Septimius Severus online talk with Dr Simon Elliot

Description: An online discussion with Dr Simon Elliott FSA about Septimius Severus, the great warrior emperor from North Africa who died in York in AD 211 after spending the last three years of his life trying to conquer the far north of Britain. Severus, born in Leptis Magna in modern Libya, was one of the most powerful Roman emperors, commanding 33 legions at the height of his power. He established the Severan Dynasty, and campaigned throughout the Roman world. Dr Elliott’s full biography of Severus will be published by Icon Books in early 2025. It will also be available as an audiobook through Bolinda Audio. Since the 1970s much new archaeological evidence has come to light to illuminate the immense undertaking of Septimius Severus’ campaigns in the region of modern Scotland in AD 209 and AD 210, allowing for the first time the true story of this savage invasion to be told. In the early 3rd century Severus, the aging Roman emperor, launched an immense shock and awe assault on Scotland that was so devastating it resulted in 80 years of peace on Rome’s most troublesome border. In new research Dr Elliott shows how his force of 50,000 troops, supported by the British regional fleet, hacked its way through the Maeatae around the former Antonine Wall and then pressed on into Caledonian territory up to the Moray Firth. This was the largest force to ever campaign on British soil. Severus was also the first of the great reforming emperors of the imperial Roman military, and his reforms are also explained in Dr Elliott’s talk in the context of how he concentrated power around the imperial throne, in effect creating a reset of the Roman Empire based around allies from his North African homeland.

Transcript: well it's 1902 so I am going to crack on uh as I just said um if everybody can just um turn off cameras and microphones for us save the bandwidth and the rest for fun speech so hello everyone and welcome back to the fifth in our series of exclusive online talks for the Kent archaeological Society I hope you are all fully immersed in the winter Fields it's starting to get a bit chillier don't know how many have got their Christmas decorations up yet maybe still a bit early see Simon hasn't got his up yet not yet soon though as ever we hope tonight we'll go without any technical issues but please do bear with us our hero Jacob is here hiding in the background as ever to rescue us as he so often does should anything go wrong if you're not um currently a member of the Kent archaeological Society please do think about joining us it works out at only about3 P30 a month and for that you'll receive a copy of our yearly Journal archaeolog cantiana full of the most current historical and archaeological research in the county you'll also receive our biannual magazine regular newsletters exclusive access to our collections conferences and selected events opportunities to get involved in excavations and research projects and you will help allow us to continue putting out contents such as these online talks we can do Outreach in schools Community groups and seminars um and we really hope we are bringing the benefits of Kent history and Heritage to everybody check the website for details on how you can sign up to be a member or just get involved so housekeeping The Talk today with Simon Elliot will last about an hour after which there'll be time for questions if you have any please keep keep yourselves on mute with your cameras off throughout so that we can hear our speaker clearly during the questions and answers you can either use the raiseed hand feature and we will unmute you when it's your turn to ask you a question or if you would prefer you can type your question in the chat box and I will read it out for you I hope it goes without saying but please be courteous and polite to our speaker and to each other we will be recording the session and it may be posted to our video channels in the future but no personal data will be scared and if you ask any question but we prefer it not to be published just send us an email saying so and we'll make sure that happens make sure it doesn't go out so onto our speaker Dr Simon Elliot is a historian archaeologist author and broadcaster he has an MA in archaeology from UCL an MA in war studies in KCl and a PhD from the University of Kent in Classics and archaeology where he is an honorary research fellow he's has written and published a library worth of fantastic books and articles exploring many aspects of Roman and classical world history Simon completed two terms as a trustee for the Council of British Archaeology is an ambassador for the Museum of London archaeology and a fellow of the Society of antiquaries Simon has and continues to appear in multiple fantastic TV shows radio podcasts and documentaries including the pilot for the Great British dig which is where I first had the pleasure of meeting him he's also a tour guide for a range of historical Adventures worldwide you can find details of all Simon's Publications tours and broadcasts on his website Simon Elliot 20.com which we will add a link to in the chat Jacob if you are able to do that for me Simon has been involved in countless significant archaeological projects across our County assisting the society in many of our Landmark excavations is a valued and important trustee here at the society and has really helped to boost our recent projects and spread the word about what we do in other Pursuits Simon is also a keen gamer Adventurer collector and perhaps the coolest bandana wearer since Hulk Hogan should be War Simon thank you for joining us pleasure the floor my friend is yours okay let's get the technology working by the way you should do mypr mate that the host isn't Shar Jacob let me share got [Music] it right I'm assuming Craig just message me just say that you can see the screen and then I'll get going yep all good excellent good evening everybody my name is Dr Simon Elliot it's my absolute pleasure to be talking to you through the Kent orological Society about a subject very close to my own heart which is the great warrior Emperor Septimus cus who Who U was one of the greatest Roman emperors but about um who very few very few people know much detail until I started writing about him so I've got a book out already on seus sept seus in Scotland uh which was published in 2017 through Green Hill I've got a very big book coming out next year called the African Emperor through icon um books which is a full biography so next year I have a full biography and the reason why it's going to be very relevant over the next few weeks is the movie Gladiator 2 started um today it was launched today and Gladiator 2 set in the sever period where the two baddies the protagonists the new Commodus are Cara and Gita who are severus's Sons so Severus and the Sans are going to be in the Limelight over the next six months um so I shall begin uh firstly there is septimia seus this is a very famous seant tondo which is a contemporary portrait painted like a fire painting from Egypt um probably the size of a dinner plate painted around ad 201122 while cus was in Egypt so Severus would have seen this and this is how he viewed himself he very dark skinned North African as I'm going to explain in a minute that's his wife Julia domna the love of his life that some below him is caraa and the one with the face scrubed off is G who caraa murdered or had murdered within a year of cus dying and then did a memorial Dam naio on him a very effective one um because uh the face of G has been removed from nearly every representation across the Roman Empire so they're they're the sever uh and that is septimia seus as he would have seen himself personally because he saw this and would have commissioned it and it's now in the alter's museum in Berlin which is very very worth a visit if you get a chance um so today I'm going to talk uh briefly uh I'll give you an introduction and in the introduction I'm going to very briefly talk about cus so a few key top lines then I'm going to talk about the sources which we have for his life which are actually pretty detailed actually uh and then I'm going to give you a quick run through Britain in the latest second century ad to build up to the severan campaigns at the beginning of the third Century ad when he attempted at the very end of his life to conquer uh what we now call Scotland the far north of Britain um I'll then give you a proper biography of seus and talk about severan Rome so a lot a lot of people don't realize that when you go around Rome today about a third of antique Rome ancient Rome is severon and I'll explain all the various buildings I've just come back from leading a tour in Rome so I'm really really nailed on for you um I'm then going to talk about the San military because cus was a great reformer of the Roman military he the first big military reformer of the the prate phase of empire in fact and then finally I'll talk about his expedo felissimo britanica which is a contemporary name we have from an inscription in Corbridge um for the seven attempts to conquer Scotland in 209 and 210 before he died in 211 within that I'll talk about the timetable he arrives in 208 and then he dies in 