- Because the Romans were a literate culture, we have learned a great deal about their religious beliefs and practices. These were wide-ranging, and acquisitive. Before the massive expansion of the Roman empire, their basic pantheon was derived from their neighbours, the Greeks. Roman cities housed temples dedicated to the various gods, where a professional priesthood would make offerings and intercede on a petitioner’s behalf. Offerings might include animal sacrifice or libations of wine.
- Marching legions in unfamiliar territory could not access this urban temple infrastructure, but they still made regular petitions to the gods when they considered it necessary or appropriate. Those with sufficient wealth could petition and erect an altar, dedicated to a particular god or goddess, where they could make offerings. These altars are distinctive, comprising substantial blocks of stone with a moulded base and carved scrolled capital, and a circular indented dish on the upper surface called a focus where libations or offerings might be made. A number of these items have been recovered from the fort at Birrens.
- Three of these altars featured dedications to Jupiter, one of which bears the translated legend ‘Jupiter Best and Greatest.’ Jupiter was very popular with Roman military personnel. So too was Fortune, the goddess of fortune, who has three dedications devoted to her. Often, altars to Fortuna were erected in the bathhouse, beyond the actual limits of the camp, and these discoveries suggest that there was a bathhouse present at Birrens, though it has not yet been located. Other dedications identified at Birrens include one to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, one to Mars, the god of war, and two to Mercury, a god associated with travel, communications and commerce.
- Personal devotions might also have been addressed towards small votive figures of the gods. Several examples recovered from Carzield included the figures of Dionysis, the god of wine, Cupid, the god of erotic love, and also Priapus, whose ithyphallic figure would have been viewed both as a good luck charm and as a fertility symbol.
- Religion and ritual were a way of building social cohesion across the empire and amongst the military in particular. Every fort had a space set aside in part of the headquarters building, which also held the commander’s office and the strongroom, where the wages and other monies were kept, which functioned as a shrine. Here, the legion’s standard, surmounted by its eagle and adorned with any military distinctions it had won on the battlefield, was housed, along with a statue of the emperor. Coin evidence and inscriptions indicate that the Roman emperors held amongst their honorary titles those of ‘Pontifex Maximus’ and ‘Pater Patriae. These terms, which translate as ‘high priest’ and ‘father of his country’ conveyed a quasi-religious aura to the emperor, whose authority was divinely sanctioned. This religious aspect of rulership was introduced with the rule of Augustus in 29BC. After death, the Emperor was then elevated to the status of a god. Offerings made to the various gods might reference the reigning emperor, thus winning divine favour for the ruler, as well as the individual soldier performing the sacrifice. Sometimes the offering might be made either to the deified emperor themselves, or to some perceived quality associated with them. One such example, from Birrens, is provided by an inscription on an altar which is dedicated to the ‘Discipline of Augustus.’
- As the Roman military expanded ever further, into the Near East, North Africa, Central Europe and Britain, it came into contact with unfamiliar gods and belief systems. Because Roman religion was comfortably polytheist, it was able to absorb and assimilate these various deities into its own belief system, and Roman military personnel often demonstrated this cosmopolitan approach with the wide range of gods and goddesses to whom they made offerings. Near Eastern cults were popular amongst Roman legionaries; Mithras is perhaps the best known of these cults, which often involved hidden rituals which involved the revelation of knowledge and mysteries. There were others, less well known, which left their mark upon the troops who manned the forts in South West Scotland. One of these deities was Dolichenus, a god associated with the small town of Dolchein on the Syrian border and possibly interpreted as another aspect of Zeus/Jupiter. Helios, who features on an intaglio (now lost) inset within an iron finger-ring from Carzield (Henig 1969) was another eastern god who was appropriated by the Romans, in this case a god of the sun, with similar properties perhaps to Apollo.
- The vexillations and cohorts of auxiliaries, raised from newly conquered parts of the empire and deployed elsewhere, would also have brought their own gods and goddesses with them, likewise assimilated into the wider Roman pantheon. The Tungrians and Germans who served at Birrens erected altars to Harimella (a Germanic goddess of war) and Viradecdis (a Tungrian goddess, perhaps with similar attributes) and also to Frumenteus, Ricacambeda, both goddesses, but with origins and attributes that remain unknown.
- To some extent, land and place might be endowed with a spiritual quality which was then personified into a god-like form. Britannia was one such example. She might be presented positively, but sometimes the depiction was negative, as in the special issue of copper asses minted to celebrate victory in the Antonine campaigns of AD 154-5, where she is shown in a pose of defeat and subjugation. More intriguingly, there is an altar recovered from Birrens, which is dedicated to ‘Brigantia,’ presumably a personification of the lands around North East England, which once formed the tribal grounds of the Brigantes, who were defeated by the Roman military following their ill-fated rebellion of AD 69. In this depiction, Brigantia is shown with some of the attributes often associated with the goddess Victory, so presumably, by the time this altar was set up, the name and perhaps the tribal group had been rehabilitated sufficiently to allow this personification of their identity to be erected and worshipped by an individual that must have had some kind of connection.
- In South West Scotland, evidence for Roman religious beliefs and ritual practices is modest in comparison to intensively studied and well-preserved sites like Vindolanda or Pompeii, but it still manages to tell us a lot about the individuals who served with the Roman army and lived, however briefly, in the area. What we lack is evidence for Roman burials. We know from examples recovered across the empire that the Romans cremated their dead. Poorer Roman citizens might be buried in pottery vessels, while wealthier members of society could commission ornate lead or stone coffins, with significant regional variation apparent. Roman burials tend to be placed in cemeteries, outside the boundaries of contemporary settlements, or lining roadways leading to and from these settlements.
- Only one example of a Roman era burial is known from South West Scotland. It is a cremation burial from High Torrs, Luce Bay. The deceased was placed beneath a rough cairn of stones, along with two 2nd century AD Samian Ware bowls, a finger ring with inset intaglio and several pieces of ironwork. Originally, the ironwork was interpreted as the remains of a sword and two javelin-type spearheads, and the deceased identified as a Roman soldier, perhaps an auxiliary, who had died while travelling and been laid to rest by comrades near the spot where he passed away (Henig 1969. The grave goods were later subject to a re-appraisal, and the weaponry re-interpreted as potentially comprising the bindings of a chest or box, and the handle of a Roman saucepan or patera (Breeze and Ritchie 1980). From the character of the gravegoods, and their position of isolation located relatively far away from known locations of Roman occupation or activity, it seems more likely that the person buried at High Torrs was a Romanised member of the local community, rather than someone either serving in or attached to the Roman military.
- A more tenuous link with Roman mortuary sites and practices is the small figure of a dolphin recovered by a metal detectorist near the fortlet and temporary camps of Milton (Tassieholm). In Roman religious iconography, the dolphin has links with the dead and with funerals (Green et al 1985). To date, however, no direct evidence links this particular figurine with any known archaeological feature which might provide more understanding into the context and meaning of its deposition or loss.