HADRIAN 



HAITIAN'S WALL 



497 



fit Ti bur. 1 Mi riii},' th.- severe illness which carried 

 him nil', July Ml, I.'O, at llaiie, lit- was subject fc> 

 \ iul.-iit outbursts of cruelty, to which, as well as to 

 jealou~\ ami pleasure, he was nutiirully subject. 



ili.- death of Lucius Ceionius CommodiiH, 

 whom In- huil adopted mi. Irr tin- name of Lucius 



Veins, lie appointed Titus Aurelius (afi-r 

 \\ai.l> the Kmpcror Antoninus I'ius) his MICCC^.M. 

 l>miug his reign the army was vigorously di.sciplinc.l 

 iiml reorgaiii-ed, su that the barbarians were not 

 likely tn at tribute Hadrian's conciliating and peace- 

 ful policy to tear <>r weakness. As a civil ruler he 

 merits high praise for the just and conmrehen>i\ e 

 view lie appear- to have taken of his duties as a 

 sovereign. Hence to him is attributed, more than 

 to any other, the consolidation of the monarchical 

 system of Koine. Hadrian also divided Italy into 

 four parts under four consuls, to whom was entrusted 

 the adiiiini>trati<in of justice. Hadrian had a 

 pa-Mon for building : his most splendid edifices were 

 the mausoleum called the Moles Hadriani, in Rome, 

 the nucleus of the present castle of St Angelo, 

 the Klian bridge leading to it, and the magnificent 

 villa at Tibur. He likewise laid the foundation of 

 several cities, the most important of which was 

 Adrianopolis. He was. a lover of the fine arts in 

 the history of which, as well as of jurisprudence, 

 his reign forms an important era of poetry, philo- 

 sophy, and rhetoric, all of which he attempted. 

 He set a high value on Greek literature, and like- 

 \\ i-e on the cultus of Greece, and caused himself to 

 be initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. No 

 fragment of ancient literature has been more famous 

 than the verses attributed to the dying Hadrian : 



Aniniula vagula blandula 

 Ilospes coinesque corporis, 

 (^iiii- mine abibis in loca? 

 I'lillidula rigiila nudula, 

 Nee ut soles dabis jocos. 



Mr David Johnston, in his Translations, literal 

 and free, of the dying Hadrian's Address to his 

 X<ml (privately printed, Bath, 1877), gives no fewer 

 than 116 translations of all degrees of excellence. 



Many of these have read into the poem a kind of 



chii-iian or Neoplatoni*t spirituality which >- 

 not really in it, its aim l.ein- rather to emphoftUe 

 the miserable htaUs of the mini a* MKIII an it cent** 

 to enjoy the friendly hospitality of the IxxJv. Lord 

 Carnarvon, in vol. iv. (1884 85) of '///- national 

 "', gives versions of it by Byron, Prior, 

 two by 1'ope, one liy |)e;m M cri\ ale, and anot her 

 by himself. Of these, Prior's in undoiibte<lly the 

 best, although the freest rendering ; Byron's, the 

 poorest ; while the second of Pope's the well-known 

 'Vital spark of heav'nly flame' U not properly 

 a translation at all. 



See Merivale's Hittory of the Roman* uivlrr the Empire, 

 vol. viii. ; W. W. Cape's Age of the Anbtnint*, in ' Kpochi 

 of Ancient History ;' GregoroviuH, L>er Kainer Hadrian 

 (1884); and Diirr, Die Jleuen des Kaiters Htulriun 

 (1881). 



Hadrian's Wall* Before Agricola advanced 

 into Scotland he planted some forts on the neck of 

 land between the estuary of the Tyne and the 

 Solway Firth, to protect him from attack in his 

 rear and to secure the bringing up of supplies. He 

 adopted the same precaution before leaving the 

 Lowlands of Scotland for the Highlands, placing 

 encampments between the firths of Forth and 

 Clyde. Afterwards walls were constructed on 

 these two lines. On the English side of the Border 

 we find a stone wall with a ditch on its north side. 

 Attached to it are stationary camps, mile-castles, 

 and turrets for the accommodation of the soldiery 

 who manned it. To the south of the stone wall is 

 a series of ramparts generally called the vallum. 

 This fortification consists of three aggers or mounds 

 and a ditch. The military way along which the 

 soldiery moved lies between the murus or stone 

 wall and the vallum. The wall was not intended 

 as a mere fence to block out the Caledonians, but as 

 a line of military strategy. Every station and 

 rnile-castle has a wide gateway opening northwards. 

 This does not look as if the Romans in the time of 

 Hadrian had given up the country north of the 

 wall to the enemy. Besides, two Roman roads, the 



Map showing the line of Hadrian's Wall 



Watling Street and the Maiden Way, run past the 

 wall into Scotland. On these ways were stationary 

 camps, which have yielded inscriptions and coins 

 considerably posterior to the time of Hadrian or 

 Severus. A controversy long existed as to the 

 time v, hen the lines of fortification in the north of 

 Kn-laiid were constructed. One great authority, 

 the Ke\. John Horsley, author or the Hritniniin 

 Romana (1732), maintained that the north agger 

 of the vallum was reared by Ayricola, and that 

 it was the road by which \\\~. forts were connected, 

 that the ditch and the other two aggers were the 

 work of Hadrian, and that the wall was reared 

 by Severus. Stukeley (1687-1765), however, ex- 

 pressed the opinion that \tnt\\ vallum and munis 

 ' were made at the same time, and by the same per- 

 sons, and with the intent that the vallum should 

 be a counteigiiard to the other, the whole included 

 .space being military ground.' Since Horsley 's 

 clay inscriptions in honour of Hadrian have been 

 found in four of the mile-castles in the central 

 240 



part of the line, and, as the mile-castles are an 

 essential part of the wall, Hadrian is now generally 

 believed to have been the builder of the whole 

 structure. Severus, however, repaired it before 

 he advanced into Scotland, where in three year* 

 he lost 50,000 men, and came back to York to 

 die. Agricola came to Britain in 78 A.I. Hadrian 

 came towards the close of 119 A. D. Severus died 

 in 211 A.D. Towards the close of the 4th century 

 Theodosius, for -a brief period. reas>ei ted the 

 Koman dominion over the district between the 

 walls of Antoninus (q.v.) and Hadrian, which, 

 in honour of the Emperor Valens, obtained the 

 name of Valentia. But this newly -established pro- 

 vince was soon lost, and it was not long l>efore the 

 Romans finally abandonee! Britain. Considerable 

 portions of Hadrian's Wall yet remain. In two 

 places the wall stands 9 feet high. See Colling- 

 wood Bruce, The Roman Wall (1851 ; 3*1 ed. 1866). 

 and Handbook to the Roman Wall ( 1863 ; 3d ed 

 1885) ; and Neilson, Per Lineam Valli (1891). 



