Our soldiers were tired of killing.

[**The following is in regards to The Battle of Mons Graupius in 84 CE.**] >This cavalry charge turned the battle. The Caledonians, intent on attacking the auxiliaries, did not see the cavalry coming, and many were cut down from behind. Survivors from this group of Caledonians broke off the fight and ran for their lives, with Roman cavalry chasing them across the moorland. Overtaking tribesmen, Roman troopers would force them to disarm, taking them prisoner – they would bring a good price from the slave merchants who had followed the army north. But then, said [Tacitus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Wien-_Parlament-Tacitus.jpg), troopers saw more Caledonians fleeing their way, and to prevent their first prisoners from escaping, they killed them, and then galloped off to make fresh captives of the latest terrified tribesman on the run. >The sight of the slaughter of their countrymen on the plain robbed the Caledonians still fighting on the hill of their spirit. The battle disintegrated into a rout. Large groups of warriors, while retaining their arms, deserted the hill fight and ran for the protection of distant forests. Auxiliaries gave chase. [Agricola](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Statue_of_Agricola_at_Bath.jpg) now ordered the legions forward, to mop up on the hill as he himself joined the pursuit by the auxiliaries. >[…] >Agricola ordered the auxiliary infantry to surround the forests, then sent the cavalry into the trees to finish the day’s work. ‘The pursuit went on until nightfall and our soldiers were tired of killing,’ said Tacitus, who numbered the Caledonian dead at ‘some 10,000’. Agricola, he said, lost just 360 auxiliaries in the fighting. Not a single legionary had died, while the young prefect Atticus was the most senior of the Roman casualties. At nightfall, the Romans returned to their marching camp, exhausted but victorious. >’For the victors, it was a night of celebrating over their triumph and their booty,’ said Tacitus. For Caledonian civilians, it was a night of searching the battlefield and the mounds of stripped bodies for their dead and wounded, and carrying them away. The Romans heard both men and women wailing in their grief that night. In the far distance, farmhouses glowed orange after being put to the torch by their owners, who fled with the survivors of the battle. >Next day, with the naked Caledonian dead lying where they had fallen, ‘an awful silence reigned everywhere’. The hills were deserted. Smoke rose lazily from the ruins of distant farmsteads. Agricola sent cavalry scouts ranging for miles around. They found not a living soul. _____________________________ **Source:** Dando-Collins, Stephen. “Part III: The Battles – Battle of Mons Graupius.” *Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion*. Thomas Dunne Books, 2012. 370-71. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Tac., *Agr*., 38. _____________________________ **Further Reading:** [Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus) [Gnaeus Julius Agricola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Julius_Agricola) [Battle of Mons Graupius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mons_Graupius) ___________________________ **If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/HistoryLockeBox)!**