Ruth Downie: Terra Incognita

“Hm.”

She said, “Now what are you thinking?”

“I am thinking,” he said, “that if you promise to keep away from the knives, perhaps I should introduce you to my stepmother.”

There was “serious trouble” in Britannia at the start of Hadrian’s reign, but fortunately for novelists hardly any of the details have yet come to light. What we do know is that shortly after this story is set, the need to separate the Romans from the Barbarians became so pressing that the border was solidified into Hadrian’s Wall.

The Tenth Batavians rode into existence during the planning of the novel. At present nobody knows who manned the wooden fort that stood at Corbridge in 118. Present-day visitors to the site will find fascinating remains, but Ruso would have been a great-grandfather by the time most of the stones now visible were laid, and the civilian settlement that once spread across the surrounding fields can only be seen in archaeological records and crop marks. The river, of course, remains.

Lest anyone should wonder, there is plenty of evidence for the widespread consumption of beer and wine among Batavian and other units stationed farther along the border at Vindolanda. Sometimes authors don’t need to make things up.

The Votadini, however, deserve an apology. For all I know they may have been a fun-loving and friendly bunch not at all given to rape and pillage. Apart from their names, we know precious little about most of the British tribes in the area at the time, and all the contemporary histories were written by Romans. I hope any ancestors watching from the next world-and their descendants-will forgive the guesswork, invention, and slander with which I have padded out the available sources.

Anyone who wants a more dependable account of the times will enjoy:

Women in Roman Britain, 2nd ed., Lindsay Allason-Jones

Garrison Life at Vindolanda: a Band of Brothers, Anthony Birley

Roman Medicine, Audrey Cruse

A Brief History of the Druids, Peter Beresford Ellis

The Gods of the Celts, Miranda Green