Hadrian's Wall On Visit To The Border Between England And Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish music, of Hadrian's Wall on visit to the Border between England and Scotland. Hadrian's Wall, Latin: Vallum Aelium, also known as the Roman Wall, Picts Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran 73 miles from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth in Scotland on the Irish Sea, and allowed the Roman Empire to project power some distance to the north, into the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts. There was a fort about every five Roman miles. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum, another ditch with adjoining mounds. It is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. 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. Hadrian, Latin: Caesar Traianus Hadrianus, born 24 January 76, died 10 July 138, was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born into a Roman Italo-Hispanic family that settled in Spain from the Italian city of Atri in Picenum. His father was of senatorial rank and was a first cousin of Emperor Trajan. He married Trajan's grand-niece Vibia Sabina early in his career, before Trajan became emperor and possibly at the behest of Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. Plotina and Trajan's close friend and adviser Lucius Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian. When Trajan died, his widow claimed that he had nominated Hadrian as emperor immediately before his death. Rome's military and Senate approved Hadrian's succession, but four leading senators were unlawfully put to death soon after. They had opposed Hadrian or seemed to threaten his succession, and the Senate held him responsible for it and never forgave him. He earned further disapproval among the elite by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia, and parts of Dacia. Hadrian preferred to invest in the development of stable, defensible borders and the unification of the empire's disparate peoples. He is known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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