211 and everything in between I'll talk about why he came I'll detail the force that he used which is the largest Force ever to campaign in British history over 50,000 men um I'll then talk about the logistics that he put in place to support these troops in the field in the far north and then give you my take on the strategy he used and why he was so successful before he died talk about the campaigns themselves and then finish off talking about his legacy okay most of the images most of the slides are pictures I'll talk to there are one or two wordy ones but most of them are going to be pictures or talks in but here's a wordy one so who's seus well cus who was born in leptis Magna in tripolitania in the 11th of April ad45 leus Magna tripolitania which is effectively the um Eastern end of Africa Pro consolis the major Roman North African Province and today it's in Western Libya um he was the emperor from 193 to 211 um he campaigned in Britain from 208 to 211 then died in York in the freezing cold of a British February um fourth of February 8211 and he founded the San Dynasty which just to run through the members for you was Septimus cus until um 211 Cara K and G for about eight months then Cara K on his own till 217 when he was assassinated the petorian prefect macrinus takes over very briefly he's repl when another sein goes on the throne which is the Elia Gabus and then finally Alexander cus and when Alexander cus is assassinated in 235 this initiates the crisis of the third Century where the Roman Empire nearly imploded so the severon period here really certainly cus severus's Reign himself was the high point of the prate phase of Empire the sources that we used to talk about cus well we've got three very good uh uh primary sources when I very good compared to many primary sources uh we've got Caso herodian and the anonymous historian Augusta they all good in the fact that they all carry history in detail so it's quite easy to cross reference and and pick um narratives from their writings and then cross reference that with archaeological finds and things like that as well so that especially Cassis Doo is exceptionally helpful um you've got the Latin chroniclers who then used their narratives for their own a Century Two centuries later later uh but modern sources also um particularly Anthony Burley um Andy burley's dad uh a vinder Lander fame um Anthony berley was one of my mentors when I was researching cus and he read a Bary about 40 years ago which is still a very good book as far as I'm concerned um shepher frier when he was writing covered it as well then David Breeze still talks about seus and especially the San phase on Hadrian's Wall today then in terms of Roman Scotland Lawrence keing Anthony camer excellent finally very important is Rebecca because Rebecca Jones as many of you will know is the world expert in my opinion on Roman marching camps which enable us in the S campaigns to dot to dot uh the route of his march across um far north British territory as I'll detail later and then finally Archaeology is playing a really important role now because uh there's what appears to be and I'll detail it later a major depopulation event towards the end of severus's campaigning when effectively he calls call for a genocide in his last campaign in 210 and the Archaeology is now showing that this effectively occurred because you have a huge depopulation event for about 80 years in the far north of Britain but more of that later right let's get a flavor of uh the campaigns okay to understand um the brutality of this conflict in the far north of Britain at the end of cis's Reign at the end of the 209 campaign seus thought he won and he declared that he was britannicus and he had coins Minted as did car kah who campaign with him while gater and Julie Dom stayed in York and um they thought they won but there was a rebellion from the mighty and the Caledonian uh confederations north of the Border over the winter so they the Romans had to go back in 210 and do it again and clearly seus wasn't very happy so these are the words which Cassis Dio puts in the mouth of seus talking to his gathered troops outside York before they go and campaign in the 210 campaign and he's having Severus paraphrase the ad this is Agamemnon talking to his brother menus but this is the these are the words which are put in the mouth of cus by ciso no we are not going to leave a single one of them alive down to the babies in their mother's woms not even they must live the whole people must be wiped out of existence with none to shed a tear for them leaving no Trace so for me that's quite unequivocal despite the fact that the words have being put in his mouth by ciso and it's paraphrasing that's that's basically saying kill everybody uh and as I as I detailed just now in the archeological record as we'll see that appears to actually have happened so the second campaign in particular was absolutely brutal and it's brutal both ways by the way because the Romans had huge casualties as well um but more of that later so Roman Britain in the second century ad and here we're building up to seus coming over at the beginning of the 3 Century in 208 okay so for me and I'm now living in The darbishire Dales even further close to the northern Frontier um I always say that Britain was the wild west of the Roman Empire where you're a long way from the Imperial Center and you the far north is never truly conquered apart from maybe briefly by a gria for about six months in the um 880s but only briefly so the far north is never fully conquered so you need a very big military presence all the time in Britain which I estimate to be 12% of the entire military establishment three or four Legions equivalent number of auxiliaries in what is only 4% of the Empire's territory so there's there's a huge waiting there in favor of the the military um which puts a huge strain actually on the North and the west and it means that there's a clear divide in the province of Britannia which Severus later initiated to split into two actually there's clear divide along a line basically from the seventh rout of the Humber and if you're south and east of that you're okay you're you know fully fat part of the Roman Empire um all the wealth from the regional economy goes into the fiscus Imperial treasury but if you're north and west of it then everything is devoted to keeping the military in play in the far north so it's a much much uh nicer experience living in the Roman world if you're in the south and east and then as you build up through the second century you get a series of campaigns taking place in Britain usually around the time of a new emperor or Dynasty um almost as though um one of the easiest places to pick a fight when you were New Roman Emperor was in the far north of Britain so we have conflict taking place at the beginning of the reign of Hadrian Hadrian's W conflict taking place at the beginning of the reign of antoninus P the antonine wall conflict taking place at the beginning of the Reid of Marx Aurelius and Lucius feris conflict taking place the accession of Commodus in ad180 and it's towards the end around this narrative about the conflict in Commodus is Reign that you get the mighty caledonians is mentioned for the first time um the this this uh is a slide I'll go back to later but it's just useful to get your eyeing about this campaigning what I call battle space so you can see here you've got the caledonians South you got the Highland boundary fault that's the Highland line above it the highlands below it the lowlands then the caledonians um in the upper Midland Valley so in the upper L lands then the mighta either side of the antonine wall into the Scottish borders they are the marching Camp sever built but I'm going to come back to it I just wanted you to see the geography so we'll now talk about seus himself the short barell well this is lepus Magna everywhere that Severus went as Emperor uh and I've seen many of these including many in North Africa U and elsewhere in the Mediterranean there is a really big seum phase as though all the regional authorities knew when SE was arriving they got to monumentalize his his arrival and Reign and there's no better example than his hometown leus Magna because nearly everything you see there today is San and you can see here the the harbor was built by seus the feros by cus the governor's Palace by cus the theater by cus the foran Basilica by cus and the the um the public bath house by cus so nearly everything you see today in modern leus Magna is severon uh whereas leus Magna bottom right of the map there so that's Africa Pro consolis remember North Africa well the Roman Empire is a Mediterranean Empire that's remember that the the Bolton odd bits are us and the GS and the Germans but like it's Mediterranean Empire largely with North Africa being a fully fat full fat functioning part of it and possibly I think actually probably the richest part of the Roman Empire Africa proconsularis and Egypt where huge amounts of wealth were made with um the grain supply for the KIRO owner in Rome and elsewhere in the Mediterranean uh ol olive oil manufacturing the slave trade uh a variety of other things so North Africa Africa Pro consolis was super rich um and