Vespasian's Campaign against the Durotriges
Who Fought
Legio II Augusta under the legate Vespasian
History & Significance
Vespasian was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolidation of the empire brought political stability and an extensive building program.
After Vitellius Vespasian was the second emperor from an equestrian family and the first emperor who rose later in his lifetime into the senatorial rank as the first member of his family to do so. He rose to prominence through military achievement: he served as legate of Legio II Augusta during the Roman invasion of Britain in 43, and later led the suppression of the Jewish rebellion of 66–70.
While he was engaged in the campaign in Judaea, Emperor Nero died by suicide in June 68, plunging Rome into a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. After two, Galba and Otho, died in quick succession, Vitellius became emperor in April 69. The Roman legions of Egypt and Judaea reacted by declaring Vespasian, their commander, emperor on 1 July 69. Vespasian joined forces with Mucianus, the governor of Syria, and Primus, a general in Pannonia. They led the Flavian forces against Vitellius, while Vespasian took control of Egypt. On 20 December 69, Vitellius was defeated, and the following day Vespasian was declared emperor by the Senate.
Little information survives about the government during Vespasian's ten-year rule. He reformed the financial system of the Roman Empire after the campaign against Judaea ended successfully, and initiated several ambitious construction projects, including the building of the Flavian Amphitheatre, better known today as the Colosseum. Through his general Agricola, Vespasian increased imperial expansion in Britain. Vespasian is often credited with restoring political stability to Rome following the chaotic reigns of his predecessors. After he died in 79, he was succeeded by his eldest son Titus, thus becoming the first Roman emperor to be succeeded by his natural son and establishing the Flavian dynasty.
Vespasian was born in a village north-east of Rome called Falacrinae. His family was relatively undistinguished and lacking in pedigree. Vespasian was the son of Titus Flavius Sabinus, a Roman moneylender, debt collector, and tax collector. His mother, Vespasia Polla, also belonged to the equestrian order in society, with her father rising to the rank of prefect of the camp and her brother becoming a Senator.
He was educated in the countryside, in Cosa, near what is today Ansedonia, Italy, under the guidance of his paternal grandmother, so much so that even when he became emperor, he often returned to the places of his childhood, having left the former villa exactly as it had been.
The ground they fought on
The site of Vespasian's Campaign against the Durotriges lies on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.
Vespasian's campaign against the Durotriges saw Legio II Augusta storm twenty oppida, including the formidable hill forts of Hod Hill and Maiden Castle in Dorset, as his forces swept through what are now Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, before crossing to subdue the Isle of Wight and secure the south coast harbours and the valuable mineral resources of the region.
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- Vespasian · Wikipedia
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