| [00:03.696] |
When we think of Hadrian's Wall, we tend to think of the Romans rather like US cavalrymen deep in Indian country, |
| [00:08.657] |
defending the flag, peering through the cracks and waiting nervously for war drums and smoke signals. |
| [00:17.029] |
A place where paranoia sweated from every stone. |
| [00:20.737] |
But it wasn't really like that at all. |
| [00:23.082] |
As fantastically ambitious as this was |
| [00:25.387] |
stretching 73 miles from coast to coast from the Solway to the Tyne |
| [00:31.459] |
And although Hadrian probably conceived it in response to a rebellion |
| [00:35.419] |
On the part of those people in the Romans loftily referred to as "Brittunculi"--nasty wretched little Brits. |
| [00:42.590] |
Almost certainly, he didn't mean it as an impermeable barrier against barbarian onslaught from the north. |
| [00:55.017] |
The wall was studded with milecastles and turrets afforts like this one at Housesteads. |
| [01:01.206] |
But as Britain settled down in the second century AD |
| [01:04.880] |
These places became up-country hill stations more like social centres and business centres than really grim, heavily-manned barracks. |
