A Day on Milecastle 46

"What?" cried the merchant, "three solidi for a handful of silver? You can't be serious!"

The legionnaire shrugged as he did the math in his head while his steelyard beam finally came to balance in his hand. "Well, you've declared the silver, sixteen bushels of barley, twenty bolts of woolen fabric, all those vegetables, am I forgetting anything, Tertius?"

"The bronze bullion, Caius," the other legionnaire answered.

Caius looked back to the barbarian merchant and shrugged, beginning to take the customs weights off of the steelyard beam. "I think three solidi is quite reasonable."

The merchant was fuming. "That's ridiculous! For what my goods will fetch me at market, that eats into over twelve per cent of my profits!"

The two legionnaires stationed within the milecastle gate scoffed, suppressing their laughter beneath as serious of a gaze as they could muster. Caius, weighing the merchant's goods, replied again. "I don't make the policy, sir, I am just customs. If you wish to enter the Empire with these goods, you must pay the Emperor's tax. You are welcome to go back into Caledonia if you wish. You may find buyers for the silver and bronze, though I don't think you will find much of a market for barley and wool up there."

The merchant inhaled and collected himself. "Who is your Tesserarius, solider? I'd like to speak to him this instant! I have never had such an outrage on the wall and I will have compensation!"

Caius and Tertius looked to each other and grinned. Caius put down the steelyard and scratched his chin. "I believe he has duties to attend at Vercovicium today. You are more than welcome to go and find him."

The merchant sighed defeatedly. "After I enter?"

Caius and Tertius nodded in agreement. "After you enter."

The merchant produced three solidi from his coin pouch with an abject expression of pain and gave them to Caius. "This is utter ridiculousness! This won't be the last you hear from me."

Caius thumbed the coins in his hand and placed them in a wooden lockbox. He then began ushering the merchant and his cart through the gate with as much due haste as he could impart. "Oh, I am sure it won't. The Empire gives you its thanks and wishes you safe travels through its domain. Farewell!"

"Farewell, stultissimi," the merchant grumbled under his breath.

The two legionnaires waited for the man to clear the rest of their tiny garrison before breaking down into absolute laughter.

"Stultissimi!" cried Tertius, "Somebody's been learning his Latin!"

Caius shook his head in amusement, "Bloody barbarians and their complaints, you'd almost think they were becoming a little too Roman. To think of the stories I'll have to tell back in Hispania after my service is done."

Both men leaned on their spears and stood guard at the gate. The wind howled through the hills and clouds gathered darkly overhead, casting titanic shadows on the valley below.

Tertius smiled wearily. "You're thinking of stories, I am thinking of weather! It isn't nearly this cold and insufferable back in Antiochia."

"I got used to it," Caius said, "it's easier with a warm hearth and a woman by your side. It's hard to tell the difference after a while."

Tertius nodded. "Are you going to bring your Briton back with you, the one at Vindolanda?"

Caius nodded somberly. "I should."

"You should?" Tertius raised his eyebrow.

"I mean, what it was that I meant to say... I would like to bring her home. She says she bears my son. I should wed her when my service is done, when I am legal to do so, and raise my boy with her at my side."

"Then why not bring her with you to Hispania, Caius?"

"Hispania is a long way away," Caius thought with sober pause, " and I was sweet on a girl back in Tarraco, once upon a time."

Tertius considered it. "If it is any consolation, her old man has probably already married her off."

Caius laughed. "I certainly hope so."

Tertius playfully punched Caius in the shoulder, rattling the mail underneath his cuirass. "Ah, cheer up, amice! Where's your sense of adventure, of glory, of duty? Here we sit on the doorstep of wild Caledonia! Ruthless painted men come pouring down in the hundreds to steal our wealth and women, down from their hardened homes amidst vast unspoiled forest! Think of the spoils to be had!"

The wind seemed then to whistle a bit more desolately over the sparsely wooded hills. Caius could have sworn he saw someone grazing a flock of sheep not too far off in the distance as the faint scent of wet leaves and manure was carried in the breeze.

"I think you have been reading too much recruitment literature, Tertius. How likely do you think you are to see a host of angry naked Caledonians raiding an extremely well fortified customs checkpoint miles away from any reasonable target?"

"A man can hope, Caius. I need something to fill my letters going back home. My mother might send me back some more dried figs if I spin her enough of a yarn. Oh, I miss figs; figs and dates!"

Caius began salivating. "Or how about those dates that they would fill with cheese and herbs and roasted nuts, and then they would cook those in honey until they came off the pan thick in syrup. Have you ever had those? They used to sell them in the arena in Tarraco."

Tertius sighed. "Oh, gods, do I ever! Now I am famished. You're an ass, Caius."

Caius grew a toothy grin. "And you're the son of a dog."

Tertius considered the thought and then laughed. "If I am a dog and you are an ass, I guess that means they'll have us guarding a stable next, do you think?"

Caius stifled an errant laugh. "I wouldn't say that too loud, Tertius. Our officers might get some ideas."

"It is true," he replied, "it is true."

The two men looked back into the bleary distance, listening to the sound of rustling trees. A shaft of sun broke through the clouds above only to be swallowed once more by the shifting gales. The soldiers' smiles faded with each passing moment of silence.

"How many more hours until the next shift, Caius?" Tertius finally asked.

Caius exhaled morosely. "Three."

"You don't supposed we'll get another merchant to torment in that time, do you?"

"No, it is unlikely."

A few more moments of silence passed.

Tertius looked back and forth and then asked in a hush, "Did you bring your ludus board again? The big one?"

Caius grinned, shuffling his pack off his back and producing a large wooden board with a game grid scratched into it. "Always."

Tertius immediately threw his pack off his back and sat down with his spear in his lap. "By the gods! You are a legend, Caius."

"You you want to play pebbles or broken bits of roofing tile?" He asked.

Tertius snorted. "Tile, obviously."

Caius fished the 'game pieces' from his bag, setting the stones and tile in long lines on opposing sides of the board. "Let's see if your game has improved, shall we?"

"Oh, just you wait!" Tertius said, cracking his fingers, "I've got this one in the bag."

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This story was inspired by an article from Heritage Daily about a steelyard beam excavated from Milecastle 46 along Hadrian's Wall. Landscape archaeology is one of my favorite subjects within the discipline and has to deal with the relation and distribution of different sites and artifacts within a defined region. A steelyard beam is a type of merchant's balance used by Roman soldiers to weigh small valuable goods and currency to determine its taxable value. Such an artifact tells a story of movement, of polity, and of commerce. Many people who consider the story of Hadrian's wall as one specifically of war, of 'us-versus-them', of 'here-and-there'. Large-scale archaeological projects and surveys like Beyond Walls, run by the University of Edinburgh, Historic Environment Scotland, and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, reveal that the Wall was not the edge of a landscape but rather its focal point. Walls, by purpose, are meant to control movement and not stop it altogether. Numerous sites in England and Scotland, such as Milecastle 46, Vindolanda, Housesteads Fort (Vercovicium), and Burnswark Hillfort in Dumfries-shire, all show that settlement was booming on both sides of Hadrian's Wall and that commercial and intercultural contact was a constant occurrence in daily life along the wall.

While popular history has a habit of forgetting the wonders of the everyday, archaeology and public history both serve as constant reminders and as agents of its preservation.