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 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:48.0 | hello in a hundred and seventeen a d the Roman Emperor Trajan died and was succeeded by his adopted son Hadron. |
| 0:56.0 | His first biographer, the author of the Augustine history, wrote of Hadron, |
| 0:59.9 | once he had reformed the army in truly regal manner he went on to Britain where he |
| 1:04.2 | corrected many abuses and was the first to build a wall 80 miles in length to |
| 1:08.6 | separate the barbarians and the Romans. Adrian's walls stretching from the mouth of the River time to the Solway Firth |
| 1:14.9 | is the most important and substantial Roman relic in Britain. Today it's a World Heritage Site |
| 1:19.9 | and one of the most dramatic features of the landscape of Northern England. |
| 1:23.4 | Archaeological discoveries made in the last century have given us new insights into how the |
| 1:27.8 | wall was built and the effect it had on people's lives. |
| 1:31.0 | But was it a meaningful part of the Roman Empire's defenses or an enormous |
| 1:34.6 | act of imperial vanity? With me to discuss Hadron's Waller, Greg Wolf, professor of |
| 1:39.7 | ancient history of the University of St Andrews, David Breeze, former Chief Inspector of |
| 1:44.3 | Ancient Monuments for Scotland and visiting professor of archaeology at the |
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