.After the mid-80s, the story has to be pieced together from brief entries in other histories, and reconciled with the archaeology. Monumental inscriptions are rare until well into the second century. When the names of governors turn up in these sources, we often know nothing else about them. Only archaeology can fill the gap, but it cannot create history.
Agricola's efforts marked a watershed in Roman Britain's history. There was no attempt to consolidate or hold on to the remoter territory he had won over six or seven hard years of campaigning. But had he ever really won it? The network of roads and forts in the Southern Uplands of Scotland suggests fairly comprehensive control. Further north, the line of advance marked by forts like Cargill, Cardean, Inverquharity and Stracathro suggests that Agricola had only a tenuous hold on the eastern coastal strip. Most of northern Scotland was untouched by the campaign, and it remained that way for the rest of the Roman period. Even in the Southern Uplands many of the new or remodelled forts, like New-stead, were destroyed in the first decade of the second century, probably by the army as it pulled back. The withdrawal of IIAdiutrix Pin Fidelisby the late 80s reduced Britain's legionary garrison permanently to three. Trajan had bigger fish to fry in the East and in Dacia. Britain, in short, was a sideshow.
If Rome ever had designs on conquering all of Britain, this was when they ended. The period 84 to 122 covered the last 12 years of Domitian's reign and that of the short-lived, elderly emperor, Nerva (96-98), the whole of the reign of Trajan (98-117), and the first five years of Hadrian's reign (117-38). It saw the transition from dynastic rule to an age in which emperors chose their heirs from suitable candidates and
Adopted them as sons. The Empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan with the conquests of Parthia and Dacia, before Hadrian abandoned some of the latest additions and consolidated the frontiers.
We have occasional glimpses of Britain in this period. Suetonius mentions a governor of Britain under Domitian called Gaius Sallustius Lucullus. Lucullus had invented a new type of spear, but was foolish
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