Albinus’ legions had suffered large casualties at Lugdunum (197) and although after the battle Severus had sent the survivors back to their posts in Britain it meant that the province and Hadrian’s Wall were still undermanned. A massive increase in raids and attacks in the north brought Severus himself leading an army of forty thousand men to Britain early in 208.
He marched north to Hadrian’s Wall and initiated the rebuilding and completing the whole of the wall in stone, the western portion had previously been mostly turf and timber; this led to later Romans calling Hadrian’s Wall the Severan Wall. He then occupied all the land between Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall and began to reconstruct the latter.
In 209 he led his army north along the route Agricola had taken more than a century earlier. His forces suffered heavy casualties due to the guerrilla tactics used by the Caledonians. Because of this he began a plan of holding down all the territory he could by the reoccupation of many of Agricola’s old forts and devastating all the territory he could not. Peace talks failed and it looked as if the war would continue until all the tribes had submitted to Rome or been exterminated.
In early 210 Severus’ son Caracalla (29; r.198-217) led an expedition north of the Antonine wall with the intention of killing everyone he came across and looting and burning everything of value. The plan was for Severus to follow his son’s army and permanently occupy all of Caledonia. In 210 Severus became ill and went to York where he died on 4 February 211. Caracalla then concluded a peace and returned to Rome. It is not known what arrangements he had made, but the frontier remained stable for the next eighty-five years.
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