troops of Agricola’s army that fought at Mons Graupius came from the great rivers in the Netherlands on a large island between the rivers Meuse, Waal and Rhine. The Batavi [made up of relocated peoples of the Chatti and Ubii] probably colonised the island in the time of Drusus. A civil dissension among the Chatti resulted in the expatriation of a portion of the people. The exiles sought a new home in the empty Rhine island, called it ‘Bet-auw’, or ‘good-meadow’ and were themselves called thereafter, Batavi. The Batavian capital or ‘Civitas’ was Batavodurum, present day Nijmegen.

the Battle: Kate Gilliver, 'The battle of Mons Graupius'
Somewhere in Scotland, during a summer sometime in the mid 80s AD, a Roman army under the command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola engaged in pitched battle and defeated an army of Britons led by Calgacus. The only account of the battle is by Agricola’s son-in-law, the orator and historian Tacitus. Whilst he may not be in the same league as historians such Thucydides or Polybius when it comes to military details, Tacitus provides us with sufficient details to reconstruct the main elements of the battle, though inevitably his narrative, as part of a eulogistic biography of his father-in-law, presents the Roman general in the best possible light.

Features
Be a general:Murray Dahm, 'Teach yourself how to be a general'
How did ancient generals learn their craft? This question has often been asked and the answers generally fall into the ‘experience’ or ‘genius’ categories. There was, however, an industry in the ancient world of teaching the art of generalship; not in the context of ‘in the field training’ but in the classroom or in the form of handbooks.
Image
Be a general: Murray Dahm, 'The next Alexander'
Alexander the Great was the general to emulate in the ancient world. In fact, to this day he remains the benchmark of great military accomplishment. Virtually every commander and student of military history since has pondered if they could have done what he did, and if they could be the next Alexander. Several figures in history have seen themselves as precisely that but all have fallen short of the mark.

Special: Graham Sumner, 'Pontius Pilate's bodyguard'
Thanks to the New Testament and with a little help from Hollywood, Pontius Pilate has become the most infamous Roman Governor of Judaea. Yet little attention has been paid to the real character and even less to the troops that he had at his disposal. Recent research and interpretations of the Bible have however thrown new light on this subject while also revealing evidence of the internal policing duties in Rome’s most troublesome province.

the Find: Ruben Post, 'Alexandrian Stelae and the Ptolemaic army of the 3rd C BC'Image
In no other period of ancient history do we find such individual, abundant, vivid, and complete evidence for the appearance of soldiers as we do in the painted gravestones of Alexandria in Egypt. Each, painted to depict the deceased, provides us with a snapshot of a soldier who lived in the third century BC: a man struggles to secure his rearing horse; another shakes hands with his daughters; and yet others stand alone, fully armed and prepared for combat.

Downloadable articles (right-click and select 'Save as'):
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The Imperial Nemesis: Rome vs. Parthia

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