Northumberland Hadrian's Wall Why Was it Built?

Britain’s Spectacular Roman Site Was Erected for a Specific Purpose

Jun 21, 2009

The Romans invaded Britain in AD 43. It took thousands of soldiers six years to build Hadrian's Wall and the purpose was to mark the boundaries of the great Roman Empire.

The wall is the most spectacular of the Roman remains in Britain and a World Heritage Site. It stretches for 73 miles across the narrowest part of England from Wallsend-on-Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west and is a dramatic example of Britain divided by occupation.

Hadrian’s Wall – Why Was It Built?

The construction of the wall was a stupendous achievement, requiring nearly four million tons of rock to be quarried by hand and hauled up to the crags and ridges where it was built. It was maintained by the Romans for nearly 300 years.

But why build a wall? Why didn’t the Romans just carry on their conquest as far north as possible? For 80 years they had tried to move their empire ever northwards to achieve the total conquest of Britain, their most northerly province. It has been suggested that one reason the wall was built was to raise money.

Hadrian’s Wall – Romans and “Barbarians”

When the wall was being built the Romans were feeling the pinch of having to govern their widespread provinces and one theory is that they wanted to create a customs frontier to raise taxes from “foreigners” crossing into their territory to trade. However, a Roman biographer, during Hadrian’s rule, wrote that the purpose of the wall was to “separate the Romans from the Barbarians".

The so-called Barbarians were Caledonian Picts and a tribe called the Brigantes. There had been no physical border to separate them before the Romans arrived and their territory lay on both sides of the wall. They were neither English nor Scottish since neither England nor Scotland existed in Roman times. So the notion of a customs border sounds feasible. About the middle of the third century AD, the Romans faced more battles with the Goths and Vandals in Europe, which created a heavy demand for extra soldiers to fight the enemy.

The great Roman Empire was crumbling. It was too big and, possibly, too ambitious and the need for more troops gradually led to a depletion in the numbers stationed in Britain.

After the Romans left in AD 410 the wall was used as building materials by just about anyone who wanted to carry off the stones. For a long time it was a source of ready-cut and dressed stone for castles, churches, and farmhouses.

In the 1970s archeologists discovered ancient wooden tablets at the site of what was once Vindolanda, a garrison fort near Hexham. The tablets provide an amazing record of life at this outpost of the Empire. On pieces of wood, in inky spidery writing, army recruits recorded their grumbles about the weather, the shortage of beer and complaints about the locals, nickmaned Brittunculi – “wretched little Brits”.

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