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To: SunkenCiv

Wait a second... Scotland??

That’s a bit farther north than Hadrians’ Wall isn’t it?


25 posted on 11/09/2010 8:11:43 PM PST by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com <--- My Fiction/ Science Fiction Board)
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To: GeronL
Those skeletons must really be scary, tellin' everyone to halt work.

But yeah, Hadrian's Wall noodles back and forth across the modern boundary between England and Scotland. The Antonine Wall is way up north of Hadrian's Wall. And those are just the two Roman-era walls that are known about. I'd not be surprised if further early-conquest-era Roman earthworks of this kind are found, for example, in Scotland. Agricola wasn't permitted to finish up the Highlands, probably due to the paucity of booty in the parts thus far conquered, and the Antonine wall went up. Later, Hadrian built the famous wall, along with some of the Limes in Germany etc, to produce a hard border that could be more easily patrolled and defended. Still later, there was a move back into Scotland, the Antonine Wall was reworked by the Romans, and they held the territory for a couple more generations. Then they fell back again to Hadrian's Wall.

The boundary between England and Wales roughly corresponds to Offa's Dyke, which King Offa of Mercia constructed after taking over the flatlands territory that had been ruled by various Welsh kings. Wat's Dyke is an *older* (used to be thought it was younger) wall erected by one of those Welsh kingdoms, and it may have been the inspiration to Offa. I'd not be surprised to learn that much of Wat's Dyke remains unrecognized under the later construction of Offa. It's amazing, really, the level of organization and amount of labor that went into all those walls.

Then there's the Wansdyke ("Woden's Dyke"), which is roughly the northern boundary of the old Kingdom of Wessex, postdates the exit of the Roman Empire; there's a smallish one called Devil's Dyke; and probably some others I'm forgetting.


29 posted on 11/10/2010 4:01:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: GeronL; SunkenCiv
That’s a bit farther north than Hadrians’ Wall isn’t it?

Roman armies advanced across the Scottish Lowlands twice. In the 80's AD Agricola defeated the Caledonians in the Battle of Mons Graupius, but he was recalled to subdue trouble elsewhere and Scotland was abandoned.

This article seems to be referring to the second attempt at occupation, the building of the Antonine Wall across central Scotland, but they were only there about 20 years.

I'm sure contact with Rome educated the Scots about the world and probably led to trade, but it's hard to see how these early contacts led to their conversion to Christianity.

47 posted on 11/12/2010 5:25:56 PM PST by colorado tanker
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