Hadrian's Wall (film)
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Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor
Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
. Running from Wallsend on the
River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
in the east to
Bowness-on-Solway Bowness-on-Solway is a village in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. It is situated to the west of Carlisle on the southern side of the Solway Firth estuary separating England and Scotland. The civil parish had a population of 1,126 at ...
in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front of it and behind it that crossed the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large
forts A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
, smaller milecastles and intervening
turrets Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * M ...
. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been
customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
posts. Hadrian's Wall Path generally runs very close to the Wall. Almost all of the standing masonry of the Wall was removed in early modern times and used for local roads and farmhouses. None of it stands to its original height, but modern work has exposed much of the footings and some segments display a few courses of modern masonry reconstruction. Many of the excavated forts on or near the Wall are open to the public, and various nearby museums present its history. The largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain, it runs a total of in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The turf-built
Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twe ...
in what is now central Scotland, which briefly superseded Hadrian's Wall before being abandoned, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008. Hadrian's Wall marked the boundary between Roman Britannia and unconquered
Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the part of Great Britain () that lies north of the River Forth, which includes most of the land area of Scotland. Today, it is used as a romantic or poetic name for all ...
to the north. The wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border, though it is often loosely or colloquially described as being such.


Dimensions

The length of the wall was 80 Roman miles (a unit of length equivalent to about 1,620 yards or 1,480 metres), or 73 modern miles (117 kilometres). This covered the entire width of the island, from Wallsend on the
River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
in the east to
Bowness-on-Solway Bowness-on-Solway is a village in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. It is situated to the west of Carlisle on the southern side of the Solway Firth estuary separating England and Scotland. The civil parish had a population of 1,126 at ...
in the west. Not long after construction began on the wall, its width was reduced from the originally planned to about , or even less depending on the terrain. As some areas were constructed of turf and timber, it would take decades for certain areas to be modified and replaced by stone.
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, a monk and historian who died in 735, wrote that the wall stood high, with evidence suggesting it could have been a few feet higher at its formation. Throughout the length of the wall there was a watch-tower every third of a mile, also providing shelter and living accommodation for the Roman troops in these
turrets Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * M ...
.


Route

Hadrian's Wall extended west from Segedunum at Wallsend on the
River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
, via
Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
and
Kirkandrews-on-Eden Kirkandrews-on-Eden or Kirkandrews-upon-Eden, in the past known as Kirkanders, is a village and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Beaumont, in the Carlisle District of the county of Cumbria, England. The village is found 4 miles N ...
, to the shore of the Solway Firth, ending a short but unknown distance west of the village of
Bowness-on-Solway Bowness-on-Solway is a village in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. It is situated to the west of Carlisle on the southern side of the Solway Firth estuary separating England and Scotland. The civil parish had a population of 1,126 at ...
. The route was slightly north of '' Stanegate'', an important Roman road built several decades earlier to link two forts that guarded important river crossings: Corstopitum ( Corbridge) on the
River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
and Luguvalium (Carlisle) on the River Eden. The modern A69 and
B6318 The Military Road is a name given locally to part of the B6318 road in Northumberland, England, which runs from Heddon-on-the-Wall in the east to Greenhead in the west. It should not be confused with the Roman-built Military Way adjoining ...
roads follow the course of the wall from Newcastle upon Tyne to
Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...
, then along the northern coast of Cumbria (south shore of the Solway Firth). Part of the central section of the wall follows natural cliffs on an escarpment of the Whin Sill rock formation. Although the curtain wall ends near Bowness-on-Solway, this does not mark the end of the line of defensive structures. The system of milecastles and
turrets Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * M ...
is known to have continued along the Cumbria coast as far as Risehow, south of Maryport. For classification purposes, the milecastles west of Bowness-on-Solway are referred to as Milefortlets.


