Emperor Hadrian's Wall in England Keeps Out Barbarians

 

In 55 B.C. the Romans under Julius Caesar first invaded Britain, but it was not until almost a century later in 43 A.D, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius that the full scale Roman conquest and occupation of Britain really began.

By A.D 70 a powerful army led by the Roman Governor of Britain Julius Agricola, had captured most of southern Britain and advanced into the northern part of our country. Here they defeated two great Celtic tribes, the Brigantes and the Picts.

Victory over the Picts was not difficult for the might of the Roman army, but the wild mountainous terrain of Caledonia made the total subjugation [keeping under control] of this Higland people a difficult and rather unprofitable task. When the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in 122 A.D., he recognised the difficulties in establishing control in Caledonia and saw that it would be impossible to introduce the Picts to the Roman way of life. The Emperor therefore ordered the construction of a great defensive wall which would mark the northern limits of his empire and consolidate the hold on those parts of Britain already subdued [conquered, taken over by the Romans].

The purpose of the Emperor's great wall was to `Separate the Romans from the Barbarians'. The 'Barbarians' in question were of course the Caledonian Picts and the great local tribe called the Brigantes, whose territory lay on both sides of Hadrian's Wall.

Hadrian's Wall was eighty miles long, six metres high, three metres wide and built of stone, (though the Cumbrian sections were originally built of turf). Its defenses were supplemented by a northern ditch, a military road, and an earthwork called the 'vallum' . Together these features formed a 'military zone' which restricted the movement of people to the north and south of the wall. This military zone was a 'No Go' area for armed 'Barbarians'.

The defences of the Military Zone were supplemented by MILECASTLES which housed garrisons [small fort] of up to sixty men. These were built at intervals of one Roman mile and between each of these stood two smaller defensive towers called TURRETS which held small garrisons of four men.

Most important of the military garrrisons along the wall were of course the great FORTS, of which there were sixteen, each housing between five hundred and one thousand men. The men who occupied these forts and the other Wall defences were sometimes recruited locally, but more often than not they were brought in from some distant corner of the Roman Empire.

 

Soldiers garrisoned on the wall, thus came from as far away as Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Germania, Romania and even North Africa. Surprisingly very few of the Roman soldiers originated from Rome or Italy. Instead the wall was a Multi-National

The `Multi-Cultural Society was further developed by small Civilian towns called VICUS which grew up around the Roman forts. These were inhabited by women, children, craftsmen, traders and retired soldiers. Hadrian's frontier was not just a dull and simple stone wall. Hadrian's wall was an active military zone, a customs barrier, a line of defense and above all a way of life.

[Adapted from Hadrian's Wall.History]

 

 

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