Idus Martiae

Today being the Ides of March I have gone for a landscape with a Roman interest.

The hill on the horizon is Bennachie, claimed, by many, to be the site of the ancient battle of Mons Graupius. In AD 84, on the slopes of Bennachie, a large force of 17,000 Roman soldiers led by Agricola took on 30,000 natives under the leadership of Calagacus, According to the only contemporary account of the battle, Tacitus' The Life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Romans emerged totally victorious, slaying some 10,000 of their opponents with the loss of only 360 on their own side. One of the Roman units fighting on that day was the IX Hispana, the ninth legion. Later the the 9th was to become famous when, in around 108 AD, 5000 battle-hardened men simply disappeared from the face of the Earth, somewhere in Northern Britain.