Purpose of construction

Hadrian's Wall was probably planned before
Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
's visit to Britain in 122. According to restored sandstone fragments found in
Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne ...
which date from 118 or 119, it was Hadrian's wish to keep "intact the empire", which had been imposed on him via "divine instruction". Anthony Everitt, ''Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome'' (2009), Random House, Inc, 448 pages; . On Hadrian's accession to the imperial throne in 117, there was unrest and rebellion in Roman Britain and from the peoples of various conquered lands across the Empire, including Egypt, Judea, Libya and
Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, ...
. These troubles may have influenced his plan to construct the wall, as well as his construction of frontier boundaries now known as ''limes'' in other areas of the Empire, such as the '' Limes Germanicus'' in modern-day Germany. Scholars disagree over how much of a threat the inhabitants of northern Britain really presented to the Romans, and whether there was any economic advantage in defending and garrisoning a fixed line of defences like the wall, rather than conquering and annexing what has become Northumberland and the
Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowl ...
and then defending the territory with a looser arrangement of forts. Hadrian and his advisers however produced a solution to their problems that remained relevant for centuries. The primary purpose of the Wall was as a physical barrier to slow the crossing of raiders, people intent on crossing its line for animals, treasure, or slaves, and then returning with their loot. The ''
Historia Augusta The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...
'' states that Hadrian was the first to build a wall from sea to sea to separate the
barbarian A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...
s from the Romans. Not only the wall itself supports this interpretation; pits known as ''cippi'' are frequently found on the berm or flat area in front of the wall. These pits held branches or small tree trunks entangled with sharpened branches. These would make an attack on the Wall even more difficult. It might be thought of as the Roman equivalent of
barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is t ...
, a measure to delay an enemy attack and hold the attackers within range of the missiles of the defenders. The curtain wall was not mainly a continuously-embattled defensive line, rather it would deter casual crossing and be an observation point that could alert Romans of an incoming attack and slow down enemy forces so that additional troops could arrive for support. Besides a defensive structure made to keep people out, the wall also kept people within the Roman province. Movement would be channeled through the gates in the Wall, where it could be monitored for information, prevented or permitted as appropriate, and taxed. The wall would also have had a psychological impact:
For nearly three centuries, until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410 AD, Hadrian's Wall was the clearest statement of the might, resourcefulness, and determination of an individual emperor and of his empire.
It was not only a defensive structure, but also a symbolic statement of Rome's imperial power, marking the border between the so called civilized world and the unconquered barbarian wilderness. As the British archaeologist Neil Faulkner explains, "the wall, like other great Roman frontier monuments was as much a propaganda statement as a functional facility". There is some evidence that Hadrian's Wall was originally covered in plaster and then whitewashed: its shining surface would have reflected the sunlight and been visible for miles around.


Construction

Hadrian ended his predecessor Trajan's policy of expanding the empire and instead focused on defending the current borders, namely at the time Britain. Like Augustus, Hadrian believed in exploiting natural boundaries such as rivers for the borders of the empire, for example the
Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
, Rhine and Danube. Britain, however, did not have any natural boundaries that could serve this purpose – to divide the province controlled by the Romans from the Celtic tribes in the north. With construction starting in 122, the entire length of the wall was built with an alternating series of forts, each housing 600 men, and manned milecastles, operated by "between 12 and 20 men". It took six years to build most of Hadrian's Wall with the work coming from three Roman legions – the Legio II Augusta, Legio VI Victrix, and Legio XX Valeria Victrix, totalling 15,000 soldiers, plus some members of the Roman fleet. The building of the wall was not out of the area of expertise for the soldiers; some would have trained to be surveyors, engineers, masons, and carpenters.


"Broad Wall" and "Narrow Wall"

R. G. Collingwood Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published ...
cited evidence for the existence of a broad section of the wall and conversely a narrow section. He argued that plans changed during construction of the wall and its overall width was reduced. Broad sections of the wall are around wide with the narrow sections thinner, around wide. Some of the narrow sections were found to be built upon broad foundations, which had presumably been built before the plans changed. Based on this evidence, Collingwood concluded that the wall was originally due to be built between present-day Newcastle and Bowness, with a uniform width of ten Roman feet, all in stone. In the end, only three-fifths of it was built from stone and the remaining part in the west was a turf wall, later rebuilt in stone. Plans possibly changed due to a lack of resources. In an effort to preserve resources further, the eastern half's width was therefore reduced from the original ten Roman feet to eight, with the remaining stones from the eastern half used for around of the turf wall in the west. This reduction from the original ten Roman feet to eight created the so-called "Narrow Wall".


