116 LEGIO XX 



lie inflicted on the revolted tribes in the neighbourhood 

 of Camulodunum. 



During the next few years the XXth Legion seems to 

 have made itself a reputation for turbulence. Long before 

 its transference to Britain it had played a leading part in 

 the sedition of the Germanic legions in 14 a.d. ;9 and now 

 its commander, Roscius Caelius, allowed it to get so out of 

 control that it proved a "handful" (niTnia)^^ for succes- 

 sive governors of Britain. Roscius was superseded in 

 69 A.D. by the famous Agricola, a partisan of Yespasian, 

 who by his tact won it over to faithful allegiance to the 

 new emperor — a feat for which he claimed no credit, pre- 

 ferring, as Tacitus tells us, "to give the impression of 

 having found it loyal rather than of having made it so." ^° 

 After two years in command of the legion Agricola left 

 Britain to govern Aquitania, but returned in 78 a.d. as 

 governor of the island, a position he occupied till 85. In 

 his third campaign, at the head of the IXth, XlVth and 

 XXth Legions, he extended the Roman power to the north 

 as far as the Tyne, at the expense of the Brigantes, and in 

 the following year drew a line of forts between the Firths 

 of Clyde and Forth, establishing the IXth Legion in 

 garrison at York (Ehuracum), the Brigantian capital. 

 Three years later (84 a.d.) the XXth Legion took part in 

 another famous victory, the defeat of the Caledonians by 

 Agricola at the Graupian Hill.^^ 



From this time onward contingents of the XXth seem 

 to have been employed on garrison duty in various parts 

 of the north of England, indications of their presence 

 being found in almost every quarter of the Brigantian 



9. Tac. Ann. i., 31. 



10. Tac. Agr., vii. 



11. The identification of the Mons Grawpins (Tac. Agr., xxix.) with 

 the modern Grampian hills is very questionable : the MS. authority for 

 the form Grampius is inferior. 



