Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:32:54.218Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hadrian's Wall: Some Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

David J. Breeze  and
Brian Dobson
David J. Breeze
Affiliation:
Department of the Environment, Edinburgh
Brian Dobson
Affiliation:
Department of Extra-Mural Studies, The University, Durham
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

‘Hadrianus) … murumque per octoginta milia passuum primus duxit, qui barbaros Romanosque divideret’ (Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Hadrian xi, 2). ‘Hadrian was the first to build a wall, eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians’.

It is salutary to recall that this is the only statement from an ancient source on the function of Hadrian's Wall. Like all literary evidence, of course, its credibility may be weakened by its author's ignorance, prejudice or misunderstanding, but it offers us an interpretation. All other evidence, from structures and finds, is mute on the question why the Wall was built—even the inscriptions which tell us that Hadrian, with or without Platorius Nepos, built a number of structures unnamed. The answers so far offered to this question are the interpretations of modern scholars, needing constantly to be reviewed and not to be allowed to acquire a false validity by reputation or repetition. The explanations offered here have no special claim to acceptance; they are merely suggestions that may be considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Britannia , Volume 3 , November 1972 , pp. 182 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © David J. Breeze and Brian Dobson 1972. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellhouse, R. L., ‘Roman sites on the Cumberland Coast 1966-1967’, CW 2 lxix (1969), 54–101.Google Scholar
Bellhouse, R. L., ‘Roman sites on the Cumberland Coast 1968-1969’, CW 2 lxx (1970), 9–47.Google Scholar
Birley, E., ‘Excavations on Hadrian's Wall west of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1929’, AA 4 vii (1930), 143–178.Google Scholar
Birley, E., ‘Three notes on Roman Cumberland’, CW 2 xxxi (1931), 140–144.Google Scholar
Birley, E., ‘Excavations per lineam valli in 1934’, Durham Univ. Joum. xxix (1935), 93–99.Google Scholar
Birley, E., ‘Fifth report on the excavations at Housesteads’, AA 4 xiv (1937). 172–184.Google Scholar
Birley, E., ‘Hadrianic Frontier Policy’, Carnuntina iii (1956), 25–33.Google Scholar
Birley, E., Research on Hadrian's Wall (Kendal 1961).Google Scholar
Birley, E., ‘Hadrian's Wall and its Neighbourhood’, Studien zu den Militärgrenzen Roms (Koln 1967), 6–14.Google Scholar
Birley, R. E., ‘Excavations at Chesterholm-Vindolanda 1967-1969’, AA 4 xlviii (1970), 97–156.Google Scholar
Blair, P. H., ‘Housesteads Milecastle’, AA 4 xi (1934), 103–120.Google Scholar
Bosanquet, R. C., ‘The Roman Camp at Housesteads’, AA 2 xxv (1904), 193–252.Google Scholar
Breeze, D. J., ‘Excavations at the Roman Fort of Carrawburgh, 1967-1969,’ AA 4 I (1972).Google Scholar
Breeze, D. J. and Dobson, B., ‘Fort Types on Hadrian's Wall’, AA 4 xlvii (1969), 15–32.Google Scholar
Brewis, Parker, ‘Roman Rudchester’ AA 4 i (1925), 93–120.Google Scholar
Bruce, J. C., ‘An Account of Excavations of die South Gateway of the Station at Cilurnum’, AA 2 viii (1877), 213.Google Scholar
Charlesworth, D., ‘Recent Work on Hadrian's Wall, Cawfields’, AA 4 xlvi (1968), 69–74.Google Scholar
Clayton, J., ‘Notes of an Excavation at Cilurnum’, AA 2 vii (1876), 273.Google Scholar
Collingwood, R. G., ‘Explorations at the Roman Fort of Burgh-by-Sands’, CW 2 xxiii (1923), 3–12.Google Scholar
Collingwood, R. G. and Richmond, I. A., The Archaeology of Roman Britain (London 1969).Google Scholar
Daniels, C. M., ‘Problems of the Roman Northern Frontier’, Scottish Archaeological Forum 1970, 91–101.Google Scholar
Dockerill, J. R., Pottery from the Milecastles and Turrets on Hadrian's Wall, unpublished University of Durham M.A. thesis (1969).Google Scholar
Forbes, R. J., Studies in Ancient Technology vi (Leiden 1967).Google Scholar
Frere, S. S., Britannia (London 1967).Google Scholar
Gibson, J. P., ‘Excavations on the line of the Roman Wall: Greatchesters (Aesica)’, AA 2 xxiv (1903), 19–64.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. P. and Simpson, F. G., ‘The Milecastle on the Wall of Hadrian at the Poltross Burn’, CW 2 xi (1911), 390–461.Google Scholar
Gillam, J. P., ‘Excavations at Halton Chesters, 1961’, University of Durham Gazette ix (New Series) No. 2.Google Scholar