The Vallum

Just south of the wall there is a ten-foot (3-metre) deep, ditch-like construction with two parallel mounds running north and south of it, known as the Vallum. The Vallum and the wall run more or less in parallel for almost the entire length of the wall, except between the forts of Newcastle and Wallsend at the east end, where the Vallum may have been considered superfluous as a barrier on account of the close proximity of the
River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
. The twin track of the wall and Vallum led many 19th-century thinkers to note and ponder their relation to one another. Some evidence appears to show that the route of the wall was shifted to avoid the Vallum, possibly pointing to the Vallum being an older construction. R. G. Collingwood therefore asserted in 1930 that the Vallum was built before the wall in its final form. Collingwood also questioned whether the Vallum was an original border built before the wall. Based on this, the wall could be viewed as a new, replacement border, built to strengthen the Romans' definition of their territory. In 1936, further research suggested that the Vallum could not have been built before the wall because the Vallum avoided one of the Wall's milecastles. This new discovery was continually supported by more evidence, strengthening the idea that there was a simultaneous construction of the Vallum and the wall. Other evidence still pointed in other, slightly different directions. Evidence shows that the Vallum preceded sections of the Narrow Wall specifically; to account for this discrepancy, Couse suggests that either construction of the Vallum began with the Broad Wall, or it began when the Narrow Wall succeeded the Broad Wall but proceeded more quickly than that of the Narrow Wall.


Turf wall

From
Milecastle 49 Milecastle 49 (Harrows Scar) was a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (). Description Milecastle 49 is immediately west of the gorge of the River Irthing where the Wall was carried over the river by the bridge at Willowford. The scar or cliff and hen ...
to the western terminus of the wall at Bowness-on-Solway, the curtain wall was originally constructed from turf, possibly due to the absence of limestone for the manufacture of mortar. Subsequently, the Turf Wall was demolished and replaced with a stone wall. This took place in two phases; the first (from the River Irthing to a point west of Milecastle 54), during the reign of Hadrian, and the second following the reoccupation of Hadrian's Wall after the abandonment of the
Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twe ...
(though it has also been suggested that this second phase took place during the reign of Septimius Severus). The line of the new stone wall follows the line of the turf wall, apart from the stretch between Milecastle 49 and
Milecastle 51 Milecastle 51 (Wall Bowers) was a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (). Description Milecastle 51 is west of Birdoswald fort (), at the point where the Stone Wall rejoins the line of the Turf Wall.F. Gerald Simpson and I. A. Richmond, "The Turf Wall ...
, where the line of the stone wall is slightly further to the north. In the stretch around
Milecastle 50TW Milecastle 50TW (High House) was a milecastle on the Turf Wall section of Hadrian's Wall (). The milecastle is located close to the Birdoswald Roman Fort and is unique in that it was not replaced by a stone milecastle when the turf wall was u ...
, it was built on a flat base with three to four courses of turf blocks. A basal layer of cobbles was used westwards from
Milecastle 72 Milecastle 72 (Fauld Farm) was one of a series of Milecastles or small fortlets built at intervals of approximately one Roman mile along Hadrian's Wall (). Description Milecastle 72 is in the village of Burgh by Sands. The east wall of the mileca ...
(at Burgh-by-Sands) and possibly at Milecastle 53. Where the underlying ground was boggy, wooden piles were used. At its base, the now-demolished turf wall was wide, and built in courses of turf blocks measuring long by deep by high, to a height estimated at around . The north face is thought to have had a slope of 75%, whereas the south face is thought to have started vertical above the foundation, quickly becoming much shallower.


Standards

Above the stone curtain wall's foundations, one or more footing courses were laid. Offsets were introduced above these footing courses (on both the north and south faces), which reduced the wall's width. Where the width of the curtain wall is stated, it is in reference to the width above the offset. Two standards of offset have been identified: Standard A, where the offset occurs above the first footing course, and Standard B, where the offset occurs after the third (or sometimes fourth) footing course.


