Everything about The Antonine Wall totally explained
The
Antonine Wall is a
stone and
turf fortification, built by the
Romans across what is now the
central belt of
Scotland and is also known as the Clyde-Forth frontier line. 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.
Construction
Construction of the Antonine Wall began in 138 AD, during the reign of
Antoninus Pius, by
Quintus Lollius Urbicus and was completed in 142 AD. The wall stretches 63
kilometres (39
miles) from
Old Kilpatrick 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 didn't 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 (13 feet) 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 162 AD (although there's evidence to suggest that they left the wall in 158/60 AD but its reliability is unclear), 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 AD, Emperor
Septimius Severus arrived in Scotland in 208 AD 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. (This led to later scholars like
Bede mistaking references to the Antonine Wall for ones to
Hadrian's Wall.)
Post-Roman history
Grim's dyke
In medieval histories, such as the chronicles of
John of Fordun, the wall is called
Gryme's dyke. Fordun says that the name came from the grandfather of the imaginary king Eugenius son of Farquahar. This was corrupted into Graham's dyke – a name still found in
Bo'ness at the wall's eastern end – and then linked with
Clan Graham.
This name is the same one found as
Grim's Ditch several times in England in connection with early ramparts: for example, near
Wallingford in south Oxfordshire or between
Berkhamsted (Herts) and
Bradenham (Bucks).
Grim is presumed to be a byname for
Odin or
Wodan, who might be credited with the wish to build earthworks in unreasonably short periods of time. By antiquaries the Graham's Dyke is usually styled the Wall of Pius or the Antonine Vallum, after the emperor
Antoninus Pius, in whose reign it was constructed.
In a Scottish context, Grim is also found as a variant of the name Giric, a name borne by an obscure king
Giric mac Dúngail of the late 9th century, to whom many great victories were attributed in medieval times.
It is also known sometimes as
Graham's Dyke, this name is locally explained as a legend of a victorious assault on the defences by one Robert Graham.
World Heritage Status
The UK government's nomination of the Antonine Wall for
World Heritage status to the international conservation body
Unesco was first officially announced in 2003. It has been backed by the
Scottish Government since 2005 and by Scotland's Culture Minister
Patricia Ferguson since 2006. It became the UK's official nomination in late January 2007, and
MSPs were called to support the bid anew in May 2007.
The UK nominations, together with those from other countries, have been or will be submitted to Unesco in February 2007, 2008 and 2009, with the final decisions being made by the World Heritage Committee the following summer.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Antonine Wall'.
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