and incurred the loss of 50,000 of his own men to the attrition of guerrilla tactics before having to withdraw to Hadrian's Wall. He repaired and reinforced the wall with a degree of thoroughness that led most subsequent Roman authors to attribute the construction of the wall to him. During the negotiations to purchase the truce necessary to secure the Roman retreat to the wall, Septimius Severus's wife, Julia Domna, criticised the sexual morals of the Caledonian women; the wife of Argentocoxos, a Caledonian chief, replied: "We consort openly with the best of men while you allow yourselves to be debauched in private by the worst". This is the first recorded utterance confidently attributable to a native of the area now known as Scotland. The emperor Septimius Severus died at York while planning to renew hostilities, and these plans were abandoned by his son Caracalla. Emperor Constantius came to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, after the provincial defences had been rebuilt following the Carausian Revolt. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Later excursions into Scotland by the Romans were generally limited to the scouting expeditions of exploratores in the buffer zone that developed between the walls, trading contacts, bribes to purchase truces from the natives, and eventually the spread of Christianity. The degree to which the Romans interacted with the Goidelic-speaking island of Hibernia (modern Ireland) is still unresolved amongst archaeologists in Ireland. See also Ancient Britain British military history Roman governors of Britain Roman mining Roman sites in Great Britain Itius Portus Pugnaces Britanniae Citations References Further reading The Great Invasion, Leonard Cottrell, Coward–McCann, New York, 1962, hardback. Was published in the UK in 1958. Tacitus, Histories, Annals and De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae A.D. 43, John Manley, Tempus, 2002. Roman Britain, Peter Salway, Oxford, 1986 Miles Russel – Ruling Britannia – History Today 8/2005 pp 5–6 Francis Pryor. 2004. Britain BC. New York: HarperPerennial. Francis Pryor. 2004. Britain AD. New York: HarperCollins. George Shipway – Imperial Governor. 2002. London: Cassell Military