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I am not concerned with the route and fortunes of Caractacus after Wapley 

 was gained and lost* Driven thence he may have led his diminished but not 

 utterly disheartened forces —who had Claudius's threat of extermination to 

 ■spur them to extremities of valour — either towards Knighton, near to which 

 are supposed entrenchments of Caractacus at Burrough Hill, Billing's Ring, 

 and Bury Ditches, and where the Roman Camp at Norton enabled the invaders 

 to command the defiles to the east and west ; or along the valley of the Lugg 

 which washes the northern base of Wapley, into the Leintwardine open coun- 

 try, where, at Coxwall Knoll, some traditions place the scene of Caracta- 

 cus's last battle. It may be, that repulsed from Wapley, he divided his forces 

 into two bands,** and that one proceeding Knightonwards, in due time reached 

 the last rallying point by the course of the Teme, whilst the other found it less 

 circuitously by the streams of Lugg. But wherever the last battle was fought 

 there is a certainty that in Tacitus's vivid description of it (33-4) it partakes as 

 to situation, assault and defence, of a character which would be intelligible if 

 we piit either Wapley or Croft Ambrey in the place of it, although when final 

 disasters came the Britons had mountain ridges (according to Tacitus) to flee 

 into, whereas in both these places they would have had to descend considerably 

 and to cross streams ere they could regain the fastnesses of their native moun- 

 tains. Let me endeavour with the text of Tacitus in my mind's eye, to note 

 some common points between the stronghold we see to-day, its occupation, 

 and its storming, and that which the Roman historian records of another and 

 slightly later scene of conflict and resistance. 



First, then, of the situation. Caractacus chose a site of such a nature that 

 approach, retreat, everything, was against the invading Roman, and in favour 

 of the Briton on the defensive. Such is Tacitus's express statement. On one 

 side was a steep mountain ridge ; on the others where there was smoother, 

 and easier access (si qua clementer accedi poterant) a stone rampart was op- 

 posed to the assaulting army. So far there is pretty exact coiTespondence, as 

 there is also in the river which washes the base of the hill, though as far as the 

 " shifting ford " or " imcertain fordage " which Tacitus commemorates in the 

 words vculo incerto, this is ahke inexplicable in almost every site which 

 antiquaries have pitched upon for the scene of the last battle. I think, however, 

 that the clause which comes next in Tacitus is one which affords more help and 

 %ht to our present inquiry. He notes that " cater vae armatorum pro muni- 

 mentis constiterant," which I take to mean that, on the part of the assaulted, 

 crowds of armed men were posted in front of the inmost and stiff est entrench- 

 ment — in the ditches and spaces between the second and third, and even, as 

 here, the fourth line or " agger." At the first brush this must have been fierce 

 work for the assailants. We seem to see the mnermost line surmounted by 

 so-called barbarians, busily plying the javelin, the arrow, and other more 



'" Pearson considers that the most powerful of British federal kings, Cunobelin or 

 Caractacus, can hardly have exercised genuine control over the services of half a million ; 

 anil that allowing one in five to be fighting men, it would take weeks to muster them, and 

 the difficulties of a conunissariat would be enormous. Page 6. 