lepus Magna was the richest part of it and you can see it there so that's how that's that's where Severus grew up um spent a number of his years growing up in Carthage this is the Sim family tree so the thing to note here is the top name which is severus's great-grandfather seus Septimus Mesa Mesa is a Phoenician Punic carthaginian name and remember the the the the colonists who ran North Africa after the um uh invasion of the phenician colonists were the were the carthaginians the phenicians so all the key cities including leus Magna were founded actually by the Fenian colonists um so sebus actually was um through his father's line phenician he was a carthaginian probably had more in common with Hannibal than he did with a Roman any other Roman any Roman Emperor um but it's his great-grandfather Lucius Septimus seus who was the first one to sort of really make their name he became the big man in lepus Magna at a time when probably the reign of Tran it was obvious that the Romans were not only here to stay but we're thriving and so therefore he changed the family um family name so the cogin changes to the sein that's where the Seance comes comes from Septimus and seus obviously reference um between them the number seven which is a magical number for the Romans and in particular it's the Seven stars of The Great Bear which usually is the star Which is closest start the constellation Clos to the pole star and it's got a magical magical function in the Roman world so that's probably why they star themselves such so Lucy septim cus severus's grandfather made it big chose to be an equestrian though the level below Senators even though he's Rich enough to be a senator probably because the amount of wealth he would have had to have spent on public buildings his son uh Septimus ga uh wasn't as famous as his father or his own son uh probably because he was ill but then you have Severus marrying Severus himself being born um with a an elder brother called G who also served in Britain before cus actually you served with the second Legion in Kon uh sister called septimia octo and then we have cus himself and then cus then really succeeds in his early career on the curs cursus and Orum and becomes the new Big Man of lepus Magna marries his first wife Pak and mat who dies then marries Julia Domo the love of his life de detail in a minute there's Cara K andita there's Ilia Gabus and there's Alexander cus so the key takeaway here is that severus's uh paternal line were carthaginian his mother's line were Italian but his father's line were carthaginian so when people say was he the African Emperor yes um was he dark skinned absolutely he portrayed himself as being dark skinned as you see in the tondo and he was fenan or not all carthaginian um so uh a wordy slide uh let's just go through his life and career through to ad1 195 the year of the five Emperors when he becomes the emperor um born in 145 enters the senate in 170 marries his first wife Pacquiao Matana in 175 his first big posting is to be the legate the legionis legatus the general in charge of a legion of legio force skida which is in Syria it's one of the the the veteran Legions on the Syrian Frontier facing the parthians Persians um and and uh he really really succeeds there and while he's there he gets on very well with the Syrian governor who's uh the first who's later the first emperor in the year of the five Emperors perx who I've also written a book about the son of a slave who became the emperor of Rome um and the two of them got on really well so from that point perx became the mentor of seus which is important as you get to the year of the five Emperors uh Pacquiao matiana died in 182 then in 185 seus gets his first major governorship which is to become the governor of gall Denis Gall denenes being um the very important uh wealthy Province the thin strip through the middle of Gul running from say the Channel Islands through to Lug Denham which is mon Leon which was its provincial capital near the Alps um and that's where seus became the governor that's where he then married Julia domov the story being that he wrote he clearly met Julie Domino while he was in Syria Julie Domino was the daughter of the high priest of the son God Ilia Gabus in Essa in Syria uh and The Story Goes that cus wrote to her while it was in lunam Leon said can you will you marry me and she said yes straight away and she goes through the Eastern and Western Mediterranean to Mars and then goes up the ran to Leon and they get married um and I've actually stood literally on the place where the governor's Palace was where they probably got married which is on uh on The High Ground sort of in leyon just above the the modern city which is amazing um highly recommend Leon is a place to go and visit a nearby vien absolutely beautiful um caracella is born a year later in Leon G is born a year later when they're in Milan cus becomes the Consul in Rome for the first time in 190 uh but later in 190 he gets a really good governorship and that's to become the governor of panonia superior which is important because it is the key the The Province on the danu the upper danu which is the key to uh accessing Northeastern Italy so it's defending the danubian frontier from the German and stian tribes north of the danu remember we're at the tail end we've just finished the maram manic Wars The Very brutal series of conflicts which ran from about 165 to 180 um when uh the German maramman with their s ziggies allies and other German allies penetrated as far as Northeastern Italy for the first time since the siman wars at the end of the second century BC so that was a big deal so being tasked with holding the frontier there is a really important posting um the the the provinal capital is the legionary Fortress at Kum uh and Severus while he's there has five crack Legions because these are all the veteran Legions from the moranic wars is important because on New Year's Eve 1921 193 Commodus is assassinated by a cabal in his court commus by the way is as mad and bad as he's portrayed I think by wacking Phoenix in Gladiator 2 is one of my least favorite Roman emperors I think he deserves all the bad press he gets uh and you have this cabal of the petorian prefect the court Chamberlin and his mistress Marcia who try and poison him to death on New Year Z 1921 193 but around midnight when the event takes place um he's been drinking all day since New Year's Eve and uh he basically gets given poison sweet beats by Maria but he sweats the poison out in his bathing complex realizes some things are fought but that this is a very well worked out assassination because they have the comod US's wrestling trainer uh narcissus uh on standby in case of a problem so he's called into play and he strangles comus to death later to me's death being eaten by lions in the arena so it didn't end up well for narcissists either so Commodus is dead and the petorian prefect guard elects the consul perx as the emperor at this time pertinax is also the city prefect so he's the guy that's got the keys to Rome effectively so pertinax the mentor of cus is now the emperor pertinax wants to be a very worthy Emperor though along the lines of SE of Markus aelius and he um realizes that Commodus has emptied the Imperial fiscal treasure he's got no money so he has this fire sale of all per a all Commodus um goods and Commodus slaves and everything else to put money in the treasury however he still doesn't have much at the end of January when the petorian guard comes to him and say we want some money and he says no there isn't any and they come back at the end of February and they say we want some money or we'll kill you you and he says Nope there's still no money in the treasury so at the end of March they kill him so he's assassinated um and that's when you get this story of the senator didius julianos bribing the petorian guard at their Camp to make him the emperor and he's there for a short time however there are three other candidates in play you've got cus on the danu with his five crack Legions and then severus's two friends who along with um pertinax and also the real Maximus from Gladiator called maximianus who were a band of young officers a Band of Brothers during the malom manic Wars they all know each other and they're now all fighting to the death to become emperor so cus now has to deal with Clodius albanus who is the fantastically named provincial governor in Britain and pesus niga who's the provincial governor in Syria seus clearly with his five crack Legions on the danu has the whip hand because he's closer so he piles down into Rome declares that he the emperor the Senate um uh say as he walks in uh with his sword drawn surrounded by legionaries absolutely you are the emperor and by October he's the emperor he disbands the petorian guard because they killed his friend pertinax reforms it with 10,000 of his own veterans from the danu and basically then he is in power until uh 211 when he dies in Britain always having the backing of the military he one of the most militaristic of all Roman emperors um this is Peron X by the way the statue on the left is in the Vatican Museum in one of the corners um which millions of people pass by every year no one knowing who he is but