Garrison

It is thought that following construction, and when fully manned, almost 10,000 soldiers were stationed on Hadrian's Wall, made up not of the legions who built it but by regiments of auxiliary infantry and cavalry drawn from the provinces. Following from this, David Breeze laid out the two basic functions for soldiers on or around Hadrian's Wall. Breeze says that soldiers who were stationed in the forts around the wall had the primary duty of defence; at the same time, the troops in the milecastles and turrets had the responsibility of frontier control. Evidence, as Breeze says, for soldiers stationed in forts is far more pronounced than the ones in the milecastles and turrets. Breeze discusses three theories about the soldiers on Hadrian's Wall. One, these soldiers who manned the milecastles and turrets on the wall came from the forts near it; two, regiments from auxiliaries were specifically chosen for this role; or three, "a special force" was formed to man these stations. Breeze comes to the conclusion that through all the inscriptions gathered there were soldiers from three, or even four, auxiliary units at milecastles on the wall. These units were "''cohors I Batavorum'', ''cohors I Vardullorum'', an un-numbered
Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...
n cohort, and a ''duplicarius'' from Upper Germany". Breeze adds that there appears to have been some legionaries as well at these milecastles. Breeze also continues saying that evidence is "still open on whether" soldiers who manned the milecastles were from nearby forts or were specifically chosen for this task, and further adds that "the balance
f evidence F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
perhaps lies towards the latter". A surprise for Breeze is that "soldiers from the three British legions" outnumbered the auxiliaries, which goes against the assertion "that legionaries would not be used on such detached duties". Further information on the garrisoning of the wall has been provided by the discovery of the Vindolanda tablets just to the south of Hadrian's Wall, such as the record of an inspection on 18 May 92 or 97, when only 456 of the full quota of 756
Belgae The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Ju ...
troops were present, the rest being sick or otherwise absent.


Social and economic impact

Long before the Romans arrived in Britannia, by 200 BCE, the zone on both sides of the Wall, from
Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...
to the north and the
River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through th ...
to the south, had become dominated by rectilinear enclosures. These were the nuclei of extensive farming settlements at a high level of the social hierarchy, a numerous and widespread nobility; the lower orders lived in groups of round houses that left much less archaeological trace. The Wall probably cut across a coherent cultural area, and it was planned and built at a time of serious warfare in Britain, which required major Roman reinforcements from outside Britannia. A tablet from Vindolanda describes a ''centurio regionarius'' who exercised direct military rule from Carlisle, some 30 years after Roman conquest of the region. Nevertheless, the settlement pattern in the area did not change immediately after the Wall was built, and the local population may not have fought the Romans. The Roman soldiers of the garrison, with their families and other immigrants, may have been some 22-30% of the population of the region. They could not have been supplied entirely from local resources, although any local surpluses would have been taxed or requisitioned. Military conscripts may also have been levied from nearby groups.


After Hadrian

After Hadrian's death in 138, the new emperor, Antoninus Pius, left the wall occupied in a support role, essentially abandoning it. He began building the
Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twe ...
about north, across the isthmus running west-south-west to east-north-east. This turf wall ran 40 Roman miles, or about , and had more forts than Hadrian's Wall. This area later became known as the
Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowl ...
, sometimes referred to as the Central Belt or Central Lowlands. Antoninus was unable to conquer the northern tribes, so when Marcus Aurelius became emperor, he abandoned the Antonine Wall and reoccupied Hadrian's Wall as the main defensive barrier in 164. In 208–211, the Emperor Septimius Severus again tried to conquer
Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the part of Great Britain () that lies north of the River Forth, which includes most of the land area of Scotland. Today, it is used as a romantic or poetic name for all ...
and temporarily reoccupied the Antonine Wall. The campaign ended inconclusively and the Romans eventually withdrew to Hadrian's Wall. The early historian
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
(AD 672/73–735), following Gildas, wrote (circa AD 730): Bede obviously identified Gildas's stone wall as Hadrian's Wall (built in the 120s) and he would appear to have believed that the ditch-and-mound barrier known as the Vallum (just to the south of, and contemporary with, Hadrian's Wall) was the rampart constructed by Severus. Many centuries would pass before just who built what became apparent. In the same passage, Bede describes Hadrian's Wall as follows: "It is eight feet in breadth, and twelve in height; and, as can be clearly seen to this day, ran straight from east to west." Bede by his own account lived his whole life at
Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne ...
, just across the River Tyne from the eastern end of the Wall at Wallsend, so as he indicates, he would have been very familiar with the Wall. What he does not say is whether there was a walkway along the top of the wall. It might be thought likely that there was, but if so it no longer exists. In the late 4th century, barbarian invasions, economic decline and military coups loosened the Empire's hold on Britain. By 410, the estimated
end of Roman rule in Britain The end of Roman rule in Britain was the transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances. In 383, the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew tr ...
, the Roman administration and its legions were gone and Britain was left to look to its own defences and government. Archaeologists have revealed that some parts of the wall remained occupied well into the 5th century. It has been suggested that some forts continued to be garrisoned by local Britons under the control of a Coel Hen figure and former . Hadrian's Wall fell into ruin and over the centuries the stone was reused in other local buildings. Enough survived in the 7th century for spolia from Hadrian's Wall (illustrated at right) to find its way into the construction of St Paul's Church in Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, where Bede was a monk. It was presumably incorporated before the setting of the church's dedication stone, still to be seen in the church, dated 23 April 685. The wall fascinated
John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.S. Bendall, 'Speed, John (1551/2–1629), historian and cartographer', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (OUP 2004/ ...
, who published a set of maps of England and Wales by county at the start of the 17th century. He described it as "the Picts Wall" (or "Pictes"; he uses both spellings). ''A map of Newecastle'' (sic), drawn in 1610 by William Matthew, described it as "Severus' Wall", mistakenly giving it the name ascribed by Bede to the Vallum. The maps for
Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...
and Northumberland not only show the wall as a major feature, but are ornamented with drawings of Roman finds, together with, in the case of the Cumberland map, a cartouche in which he sets out a description of the wall itself.


