DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0028
10
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
the dedicating detachment did the entire work of the portion
in respect of which any particular tablet was erected. This
conclusion becomes all the more necessary when it is noted that
two of the stones (Nos. 5 and 6), both set up by the 2nd Legion,
contain the same minute measurement (3666J paces), which
recurs exactly on a stone (No. 8) dedicated by the 6th Legion,
and again, almost exactly, on another stone (No. 7 for 3665
paces) also dedicated by the 6th Legion. Further, two other
stones (Nos. 14 and 15) by the 2nd and 6th Legions are respec-
tively for 4140 and 4141 paces, and there is great reason to
suspect that two others (Nos. 16 and 17), both by the 20th
Legion, have recorded the same precise distance of 4411 paces.
Nor can it be forgotten that by far the most of these stones
appear to have come from the western half of the wall—a fact
strongly confirmatory of the inference of duplication.
The date of the erection of the wall was about 140-142 A.D.1
The passage from Julius Capitolinus is the only indisputable
reference to it or its history contained in the pages of Roman
authors.
There are, however, other passages in literature which have
provoked much doubt and discussion over their interpretation.
Spartian, Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Paulus Orosius, Eusebius
and Cassiodorus unite in ascribing to the Emperor Severus the
erection of a frontier wall across Britain from sea to sea about the
year 209 A.D. The work is variously described as a murus and
as a vallum, and as 32 (xxxii.) miles long and as 132 (cxxxii.) miles.
Some modern writers,2 influenced by the fact that the length of
this alleged work of Severus is said, by the oldest of these
authorities giving dimensions, to have been xxxii. miles, have
considered that the wall referred to was the Vallum of Antonine.
Other writers, boldly surmising that possibly cxxxii. and xxxii.
are both errors of transcription for Ixxxii., have held that the
wall referred to was the North English barrier. We shall not
1 [The proofs for the date depend upon inscriptions and other evidence which
fix the triumph of Lollius for his British successes to about the year A.D. 143
(Borghesi, CEuvres, v. 419, viii. 561, ix. 297 ; Lacour-Gayet, Antonin le Pieux,
p. 140). F. H.]
2 The latest and weightiest opinion is to this effect. It is that of Mommsen
(Romische Geschichte, v., p. 170); it was also that of the late Dr. W. IT. Skene
(Celtic Scotland, I. 89).
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
the dedicating detachment did the entire work of the portion
in respect of which any particular tablet was erected. This
conclusion becomes all the more necessary when it is noted that
two of the stones (Nos. 5 and 6), both set up by the 2nd Legion,
contain the same minute measurement (3666J paces), which
recurs exactly on a stone (No. 8) dedicated by the 6th Legion,
and again, almost exactly, on another stone (No. 7 for 3665
paces) also dedicated by the 6th Legion. Further, two other
stones (Nos. 14 and 15) by the 2nd and 6th Legions are respec-
tively for 4140 and 4141 paces, and there is great reason to
suspect that two others (Nos. 16 and 17), both by the 20th
Legion, have recorded the same precise distance of 4411 paces.
Nor can it be forgotten that by far the most of these stones
appear to have come from the western half of the wall—a fact
strongly confirmatory of the inference of duplication.
The date of the erection of the wall was about 140-142 A.D.1
The passage from Julius Capitolinus is the only indisputable
reference to it or its history contained in the pages of Roman
authors.
There are, however, other passages in literature which have
provoked much doubt and discussion over their interpretation.
Spartian, Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Paulus Orosius, Eusebius
and Cassiodorus unite in ascribing to the Emperor Severus the
erection of a frontier wall across Britain from sea to sea about the
year 209 A.D. The work is variously described as a murus and
as a vallum, and as 32 (xxxii.) miles long and as 132 (cxxxii.) miles.
Some modern writers,2 influenced by the fact that the length of
this alleged work of Severus is said, by the oldest of these
authorities giving dimensions, to have been xxxii. miles, have
considered that the wall referred to was the Vallum of Antonine.
Other writers, boldly surmising that possibly cxxxii. and xxxii.
are both errors of transcription for Ixxxii., have held that the
wall referred to was the North English barrier. We shall not
1 [The proofs for the date depend upon inscriptions and other evidence which
fix the triumph of Lollius for his British successes to about the year A.D. 143
(Borghesi, CEuvres, v. 419, viii. 561, ix. 297 ; Lacour-Gayet, Antonin le Pieux,
p. 140). F. H.]
2 The latest and weightiest opinion is to this effect. It is that of Mommsen
(Romische Geschichte, v., p. 170); it was also that of the late Dr. W. IT. Skene
(Celtic Scotland, I. 89).