Four score years after Roman emperor Claudius ordered Rome’s invasion of Britain in AD 43, soldiers of the Second, Sixth, and Twentieth Legions found themselves in an odd position. For hundreds of years Rome’s legionaires had confidently and generally successfully marched into new, often uncharted lands extending the borders of the empire in every direction of the compass. By AD 122, the Roman empire stretched from Britain in the northwest some 2,500 miles eastwardly to the Near East (roughly modern day Iraq) and 1,500 miles to the south to the Sahara desert in north Africa. Yet as the men of the Second, Sixth, and Twentieth Legions began to mass in the north of Britain in what they believed to be a move into modern Scotland, Emperor Hadrian’s (pronounced HAY-dree-un) orders called for them to put down their swords and shields and replace them with spades and trowels. Rather than confidently carrying the Roman fasci—long a symbol of Rome’s power and might—into Scotland thus extending further the northwest reaches of the empire and thus finally bringing the British Isles into Rome’s possession, the legionaires began construction of what today can be called one of the finest and lasting examples of Ancient history: Hadrian’s Wall.
Hadrian’s Wall, still largely visible today, ran for 73 miles (80 Roman miles) across northern England, from Bowness-on Solway in the west (adjoining the Irish Sea) to Wallsend on the river Tyne in the east (adjoining the North Sea). The legionaires also constructed approximately 25 miles of frontier works and installations along the western coast. While originally conceived as an earthen wall in the west and stone wall in the east, the final product—a half dozen years in the making by the 15,000 men of the three legions—was a wall entirely constructed from stone with a thickness of eight to ten feet and a height of ten to twelve feet.
In addition to the Wall, Roman soldiers were also tasked to construct protected gates, known as milecastles today, at mile intervals along the Wall. In between each milecastle, they also erected two observation towers or turrets. To the north of the Wall (facing Scotland today), a broad and deep ditch was dug along areas of the Wall where the land was generally flat and thus more susceptible to attack from the “barbarians” of the north, such as the Picts. The Wall, therefore, was generally viewed as defensive in nature and perhaps in some ways Rome’s recognition that it would no longer try to conquer all of Britain.
Appearances, however, can be deceiving, and Hadrian’s Wall proved to be such an example. While the Wall clearly served as a deterrent to invaders, it actually served a multitude of purposes. It importantly improved control of the frontier by regulating the flow of people and goods into and beyond the empire. It organized patterns of settlement along the Wall. And the Wall also included over a dozen forts built astride its length which clearly intimated that Rome wanted to maintain its offensive capabilities and mobility, both hallmarks of Rome’s military might and prowess. Thus the Wall served not only as a deterrent to attack from the north, it also enabled Rome to control frontier commerce and maintain the ability to strike in an offensive manner should imperial policy change.
As Rome began to regulate traffic and trade, civil settlements (called vici) emerged, especially near the several forts located along the Wall. While hardly surprising that local merchants or aspiring entrepreneurs would look to capitalize on the rather regular and good pay Roman soldiers received (not unlike the economic impact forts have on local economies today throughout the world), they became a security problem for the Romans. In addition to the emergent settlements, there were somewhere between 50 to 80 crossing points along the Wall thus further calling into question security. The need for greater, more focused control led to the creation of a second broad ditch that would be dug south of the Wall. It was called a Vallum. The Vallum included high mounds on either side of ditch and it ran along the entire length of the Wall. Legionaires were also directed to build select crossing points over the Vallum to more easily regulate travel and trade. Once completed, Roman troops had effectively created a perimeter along the length of the Wall—the broad ditch to the north of the Wall and the Vallum to the south of the Wall—and further reduced the number of crossing points to 15 or 16.
In addition to the greater protection and control the Vallum provided for Rome’s troops and the families of those who were stationed along the Wall, Rome’s legionaries would be asked to make one final improvement: a military road. In order to increase the speed of communication and what military wonks today would refer to as “command and control,” the military road, called the Military Way, was constructed between the Vallum and the Wall in order to link the forts along the Wall’s length. While subject to some academic debate today, the use of the Vallum and the placement of the Military Way between the Vallum and the Wall does seem to suggest that not all Britons were in favor of Rome’s presence or the Wall. Otherwise, the increased security measures made by the Romans south of the Wall would not have been necessary. While the purpose of the entire Wall system will likely remain the subject of debate within and beyond confines of concrete and ivy, what is less debatable is the fact that the Wall enabled Rome to control its northwest frontier for the next 250 years.
Dr. Chappo visited Hadrian's Wall near Chester's Roman Fort in northeast England on July 02, 2017
DID YOU KNOW?
Because the construction of the Wall system was done by Rome’s legionaires—already under pay by the empire—and because materials used for the erection of the Wall system were available locally for Rome to procure as conquerors (e.g. local quarries), the cost to build the Wall was minimal to Rome’s imperial treasury.
DID YOU KNOW?
After the decline of Rome in the AD 400s, the Wall became a quarry of sorts for local Britons. Over the next millennia, the Wall’s stones were used to build castles, churches, farms, houses, and roads. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that public and private conservation and preservation efforts were launched to protect the remains of Hadrian’s Wall. It is an effort, thankfully, that continues to present day.
DID YOU KNOW?
You can hike the Hadrian’s Wall Path that runs 84 miles—the entire length of the Wall—as part of England’s National Trails! You will traverse some of England’s most scenic countryside while tracing the steps of Rome’s legionaires and auxiliary troops who marched and defended the ground nearly two millennia before. While much information is available about Hadrian’s Wall Path via the Internet, you might want to start here to find out more: http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk
SELECT CONSIDERATIONS FOR FURTHER READING:
Breeze, David and Catriona Howatson, Ed. Hadrian’s Wall. London, England: Geoff Neal Group, 2017. (The official English Heritage guidebook of Hadrian’s Wall; commissioned by the Curatorial Department, National Collections Group.)
Everitt, Anthony. Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome. New York, New York: Random House, Inc., 2010.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2016.
_____. Hadrian’s Wall. New York, New York: Basic Books, April 2018. NOTE: This is available for pre-order only at the time of writing this piece here. Because Dr. Goldsworthy’s work is equally as informative as it is trustworthy, I have decided to list it here for further reading even though I am unable to review it yet myself.