Preservation by John Clayton

Much of the wall has now disappeared. Long sections of it were used for roadbuilding in the 18th century, especially by General Wade to build a military road (most of which lies beneath the present day B6318 " Military Road") to move troops to crush the Jacobite rising of 1745. The preservation of much of what remains can be credited to the antiquarian
John Clayton John Clayton may refer to: Arts and entertainment Writing * John Clayton (architect) (died 1861), English architect and writer * John Bell Clayton (c. 1907–1955), American writer * John Clayton (sportswriter) (1954–2022), American sportswriter ...
. He trained as a lawyer and became town clerk of Newcastle in the 1830s. He became enthusiastic about preserving the wall after a visit to Chesters. To prevent farmers taking stones from the wall, he began buying some of the land on which the wall stood. In 1834, he started purchasing property around Steel Rigg near Crag Lough. Eventually, he controlled land from Brunton to Cawfields. This stretch included the sites of Chesters,
Carrawburgh Carrawburgh is a settlement in Northumberland. In Roman times, it was the site of a -acre (1.5 ha) auxiliary fort on Hadrian's Wall called Brocolitia, Procolita, or ''Brocolita''. This name is probably based on the Celtic name for the pla ...
, Housesteads, and Vindolanda. Clayton carried out excavation at the fort at Cilurnum and at Housesteads, and he excavated some milecastles. Clayton managed the farms he had acquired and succeeded in improving both the land and the livestock. He used the profits from his farms for restoration work. Workmen were employed to restore sections of the wall, generally up to a height of seven courses. The best example of the Clayton Wall is at Housesteads. After Clayton's death, the estate passed to relatives and was soon lost to gambling. Eventually, the National Trust began acquiring the land on which the wall stands. At Wallington Hall, near Morpeth, there is a painting by William Bell Scott, which shows a
centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...
supervising the building of the wall. The centurion has been given the face of John Clayton (above right).


Later discoveries

In 2021 workers for Northumbrian Water found a previously undiscovered section of the wall while repairing a water main in central Newcastle upon Tyne. The company announced that the pipe would be "angled to leave a buffer around the excavated trench".


World Heritage Site

Hadrian's Wall was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and in 2005 it became part of the transnational "
Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Latin, singular; plural: ) is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimiting system of Ancient Rome marking the borders of the Roman Empire, but it was not used by the Romans for that purpose. The term has been ex ...
" World Heritage Site, which also includes sites in Germany.


Tourism

Although Hadrian's Wall was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, it remains unguarded, enabling visitors to climb and stand on the wall, although this is not encouraged, as it could damage the historic structure. On 13 March 2010, a public event Illuminating Hadrian's Wall took place, which saw the route of the wall lit with 500 beacons. On 31 August and 2 September 2012, there was a second illumination of the wall as a digital art installation called "Connecting Light", which was part of the London 2012 Festival. In 2018, the organisations which manage the Great Wall of China and Hadrian's Wall signed an agreement to collaborate for the growth of tourism and for historical and cultural understanding of the monuments.


Hadrian's Wall Path

In 2003, a National Trail footpath was opened that follows the line of the wall from Wallsend to
Bowness-on-Solway Bowness-on-Solway is a village in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. It is situated to the west of Carlisle on the southern side of the Solway Firth estuary separating England and Scotland. The civil parish had a population of 1,126 at ...
. Because of the fragile landscape, walkers are asked to follow the path only in summer.


