1/12 Hadrians Wall Bustorama

Descrição

Hadrian’s Wall (Latin: Vallum Hadriani, also known as the Roman Wall, Picts’ Wall, or Vallum Aelium in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122, in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front and behind, stretching across the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles, and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall’s defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts. Hadrian’s Wall marked the boundary between Roman Britannia and unconquered Caledonia to the north. The wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border, though it is sometimes loosely or colloquially described as such.

Hadrian’s Wall was probably planned before Hadrian’s visit to Britain in 122. According to restored sandstone fragments found in Jarrow which date from 118 or 119, it was Hadrian’s wish to keep “intact the empire“, which had been imposed on him via “divine instruction“. The primary purpose of the wall was as a physical barrier to slow the crossing of raiders, people intent on crossing its line for animals, treasure, or slaves, and then returning with their loot. The defensive characteristics of the wall support interpretation, including the pits known as “cippi” frequently found on the berm or flat area in front of the wall. These pits held branches or small tree trunks entangled with sharpened branches. These would make an attack on the wall even more difficult. The curtain wall was not mainly a continuously embattled defensive line, rather it would deter casual crossing and be an observation point that could alert Romans of an incoming attack and slow down enemy forces so that additional troops could arrive for support. Besides a defensive structure made to keep people out, the wall also kept people within the Roman province. Movement would be channeled through the gates in the wall, where it could be monitored for information, prevented or permitted as appropriate, and taxed.

The length of the wall was 80 Roman miles, equivalent to 73 modern miles; or 117 kilometres (1 Roman mile is equivalent to 1,620 yards; or 1,480 metres). This traversed the entire width of the island, from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west Not long after construction began, the wall’s width was reduced from the originally planned 10 feet (3.0 m) to about 8 feet (2.4 m), or even less depending on the terrain. Some sections were originally constructed of turf and timber, eventually replaced by stone years or decades later. Bede, a monk and historian who died in 735, wrote that the wall stood 12 feet (3.7 metres) high, with evidence suggesting it could have been a few feet higher at its formation. Along the length of the wall there was a watch-tower turret every third of a mile, also providing shelter and living accommodation for Roman troops. It is thought that following construction and when fully manned, almost 10,000 soldiers were stationed on Hadrian’s Wall, made up not of the legions who built it but by regiments of auxiliary infantry and cavalry drawn from the provinces. The soldiers who were stationed in the forts around the wall had the primary duty of defence. At the same time, the troops in the milecastles and turrets had the responsibility of frontier control. According with some scholars, the soldiers stationed in forts is far more pronounced than the ones in the milecastles and turrets. The soldiers who manned the milecastles and turrets on the wall came from the forts near it and regiments from auxiliaries, were specifically chosen for this role. There is a “special force“, was formed to man these stations. Some scholars defended, there are soldiers from three, or even four, auxiliary units at milecastles on the wall. These units were “cohors I Batavorum, cohors I Vardullorum”, an un-numbered Pannonian cohort, and a duplicariusfrom Upper Germany”. According to Breeze, appears to have been some legionaries as well at these milecastles. Breeze states that evidence is “still open on whether” soldiers who manned the milecastles were from nearby forts or were specifically chosen for this task, and he adds that “the balance [of evidence] perhaps lies towards the latter“. However, soldiers from the three British legions outnumbered the auxiliaries, which goes against the assertion that legionaries would not be used on such detached duties. Further information on the garrisoning of the wall has been provided by the discovery of the Vindolanda tablets just to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, such as the record of an inspection on 18 May 92 or 97, when only 456 of the full quota of 756 Belgae troops were present, the rest being sick or otherwise absent.

Hadrian ended his predecessor Trajan’s policy of expanding the empire and instead focused on defending the current borders, namely at the time Britain. Like Augustus, Hadrian believed in exploiting natural boundaries such as rivers for the borders of the empire, for example the Euphrates, Rhine and Danube. Britain, however, did not have any natural boundaries that could serve the purpose to divide the province controlled by the Romans from the Celtic tribes in the north.