Antonine Wall
Definition:
The Antonine Wall is a sixty kilometer wall north of Hadrian's Wall built by the Romans in Britian to keep the Picts at bay during the reign of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 142-155).
Hadrian died in July 138. Reversing his predecessor's policy of solidification instead of expansion, Antoninus Pius ordered a northward advance and built a new wall called the Antonine Wall. It was completed by soldiers from Legions II, VI, and XX in the 140s and stretched 37 miles from the Forth to the Clyde, following Scotland's Central Valley.
In front of the wall was a ditch. Forts were located at about 8 miles intervals. There are also secondary forts too small for entire regiments.
Hadrian's wall is thought to have been abanoned in around 140 in favor of the Antonine Wall and then re-occupied in 158. It was then thought that the Antonine Wall was reoccupied under the other Antonine emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Sources:
The Antonine Wall is a sixty kilometer wall north of Hadrian's Wall built by the Romans in Britian to keep the Picts at bay during the reign of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 142-155).
Hadrian died in July 138. Reversing his predecessor's policy of solidification instead of expansion, Antoninus Pius ordered a northward advance and built a new wall called the Antonine Wall. It was completed by soldiers from Legions II, VI, and XX in the 140s and stretched 37 miles from the Forth to the Clyde, following Scotland's Central Valley.
In front of the wall was a ditch. Forts were located at about 8 miles intervals. There are also secondary forts too small for entire regiments.
Hadrian's wall is thought to have been abanoned in around 140 in favor of the Antonine Wall and then re-occupied in 158. It was then thought that the Antonine Wall was reoccupied under the other Antonine emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Sources:
- David J. Breeze "Hadrian's Wall" The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996.
- "The Building of the Antonine Wall," by Mark Hassall. Britannia, Vol. 14. (1983), pp. 262-264.
- "Were There Two Antonine Occupations of Scotland?" by N. Hodgson. Britannia, Vol. 26. (1995), pp. 29-49.
- Antonine Wall - Introduction
From Athena Review, a diagram listing the placement of the forts and legions along the Antonine Wall, a brief description of the physical wall, and the names of late Roman historians who called the wall the Severan Wall. - Sections of the Antonine Wall at Hillfoot Cemetery
From Athena Review, photos of stone footings and a drainage culvert from the Antonine Wall.
