Sam Ledger

Ancient History

Agricola 2013

A.) From the passages we are told that during Agricolas governorship
of Britain that he had to deal with people living in isolation and
ignorance we can assume that these were Caledonians from what
is modern day Scotland as they did not involve themselves when
Romans took the rest of Britain. Secondly that his object was to
accustom them to a life of peace and quiet by the provision of
amenities. Again this suggests that Agricola was dealing with the
Caledonians due to them being described as living in swamps
without villages in an earlier source, it also suggests the attempt to
Romanize the north. The passage then says that he gave private
encouragement and official assistance to the building of temples,
public squares and goods houses. This further supports the
suggestion that he is dealing with the Caledonians in Scotland as
stated earlier they roamed the swamps of Scotland and didnt have
any villages as southern Britain did which made it harder for them to
be Romanised. From the lead water piping we see the inscription
which ends in the governorship of Gnaeus Julius Agricola. This is
from the Chester fort which was used in the beginning of Agricolas
governorship while he re-secured Wales. Finally the inscription tells
us that Through Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Governor, the city of
Verulamium to mark the building of the basilica. The basilica is a
Roman court and this suggests to us that Agricola used the system
that an earlier governor put in place to use a jury while he was able
to continue his campaign of Britain from the front lines.
B.) From other parts of The Agricola we can learn of the troubles that
Agricola faced when dealing with the Britons, Tacitus suggests that
the difficulties that Agricola faces are from the failures of previous
Governors and Emperors (Gaius) and then goes on to tell us how
Agricola corrected all the problems he encountered during his
Governorship.
In chapter 18 Tacitus tells us how the Roman soldiers had made the
assumption there would be no campaigning while the enemy
(possibly the Ordovices) turning theirs to seizing the opportunity
as such this lead to Agricola having to attack the Ordovices due to
them wiping out a Roman cavalry regiment. However after the
summer the troops had taken it for granted there would be no
fighting that year this suggests to us that even before Agricola
came into Governorship his predecessor had been rather lax with
the troops as Tacitus states in chapter 16 stating that Trebulius was
even less active. He never inspected the camps and governed the
province as an affable administrator. This suggests to us that
Agricola had to deal with his troops and their bad habits they may
have picked up from Trebulius due to him being a less active
governor.
Another difficulty we see Agricola had to overcome is in chapter 26
where Tacitus describes how the 9th legion were attacked in the

Sam Ledger

Ancient History

Agricola 2013

night by the enemy. Fighting was already going on inside the camp
itself when Agricola () ordered the most mobile of his cavalry to
charge the combatants from the rear This shows that even though
Agricola was in a very dangerous position as one of his legions could
have been decimated by the enemy he was able to turn it around
and thus go onto win the war. Had he not acted so rapidly he may
have taken heavier casualties and lost the fight that followed.
C.)From the passage and other sources we can tell that Agricola was
quite an effective Governor. We see this in his ability to control the
south of Britain which has proved troublesome in the past (see
Boudiccas revolt) and also manages to get a foothold in Caledonia
and defeat the major resistance there (Battle of Graupian Mountain)
along with other less important factors.
The battle of Graupian Mountain is possibly the most important
factor in Agricolas Governing career and can be argued as his most
successful. However we have to question the source it comes from
as Tacitus is his son in law and a big part of him writing the Annals
are to promote his father in laws life and also through what he
writes, towards the end of this section of the Annals Tacitus tells us
that Agricola didnt use his legionnaires and only his Auxiliaries
which could suggest that this battle was not as big as Tacitus would
have us believe. However that does not take away the fact that this
is still quite a big success for Agricola as it shows how he has
managed to fight his way up to Caledonia and subdue the tribes in
the north of Briton.
Another point that suggests that Agricola was a successful governor
how he romanised the south and rebuilt what had been destroyed
by Boudiccas this is shown in chapter 21 of the Annals and from the
extract, in which it states those who had lately had been rejecting
the Roman tongue now conceived a desire for eloquence. And
Thus even our style of dress came into favour and the toga was
everywhere to be seen. This suggests that Agricola had succeeded
where previous Governors had failed and managed to romanise a
large part of Britain, this suggests he was an effective leader due to
him being able to convince the Britons through a number of ways to
become more Roman. However this may be exaggerated slightly as
the weather in Briton back then was apparently worse than modern
day so Togas would not have been suitable to deal with the British
weather.
The final point that suggests that Agricola may have been an
effective governor is the Lead water piping that was found in the
fort in Chester with his inscription upon it. This shows how had
moved at least one legion to the Chester fort to stop the Ordovices
and Silures from rising up again as they had in his first year of
Governorship.
However the arguments for him not being as effective as Tacitus
would have us believe are there, the most important of which is that

Sam Ledger

Ancient History

Agricola 2013

he never actually managed to secure Caledonia for the Romans and

thus by 118Ad at the latest (possibly before that as the Stanegate
was in place before Hadrians wall) Hadrians wall was built as a
mark of Romes which does suggest that Agricola didnt manage to
conquer Caledonia as Tacitus would like us to believe.
This shows that although some of what we know of Agricola from
Tacitus which seems to be the majority source about him could be
exaggerated he was an effective Governor and what he did to
Britain for Rome increased Roman standing with the locals while
putting down any who went against him with an iron fist.