History of Europe

Calgaco, the first “Braveheart”

Our archenemy today could be a great tribal chief of the Picts or just the inventiveness of Publius Cornelius Tacitus , historian, politician and son-in-law of Agricola , the governor of Britannia who led the legions to the ends of the island. Little is known of his life, but his alleged speech prior to the battle of Mons Graupius It's all a plea for freedom.

Twenty-second installment of “Archienemies of Rome “. Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló.

In the summer of 77 AD. Gnaeus Julius Agricultural he was appointed as governor of Britain. The island was then in a tense calm. The embers of the Boudica revolt they had already died down, but the northern border had become unstable. A new revolt led by the tribe of the brigantes during the mandate of the previous governor Fifth Petillo Cerealis had breathed a breath of freedom into many of the tribes north of Eboracum (present-day York), but Cerealis conjured up the rebellion and dispersed the rebels, the irredentists taking refuge far to the north of their lands, in the misty mountains of what was then known as Caledonia (now Scotland)

Agricola carried out six campaigns to secure the stability of northern Britannia, in 78 taking back the island of Mona (Anglesey) and putting down the revolts of the ordovices (now Wales) and between 79 and 83 he ventured almost as far as Pictish territory . No Roman army had gone this far north since Caesar landed in Britain over a century before (indeed, it was not until Agricola's fleet circumnavigated Britain that year that they were entirely sure it was an island). It was in this penultimate campaign, in 1983, when the Legio IX Hispana came into contact with our protagonist today.

The Pictish tribes, encouraged by the Brigantes fleeing from the south, decided to face the threat posed by a Roman army encamped so close to their lands. Therefore, and according to Tacitus, they chose a man to lead them. According to the Roman historian, that honor fell on Calgaco , whose name in Celtic could be interpreted as calg-ac-os , «he who owns a leaf » or “the man with the sword ”. The Roman scholar described him as "the most distinguished by birth and valor among chiefs «. Bearing in mind that everything we know about this man and the Pictish campaigns is based on the De Vita Iulii Agricolae , the chronicle of the life and exploits of his admired father-in-law, may well be an idealized barbarian for the greater glory of Agricola. The thing is, in a night attack, the Picts raided the IX's camp near Lake Ore. The assault was a fiasco, but the latent danger that Pictish hostility posed to the British frontier caused Agricola to embark on a sixth campaign, taking his troops farther north in search of the Indians who had dared to challenge the power of Rome. .

In the spring of 84, Gnaeus Julio Agricola mobilized the IX and the XX Valeria Vitrix . It is believed that his troops would be around 20,000 men, two legions to which would be added about 8,000 British auxiliaries and 2,000 Batavian horsemen. that was brought from Germania, while the coalition of Pictish tribes under the command of Calgaco It would amount to about 30,000 combatants (and I say combatants because the Picts went to combat with their families, so they were men and women). The Picts were brave and untamed people. Being within the sphere of Celtic influence, literature and cinema have left us many winks about their appearance, customs and ways. Red-haired, lanky, naked and daubed in blue, they went to the fight as a family. Their war chariots posed an important challenge for an eminently infantry army like the Roman one. The Greek word Πικτοί (picti in Latin) appears for the first time in the 3rd century BC. and can be translated as “the painted ones ” or “the tattooed ones ”, but it could also refer to a popular indigenous etymology, perhaps from the Celtic Pehta or Peihta (fighter)

Calgaco several times he avoided a direct confrontation with Agricola's army, which entered enemy territory until reaching an indeterminate point in the Grampian Mountains, north of present-day Perth, a hill Tacitus called Mons Graupius . It was there that, breaking with the tactics of harassment and flight that had been carried out throughout the campaign, the Pictish coalition presented battle to the Roman governor. Perhaps Agricola forced Calgaco to confront him by cutting off his supply chain, perhaps the tribal council – warrior not strategist – grew tired of hounding and fleeing and preferred to engage in combat on familiar ground. Agricultural he placed his troops on top of a rocky hill, stretching the lines as much as he could to alleviate the enemy's numerical superiority. The British auxiliaries formed the front line, reserving the XX Valeria Vitrix in the rear. and placing the Batavian cavalry on the wings. The sappers of the legion had ditches and palisades that hindered a possible load of war chariots. On the contrary, Calgaco placed all his troops in front of Agricola, concentrating the infantry in a block and placing his cavalry in the vanguard. After the classic exchange of projectiles, spears and arrows between the two advance guards, the Pictish cavalry attacked the Roman right flank, an incursion that further stretched the Roman line to avoid any breach.