Roman-period names

Hadrian's Wall was known in the Roman period as the ''vallum'' (wall), and the discovery of the
Staffordshire Moorlands Pan The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, sometimes known as the Ilam Pan, is a 2nd-century AD enamelled bronze ''trulla'' with an inscription relating to the forts of Hadrian's Wall. It was found in June 2003 in Ilam parish, Staffordshire, by met ...
in
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
in 2003 has thrown further light on its name. This copper alloy pan (''trulla'') from the 2nd century is inscribed with a series of four names of Roman forts along the western sector of the wall: owness-on-Solway
rumburgh Rumburgh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of the market town of Halesworth in the East Suffolk District. The population of the parish at the 2011 United Kingdom census was 327. The village is ...
tanwix astlesteads This is followed by the words . Hadrian's family name was ''Aelius'', and the most likely reading of the inscription is ''Valli Aelii'' (
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
), Hadrian's Wall, suggesting that the wall was called by the same name by contemporaries. However, another possibility is that it refers to the personal name Aelius Draco. Two bronze vessels that are very similar to the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan are the Rudge Cup, found in Wiltshire in 1725, and the Amiens Skillet, found in Amiens in northern France in 1949. They also bear the Latin names of Hadrian's Wall forts round their rims, beneath which are representations of a turreted or battlemented wall, thought to depict Hadrian's Wall.


Forts

The Latin and Romano-Celtic names of all of the Hadrian's Wall forts are known, from the ''
Notitia Dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...
'' and other evidence such as inscriptions. They are listed here from east to west, in their Latin and modern English names: * Segedunum ( Wallsend) * Pons Aelius ( Newcastle upon Tyne) * Condercum ( Benwell Hill) *
Vindobala Vindobala (Brytonnic Celtic : windo- ''fair, white'', bala ''place, situation?'', cf. Old Irish bal, bail ''place, situation, condition, (good) luck'') was a Roman fort at the modern-day hamlet of Rudchester, Northumberland. It was the fourth fo ...
( Rudchester)The suffix "chester" reflects the presence of a Roman
castra In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and ...
.
*
Hunnum Hunnum (also known as Onnum, and with the modern name of Halton Chesters) was a Roman fort north of the modern-day village of Halton, Northumberland in North East England. The Latinized Brittonic name “Onnum” may mean "Stream/Water", "Ash ( ...
(
Halton Chesters Hunnum (also known as Onnum, and with the modern name of Halton Chesters) was a Roman fort north of the modern-day village of Halton, Northumberland in North East England. The Latinized Brittonic name “Onnum” may mean "Stream/Water", "Ash ...
) * Cilurnum ( Chesters aka
Walwick Chesters Cilurnum or Cilurvum was a fort on Hadrian's Wall mentioned in the ''Notitia Dignitatum''. It is now identified with the fort found at Chesters (also known as Walwick Chesters to distinguish it from other sites named Chesters in the vicinity) ...
) *
Procolita Carrawburgh is a settlement in Northumberland. In Roman times, it was the site of a -acre (1.5 ha) auxiliary fort on Hadrian's Wall called Brocolitia, Procolita, or ''Brocolita''. This name is probably based on the Celtic name for the pl ...
(
Carrowburgh Carrawburgh is a settlement in Northumberland. In Roman times, it was the site of a -acre (1.5 ha) auxiliary fort on Hadrian's Wall called Brocolitia, Procolita, or ''Brocolita''. This name is probably based on the Celtic name for the pla ...
) * Vercovicium ( Housesteads) *
Aesica Aesica (with the modern name of Great Chesters) was a Roman fort, one and a half miles north of the small town of Haltwhistle in Northumberland, England. It was the ninth fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Vercovicium (Housesteads) to the east and ...
(
Great Chesters Aesica (with the modern name of Great Chesters) was a Roman fort, one and a half miles north of the small town of Haltwhistle in Northumberland, England. It was the ninth fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Vercovicium (Housesteads) to the east and ...
) * Magnis (Carvoran) * Banna ( Birdoswald) * Camboglanna (Castlesteads) * Uxelodunum (
Stanwix Stanwix is a district of Carlisle, Cumbria in North West England. The ward population (called Stanwix Urban) had a population taken at the 2011 census of 5,934. It is located on the north side of River Eden, across from Carlisle city centre ...
. Also known as
Petriana Uxelodunum (with the alternative Roman name of Petriana and the modern name of Stanwix Fort) was a Roman fort. It was the largest fort on Hadrian's Wall, and is now buried beneath the suburb of Stanwix, in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. Roman n ...
) * Aballava ( Burgh-by-Sands) *
Coggabata Coggabata, or Congavata / Concavata, (with the modern name of Drumburgh) was a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Aballava ( Burgh by Sands) to the east and Mais (Bowness-on-Solway) to the west. It was built on a hill commanding views over ...
(
Drumburgh Drumburgh ( ) is a small settlement in Cumbria, England. It is northwest of the city of Carlisle and is on the course of Hadrian's Wall, near to Burgh by Sands. The village is sited on a gentle hill with a good view in all directions over the ...
) * Mais (
Bowness-on-Solway Bowness-on-Solway is a village in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. It is situated to the west of Carlisle on the southern side of the Solway Firth estuary separating England and Scotland. The civil parish had a population of 1,126 at ...
) Turrets on the wall include: * Leahill Turret * Denton Hall Turret Outpost forts beyond the wall include: * Habitancum ( Risingham) * Bremenium ( High Rochester) * Fanum Cocidi ( Bewcastle) (north of Birdoswald) * Ad Fines ( Chew Green) Supply forts behind the wall include: * Alauna ( Maryport) * Arbeia (
South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...
) * Coria ( Corbridge) * Epiacum (Whitley Castle near Alston) * Vindolanda (
Little Chesters Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort ('' castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word wo ...
or
Chesterholm Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (''castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word woul ...
) * Vindomora ( Ebchester)


