He went to Britain where he corrected many things, and first drew a Wall (murumque primus duxit) eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians.
No testimony could be more explicit than this in favour of the view that Hadrian built the Wall. As this writer, however, subsequently ascribes the work to Severus, many are of opinion that Spartian here speaks of the Vallum, not of the stone Wall. Mere verbal criticism will not decide the point, but it may be observed in passing, that although the words murus and vallum are occasionally interchanged by Latin authors, the term (murus) which Spartian uses in the passage, taken strictly, means a stone wall. Speaking of Severus, the same writer says—
He fortified Britain with a Wall drawn (muro ducto) across the island, and ending on each side at the sea, which was the chief glory of his reign, and for which he received the name of Britannicus.
The same writer, in a subsequent chapter, makes a second reference to the Wall, which is of some importance in discussing the question. Narrating an incident which occurred near the Wall, he says—
After the Wall or Vallum in Britain was completed, and the emperor was returning to the next stage not as conqueror only, but as founder of eternal peace, and was thinking within himself what omen might happen to him, an Ethiopian soldier, famous as a mimic, and noted for his jokes, crossed his path, crowned with cypress. Struck with the colour of the man, and his crown, he was angry with him, and ordered him to be put out of his sight, when the fellow is reported, by way of a joke, to have said—'Thou hast been everything—conquered everything: now conqueror, be a god!'
Julius Capitolinus, a writer who flourished about the same time as Spartian (A.D. 280) speaking of the Antonine Wall, uses an expression which seems to imply, that the only previously existing Barrier was one of turf. He says—
Antoninus, by his legate Lollius Urbicus, conquered the Britons, the barbarians being secluded by another earthen wall (alio muro cespiticio ducto).
All the remaining classical historians sum up in favour of Severus; they, however, probably only re-echo the statements of Spartian, with a slight addition of errors of their own. Eusebius Pamphilius says, that—
Clodius Albinus being slain at Lyons, Severus made war upon the Britons, and in order to render the subject provinces more secure from barbaric invasion, he drew a Wall from sea to sea, an hundred and thirty-two miles long.
Aurelius Victor, who wrote about A.D. 360, recording his great exploits, says—