to the Romans he was as famous as Caesar or Augustus because he was the man that proved that the Roman Every Man story that anyone could achieve in Roman life because he was the son of a slave a manit slave who did become the emperor uh and that's his bust which is relevant to all of you in Kent because that's the one that was found in lillingston um Villa The Originals in the British museum along with his father uh and the replicas are in lillingston today that's perx served in Britain three times by the way um as a as a junior officer in York uh with six Victor then commanding auxiliary units at hous is on Hadrian's Wall and then finally is the governor in 185 to 187 when he was nearly assassinated before he went back to Rome so he's got a big story playing in Rome and Britain actually that's pertin a severus's men who's now died and is the reason why seus descended on Rome to become the emperor so how does Severus deal with albanus and well firstly he buys off albanus in Britain by making him his Caesar his Junior Emperor he then mounts his first Eastern campaign against who he defeats and beheads uh uh in Syria and then campaigns against three border states ozro and abiden and hatra which are border states with pathia which he also defeats because they actually sided against the r R after pertin A's assassination he then begins an invasion of pathia but has to call it off because he hears the albanus as youer back in Britain and has arrived in Gaul with the three British Legions six Augusta 20 Valeria victrix and two austa sorry six victrix 20 Valeria victorx and two Augusta and he's also got Spanish Legion as well so albanus is now in goal with four Legions and he captures lug Dunham because he knows that SAS can't um ignore that because that's a very important place cus is live because that's where in Mar Julie domna so there's a huge battle takes place at lugd which do says 300,000 troops participated in highly unlikely because at the time the whole Roman military establishment was um about 350,000 men cus by the way commanded more Legions than any other Roman Emperor because he created Legos one two and three patha for his Eastern campaigns so he took the number to 33 um cus wins after a two-day battle almost loses loses his horse twice gets saved by the petorian guard once um and uh eventually wins a very hard battle executes albanus whose head goes back to Rome on on a pike um richly tramples over albus's body on his um new charger and then cus starts scourging Britain because of course the recal province supported albanus and it's seus who built the land wall of Roman London which is uh which became the medieval wall which which to this very day still delineates the square mile the city of London and I love that fact that a Roman Emperor from North Africa lepus Magnus septimia Severus still through building the land wall in London delineated uh the modern city of London I really love that he then has his second Eastern campaign against pathia which is highly successful complete Victory one of the few Remnant Emperors to C sack the pathan capital Tesson uh and then he um has this a sort of like triumphal tour through North Africa's home territories where every everywhere you go whether it's lamb basis or timad or uh hippo Regis or or jamaa uh or or cesaria that they all have all all the Basilica and forums in the center of the towns are still the several ones which were built for that triumphal tour um and he also campaigns in North Africa and it's Severus who extends the territorial boundaries of the Roman Empire to its greatest extent apart from very briefly under Tran when Tran conquered um the the the the pathan Empire all the way through to the Persian Gulf but cus extends it everywhere he goes so he's really driving the scale of the Roman Roman Empire he's a he's um he's an emperor who really believes in monumentalization and monumentalizing his rule founding a new Dynasty as we'll see when we talk about Rome um then returns to Rome he only ever went to Rome four times as Emperor was only there for about six months because he hated the place um I really didn't like the Senators we'll see in a minute um then finally 208 211 campaigns of Britain and dies in 211 and we'll go back to that at the end of the talk there's the beautiful section of lall next to Tower Hill tube station with the um odd statue of tring next to it while the the the bits at the bottom the really nicely worked pieces of ragstone from Kent um subject to my PhD thesis ragstone to Richard and the T bonding layers there that's the severan L wall uh and it's really worth going to the Vine Street Museum the where you got a really good section of it on display now in his own bepoke museum as well that's Roman York serus turned York into his imperial capital uh for the last three years three years of his Reign when he came to Britain um we know it actually was the official Capital not just he was based there but he turned it into the capital because he took um the Imperial fiscus treasure with him he took half the Senate with him took the Imperial family with him leaving Julia Domo and G to um uh run the Empire effectively from York while he was campaigning in the North with carala and um he replaced any Governors and legates around the Empire and procurators who he couldn't trust with North Africans so effectively what cus did just before he came to Britain at the end of his life was really reset the Empire sort of in a with a North African theme um someone call it a hostile takeover um so there s York uh this is car L actually that's me early this year when I had a pleasure of joining the amazing team who are up at um carile Excavating the San building there which looks as though it may actually turn out to be a huge Monumental mano to celebrate cis's visit there during his 209 20110 campaigns um that's me holding the third head which is um recently been in the news that they found there so that's an amazing site actually if you get a chance to do go and see it uh so we move on to sever and Rome um so firstly that's the arch of septimia seus at the head of the Forum you can see there you've got G's name removed uh by caraa but the the arch of septimia servus is there to celebrate his victory over the pathans built about 202 and it was built right on top of the Senate house that's the building on the right in fact part of severus's uh Arch the foundations are actually on the foundations of the Senate house which is his statement saying to the Senators I'm the boss you behave or else um and that's one of my favorite sort of monumental arch in the whole empire but there are other things in In classical Rome as well which are sever Temple of Vesta um well that is the severon version of it which Julie domna sponsored uh because she rebuilt large chunks of the foreign romanum after a fire which took place in the reign of Commodus including rebuilding in this brand new form the Temple of Esther that's sever that the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill most of it you see today is severon um so they're the sever buildings in the Palatine Palace that's the viewing platform on top of the San buildings which uh is a recreation of the San viewing platform over the circus Maximus which is there and then if you look into to your left you'll see shimmering in the heat Haze most of the time the Batts of caraca which were going to be called the battles of septimia saus they were going to be his big gift to the people of Rome built on the Via apia as you approach the Palatine Hill and and the Imperial Palace uh it would have been clad in marble it would have absolutely stunned as you um entered around through the vpia and you can imagine all the staty inside and everything it's absolutely enormous of course cus died before it was finished so caracella nicked the idea and called it the Battle of caracella for me it's always the Battle of sep cus um top of the Palatine Hill overlooking the Coliseum uh in the top Corner this here is the Temple of ilag Gabus uh which was of a scale of the Temple of uh Claudius which is on the other side of the Coliseum absolutely enormous SN Temple that's uh a very happy archaeologist standing next to the Temple of Elia Gabus uh with a Coliseum in the background and then on the right hand side below me there you can see the arch of Constantine and on the right hand side you'd have had the Temple of Claudius and then a new new Museum the Museum of the former herbis which is just open on the Chilean Hill just um down the road from the Coliseum this is on the right you can see as it would have appeared in a temple in the uh Forum of nerva um that is a map made in Marble of severan Rome big chunks of which are still in existence and have been taken out of storage in the capital Museum and laid out into this amazing new Museum you can see on the right and one of my one of my favorite things there is actually when I'm taking tours around Rome to take people there and show them where the hotel that they're staying is in right now um but much of that still exists and that is subn Rome more of San Rome so SE the San military well the the the military of the Roman prpe the phe of the Roman Empire from the accession of claudiia um Augustus in 27 