Hadrian's Wall
In Our Time: History
BBC
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2012
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hadrian's Wall, the largest Roman structure and one of the most important archaeological monuments in Britain. Stretching for eighty miles from the mouth of the River Tyne to the Solway Firth and classified today as a World Heritage Site, it has been a source of fascination ever since it came into existence. It was built in about 122 AD by the Emperor Hadrian, and a substantial part of it still survives today. Although its construction must have entailed huge cost and labour, the Romans abandoned it within twenty years, deciding to build the Antonine Wall further north instead. Even after more than a century of excavations, many mysteries still surround Hadrian's Wall, including its exact purpose. Did it have a meaningful defensive role or was it mainly a powerful emperor's vanity project?
With:
Greg Woolf Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews
David Breeze Former Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Scotland and Visiting Professor of Archaeology at the University of Durham
Lindsay Allason-Jones Former Reader in Roman Material Culture at the University of Newcastle
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the Inartime podcast. For more details about Inartime and for our terms of use |
| 0:05.4 | Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program |
| 0:12.5 | Hello in 117 a.d |
| 0:14.7 | The Roman Emperor Trajan died and was succeeded by his adopted son Hadron |
| 0:19.2 | His first biographer the author of the Augustan history wrote of Hadron |
| 0:23.2 | Once he had reformed the army in truly regal manner |
| 0:26.0 | He went on to Britain where he corrected many abuses and was the first to build a wall 80 miles in length to separate the barbarians and the Romans |
| 0:34.9 | Hadron's wall stretching from the mouth of the river time to the Solway Firth is the most important and substantial Roman relic in Britain |
| 0:41.8 | Today it's a world heritage site and one of the most dramatic features of the landscape of Northern England |
| 0:47.6 | Archaeological discoveries made in the last century have given us new insights into how the wall was built and the affected |
| 0:53.2 | Howed on people's lives, but was it a meaningful part of the Roman Empire's defenses or an enormous act of imperial vanity? |
| 1:00.0 | With me to discuss Hadron's wall are Greg Wolf professor of ancient history at the University of St. Andrews |
| 1:05.8 | David Breeze former chief inspector of ancient monuments for Scotland and visiting professor of archaeology at the University of Durham and Lindsay |
| 1:13.3 | Alice and Jones former reader in Roman material culture at the University of Newcastle |
| 1:19.0 | Greg Wolf, what do you know about the life of Hadron and how I became emperor? |
| 1:23.6 | He was unexpected emperor. He can't have expected to grow up into that role |
| 1:28.4 | About the when he was 10 years old his parents died. He was adopted by a relative a fairly distant relative |
| 1:34.1 | In time that relative was adopted by an emperor and so |
| 1:38.0 | Hadron at that point probably saw it was maybe on the cards. He became emperor in his early 40s and |
| 1:45.3 | Then reigned for 20 years and died and died when you're 62 |
| 1:49.6 | Do you know anything about his childhood? Was he particularly clever? Was he well educated while school? |
| 1:54.5 | He comes across and everyone who writes about him as a very passionate individual |
... |
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