Editing Roman Britain (section)

=== Occupation of and retreat from southern Scotland ===
{{Anchor|Occupation and retreat from southern Scotland|reason=Old section name; may have incoming links.}}
{{Further|Scotland during the Roman Empire|Hadrian's Wall|Antonine Wall}}

There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some [[Castra|Roman forts]] south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the [[Stanegate]]. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the [[Scottish Lowlands]] in the years before 100, indicating growing [[Romanization (cultural)|Romanisation]]. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at [[Vindolanda]] in [[Northumberland]], mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.

Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the [[Picts]]: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged [[armour]] at ''[[Trimontium (Newstead)|Trimontium]]'' (at modern [[Newstead, Scottish Borders|Newstead]], in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a [[tribune]] of [[Cyrene (mythology)|Cyrene]]. [[Trajan's Dacian Wars]] may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the [[Stanegate]] at the [[Solway Firth|Solway]]–[[River Tyne|Tyne]] isthmus around this time.

[[File:Hadrians Wall from Housesteads1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|left|[[Hadrian's Wall]] viewed looking east from [[Housesteads Roman Fort]] (Vercovicium)]]
[[File:Prima Europe tabula.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|''Prima Europe tabula''. A 1486 [[woodcut]] copy of [[Ptolemy]]'s 2nd-century map of Roman Britain]]
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of [[Hadrian]]'s reign (117): a rising in the north which was suppressed by [[Quintus Pompeius Falco]]. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as [[Hadrian's Wall]], to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed [[Aulus Platorius Nepos]] as governor to undertake this work who brought the ''{{Lang|la|[[Legio VI Victrix]]}}'' legion with him from ''{{Lang|la|[[Germania Inferior]]}}''. This replaced the famous ''{{Lang|la|[[Legio IX Hispana]]}}'', whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.

In the reign of [[Antoninus Pius]] (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the [[Antonine Wall]] was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, [[Quintus Lollius Urbicus]].

The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the [[Brigantes]] revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor [[Gnaeus Julius Verus]]. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the [[Votadini]] or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.

During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily [[Marcomannic Wars|problems in the Danubian provinces]]. Increasing numbers of [[hoard]]s of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the [[Picts]].

In 175, a large force of [[Sarmatians|Sarmatian]] cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what [[Cassius Dio]] described as the most serious war of the reign of [[Commodus]]. [[Ulpius Marcellus]] was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named [[Caerellius Priscus|Priscus]] as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of [[Tigidius Perennis]], a [[Praetorian prefect]] who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly [[equites]] to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.

The future emperor [[Pertinax]] (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded [[Commodus]] as emperor in 192.