The First Roman Occupation of Scotland

Abstract

Introduction. Until recent years it was believed that the Roman rule north of Cheviot did not long survive the recall of Agricola. Then, as a result of the excavation of the fort at Newstead, Sir George Macdonald advanced the view that the early occupation was prolonged into the principate of Trajan. Subsequently, in a period when excavation was out of the question, Sir George, in an important and valuable paper on ‘The Agricolan Occupation of North Britain,’ published in this Journal in 1921, reviewed the evidence then available from a number of Scottish sites: the sequence of structural changes, the coin-series, and (though the material was not considered in detail) the proportions of pottery assignable definitely to one or other of the two main periods of occupation. His conclusion was that the first occupation must have been nearly as prolonged as the second, lasting well into the principate of Trajan, and even perhaps into the early years of Hadrian.