The Roman Wall / A historical, topographical, and descriptive account of the barrier of the lower isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, deduced from numerous personal surveys

by J. Collingwood Bruce

It has already been observed that numerous stones along the line bear, without any addition, the names of the second legion, the sixth, and the twentieth. There can be no doubt that these legions and their vexillations executed the principal part of the Work. The main bodies of these forces, however, had their head-quarters, at the time of the arrival of Severus, in districts of the country southward of the Barrier line. The second legion, after the building of the Antonine Wall, appears to have gone to Carleon, in South Wales, the Isca of the Romans. The sixth legion removed to York before A.D. 190, where it continued as long as the Romans remained in the island. Horsley, speaking of the inscriptions on the Wall which mention this legion,|MOVEMENTS OF THE LEGIONS.| says, ’some of them, from the characters and other circumstances, may be supposed as ancient as Hadrian’s reign.' The twentieth legion had taken up its abode at Chester, the Deva of the Romans, as early as the year 154. Though it is probable that Septimius Severus may have taken detachments of these legions with him in his Scottish campaign, it is not likely that he would withdraw the main bodies from forts of such importance; and those which did accompany him would find the discharge of their military duties sufficiently onerous, without engaging in a work so vast as the building of the Wall.

But, after all, the works themselves furnish us with the best proof that the whole is one design, and the production of one period. It is difficult to conceive how any person can traverse the line of the Barrier without coming to the conclusion, that all the works—Vallum, Wall and fosse, turrets, castles, stations, and outposts—are but so many parts of one great design, essential to each other, and unitedly contributing to the security of a dangerous frontier. The Murus and the Vallum throughout their whole course pursue tracks harmonizing with each other; the Murus, however, selecting those acclivities from which an attack from the north can be best repulsed—the Vallum, those from which aggression from the south can be repelled. Stukeley was unable to resist the evidence of his senses. Speaking of the works in the neighbourhood of Carvoran, he says—

STUKELEY’S TESTIMONY.

I suppose this Wall built by Severus is generally set upon the same track as Hadrian’s Wall or Vallum of earth was; for, no doubt, they there chose the most proper ground; but there is a Vallum and ditch all the way accompanying the Wall, and on the south side of it; and likewise studiously choosing the southern declivity of the rising ground. I observe, too, the Vallum (Wall?) is always to the north. It is surprising that people should fancy this to be Hadrian’s Vallum; it might possibly be Hadrian’s work, but may be called the line of contravallation; for, in my judgment, the true intent, both of Hadrian’s Vallum and Severus’s Wall, was, in effect, to make a camp extending across the kingdom; consequently, was fortified both ways, north and south: at present, the Wall was the north side of it; that called Hadrian’s work, the south side of it; hence we may well suppose all the ground of this long camp, comprehended between the Wall and the southern rampire, was the property of the soldiers that guarded the Wall.—Iter Boreale, p. 59.

Speaking of the works westward of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he says—

The Vallum runs parallel to the Wall, but upon the declining ground south, as the other north; this confirms me in my suspicion, that both works were made at the same time, and by the same persons, and with intent that this should be a counter-guard to the other, the whole included space being military ground.—Iter Boreale, 66.

The reader needs scarcely to be reminded of the striking illustration of these remarks which is furnished by the appearance of the works a little to the west of Carrhill, and by the fact, that for nearly ten miles in the middle of their course, the Vallum is commanded by the heights on which the Wall stands.

RELATIVE POSITION OF THE WORKS.

Whenever the distance between the Wall and Vallum varies, it is generally with some obvious design in view. Thus, as Hodgson, who powerfully supports the view here taken, remarks—

The Vallum and Murus always contract the width of the interval between them as they approach a river, apparently for no other purpose than a close protection of the military way, and the defence of one bridge; for if they had passed the brooks and rivers on their line at any considerable distance from each other, two bridges would have been necessary, and two sets of guards to defend them: and here it is not unimportant to remark, that the Murus always takes that brow of the ridge it traverses, which is precipitous to the north, and never deserts its straightest or most defensible course to find a convenient situation for a bridge, while the Vallum almost invariably bends inwards as it approaches a bridge, and diverges outwards as it leaves it.—Hist. Nor. II. iii.