Votadini, client kingdom?

[Nathan Ross]

So, it is hard to say that it was a "very large number of troops". It was a a campaign of significant dimensions, but not at all massive.

Sure enough, as you say, we have no definite evidence of the numbers involved. But I would suggest that an imperial campaign of three years' duration, involving not only the Augustus but also his son and heir, with no certain victory at the end, would have been no small undertaking and would have involved considerable numbers of men - few Roman campaign forces during the Principiate would have been larger.

If those 130 and 165 acre camps date to this campaign - as seems likely - they would indeed suggest a very large army (why build a huge camp without a huge army, right?) 165 acres is larger than the eight-legion camp that Caesar built before the Battle of the Sambre, for example.

But this is a detour from the subject. Perhaps we should be more concerned that our few sources for this campaign do not mention the so-called Votadini at all, which suggests either that they lacked strategic or political significance at this point, or that they did not exist as a recognised people at the time.