BC as the first emperor until um the accession of De um dle in 8284 the prate um the the military there were largely created along the lines of um uh Augustus so Augustus takes the idea of the Marian Legion this the independent Legion all the troops equit the same and then Augustus creates them down to 5,500 men not 6,000 of which 1,200 are all fat fighting men but they're also specialists in doing other things like being Carpenters or stonemasons or Fletchers or sword cutlers um that's the legion and the supporting ailia which broadly goes all the way through um the pripet but a change begins to take place in the r of cus which is completed a century later by Constantine when you move from what I call the early Imperial Roman Legions to the late Imperial Roman army um so this is the arch of Severus their auxiliaries these are classic prate legionaries on the on on Tran's column so you can see from the beginning of the 2 Century ad um L segmentata scum Shields Etc Imperial GIC helmets actually classic um PR legionary there still there in the RAR Marcus orelus these are panels um from a monument to Marcus orelus which are reused on the arch of Constantine which is why it's a very confusing Monument because that's got trenic and um um anonine uh sculpture on there reused because basically Constantine was um broke when he became the emperor so only the lower panels on that are actually the lower ones and the very top ones are actually constantinian these are also classic prate Legion is from the mid 2nd Century there's a soldier eye painted so this is the figure was called when I bought it the San legionary uh and you can see the change is beginning to take place here with this particular legionary so you can see he's got a spear there instead of a pilum and often uh you see depictions of sever legionaries by the beginning of the 3 Century carrying Spears which is a more utilitarian weapon especially when you're fighting Cavalry than using the pum heavyweight to the javelin and also the sword's been changed here as well from the Gladius the shortest stabbing sword the famous Roman weapon to asaa the L the later Roman slashing sword based on a Germanic Cavalry sword uh which is a longer weapon and again gives you longer reach so this is all about the legionaries as you go to the third Century having fought the parthians fought the sarmatians now getting getting more sort of util utilitarian equipment as opposed to being purely specialist heavy Infantry and you can see here as well another another change taking place this is a San legionary on the arch of seus he's got a round oral shield and of course Century later on the Constantine's figures on his arch they've all got round Shields and and you move away again from the heavy Scoot and body Shield which is the prip Pate Shield through to this more utilitarian easy to handle um uh rounder Shield because it gives you more reach uh and there you can see again on a on a panel from the septimia seus here what you're looking at are sever legionaries effectively deployed in a spear fanks fighting pathan catract armored Cavalry and these are the late Roman legionaries on the arch of Constantine on the Contemporary panels the original ones which are constantinian with that's your classic late Roman legionary so your Arc goes from the Marian uh and Augustine and cesarian legionaries here through the classic prate legionary here to the sever legionary here with his Spear and spaa through to these four fat late Roman legionaries here and it's s cus that begins that change one final notice cus is obsessed with keeping the military on side and famously on his deathbed told caraa be harmonious to each other enrich the soldiers and Scorn everybody else and probably throw swear word in that um well clearly they weren't harmonious to each other because they hated each other and within a year G was dead but um even caraa who um wasn't one of my favorite Roman emperors managed to keep the military on side so we're now going to move on to the expedo fisa britanica so this is the seign campaigns at the end of his life to conquer the far north of Britain so the timetable is as follows 20 seon seus is in Rome and he gets a letter from uh sessio who's the British Governor uh which we'll talk about in a minute and the letter says basically can you come or send reserves and Severus doubles down and comes with reserves because of the issue I'm going to talk about he then orders all the military units in the west and on the and danu to get military get vexation so regiments or brigades ready to send to Britain to support the campaign the British Legions then in 28 the severan Army and himself and the Imperial family arrive in York and create um York of the imperial capital um and then the first campaign takes place in 209 second genocidal campaign in 210 Severus dies in York in 211 and car and Gita returned to Rome and then by the end of the year Gita is murdered by or on the orders of caraa so that's the timeline going to go into why did cus go to Britain well firstly he was bored in Rome this is one of the great Soldier Emperors who really didn't like being in Rome hated the Senate and the Senators and so really really prefer to be out outside of Rome on campaign secondly Cara ker and GA were living the living the high life as Playboys in Rome uh with their own entourages uh severely misbehaving spending far too much money and creating enemies everywhere and so Severus needed to get them out of the imperial capital then you you have um Severus and any other Roman Emperor how they measured themselves to the greatest of the Roman emperors as the Romans saw it so for us we will probably say the greatest Roman is Caesar sever in in the Roman period they would say it was Augustus with Caesar second but Augustus the first emperor was the big guy um so all Roman emperors measured themselves against Augustus and Horus at the turn of the first century BC ad wrote a poem um uh mostly eulogizing on Augustus but in one sentence he says cus will Augustus will only be a God if he defeats the Persians the parthians and the Britain and of course Augustus never did um PL to campaign against Britain three times but never did so Augustus didn't do those two things but other Roman emperors tried to and cus has already defeated the pathans so in his head this most Marshal of Emperors he's thinking to himself well look if I can defeat um Britain as well I've done something which even Augustus hasn't done that makes me the greatest Emperor also he was Ill suffering from um a pulmonary condition which was badly affecting his feet which uh people say today's gout but actually was probably indicative of a much broader uh heart or lung condition um but he was Ill so it was the last chance of military Glory when he died he was 65 also after the um rebellion of albinus against seus uh which culminated in the Battle of lam in 197 cus had been slow to reman the British Legions because he didn't trust them so there's a fair chance that the northern Frontier was actually under man so it presents an opportunity I'll come on to in a second then we have cio's letter and the letter the line that's important is the letter says the island will be overrun because we're being attacked from from the north I need the Emperor or reinforcements and the language is very specific there doesn't say that the north is going to be over in all York it says the island so it's clearly overemphasizing the fact that there's a major threat whether this was an invention creation by seus to give him an excuse to invade or not we'll never know but certainly the way the Letter's phrased it sounds though there was Peril in the far north and finally why what what may have prompted the mighty caledonians to actually attack in the first place well firstly these confederations that only just come into being from the various tribes which tmy details um at the time of agria and into the 2 Century um largely through contact with Rome either through the transfer of wealth or power so he end up with these huge confederations and the leaders of those need had had a war inability they needed to keep happy and they needed plunder and secondly um the weather in severus's campaigns in Scotland was terrible um the Romans didn't mece the words when they were talking about British weather we call it changeable laughably the Romans called it wet and cold so for Roman authors to say it was worse than usual means it was really really bad and it looks as though um there was a sort of a major climate event uh in the two or three years around the sing campaigns so you may have had a harvest shock in the far north I.E there was famine as well uh what was in severus's force well this is what I call shock and or RIT large 57,000 men overall the largest campaigning Force ever in Britain who arrived all the all all along the east coast of all the major ports ended up being based in York and effectively creating the first Roman field Army um what did it comprise well the petorian guard 10,000 strong they all came Imperial Guard Cavalry 2,000 strong U the aquit singular is austa severus's own legio to paa his pet Legion which he normally based near Rome very unusual by the way at this stage in the prpe all the Roman