Roman battlefield found deep inside Germany

[D B Campbell]

I got the impression it was the seige idea that was the older of the theories. At least that is the way it is put accross in a couple of books I have read. :?

Must be old books, Byron!

The antiquarian accounts of 18th/19th C certainly assumed that it had been a siege, but the late Roy Davies wrote an influential paper in 1972, proposing the "artillery range" or "practise siege works" theory. You'll still see this theory presented as fact today -- the latest (afaik) is David Breeze's new-ish booklet on [amazon]Roman frontiers in Britain[/amazon], where he presents it as fact. My Britannia article (2003) presents all the facts and comes down on the side of a genuine siege, but I guess the "artillery range" idea (although illogical and unsubstantiated) is too attractive for some folks to abandon!