User:MikeEK1998/Hadrian's Wall

- The addition I have made to the introduction will be used to strengthen the already solid introduction on the existing article. And I will also be deleting irrelevant info or things not cited.

Running "from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west”, the Wall covered the whole width of the island, as Jarrett A. Lobell says.

Dimensions

This is a section of Hadrian's Wall emphasizing its length and height.

- The additions I have made below will be completely replacing the existing section on the article as it was not cited at all.

The length of the Wall was 80 Roman miles (a unit of length... equivalent to about 1620 yards [or 1480 meters] in the modern measurement), or 73 modern miles. This covered 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 production began on the Wall, its width was reduced to be about eight feet, or even less depending on the terrain. As some areas were constructed of turf and timber, it would take decades for certain areas to be modified and replaced by stone.

Venerable Bede, a medieval historian, wrote the Wall to be standing at 12 feet high, with evidence suggesting it could’ve been a few feet higher at its formation.

R.S.O. Tomlin argues that along the miles long wall there would have been a tower every third of a mile, adding more to the dimensions of the structure.

Route

- I didn't edit this section.

Purpose of construction

- I will be adding the additions I have made below to the existing section which for its part is already well developed and for the most part cited. My additions I hope will further strengthen this section.

This bronze head is of the emperor Hadrian. Hadrian is not only the namesake for the Wall but the emperor who commissioned's its construction. This head was found in the River Thames in London, which is south of Hadrian's Wall.

Lobell comments on the obvious nature of the Wall, saying "if there are troublesome tribes to the north, and you want to keep them out, you build a strong defensive wall". The Historia Augusta also states that Hadrian was the first to build a wall 80 miles from sea to sea to separate the barbarians from the Romans. However, this reasoning does not cover the various reasonings Hadrian could have had in mind when commissioning the Wall’s construction.

Besides a defensive structure made to keep people out, the Wall also served to keep people within the Roman province. Since the Romans had control over who was allowed in and out of the empire, the Wall was invaluable in controlling the markets and economy. Describing the Wall as a major component of the empire’s frontier military strategy, Lobell argues for the psychological impact of the Wall:

For nearly three centuries, until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410 [CE], Hadrian’s Wall was the clearest statement of the might, resourcefulness, and determination of an individual emperor and of his empire.

The Wall also provided years of work for thousands of soldiers who were responsible for building and maintaining the structure which gave the further benefit of preventing any boredom for the soldiers.

Nick Hodgson suggests that the Wall's primary purpose was as a physical barrier to slow up the crossing of raiders and people intent on getting into the empire for destructive or plundering purposes. Hodgson argues that the Wall was not a last stand type of defensive line, but, instead, an observation point that could alert Romans of an incoming attack and act as a deterrent to slow down enemy forces so that additional troops could arrive for support. This is supported by another defensive measure found in front of the Wall as well - pits or holes which likely held branches or small tree trunks entangled with sharpened branches. Originally thought of as local features for the nearby fort, it is now thought that they are a general feature of Hadrian’s Wall. Hodgson argues that this new discovery has reignited the discussion of the purpose of the wall and demanded a reconsideration of the long-held interpretation that it had no defensive or tactical role.

Construction

- I will be adding these additions to the already existing section on construction and editing them together to make them flow. There is also a lot of information in this section on the existing article not cited so I will be deleting that accordingly.

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 making the natural boundaries around the empire as the borders such as the Euphrates, the Rhine, and Danube Rivers. Britain, however, did not have any natural boundaries that could serve this purpose - to divide the province controlled by the Romans from the rebellious Celtic tribes in the north

The entire length of the Wall was built with an alternating series of forts, each housing as many as 600 men, and manned milecastles, operated by "between 12 and 20 men."

It took six years to build most of Hadrian’s Wall with the work coming at the hands of three Roman legions - the II Augusta, VI Victrix, and XX Valeria Victrix, (totalling 15,000 soldiers) - and some members of the Roman fleet. The production of the Wall was not out of the area of expertise for the soldiers as they travelled with their own surveyors, engineers, masons, and carpenters.

- The following two sections, were my biggest rewrites of the article and the existing work on the article will have to be completely replaced with what I have written. "The Vallum" section was an addition I felt the article required and did the liberty of hyperlinking it to its own page, which I discovered existed.

- I left the Turf Wall and Structure sections as is as they were cited and seemed adequate.