Legions were based around the Frontiers except um the one in Spain in Leo uh and then Sous bases won near Rome leio two path clearly to give him some more muscle against the Senators but that comes with him as well the three British Legions I've detailed who fought early with albanus 15,000 British auxiliaries supporting them vexations of legionaries and auxiliaries from the Rin of Dan and finally the 7,000 Sailors and Marines of the classic Britannica the regional Fleet is a story people often Overlook but it's very important in all Roman military campaigns Britain is no is no different the classic Britannica supported the land campaigns of the Roman military any every one of their major campaigns that's why most major fact not most all Roman forts are on Rivers um often these later become sort of the urban landscape of mod Britain today these are three lierna gys of the classic Britannica um by this time there was no symmetrical threat to the Roman navies not until the um sort of fourth Century really so instead of having the big polar GS of the Republic they have these very nippy by GS Li ber nicknamed after pirate ships from the Balkans which were very good at operating along coast and down river river systems and that is one of my favorite pieces of archaeology that is a lead waster from uh very close to brancaster one of the early Saxon Shore forts dating to about 220 so when the classic Botanica still existed um and there's a graffiti of a Roman Galley you can see here you've got the ram you've got the planking youve got the round Shields you've got the for the the for for Mast you've got the main mased here that graffiti is of a Roman Galley of the class branica drawn by someone who saw it and I think that's absolutely fantastic uh he got all the the major Roman ran networks we're looking particularly on the East Coast here so Roman troops coming in through Dover and richburn and London through the great estery in uh East Anglia through casy St Edmond B rice and Orum uh through Bron Humber through South Shi and walls and they were all used to get these troops over a lot of them through from the Ryan estri and what did one of these major fortified Harbors look like well uh seus built three I'm going to detail in a second um to support his camp this specific campaign so this is a that's the Fortified Harbor at Kon you can see behind it the um Amphitheater which is still fantastic today and there's the legionary Fortress of two Augusta Well that's the bit you don't see today that's the Fortified Harbor and here are some Li burner of the classes Ana and some um various kinds of merchant ships as well so the first Logistics base cus built to support his campaigns in the far north was in South Shields and you can go and see it today when you go and visit ARA you see the layout of the Roman lead Fort there that actually is a S phase of it um you're not looking at Barrack blocks you're looking at granaries because Severus increased the number of granaries there by a factor of 10 to feed his troops and then as the campaign progressed he built another fortified haror at grammond on the fourth near Edinburgh and then as it progressed again he built another fortified Harbor at carpo on the Tay that's the prip in a crop Mark and that's the view from the site of the fort on the banks of the tayor looking South and Beyond those mountains you've got um Edinburgh um the field in front of you the plow field is crunching with Roman archaeology never been fully excavated that's CP on the T so the strategy service strategy was brutal and it was effective 20 arrives in 208 209 uh the start of the campaigning season in late spring launches the first campaign into the far north the 50,000 land troops go through as one homogeneous body eviscerating everything before them along Deer Street in the Scottish borders they build one two three four five marching camps as they go through the marching camps are the largest March camps in the Roman World they 70 hectar so they can take the entire Army of 50,000 he then builds carpo and finally builds a bridge of boats across the fourth probably along the line of the um Queens fery Railway Bridge today and probably um about 900 vessels are going to be needed for this and they're not the warships either a lot of them are especially constructed once the bridge of boats is built across the fourth he divides his Force into two he gives caracella command of the two3 of them which includes all three British Legions because they're the ones that know British territory best and they go up the Highland line and block off every Glenn they get to with a glen blocker for exactly the same as a gria did some of them actually re reopened Ackland Forts and the key Anor one's the one here at ardu and eventually gets the ston Haven here on the North Sea Coast where the last Fort is at Kier house and that's it all the glands are blocked off so anybody stuck below the Highland line now can't get out through the highlands he then at the same time has The Clash britanica close off the coast so everybody who's left in the lowlands of Scotland in five and in the upper Midland Valley are stuck and then once that's in place he takes the third of the troops that are left himself which includes uh Tupa the petorian guard and the que singular Augustus singularis the equ sing as Augusta and he crosses the fourth himself and hits the soft underbelly a British resistance and literally guts the place um and although hard fighting takes place there is no setpiece battle as with ag Grier and mons graus and uh eventually a piece is agreed so that's the S strategy a very brutal campaign strategy um marching camps play a key role there because those marching camps are all well known in the archeological record all of a certain size all ma m matched academically to the San period and the severan forces which he deployed there there's your Roman legionaries building the marching camps tough job being a Roman legionary marching five or six hours a day spending three hours building a marching Camp making your bread going to sleep getting up and then if you're carrying on uh knocking the camp down and building another one at the end of the day again so there's your legionaries building a marching Camp that's what a marching Camp would look like I know it's a cartoon but it's very good descriptive there you've got the ditch the Earth from the ditch to create the bank the Palisade created from Stakes carried by the legionaries or auxilia then inside the layouts exactly the same as a permanent Roman Fort but um temporary nature including the prip and pretorium in the middle it's a very well-dressed Roman legate stke historian there filming a program which is going to be on channel five at the beginning of next year uh and uh that was at the amazing Roman Fort Park Park in the past which is in rexam which is a fully recreated Roman uh Fort and it's really really highly recommended if you get a chance to go and visit there's another view of the road R marching camps so just to reinforce the strategy the Romans use there so again brutally effective everybody together through Deer Street to the fourth caraa with two-thirds along the Highland line then Severus finishing everybody off once the classic Banica has sealed off the coast brutal and efficient that's Deer Street going past um the Roman Fort site at newstead near Melrose tonum which has got the wonderful Museum there now and that is the new stood Stone looking across in the plowed field the Roman um uh Fort so it's a Flav an antonim Fort at um tonum I use that picture though because the S marching Camp is also in view it it's the entire Hillside in the background so the 70 Hector marching Camp is that entire Hillside in the background that's how big it is this is a great view of a Roman Bridge of boats uh this is from Tran's colum with Tran crossing the danu and to give you a of this dangerous battle space the Romans were were in that's the anchor Highland line for at UK which is the only fult certainly Roman Britain where you get five um sequential defensive ditches which means it was a very dangerous territory indeed probably actually the reason there were five is because the for got smaller over time and it withdrew within the the area so um a new ditch was dug but three of them are almost certainly seon that's aruk um in Angus that's a view of the Highland line from the gas Ridge which is The High Ground between the Tay and the fourth and we're looking here North to the Highland Highland line the highlands so when you see these um dips here they are Glenn giving access to the highlands and that's where carala built his his thoughts so what were the campaigns like I've nearly finished now and then I'll take any questions what were the campaigns like well the 209 campaign brutal and Savage absolutely Savage no meeting engagement and it was a gorilla Warfare conflict um the Romans suffered as well as the natives um do says the natives used as some kind of supplement which allowed them to stay the um field in wet and cold conditions with little food for a lot longer than the Romans and it's now thought that is actually the heath P which is a modern appetite suppressant which you find in the north there it is on