Afrikaans: 'N kroontjie eikeblare, trans. Lydia Pienaar, Kaapstad: J. Malherbe, 1970.

One evening at a tavern in Isca Silurium (Caerleon), sometime in the mid-second century CE, a group of cavalry auxiliaries and Roman legionaries get into to a debate over who has the most important role during a battle. As the conversation turns to a battle with the Picts beyond the Antonine Wall a decade before, at which point the Thracian horse-trader Aracos steps in and mentions that he fought in the battle as part of the Dacian Horse. When one of his fellow patrons notes that one of the Dacian Horse had been awarded the corona civica (a circlet of oak leaves), the highest award a soldier could receive, for his heroics in the battle, they judge from Aracos’ reaction that it was he who had received the award, and for the next two years he becomes the tavern’s most popular patron. However, when another veteran of the battle visits the tavern, he reveals that it was not Aracos who had received the Corona Civica, and Aracos leaves after being jeered at for his lies. 

Returning to his lodgings, Aracos is met by a young medic who has brought him a package from his old comrade Felix. The medic explains Felix died defending a supply train and on his deathbed had requested that this be delivered to Aracos. Aracos opens the package to find the Corona Civica and thinks back to the events surrounding it. Aracos had wanted to become a soldier, but had been rejected due to a heart murmur, and so became an army medic instead. Just before the battle with the Picts, Aracos had found Felix, to whom he bore a resemblance, overcome with fear, and so offered to switch places with him. Disguising himself in Felix’s uniform as the Dacian Horse’ Pennant Bearer, Aracos’ heroics in the battle earned him the Corona Civica, but it was awarded to Felix. Aracos was then discharged from the army having fallen ill after the battle, telling Felix to keep the Corona Civica in the hope that he will one day earn it. Now knowing Felix had died saving others, Aracos decides to continue the façade, and resolves to keep returning to tavern until everyone forgets about the Corona Civica.

The story includes twenty-two half-page to full-page illustrations by Victor Ambrus  (all later editions except for the original edition), with nearly every scene depicted.

As is the case here, the main protagonists in Sutcliff’s Roman Britain stories are often men of similar rank in the Roman army who display honour and valour in the face of great odds. In the case of Aracos, despite his physical impairment he still takes part in the battle with the Picts, and earns the Corona Civica in the process, while Felix eventually overcomes his fear of fighting and dies defending others. That Aracos is able achieve a great victory despite his condition, which had prevented him from becoming the soldier he hoped to be, also echoes several of Sutcliff’s other Roman heroes, including Marcus in The Eagle of the Ninth and Justin in The Silver Branch, and is certainly influenced by Sutcliff’s own struggles with her Still’s Disease. Moreover, Aracos’ decision to honour Felix’s memory by not revealing the Corona Civica to his fellow tavern patrons is also admirable; subsequently, as with many of Sutcliff’s other novels and short-stories, A Circlet of Oak Leaves serves a didactic purpose, illustrating to young readers what qualities they should strive to develop. As Sutcliff explained in her essay ‘History is People’ (1973: 306): “… I do try to put over to the child reading any book of mine some kind of ethic, a set of values… I try to show the reader that doing the right/kind/brave/honest thing doesn’t have to result in any concrete reward… and that doesn’t matter.” 

The depiction of violent clashes between the Roman forces and the tribes of northern Britain follows a trend seen in many of Sutcliff’s other works, including The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, Frontier Wolf, Mark of the Horse Lord and The Capricorn Bracelet. This is in part due to the significant influence that Kipling’s’ Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906), which included several stories set on Hadrian’s Wall, had on Sutcliff (1956: 53–54). Indeed, just as Kipling’s stories served as an allegory of Britain’s frontier in India, so too do Sutcliff’s Roman soldiers in A Circlet of Oak Leaves illicit parallels with a romanticised image of the British army as they battle with naked undisciplined Painted People under the leadership of their anachronistically named ‘captain’. Indeed, Sutcliff held the rank-and-file soldiers and their commanders of the British army in great esteem, having grown up on military bases while her father served in the navy and her subsequent experiences in World War II (Sutcliff 1983). However, unlike Kipling’s stories which feature primarily Romano-British and Romano-Gallic soldiers, in A Circlet of Oak Leaves Sutcliff presents a broad of range of ethnic groups serving as auxiliaries, including Dacians, Thracians, Germans, Cretans, Asturians, providing a more realistic portrayal of how diverse the Roman forces would have been. However, unlike many of Sutcliff’s other historical novels, the story is not based on any historical event and does not include any historical characters.

Ambrus’ illustrations range from figures presented in isolation (e.g. Aracos is first shown alone), to Aracos speaking with the young medic in his rented room, and full battle scenes. Given the prominent role of cavalry in the story, Ambrus undoubtedly took great pleasure providing the illustrations of the scenes involving them, as horses were his favourite animals to draw. 

Dixon, Karen and Patricia Southern, The Roman Cavalry from the First to the Third century AD, London: B.T. Batsford, 1992.

Mattingly, David, An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire 54 BC–AD 409, London: Allen Lane.

Meek, Margaret, Rosemary Sutcliff, London: Bodley Head, 1962.

Sutcliff, Rosemary, Blue Remembered Hills, London: Bodley Head, 1983.

Sutcliff, Rosemary, “History is People”, in Virginia Haviland, ed., Children and Literature: Views and Reviews, Brighton: Scott Foresman and Company, 1973, 305–312.

A Circlet of Oak Leaves was later collected with other Sutcliff short-stories in:

Rosemary Sutcliff, Heather, Oak, and Olive: Three Stories, New York: Dutton, 1972.

Rosemary Sutcliff, Eagle's Honour, London: Red Fox, 1995.

My documentary on Rosemary Sutcliff’s life and works to mark her centenary can be found here.