Calgaco he understood that his opportunity lay in taking advantage of this maneuver to break the center and launched the bulk of his army against the Roman line. The great Pictish problem was not realizing that discipline and the shovel were the true weapons of Rome. The ditches and rocky terrain warded off charging chariots, while the turmae of Batavian cavalry scared away their opponents, causing their disbandment to have a domino effect on the rest of the troops. Agricola was one of the most seasoned soldiers of his time, and he reacted as such. He had reinforced his front line with five Batavian cohorts, followed by the veteran and fresh troops of XX Valeria Vitrix. Demoralization turned into a disorderly escape, unleashing a chase that turned into slaughter and only nightfall prevented the Roman troops from driving every armed Pict out of the forest. Given the immense number of prisoners who fell into Roman hands, the order was given to kill all enemies... Tacitus speaks of 360 dead Romans compared to 10,000 Picts . The figure may have been inflated excessively to pave the victory for his father-in-law, but it would not be the first case of such disparate casualty figures between the victor and the vanquished in the history of the Republican Roman army (Lúcullus in Tigranocerta, César in Pharsalia or Paulino between Londinium and Viroconium, for example).

Nothing else was heard of Calgaco; he was not taken prisoner, nor is it known whether he died along with his men or was able to flee into Caledonia, what we do know is how ephemeral and futile that military effort was. Without an armed force to oppose Rome, it seemed that the Pictish lands would become part of Roman Britain, but perhaps jealousy prevented present-day Scotland from becoming part of the Empire. Shortly after the victory at Mons Graupius, Gnaeus Julius Agricola was recalled to Rome. The Emperor Domitian , an envious and despotic psychopath, annoyed by Agricola's military achievements, offered him the position of governor of the peaceful province of Africa , a charge that he refused twice. His insistent refusal, added to border rumors that Agricola was the only legate capable of solving the German problem, could have encouraged Domitian to order his death by poisoning. The fact is that Agricola died during his veiled exile in his house in Gaul in 93; Tacitus hinted that Domitian's hand was behind it and Cassius Dio affirmed without a doubt that he was assassinated by order of the emperor.

Agricola's departure from Britannia spelled the end of operations beyond Eboracum and of aspirations to push the border beyond what would soon become Hadrian's Wall. Personally, I think that Scotland was not Roman because of a fit of envy.

Calgaco's speech
It is very unlikely that Calgaco would deliver this harangue to his troops before the confrontation that would lead them to death or captivity, they seem more typical of someone like Tacitus, a scholar who extols the enemies of Rome to do more glorious the victories of their legacies, also putting in the mouth of a barbarian many of the thoughts that would have served for the script of "Braveheart". I indicate in bold the immortal phrase extracted from this speech, the phrase with which my novel Valentia begins and that explains the Roman expansion:

Auferre, trucidare, rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant
They call rapine, murder and robbery a bad name to govern and where they create a desert, they call it peace

This is an excerpt from the speech that is part of the De Vita Iulii Agricolae :

“Whenever I examine the causes of the war and the difficulties it brings us, I have great hope that on this day your union will bring about independence for all of Britain. The previous battles, where we have fought against the Romans with varying success, left us with hope and reserve, because for us, who have not been enslaved to any of the shores, the stain of oppression did not cloud our eyes. Located on the edge of the world and of freedom, this remoteness and distance has defended us and covered our name. But today Britain is open to the enemy…the Romans, whose insolence we will vainly try to prevent by submission and reserve. Robbers of the world who, after devastating everything, no longer have lands to plunder and search the sea; eager to possess, if the enemy is rich, to dominate if he is poor, neither East nor West has satisfied them...Steal, massacre, seize, this is what they call authority, and empty territories to establish peace.