Gillam, J. P. and Mann, J. C., ‘The Northern British Frontier from Antoninus Pius to Caracalla’, AA 4 xlviii (1970), 1–44.Google Scholar
Heywood, B., ‘The Vallum—Its Problems Restated’, Britain and Rome edd. Jarrett, M. G. and Dobson, B. (Kendal 1966), 85–94.Google Scholar
Hartley, B. R., ‘Some Problems of the Military Occupation of the North of England’, Northern History i (1966), 7–20.Google Scholar
Hooley, J. and Breeze, D. J., ‘The Building of Hadrian's Wall: A Reconsideration’, AA 4 xlvi (1968), 97–114.Google Scholar
Jarrett, M. G., ‘The defences of the Roman fort at Halton Chesters’, AA 4 xxxvii (1959). 177–190.Google Scholar
Jarrett, M. G., ‘Actuelle Probleme der Hadriansmauer’, Germania 45 (1967), 96–105.Google Scholar
Jobey, G., ‘Some Rectilinear Settlements of the Roman period in Northumberland—Part I’, AA 4 xxxviii (1960), 1–38.Google Scholar
Jobey, G., ‘Hill Forts and Settlements in Northumberland’, AA 4 xliii (1965), 21–64.Google Scholar
Leach, J. and Wilkes, J. J., ‘Excavations in the Roman fort at Housesteads 1961’, AA 4 xl (1962), 83–96.Google Scholar
Mann, J. C. ed., The Northern Frontier in Britain from Hadrian to Honorius: Literary and Epigraphic Sources (Newcastle 1969).Google Scholar
Petch, J. A., ‘Excavations at Benwell (Condercum)’, AA 4 iv (1927), 135–192.Google Scholar
Petch, J. A., ‘Excavations at Benwell (Condercum)’, AA 4 v (1928), 46–74.Google Scholar
Potter, H. Glasford, ‘Amboglanna’, AA I iv (1855), 63-75 and 141–149.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A., ‘Excavations on Hadrian's Wall in the Birdoswald-Pike Hill Sector 1930’, CW 2 xxxi (1931), 122–134.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A., ‘Trajan's Army on Trajan's Column’, Papers of the British School at Rome xiii (1935), 1–40.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A., ‘Ancient Rome and Northern England’, Antiquity xiv (1940), 292–300.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A., ‘A Roman arterial signalling system in the Stainmore Pass’, Aspects of Archaeology in Britain and Beyond, ed. Grimes, W. F. (London 1951), 293–302.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A. and Birley, E., ‘Excavations on Hadrian's Wall, in the Birdoswald-Pike Hill Sector 1929’, CW 2 xxx (1930), 169–205.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A. and Hodgson, K. S., ‘Excavations at Castlesteads’, CW 2 xxxiv (1934), 159–165.Google Scholar
Shaw, R. C., ‘Excavations at Willowford’, CW 2 xxvi (1926), 429–547.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G., ‘Excavations on the line of the Roman Wall in Cumberland during the years 1909-12’, CW 2 xiii (1913), 297–397.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G. and Richmond, I. A., ‘Excavations on Hadrian's Wall’, CW 2 xxxiii (1933), 246–277.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G. and Richmond, I. A., ‘Bankhead Milecastle, 52,’ CW 2 xxxv (1935), 247–256.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G. and Richmond, I. A., ‘The Fort on Hadrian's Wall at Halton’, AA 4 xiv (1937), 151–171.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G. and Richmond, I. A., ‘Report of the Cumberland Excavation Committee for 1936’, CW 2 xxxvii (1937), 157–177.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G. and Richmond, I. A., ‘The Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall at Benwell’, AA 4 xix (1941), 1–43.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. G. and Richmond, I. A., ‘The Roman Fort and Drumburgh’, CW 2 lii (1952), 9–14.Google Scholar
Spain, G. R. B. and Simpson, F. G., ‘The Roman Frontier from Wallsend to Rudchester Burn’, Northumberland County History xiii 1930), 484–565.Google Scholar
Stevens, C. E., The Building of Hadrian's Wall (Kendal 1966).Google Scholar
Swinbank, B. and Spaul, J. E. H., ‘The Spacing of the forts on Hadrian's Wall’, AA 4 xxix (1951), 221–238.Google Scholar
Tait, J., ‘An Excavation at Housesteads, 1962’, AA 4 xli (1963), 37–44.Google Scholar
Watson, G. R., ‘Christianity in the Roman Army in Britain’, Christianity in Britain 300 to 700, edd. Barley, M. W. and Hanson, R. P. C. (Leicester 1969), 51–54.Google Scholar
Webster, G., The Roman Imperial Army (London 1969).Google Scholar
Wilkes, J. J., ‘Excavations in Housesteads Fort, 1960’, AA 4 xxxix (1961), 279–300.Google Scholar
Wilkes, J. J., ‘Early Fourth Century Rebuilding in Hadrian's Wall Forts’, Britain and Rome, edd. Jarrett, M. G. and Dobson, B. (Kendal 1966), 114–138.Google Scholar
Woodfield, C., ‘Six Turrets on Hadrian's Wall’, AA 4 xliii (1965), 87–200.Google Scholar