Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's wall in United Kingdom, between Scotland and England.

This 120 kilometer wall stretches across Northern Britain. When the Roman Empire expanded its territory to Britannia in the middle of the 1st century, they were under constant attack by local tribes. Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a defensive wall to keep intruders out. The wall was to stretch from the West coast in the Irish Sea to the East coast in the North Sea. The wall was 6.5 meters high and 3 meters thick. There was a ditch on the northern side to repel enemies. There were military check points every 1.5 kilometers along the wall. Nearly 10,000 soldiers were stationed here in what was the northernmost part of the Roman Empire. These are the remains of Vindolanda fort where 500 soldiers were once stationed. 70 years of excavation have revealed clues about living conditions for Roman soldiers at the time. The Army was extremely well equipped.

Among some of the 20,000 articles unearthed, some reveal an unknown side of the soldier's life apart from fighting. Archaeologist Robin Birley points out that there are some signs of relaxed military discipline. Over 1,000 child shoes and female sandals were excavated, along with some articles believed to be children's toys. Military regulation prohibited soldiers from marriage; however many of them had families.

Some military secrets were written in Latin on these wooden plates. Some of the pieces contain words which one would not expect to be written, such as "Army Deserter" and "Expulsion". Why did well-disciplined Roman soldiers try to run away? Robin Birley believes that they may have wanted to flee extensive troop movements. Roman Empire was often stretched to capacity. Soldiers spent long periods traveling from one battlefield to another. When they moved, they were away from their loved ones. Escaping from the army was the only option if they wanted to see them. Gradual change in the life of roman soldiers started on the northern front line. It was an early sign of beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire, at the height of its prosperity.

This video is a part of DVD - Frontiers of the Roman Empire, courtesy of English Heritage.

Part of the DVD "Hadrian's Wall - Antonine Wall available at http://www.northernheritage.co.uk and at http://www.theiss.de produced by Boundary Productions".

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Hadrian
• Roman
• empire
• United
• Kingdom
• Scotland
• England
• Boundary
• Productions

[ChrisTheExtrordinary]

Test if your insane. Try to build Hadrians wall in Minecraft

[lolatamericans]

Nice vid, and thanks for posting it, but please, the Wall does not run between Scotland and England. On the east coast, it is at least 70 miles south of the modern-day border.

[JohnS1704]

@LordHannigan The island has never been known as england !

[TJPinoy]

I will explain why Scotland didn't get conquered. Scotland was inhabited by warlike/primitive peoples hostile to Roman hegemony and were impossible to assimilate. These peoples also fought differently using guerilla tactics and avoided large open engagements which was the mainstay of Roman strategy. Lastly the highlands difficult to traverse; hampering Roman logistics. This made the construction of roads impossible and they were what allowed Roman armies to consolidate conquered territories.

[LordHannigan]

@WhiteRabbitm8te Rome built that massive wall and the other to the North for a symbol fact. Though they had 40,000 men stationed on the Island. They simply could not control it all. Going in a car is one thing. But marching all over England in armor while being hounded by people that want you dead. Is enough to say stop wait a minute. If we keep this up we are doomed. Its a long way to Italy in 122 AD.

[LordHannigan]

@lolatamericans It was built a long time before the Island would be known as England.

[gamblemadman]

@tdcpm27 Says a lot about what exactly?

[garethevers]

I hope you Brits realize how lucky you are. In Canada we have only a handful of archaeological sites over 1000 years old and almost certainly nothing this dramatic or impressive.

[jimbo271uk]

@WhiteRabbitm8te he romans looked at the isle of Britain as hell on Earth, it was full of mad blue warriors and if you feel asleep ou could freeze to death, would you want to invade?

[tdcpm27]

Great wall, kept the Romans and the barbarians seperated. And now it's entirely in England, says alot.

[gaconnochie]

The wall isn't actually between Scotland and England though. It is entirely in England. On the extreme west it is close to the border but not elsewhere. Virtually all of rural Northumberland is north of the wall as is much of industrial Tyneside north of the river.

[gaconnochie]

@Warpath2198 "the vikings raided the British Isles during the Roman's rule" No they didn't. Roman rule ended in the 5thC. The Vikings were much later. Hundreds of years later.