ShieldWall
Ashigaru
posted 08-05-12 04:33 AM
EDT (US)
3 / 9
Further to the point about stretched resources, the terrain of most of Scotland would make it a nightmare for any conqueror to control. With an inexhaustible supply of legions I dare say it could have been done, at least in part with key areas patrolled and garrisoned, but they couldn't be everywhere and those areas would remain unsafe. As I believe was the case in the remainder of Britain - the three legions based there weren't all crammed up against Hadrian's Wall and the Welsh border, most of them were focused on internal policing as the Britain beyond the town gates was never completely pacified.
So additional legions would presumably have been needed to hold down the north, but you would have to question why Rome would want to do it as there was nothing profitable, like there was in Dacia, to tempt them beyond the established frontier. So yes I think the parallel with the raids across the Rhine is a good one, because in order for a frontier to be properly defended you need to have some sort of presence beyond it now and again.
Philip Regent
Ashigaru
posted 08-27-12 10:34 AM
EDT (US)
6 / 9
This question may be out of issue here, but are you discussing the event, from which the movie "Centurion" was made from and 9th Legion got utterly destroyed??? (Was it 9th?? :O)