Hadrian’s Wall

*It includes a grand gilded frame*

The most famous of all the frontiers of the Roman empire, Hadrian’s Wall is a stunning and impressive World Heritage Site. At 73 miles (80 Roman miles) long, it crossed northern Britain from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west. Built on the orders of Emperor Hadrian following his visit to Britain in AD 122, it was the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire for 300 years.

The inscription on the Ilam pan – a 2nd-century AD enamelled bronze trulla with an inscription relating to the forts of Hadrian’s Wall – suggests that it was called the “vallum Aelii”, Aelius being Hadrian’s family name. The building of Hadrian’s Wall probably began in AD122, and took at least six years to complete. The original plan was for a wall of stone or turf, with a guarded gate every mile and two observation towers in between, fronted by a wide, deep ditch. Before work was completed, 14 forts were added, followed by an earthwork known as the Vallum to the south. After the forts had been added, the width of the Wall was narrowed to 8 Roman feet (2.4 metres) or less and the standard of craftsmanship reduced, both presumably in order to speed work.

Hadrian’s Wall was built by the army of Britain, as many inscriptions demonstrate. The three legions of regular, trained troops in Britain, each consisting of about 5,000 heavily armed infantrymen, provided the main body of men building the Wall, but they were assisted by the auxiliary units – the other main branch of the provincial army – and even the British fleet. The troops based in the forts and milecastles of the Wall were mostly recruited from the north-western provinces of the Roman empire, though some were from further afield.