What did the Romans do for us?

Well, they very kindly built a stone fort just down the road, which provided the original builders of Castle Cary with an easy answer to the question "Where do we find some nice pre-cut stone to build our new castle?" as they stood in a field scratching their heads in 1478.

In recognition of their kind, if unintentional donantion, we thought that it would be only fair to tell a little bit about what the Romans did and how they got here.

Background To The Building Of The Antonine Wall
The Romans first built a fort at Castlecary very-likely during the fourth campaign season of the invasion of Caledonia led by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, then governor of Britania, around AD81. Within this 7 year campaign, he had managed to conquer Southern Britain and penetrate northwards into the heart of Caledonia. In AD82 he defeated the Picts, led by the warrior Calgacus, at the battle of Mons Graupius, one of the biggest land battles ever fought on Scottish soil. However, the Romans found it difficult to hold onto the Northern areas, and Agricola withdrew to the South before being recalled to Rome.

The Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in AD122 after continuing conficts with the Northern 'barbarians', and he ordered a wall to be built to separate the un-conquered lands of these barbarians from the Roman Empire, and to prevent the Picts from raiding Roman settlements in the Southern half of Britain. This wall, known as Hadrians Wall, was 73 miles long, and stretched from the Tyne to the Solway Firth.

However, on the accession of the Emperor Antoninus Pius in AD138, it was decided to once again to extend the Northern Frontier of the empire in Britania, to push the barbarians northwards away from the easier living to be had in the lowlands of Caledonia. Having achieved this objective, the emperor ordered another wall to be erected, the Antonine Wall, which was to become the most Northerly frontier of one of the most vast and powerful Empires mankind has ever seen.

The Wall Itself
The Antonine Wall was erected around 142AD, and stretched from the Carriden on the Forth, to Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde, and was approximately 37 miles long. Unlike the stone built Hadrians Wall, the Antonine Wall consisted of a rampant of soil faced with turf, resting on a stone foundation. It originally stood 12 feet high, and was protected on the North by a V shaped ditch 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep. South of the wall itself ran a cobbled road, the 'Military Way' which linked a network of forts that were built along the wall at intervals of approximately 2 miles. These forts acted as barracks for troops who defended the frontier.

The Wall was constantly being attacked by the Picts, and as the Roman Empire gradually became weaker, the Romans were forced once again to withdraw back to Hadrians Wall. Eventually, because of turmoil in the Empire, the Romans abandoned Hadrians Wall and withdrew from Britain after almost 250 years of occupation.

The Fort
Evidence of Agricola's fort at Castlecary (around AD81) comes in the form of first-century glass and samian pottery, first-century bronze coins (usually in circulation for only a short period) and 'pre-Hadrianic', possibly Agricolan pottery.

The Castlecary fort was one of several on the Antonine Wall - including Balmuildy and Rough Castle - which show signs of devastation during the middle of the second century.

Fragments of a straight Roman military trumpet known as a tuba have been found within the confines of the Castlecary defences. The conical tube of thinly-worked bronze had almost completely fragmented, but the much thicker metal in the bronze mouthpiece survived.

The Castlecary fort is 3½ acres in area with ramparts constructed of stone, unlike the turf-built Wall itself. Emplacements for the use of ballistae, onagri and other such Roman artillery have been identified within the ramparts of this fort.