the bottom right um huge casualties on both sides do says the Roman lost 50,000 men well that's a lot given the whole force of 57,000 so it's obviously an exaggeration but it just emphasizes the fact the Romans didn't have it all their own way but weight of numbers told in the end and eventually the native super piece which is agreed in his favor to Rome there's a story that when the piece is signed carala draws his sword behind severus's back but the petorian prefect um puts his hand on severus's um sword hand to stop him actually killing his father um and then coins and medallions me to Victory and cus and Cara C call themselves britannicus and alls well except we know it's not because the m and caledonians rebell with the winter and the whole thing's repeated in 210 in exactly the same way successfully for the Romans the pieace is also agreed but this is when the genocide occurs which we now can see in the archaological record um cus doesn't take place take part himself because he's now too ill so Caren K leads it on his own so what's the legacy of all this immense effort the loders campaigning forced on British territory first cus died in York in 211 so he didn't stay in the far north and the Romans didn't stay carac and G hated being there they wanted to get back to the high life in Rome where they could squabble their way to become the sole Emperor cus wanted them to be diars like Marx orelus and lucus feris but um of course soon as cus is dead they both race each other literally with their own entourages separately back to Rome by the end of the year car has had GS killed who dies bleeding to death in Julie Dom's arms really really sad story really um the military force dis disperses in exactly the same agrias did in the late first century ad and the line of the frontier Northern Frontier drops to hren wall again did seus in to say did seus intend to stay I think so I think seus um intended to incorporate the Scottish borders and five and probably the upper middle of Valley to the Highland line into provincial Roman territory to the South was the effort worth it well Conquering the far north it was a fail because it was never tried again by the Romans um but peace did break out to an extent on the Northern Frontier for around 80 years because of the brutal genocide so in a sense that's a success from a Roman perspective um because the northern Frontier in Britain is not really mentioned by contemporary sources again until the Cor rebellion in the the 8 280s into the 829s and we have this evidence in the archaological record of reforestation agricultural land uh falling out of use and settlements being abandoned and then you end up with units of caloni being incorporated into Roman auxiliary regiments on the rhin and danu as well so anybody who survived if you're a male you probably got forcibly recruited into the ran military uh this is our set of the story there's sever and carala and GA love each other and love the military and they obviously hated each other carala killed G very sad end to the story um you can see how effective that Memorial dam natio was if you look at the arch of septimia serus so on one of the columns you've got these images of caracalla and Gita with parthan captives to celebrate their role in the father's Victory there's Gita with his face removed at the back and because Gita never existed because he'd been Memorial Dam naio clearly anybody he knew or touched had never existed either including his own pathan captive so even the parthan captive has had his face removed uh now to become um the subject of the day with car and G of course been the the the chief protagonist the bad guys in Gladiator 2 uh but seus marches on through my book so my aim is to put cus back into the pantheon of well-known Roman emperors given the very important role he had not only the story of the Roman Empire but of Roman Britain um if you want to see me talking about the seven phase of the Coliseum because he rebuilt the top level after a fire um that's Dan snow and I we're on Thursday evening next week on channel five Coliseum death in the arena where I'm one of Dan's experts I'm sort of talking to him about all the various aspects of the games and Gladiators Etc that's me about to go underground to one of the quaries where the stones for that sevenn rebuild came from uh I've got another show with Dan which is on Channel 5 in January which is about Pompei that's me standing on the Basilica in January filming with Dan with some very beused onlookers wondering why these two middle-aged Bloks have climbed on the Basilica in Pompei we were allowed to by the way it's the part of the filming and that's Dawn breaking as we were filming in the theater in pompe as well that was a really special moment this year um and if anybody wants to contact me they're all my contacts I'm very happy to answer any questions for anybody if you want to email me do follow me on my social media platforms um I'm on X and I'm also on Instagram as well Simon Elliot 8671 that's Simon Elliot 8671 and as the guys at Cass will tell you I post um images from all of my travels around the Roman Empire which I'm perfectly happy for anybody to use for free so just feel free to use them and keep up to speed with my books and Publishing and broadcasting and touring and everything that is it uh happy to take any questions from you now so what I will do now is I'm going to stop the share and then Jacob if you want to take back control Simon thank you so much that was amazing thank you what a whirlwind Adventure through the life of an incredible character and it is clear clear to see your uh I'm not showing you my gladi either there you go oh yeah that's the pointy end of the industrial scal killing machine that is the Roman military it's clear you are very passionate about this story and um and this this character you know and uh I always find it amazing that so much of the Roman Empire story does put Britain front and center even though we're supposed to be this island at the end of the world and um cold and miserable and all the rest but yeah it's it's brilliant and and this particular story seems to be one of the most important in Roman Britain so the thing the thing to remember is this is the largest ever campaigning force on British soil I mean the largest battle on British soil was probably the Battle of ton in the wars of the Roses when you've got 30,000 men overall engaged overall and this sing campaign is one of the sides is 57,000 men so clearly really went to town to try and try and Achieve his aims he had something to say definitely if we have any questions please um pop them in the chat I'm just um just checking that it's working Jacob are you if you can see the chat and see if it's working for us um I've got a quick question about um not seus about the pertin next bust actually uh you said it was found in lingon uh yeah it's one it's found in the ward up St um staircase to the um The Grotto or whatever it was downstairs you know that when when the when the when the religious site whatever it was that in the in the undercroft was changed into a Christian function the the original stairwell from memory was bricked up and that's where the head of perx and his father were found okay do you think it is because of a specific association with the region or do you think it's just people celebrating a a hero the busts were clearly the bust of pertinax and his father because this this is a very big story in the Roman World remember this is a son of a slave who became the Roman Emperor so he like the the Every Man story it's really important story for the Romans not to us in our world but for the Romans it was as important as probably Augustus or Caesar because this man had made it from nothing um and uh the two phases where the bus would have been made were either when he was the governor in the 180s or when he was briefly the emperor and then uh it was clearly um um Memorial d thato cu the nose has been knocked off but it's quite a half-hearted attempt to slight it because they've not really gone to town they just knocked the nose off so it's almost like word arrives when didis julianis in the midad 193 in midad 193 briefly becomes the emperor word arrives that perx is not a good guy he's now a bad guy so they knock his nose off and then put it in a Cupboard somewhere and then uh about three months later Severus of the emperor and world gets round that perx is a good guy and so actually um it not really badly slighted SE the story of cus and perx is very interesting when cus became the emperor he deified perx his mentor and then he had a formal funeral for him where which was a three-day event in November in the Senate um and the former ranum and on the Palatine Hill and at the end of it which included three days of games he built a funeral p in the for for romanum on the top of which was a coffin of pertinax which actually was a wax Effigy because his body had rotted too much so a wax effigy was in the coffin and then on top of the coffin was an eagle in a cage and the pie is lit and there's a flame this is dio it's beautifully written by Dio and he was a Senator di was a contemporary member of um of Severus and perx he was a Senator the Flames sort of like go towards the top