In popular culture


Books

*'' The Eagle of the Ninth'' is a celebrated children's novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, published in 1954. It tells the story of a young Roman officer venturing north beyond Hadrian's Wall in search of the missing Eagle standard of the lost
Ninth Legion Legio IX Hispana ("9th Spanish Legion"), also written Legio VIIII Hispana, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army that existed from the 1st century BC until at least 120 AD. The legion fought in various provinces of the late Roman Re ...
. It was inspired by the bronze
Silchester eagle The Silchester eagle is a Roman bronze casting dating from the first or second century CE, uncovered in 1866 at Calleva Atrebatum in Silchester, Hampshire, England. It was purchased in 1980 by Reading Museum in Berkshire where it remains on disp ...
found in 1866. The book itself inspired the 2011 film ''The Eagle''. *The Jim Shepard short story collection ''Like You'd Understand Anyway'' (2007) includes a story titled "Hadrian's Wall" which is an imagined account of a clerk living and working during the wall's construction. * Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling contributed to the popular image of the "Great Pict Wall" in his short stories about Parnesius, a Roman legionary who defended the wall against the Picts. These stories are part of the '' Puck of Pook's Hill'' anthology, published in 1906. * American author George R. R. Martin has acknowledged that Hadrian's Wall was the inspiration for the Wall in his best-selling series ''
A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. He began the first volume of the series, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and it was published in 1996. Martin, who init ...
'', dramatized in the fantasy TV series ''
Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...
'', in which the wall is also in the north of its country and stretches from coast to coast. * In M. J. Trow's fictional ''Britannia'' series, Hadrian's Wall is the central location, and Coel Hen and Padarn Beisrudd are portrayed as limitanei (frontier soldiers). * ''Hadrian's Wall'' by Adrian Goldsworthy is a short history of the wall.


Films

* The 1991 American romantic action adventure film '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' uses
Sycamore Gap The Sycamore Gap Tree or Robin Hood Tree is a sycamore tree standing next to Hadrian's Wall near Crag Lough in Northumberland, England. It is located in a dramatic dip in the landscape and is a popular photographic subject, described as one of ...
as a location. *The 2011 action drama film ''The Eagle'' tells the story of a young Roman officer setting out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia to recover the lost Roman eagle standard of the Ninth Legion. The 2010 film ''Centurion'' tells a similar story. * The wall has also been featured as a major focal point of the 2004 ''King Arthur (2004 film), King Arthur'' in which one of the primary gates is opened for the first time since its construction to allow Arthur and his knights passage into the north for their quest. The climactic Battle of Badon between the Britons led by King Arthur, Arthur and his knights, and the Saxons led by Cerdic and his son Cynric are set just inside the wall.


Music

* The opening track from Maxim Reality, Maxim's first solo album ''Hell's Kitchen (Maxim album), Hell's Kitchen'' is named "Hadrian's Wall".