"Broad Wall" and "Narrow Wall"

The terms "Broad Wall" and "Narrow Wall" are used to describe different sections of Hadrian's Wall. They are aptly named as they are referring to the width of a particular section as some areas are wider than others. R.G. Collingwood found evidence for the existence of a broad section of the Wall and conversely a narrow section. He argues that plans changed during construction of the Wall and its overall width was reduced, resulting in both broad and narrow sections of the Wall.

Broad sections of the Wall are around nine and a half feet wide with the narrow sections of the Wall two feet thinner, being around seven and a half feet wide. The narrow sections were found to be built upon broad foundations. Based on this evidence, Collingwood concludes that the Wall was originally due to be built between present-day Newcastle and Bowness, with a uniform width of ten Roman feet, all in stone. However, in the end, only three-fifths of the Wall was built from stone and the remaining part of the Wall in the west was a turf wall. Plans possibly changed due to a lack of resources.

In an effort to preserve resources further, the eastern half’s width was therefore reduced from the original ten Roman feet to eight, with the remaining stones from the eastern half used for around five miles of the turf wall in the west. This reduction from the original ten Roman feet to eight, created the so called "Narrow Wall".

The Vallum

South of the Wall there is a ten feet deep, ditch like construction known as "the Vallum", which to its south is a twenty feet high mound of dirt. The Vallum and the Wall have in many ways shared pathways that led many nineteenth century thinkers to note and ponder their relation to one another.

Some evidence shows the pathway of the Wall was shifted to avoid the Vallum, possibly pointing to the Vallum being an older construction. Collingwood therefore asserted in 1930, that the Vallum was built before the Wall in its final form. Collingwood also questioned whether the Vallum was in fact an original border built before the Wall, defining the end of Roman territory. Based on this consideration, the Wall could be viewed as a new, replacement border, built to strengthen the Roman's definition of their territory.

However, in 1936, further research suggested that the Vallum could not have been built before the Wall because it clearly avoided one of its milecastles. This new discovery was continually supported by more evidence, strengthening the idea that there was a simultaneous construction of the Vallum and the Wall.

This ditch like construction is a section of the Vallum. This particular section is located near Milecastle 42, around modern Cawfields, placing it near the western part of the Wall.

Other evidence still pointed in other, slightly different directions. Evidence shows that the Vallum preceded sections of the Narrow Wall specifically; and, to account for this discrepancy, Couse suggests that either construction of the Vallum began with the Broad wall, or it began when the Narrow Wall succeeded the Broad Wall but proceeded more quickly than that of the Narrow Wall.

Garrison

- I will add the following additions to the existing section and delete any information not cited on the existing article.

Lobell says 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 calvary drawn from the provinces.”

Following from this David J. Breeze laid out the two basic functions for soldiers on or around Hadrian’s Wall. Breeze says that 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. Evidence, as Breeze says, for soldiers stationed in forts is far more pronounced than the ones in the milecastles and turrets.

Breeze discusses three theories about the soldiers on Hadrian’s Wall. One, these soldiers who manned the milecastles and turrets on the Wall came from the forts near the Wall; two, regiments from auxiliaries were specifically chosen for this role; or three, “a special force” was formed to man these stations.

Breeze comes to the conclusion that through all the inscriptions gathered there were 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 duplicarius from Upper Germany.” Breeze adds that there appears to be some legionaries as well at these milecastles. Breeze also continues saying that evidence is “still open on whether” soldiers who manned the Wall milecastles were from nearby forts or were specifically chosen for this task, and further adds that “the balance [of evidence] perhaps lies towards the latter”. And finally, a surprise for Breeze is that “soldiers from the three British legions” outnumbered the auxiliaries which goes against the assertion “that legionaries would not be used on such detached duties”.

After Hadrian

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Roman-period names

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In popular culture

- Below what I've written here is the existing notes that I have citations to add to or existing notes that need to be deleted because they don't have the stated relevance to Hadrian's Wall or any existing proof that I can find. I will make the relevant changes on real Wikipedia when I move out of the sandbox.

Books

• Add citation to Rudyard Kipling note
• Delete The Eagle of the Ninth note (not a Hadrian's Wall book)
• Add citation to MJ Trow note

Films

• Add citation to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves note
• Delete Centurion, The Eagle, and King Arthur section
• Delete The Last Legion section
• Delete Doomsday section
• Delete Dragonheart 3 section
• Delete The Prince section

Music

• Add citation to Black Country Communion note

Television

• The seventh episode for the eighth season of the documentary television series Modern Marvels, was about Hadrian's Wall. It was released on March 1st, 2001.
• Delete Blackadder section

Poetry

• Add citation to W.H. Auden note

Video games

• Delete King Arthur note
• Add citation to Assassin's Creed Valhalla note