It is a popular myth that the Romans could not tame the tribes that much later became the Scots. It probably isn't true. It just wasn't worth the effort. The land north of the Stanegate that later became the line of Hadrian's wall had little to offer.
I live north of the Wall and the line of a Roman Road called The Devil's Causeway passes about 100 yards from where I am sitting now. It can clearly be seen as a linear feature in the field. I have found a few Roman artifacts while metal detecting here.
The first legions arrived here under General Agricola around AD
79 but by AD 87 they were withdrawn to support the campaign against Dacia. The
frontier was moved south to the line of the Stanegate that ran between the
Solway and the Tyne.
Hadrian’s successor Antoninus Pius appointed a new Governor
of Britain, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, and tasked him with waging a second campaign
in the north in AD 139. To consolidate his gains, he had the Antonine wall built
between the Forth and the Clyde estuaries. This new frontier took around twelve
years to build but it was abandoned within eight years of its completion. Some
parts of southern Caledonia and northern England were held until about AD 165
when the Legions withdrew once more to the security of Hadrian’s wall. In AD 208
Emperor Septimius Severus led 20,000 troops back into Caledonia to fight a
punitive campaign up the east coast as far as the Tay. Following his withdrawal,
the lands north of Hadrian’s Wall remained beyond the authority of the Roman Empire.
The
Roman occupation of Britain lasted for almost four centuries, but their
presence in North Northumberland where I live added up to a total of just a few decades.
You can see the line of the road in this picture I took during a snowstorm last year. It is the earthwork in the foreground. The other one is an ancient enclosure.
