THE ROMAN COLONIZATION OF BRITAIN: TWO POETIC INSIGHTS

The poem draws on different translations of the description ofthe Battle of Mons Graupius by Tacitus the Roman historian.The account is found in Agricola, the eponymous biography ofJulia’s father, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, a Gallo-Roman militarycommander, pontiff and governor of Britannia. The battle took placein northern Britain in AD 83. Tacitus depicts the battle as endingresistance to the Roman conquest of Britain