BRITONS CELEBRATE 1,600 YEARS SINCE END OF ROMAN RULE
Watercolor of Hadrian’s Wall in the snow
In A.D. 122 the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited Britannia, (modern day Great Britain) which was the northwestern outpost of the Roman Empire. Hadrian was having trouble with discipline among his Legions posted there and from the local Barbarians. So he decided to put his troops to work and contain the northern tribes. He ordered the building of a defensive wall and forts along the skinny neck of northern England. It came to be known as Hadrian’s Wall.
March 2010, marked the 1,600th anniversary of the Roman military withdrawal from Britain due to the collapse of Rome itself. To celebrate this anniversary volunteers manned the wall from coast to coast, from the North Sea to the Irish Sea, and lit torches and beacons in commemoration of their freedom from Roman tyranny. What did the Romans ever do for us.
Hadrian’s Wall was 80 Roman miles (73.5 statute miles or 117 kilometers) long, its width and height dependent on the construction materials which were available nearby. East of the River Irthing the wall was made from squared stone and measured 3 meters (9.7 ft) wide and five to six meters (16–20 ft) high, while west of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 meters (20 ft) wide and 3.5 meters (11.5 ft) high. This does not include the wall’s ditches, and forts. The central section measured eight Roman feet wide (7.8 ft or 2.4 m) on a 10-foot (3.0 m) base. Some parts of this section of the wall survive to a height of 10 feet (3.0 m).
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Holte Ender
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“What did the Romans ever do for us.” I think Monty Python has the best answer to that:
“But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
yeah.Along with American Idol and stupid Reality TV shows. How can it be Reality if you’re watching from home on your couch?
Maybe technology will develop food pellets that TV’s can dispense. Instead of bread and circuses it could be Crap and Pellets.
Tom and Holte, bread and circuses being another parallel IMO.
The Roman bread and circuses were free food for the mob at the Colosseum to watch the slaughter, while the Roman army was scrapping abroad. What’s our circus? NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA comes to mind.
Hadrian should have fought harder to contain that uppity colony. If he had sent more troops, it would have been a cakewalk. Roman soldiers would have been greeted as liberators. Throngs of grateful Britannians would have showered Roman troops with flowers and ice cream.
TOM – The parallels between the Roman Empire and the current military expeditions gets more uncanny by the day.
There were remnants of a Roman wall behind the horse farm where I used to live in the village of Farningham (1/2 km from the village on Dartford Road).
The story as I heard it: The Romans abandoned Britannia because they got tired of bangers and mash.
OCTOPUS – You used to live in Kent, the garden of England, where all the hops come from for the warm beer. Bangers and mash, haven’t heard that said for a while.
Hi — great video. Just a little history note: The Romans never ‘occupied England’ as such. They occupied the part of Celtic Britain which ultimately became England and Wales. The country of England and the English people and language did not actually exist at that time. As the Romans were leaving, the Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes were invading and settling the area that became England (as Gwen notes). They ultimately melded as the English, with an admixture of Danish and other Scandinavian Vikings later. Actually, the Romans never conquered what is now Scotland, so only occupied what is now England and Wales.
BRIT IN US – My opening sentence was In A.D. 122 the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited Britannia, (modern day Great Britain) The Romans did occupy part of what is now Scotland and built another wall called Antonine Wall, across the central belt of, what is now, central Scotland. As an English born, educated and another Brit in US I realize the period between the Roman invasion and the Norman Conquest could not be nailed down in a few paragraphs, in fact a 10,000 word essay would be short on many facts.
And I was just reading last week about Bouddicia’s rebellion. I know I probably did not spell her name correctly.
DMARKS – When I was at school in England she was called Boadacia, but since then I have seen her name spelled Buddicca, Budicca, Boudica and Buddug, one thing historians can agree on is that she was Queen of the Iceni tribe from, what is now East Anglia in East Central England. What a woman.
The minute I saw this I was seeing Clive Owen in that King Arthur movie. Really interesting.
JESSICA – It was an interesting take on Arthurian legend, the fact that he was portrayed as a Roman officer at the time of evacuation from Britannia.
Sure Oso… The Arthur myths are all about Romans leaving and the resulting hardship / clan warring and Saxon raiding … great stuff for tale telling.
I like your observation of Hadrain’s Wall… nice post. 🙂
GWEN – The times after the Romans left, are times of myth, legend and lots of mini invasions, until 1066, when things started to get organized.
Holte,
I must confess to being ignorant of British history.I had no idea the Roman occupation was 300 years!
I generally think of an occupation either for military purposes-to suppress a recalcitrant populace or as a barrier to an enemy-or to control resources and trade. Would you know Romes intent in occupying Britain?
OSO – What was Roman intent? Silver, tin, slaves, corn and wool and not forgetting glory. Julius Caesar had a couple of half-hearted stabs at colonization, but the Emperor Claudius, who needed to score political points in Rome ordered a full scale invasion. The Roman Army was the most powerful in the known world, and the Celtic tribes of what is now, England, were brave warrior types, who could not cope with the type of organized warfare waged by the Romans.