Hadrians Wall

Apparently Hadrian was a rather decent sort of chap. When he came to power he did indeed have all the leading Roman military leaders murdered so as to start off with a new broom, but apart from this rather drastic (and typically roman) act he set about making things relatively peaceful and sought to consolidate the empire rather than let its expansion run away and get out of control (perhaps he should have been in Banking). And so Hadrian's Wall was built more to say - this is the limit of our empire, this is far enough rather than just to keep the marauding scots out. His wife apparently refused to have a child with him claiming the thing would be a monster. ...  Read the complete review

Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site is unique; it is one of the wonders of the world and among the most important archaeological monuments of the last two thousand years. The Roman Emperor Hadrian, who came to Britain in AD122 ordered the building of a wall to mark the boundary of the Roman Empires greatest outpost and to keep the barbarians out, over a period of six years the Roman army built a stone wall eighty Roman miles long, which converts to approximately one hundred and seventeen kilometres or seventy three modern miles, it was five metres (over sixteen feet) high and stretched across England from the Tyne to the Solway, the two extremities now ...  Read the complete review

In AD 122, the Imperial Roman army were kicking arses in Northern Africa, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Greece, not to mention humbling the mighty German army on the Rhine and the formidable Boadicea in England. They were unstoppable with their well-drilled army and modern methods of warfare. Unstoppable that is until they reached the river Tyne, a little known river in northern England. Thinking they had little to do to subdue these black and white painted heathens, they sent out legion after legion to capture local chiefs and bring them under the heel of Rome. Imagine their surprise when legion after legion either disappeared entirely or returned in such disarray ...  Read the complete review