A Memorial to the Battle of the Medway in AD 43
As one of the Society's Vice Presidents, I recently submitted to the Council a proposal to erect on the banks of the Medway, between Maidstone and Rochester, an inscribed stone commemorating the crossing of the river by Vespasian, the future Roman Emperor.
The Council decided by a large majority to support this project in principle, since the battle was one of the most decisive ever fought on British soil, and there is nothing to commemorate it on the ground. There was some debate on how the battle developed, and less than unanimity on where the memorial should be sited.
The evidence is literary, archaeological and topographical. The main literary source is Dio Cassius's History (written in Greek, some 170 years after the event), where he tells us that in the late summer of AD 43 an army of four legions, plus auxiliaries, under the command of Aulus Plautius, landed in Britain, probably at Richborough, where they formed a temporary camp. They then advanced along the North Downs towards 'a river', which is generally agreed to be the Medway.
Dio says that the British levies under Caratacus were drawn up on the far bank, 'rather carelessly', because they thought that the Romans would find it impossible to cross the river without a bridge. Plautius surprised them by two methods. First he sent his German auxiliaries to swim across, perhaps in the area of the present M2 bridge, and immobilise the British chariots by hamstringing their horses. Secondly, he ordered Vespasian to lead his legion, the Legio II Augusta, to find a crossing higher up, and take the enemy by surprise on their other flank. There he was joined by at least one other legion, and together they defeated Caratacus in a two-day battle, forcing his withdrawal beyond the Thames. The Emperor Claudius was then sent for (with elephants!) to capture Camulodunum (Colchester), the British capital. This was a token victory. The decisive battle had already been won on the Medway.
My proposal is to site a simple monument on the east bank of the river opposite Snodland church. Soundings have shown that in the 1st century AD the tide reached no further than this point, and most scholars agree that there was a ford here until quite recent times, probably the crossing place of the ancient trackway which we now know as the Pilgrims' Way. Downstream, a crossing by a large body of men would have been virtually impossible owing to the deep silt deposited by the tide below each bank. It seems very likely that Vespasian was directed by natives towards this ford, and found it unguarded, because it was remote from the heights near Cuxton, where the British levies would have been massed. Dr Detsicas has excavated a military ditch of mid-1st-century date at Eccles, only half-a-mile away, which might have been part of a temporary camp located close to the nearest ford.
The evidence seems to me definitive enough to justify the siting of a memorial on the river bank between Snodland and Burham churches (see sketch-map), where it would be approached by an existing footpath. The inscription would start, 'Near this place .. .', not 'At this place', to allow for the doubts that have been expressed.
As a suitable block of Kentish ragstone has been presented by the quarry-owner, Pat Gallagher, the cost would not be great. The K.A.S. has offered to subscribe £200, should it be needed. Individual contributors are invited to send donations to Miss Alison Eames, Maidstone Museum, St Faith's Street, Maidstone, ME14 lLH, making out their cheques to 'Maidstone Borough Council (Vespasian)'. The Museum is co-sponsor of the project.
Nigel Nicolson FSA
