National Museum of Scotland opens exhibition on Roman campaigns in Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh has opened a new exhibition about the Roman Empire’s attempts to conquer northern Britain.

The display uses new research and artifacts from Britain and the Continent to show that Hadrian’s Wall was not the final boundary of the Roman Empire. The museum explores three separate occasions where Rome tried to take control of what is now Scotland but eventually withdrew.

The exhibition shifts focus from Roman citizens to the auxiliary troops recruited from across the Empire who performed the difficult work of holding the land. It also examines the local farming societies already living in the region. The museum aims to show how these local communities reacted to the arrival of a multicultural Roman army that sought to occupy the land for the Empire.