Antonine Wall
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Construction
Construction of the Antonine Wall began in 142, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, by Quintus Lollius Urbicus and was completed in 144. The wall stretches 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Old Kirkpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the Firth of Clyde to Bo'ness, Falkirk, on the Firth of Forth. The wall was intended to replace Hadrian's Wall 160 km (100 miles) to the south, as the frontier of Britannia, but while the Romans did establish temporary forts and camps north of the wall, they did not conquer the Caledonians, and the Antonine Wall suffered many attacks. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia, though in some contexts the term may mean the area north of Hadrian's Wall.
The Antonine Wall was inferior to Hadrian's Wall in terms of scale and construction, but it was still an impressive achievement, considering that it was completed in only two years, at the northern edge of the Roman empire in what they perceived as a cold and hostile land. The wall was typically an earth bank, about four metres high, with a wide ditch on the north side, and a military way or road on the south. The Romans initially planned to build forts every six miles, but this was soon revised to every two miles, resulting in a total of 19 forts along the wall. The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort.
Wall Abandoned
The wall was abandoned after only twenty years, when the Roman legions withdrew to Hadrian's Wall in 164, and over time reached an accommodation with the Brythonic tribes of the area who they fostered as the buffer states which would later become "The Old North". After a series of attacks in 197, Emperor Septimius Severus arrived in Scotland in 208 to secure the frontier, and repaired parts of the wall. Although this re-occupation only lasted a few years, the wall is sometimes referred to (by later Roman historians) as the Severan Wall.
Although most of the wall has been destroyed over time, sections of the wall can still be seen in Bearsden, Kirkintilloch, Twechar, Croy, Falkirk and Polmont.
It is a putative World Heritage Site [link].
Legend of Graeme
There is a legend that says the Roman Antonine Wall was broken by Graeme, a great Caledonian chief of Clan Graham, as he drove the Roman legions out of his country. This, unfortunately, might never be proven. From the records available, the first Graham known in Scotland was Sir William de Graham, a knight who accompanied David I, England’s premier baron, on his journey north to claim the Scottish crown.
See also
External links
- http://www.athenapub.com/antwall1.htm
- http://www.athenapub.com/britsite/hillfoot.htm
- http://www.roman-britain.org/frontiers/antonine.htm
- http://www.almac.co.uk/FalkirkTCM/Rome.htm
- http://www.kilsyth.org.uk/
- [Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976:] "Antonine Wall, Scotland"
- [Museum news]
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