of the P the wax Effy starts melting the eagle starts going Daft because he thinks he's going to get burned and suddenly the cage door trap door is lifted the eagle piles out and flies Skyward into heaven that's the emperor being deified that's the emperor going to heaven um so cus really really went to town to bring perx story back amazing he he even took the name pertinax as a new Cogan so he added the name pertinax to his own name and often until the ad 206 27s if you look at where cus has his name inscribed and by the way he reclaimed a lot of The Monuments in Rome himself as well so if you look at the pantheon at the front where it says Marx AG gripper below it there's a freeze which actually you can see it broad daylight the freeze says septo seus was here and so was caraa and when it says septimia seus he calls himself septim seus perx so he adopted the name I'm gonna Dash on because we're getting the Mi messages questions coming in thick and fast now so we'll try so Gordon Hutchinson said I'm writing a paper on the Roman history of DOA around the clbr I've said I believe the reason why they left around 210 ad was because of seus have you any views on why they didn't return at the end of The Campaign I I refer the very good question I refer the gentleman to a fine book called SE Eagles of Empire 2016 Dr Simon Elliot now available as a paperback through Green Hill publishing which is the only book ever written about the class Banica and it's got everything in you need to know for me the last reference to the clbr is 249 which is saturnite us and navarus of the Clash branica um which was found in all in the south of France where he'd retired to so it's last mentioned in 249 but if you have a look in the book um which is available on Kindle and everything as well all the all the details in the chronology are in there great question but just briefly why didn't they ever come back across to the third Century too expensive thank you okay uh Chia Cara sorry if I got that wrong has asked in my previous encounters with seus he has often been mentioned as a more negative figure in Roman political history do you believe that this is more of a modern interpretation uh I got asked this actually when I was leading a tour and somebody said why do you why do you like him so much because I I don't painted I don't paint him in a in a good light at all actually I just tell the hard truth but he's a Roman Emperor living in the r world so I try and judge him by the standards of his own day um he was a very militaristic Emperor he's one of the few Roman emperors who died in his own bed um he's a guy that put Rome in North Africa on the map and took took on the um sort of the Elites in Rome Etc and then ruled on his own ter terms champion of the Roman military and I'm a military historian but and from a Roman perspective he was a truly great emperor because he nearly always won extended the Roman Empire to its greatest extent had more Legions than anybody else um and and um ruled on his own terms for the whole time so from a Roman perspective he's one of the greatest Emperors he sort ticks all the boxers for the but what is let let's face it a very militaristic Marshal Empire it's an Empire oh thank you okay Gordon Taylor asks did carala or seus reoccupy inal antonine wall oh we didn't touch Hill yes sorry tell you well I tell you is that was that Gordon you call Gordon yes Gordon that's one of my favorite place to go actually go go to in touch Hill you stand in the middle of a very visible as Crop Marks Roman legionary Fortress the most Northerly Roman legion Fortress in the Roman world to my friends in Cass um built by liio 20 uh Valeria victrix during the campaigns of agria did it get rebuilt by seus no however nearby ardu was reused by the Severn and the antonine war was also at least the fort brought back into operation to to to protect the rear of his campaigning forces as he moved up into the upper Midland Valley it's a great question that is one of my favorite places mate just in case I I miss said it I'm gonna spell it for you just so we know inch inch to Hill no inch i n t l l inch to trust me uh Martin bford has asked is there any evidence of how they would have disposed of all the people who lost their lives after these two massive battles no I mean you can imagine basically looking for in the archaological record you're looking for H huge burial pits which haven't been found which also haven't been found by the way I mean if you look at the Roman campaigns in Britain the three biggest were um the 30,000 men of Agri in Scotland in the late 1 Century ad earlier the 40,000 men in The claudian Invasion ad43 into Kent and later the campaigns of Severus at the beginning of the third Century all of which would have created vast numbers of dead Roman and Native and we've got almost no evidence probably because of the acidity of the soil where they were buried in the burial pits by the way where I'm in the darish D here it's beautiful it's alkaline soil archaeologist Paradise on plau nice um Paul Hayes uh it's either Paul Hayes Rochester or Paul Hayes in Rochester has said that he has two septum sepian de debased Sila dinari sorry my my words are not coming out right tonight I apologize to everyone for my terrible speaking he asked do you want to see them I'd love to see them if you want to send me send me a picture of them I'd absolutely love to see them thank you so much that's really really kind so at the top of the chat you will see we have put a link into Simon's website where you can find his email address and uh I'm sure if you send him an email he would uh be very happy to see them or meet up with you somewhere to see them somewhere also to give you a book recommendation not one of my own Sam morehead's book Roman coins in Britain so Sam Morhead was in charge of the the the pass and Roman coins um till recently in the British museum Sam Morehead um and his book Roman coins in Britain is an absolutely fantastic resource because it goes into a lot of detail about the variations on the various dynastic coins we find in Britain as well cool thank you okay so sorry I was just looking down the questions um Martin toy has said I believe there's no confirmed date for London Wall what evidence is there to assign it to seus coin evidence it's coin evidence it's in the um remember where it is it's fairly well established though um it's based on it's Bas on coin data and the coins in question were found very close to where the old Museum of London was on alers gate on which would have been um where the wall joins the old cripplegate for coin data to answer your question amazing okay well I think that is about all the questions unless any more seep through um thank you Simon so much that was really really brilliant talk and uh really fascinating and I bet everyone is desperate to go out and see Gladiator 2 right now and take their swords with them um thank you everybody for attending it was a a really fascinating delve into the life of a Roman emperor in Britain so yeah get out watch Gladiator 2 watch Simon on channel five at the Coliseum and soaking some more of it as I mentioned earlier if you're not a member of the society please have a think about joining us it works out about 330 a month and you will receive a copy of our yearly Journal archaeologia cantiana full of the most current historical archaeological research in the county you'll also receive our biannual newsletters exclusive access to our collections conferences and selected events opportunities to get involved in excavations and research projects and you will help us bring the benefits of kentish history and Heritage to everyone and continue to do these wonderful talks speaking of which we have lots more coming up so keep an eye out on our website for the upcoming talks on the 5th of December we have Randall Manor revealed Community archaeology Community archaeology excavations in sha Woods Country Park with Andrew Mayfield the 23rd of January 2025 next year seems so far away but also so close frighteningly close Dr Reb Ellis hackin will be talking to us about animals and humans in the late IR age art of England and Wales with special mention of Kent 21st of February David brri will bring us a presentation of technical AIDS in archaeology with a special focus on aerial and satellite imaging on the 20th of March Janice Thornton will be talking about sheepy munes women in shess dockyard in World War I and the 17th of April 2025 Dr Martin Watts will deliver his talk Richboro the secret Port so check the website for more details on these talks and all a wide range of events um we have coming up and uh how to become a member so leaves me to say thank you again Simon so much for your amazing talk I look forward to seeing you very soon um all Andy's just told me to not forget to check out the upcoming events on our website I think that's and oh including an inperson event with Richard Taylor fellow of the Society of antiquaries and certain Dr Simon Elliott taking place at M Museum in early February the return yes so thank you again thank you everyone for listening have a wonderful evening we will see you all again here next month for another amazing talk cheers guys thank you Salon good night everyone