The Romans in Scotland

» thebattwoman - Giggle

A wall to separate them from the Barbarians hey? Mind you, after watching Braveheart, part of me understands why, gotta love 'em though!

-- posted by thebattwoman

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» andysilva - The 'walls'

Hello Matthew,

further to your comments on Hadrians Wall it is interesting to note that there has been a lot of reasearch done in recent years that has led historians to surmise that Hadrians and then the Antonine walls were actually fortified borders, that were meant to be crossed.

The old theory that the walls were there to physically stop people crossing into the Roman province seems the most obvious answer but even Hadrians wall couldn't have done that due to the ease of doing the journey by sea. This was the route that many raiding parties would have taken.

The Romans wanted to control the movement of peoples and goods, to monitor and control those entering and leaving Roman territory. The wall could also be closed to through traffic in times of war and act as a defensive point in the face of more serious attacks. It is intersting to note that the vallum or ditch to the north of the wall was actually filled in at one time and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the Roamns used 'subsidies' to control the tribes within Scotland for most of their presence in Scotland and northern England rather than brute force.

I think the best author/expert on this whole subject is David Breeze. He wrote a book called 'The Northern Frontires of Roman Britain' published by Batsford Books (1982). I had a root around and found some links, can't vouch for their quality though!!

Cheers,

Andy

http://www.arts.ubc.ca/cnrs/lunt.htm
http://www.simonides.org/links/fortifica...
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba21/ba21bo...

-- posted by andysilva

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