Television

* The seventh episode for the eighth season of the documentary television series ''Modern Marvels'' was about Hadrian's Wall. It was released on 1 March 2001.


Poetry

* The English poet W. H. Auden wrote a script for a BBC radio documentary called ''Hadrian's Wall'', which was broadcast on the BBC's north-eastern Regional Programme in 1937. Auden later published a poem from the script, "Roman Wall Blues", in his book ''Another Time (book), Another Time''. The poem is a brief monologue spoken in the voice of a lonely Roman soldier stationed at the wall.


Video games

*Hadrian's Wall appears in ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla''. The site can be visited by protagonist Eivor of the Raven Clan during the 870s.


Board games

*A board game with the same name was released in 2021, in which you are tasked with the construction and defence of the wall. In 2022 the game was nominated for the List of Game of the Year awards (board games)#American Tabletop Awards, American Tabletop Awards in the Strategy Game category.


Gallery

File:Poltross burn milecastle.jpg, Poltross Burn, Milecastle 48, which was built on a steep slope File:CRW 2684.jpg,
Sycamore Gap The Sycamore Gap Tree or Robin Hood Tree is a sycamore tree standing next to Hadrian's Wall near Crag Lough in Northumberland, England. It is located in a dramatic dip in the landscape and is a popular photographic subject, described as one of ...
(the "Robin Hood Tree", so called because it appears in the film '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'')Sycamore Gap, a section of the wall between two crests just east of Milecastle 39, is locally known as the "Robin Hood Tree" for its use in the 1991 film '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' (1991). File:Hadrian's Wall with sheep 1.jpg, Hadrian's Wall with sheep File:Hadrians Wall 05.JPG, The remains of the southern granary at Housesteads, showing under-floor pillars to assist ventilation File:Hadrian's Wall reconstruction at Vindolanda.jpg, A modern reconstruction of a short segment of Hadrian's Wall


See also

* Danevirke * List of English Heritage properties, English Heritage properties * Gask Ridge * Hadrianic Society * History of Cumbria * History of Northumberland * History of Scotland * List of walls * Offa's Dyke * Scots' Dike * Via Hadriana


References


Sources

* * Burton, Anthony. ''Hadrian's Wall Path''. 2004. Aurum Press Ltd. . * Chaichian, Mohammad. 2014. "Hadrian's Wall: An Ill-Fated strategy for Tribal Management in Roman Britain", in ''Empires and Walls: Globalization, Migration, and Colonial Domination'' (Brill, pp. 23–52). https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Walls-Globalization-Migration-Domination/dp/1608464229. * Davies, Hunter. ''A Walk along the Wall'', 1974. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London . * de la Bédoyère, Guy. ''Hadrian's Wall: A History and Guide''. Stroud: Tempus, 1998. . * ''England's Roman Frontier: Discovering Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall Country''. Hadrian's Wall Heritage Ltd and Carlisle Tourism Partnership. 2010. * Forde-Johnston, James L. ''Hadrian's Wall''. London: Michael Joseph, 1978. . * Hadrian's Wall Path (map). Harvey, 12–22 Main Street, Doune, Perthshire FK16 6BJ
harveymaps.co.uk
* * * Moffat, Alistair, ''The Wall''. 2008. Birlinn Limited Press. . * * Speed, John – A set of Speed's maps were issued bound in a single volume in 1988 in association with the British Library and with an introduction by Nigel Nicolson as ''The Counties of Britain: A Tudor Atlas by John Speed''. * Tomlin, R. S. O., "Inscriptions" in ''Britannia'' (2004), vol. xxxv, pp. 344–345 (the Staffordshire Moorlands cup naming the Wall). * Wilson, Roger J. A., ''A Guide to the Roman Remains in Britain''. London: Constable & Company, 1980; .


External links


In Our Time Radio series with Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews, David Breeze, Former Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Scotland and Visiting Professor of Archaeology at the University of Durham and Lindsay Allason-Jones OBE, FSA, FSA Scot, Former Reader in Roman Material Culture at the University of Newcastle

Hadrian's Wall on the Official Northumberland Visitor website

Hadrian's Wall Discussion Forum

UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire

News on the Wall path



iRomans
ebsite with interactive map of Cumbrian section of Hadrian Wall
Well illustrated account of sites along Hadrian's Wall
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