Hadrian's Wall - Dimensions, Route, Hadrian, Roman-period names, Garrison, After Hadrian, In fiction

The principal N frontier of the Roman province of Britain. Built AD 122–8 on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian (117–138) and possibly inspired by travellers' accounts of the Great Wall of China, it runs 117 km/73 mi from the Solway Firth to the R Tyne, the wall itself 4·5 m/15 ft high (probably with a 2 m/6 ft timber parapet), its forward defensive ditch c.8·5 m/28 ft wide and 3 m/10 ft deep. Sixteen forts (the best preserved at Housesteads and Chesters) were supplemented by 80 milecastles and numerous signal turrets. Overrun by Picts and N tribes in AD 139 and again in 367, the Wall was finally abandoned c.400–410. It is now a world heritage site.

Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Hadriani) was a stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of Great Britain to prevent military raids by the tribes of Scotland to the north, to improve economic stability and provide peaceful conditions in the Roman province of Britannia to the south, to physically mark the frontier of the Empire, and to separate the unruly Selgovae tribe in the north from the Brigantes in the south and discourage them from uniting.

The name is also sometimes used jocularly as a synonym for the border between Scotland and England, although for most of its length the wall follows a line well south of the modern border — and neither the Scoti tribe nor the English lived in Britain at the time of the wall's construction.

The wall was the northern border of the Empire in Britain for much of the Roman Empire's rule, and also the most heavily fortified border in the Empire. In addition to its use as a military fortification, it is thought that the gates through the wall would also have served as customs posts to allow trade taxation.

A significant portion of the wall still exists, particularly the mid-section, and for much of its length the wall can be followed on foot.

Dimensions

Hadrian's Wall was 80 Roman miles (73 and a half Modern miles or 117 kilometres) long, its width and height dependent on the construction materials which were available nearby: east of the river Irthing the wall was made from brick shaped stone and measured 10 Roman feet (9.7 ft or 3 m) wide and 5 to 6 metres (16–20 ft) tall; west of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 metres (20 ft) wide and 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) high. This does not include the wall's ditches, berms, and forts.

Route

Hadrian's Wall extended from the west from Wallsend on the River Tyne to the shore of the Solway Firth. The A69 and B6318 roads follow the course of the wall as it starts in Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, then on round the northern coast of Cumbria. The Wall is entirely in England and south of the border with Scotland by 15 kilometres (9 mi) in the west and 110 kilometres (68 mi) in the east.

Hadrian

Hadrian's Wall was built following a visit by Roman emperor Hadrian (AD 76–138) in AD 122. However the construction of such an impressive wall was probably also a symbol of Roman power, both in occupied Britain and in Rome.

Hadrian reduced Roman military presence in the territory of the Brigantes and concentrated on building a more solid linear fortification to the north of them. The Wall in part follows the outcrop of a harder, more resistant igneous dolerite rock escarpment, known as the Great Whin Sill.

The initial plan called for a ditch and wall with 80 small, gated milecastle fortlets every Roman mile holding a few dozen troops each, and pairs of evenly spaced intermediate turrets used for observation and signalling. The wall was initially designed to a width of 3 metres (10 ft) (the so-called "Broad Wall"). The turf wall was 6 metres wide (20 ft) and around 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) high.

The milecastles were of three different designs, depending on which Roman legion built them — the Second, Sixth, and Twentieth Legions, whose inscriptions tell us were all involved in the construction. One group of each legion would create the foundations and build the milecastles and turrets and then other cohorts would follow, building the wall itself. Early in its construction the width of the wall was narrowed to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) or even less (the "Narrow Wall"). The Broad Wall dimensions can be seen in some stretches of foundations and some milecastle walls — a handy reference for archaeologists trying to piece together the construction chronology.

Within a few years it was decided to add a total of 14-17 (sources disagree) full-sized forts along the length of the wall, including Housesteads and Birdoswald, each holding between 500 and 1,000 auxiliary troops (no legions were posted to the wall). Some of the larger forts along the wall, such as Chesters and Housesteads, were built on top of the footings of milecastles or turrets, showing the change of plan. Also some time still during Hadrian's reign (i.e., before AD 138) the wall west of the Irthing was rebuilt in sandstone to basically the same dimensions as the limestone section to the east.

The Wall was thus part of a defensive system which, from north to south included:

a glacis and a deep ditch a berm with rows of pits holding entanglements the curtain wall itself a later military road (the "Military Way") the Vallum — two huge banks with a ditch between.

Roman-period names

The Roman-period names of some of the Hadrian's Wall forts are known: Segedunum (Wallsend), Pons Aelius (Newcastle on Tyne), Condercum (Benwell Hill), Vindobala (Halton Chesters), Hunnum (Rutchester), Cilurvum (Walwick Chesters), Procolita (Carrowburgh), Borcovicum or Vercovicium (Housesteads), Vindolanda (Little Chesters), Aesica (Great Chesters), Magna (Carvoran), Vindomora (Ebchester), Corstopitum (Corbridge), Habitancum (Risingham), Bremenium (Rochester), Ad Fines (Chew Green) , and also Banna (Birdoswald Fort), Milecastle 51, Alauna (Maryport)

Arbeia was a supply fort behind the wall.

Garrison

The wall was garrisoned by auxiliary (i.e., non-legionary) units of the army (non-citizens). After the harsh suppression of the tribes under Septimius, the region near the wall remained peaceful for most of the rest of the 3rd century.

After Hadrian

In the months after Hadrian's death in 138, the new emperor, Antoninus Pius essentially abandoned the wall, though leaving it occupied in a support role, and began building a new wall in Scotland proper, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) north, the Antonine Wall. This turf wall ran 40 Roman miles (about 37.8 mi or 61 km) and had significantly more forts than Hadrian's Wall. Antonine was unable to conquer the northern tribes and so when Marcus Aurelius became emperor, he abandoned the Antonine Wall and occupied Hadrian's Wall once again in 164. Archaeology is beginning to reveal that some parts of the Wall remained occupied well into the 5th century.

In fiction

Hadrian's Wall was featured extensively in the movie King Arthur (which depicted the story of the people the Arthurian legends were supposedly based on). The fort in the movie where Arthur and his Sarmatian "knights" were garrisoned was based on the Roman fort named Vindolanda, which was built around AD 80 just south of Hadrian's Wall in what is now called Chesterholm, in Northern England. In the movie, the fort is attached to the wall. Sycamore Gap, a section of the wall between two crests just west of milecastle 38, is locally known as the "Robin Hood Tree". The humorous 2003 book The Zombie Survival Guide (ISBN 1-4000-4962-8) by Max Brooks suggests that Hadrian's Wall was built in response to a zombie attack. Brooks writes that in AD 121, undead barbarian hordes descended upon the Romans and were driven back in the area where Hadrian's Wall was then built. Forth, Centurion Blackaddicus, Legionary Baldrickus and Georgius are part of the Roman forces defending Hadrian's Wall from the attacking Scots.