s ANTIQUITIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 



Venerable Bede pofitively aflerts, that Severn's Pnetentura was ori- 

 ginally no other than a ditch and rampart of earth, and that it 

 was re-edified with ftone by a Roman legion, and the aflbciated 

 flrength and purfe of the whole Britl/h nation, in the fpace of 

 twelve months, after their fecond embafly to Rome for afliftance. 

 It is in length, fixty-cight Engll/lj miles, and one hundred and 

 fixty-nine paces, according to the furvey of the ingenious Alex- 

 andcr Gordon (b), which are equal to feventy- three Roman miles, 

 and nine-hundred and fifty-nine paces. 



By Sir Henry Spelmaris calculation, the Roman militia along the 

 wall amounted to 13,800, allowing 600 to a cohort; befides a 

 whole legion, and thirteen other detachments of horfe and foot, 

 Rationed at other places, by the grand roads and pafles, and at- 

 tending on the emperor, or his lieutenant. A great officer, ftiled, 

 Comes fpeftab'dis Litoris Saxonici, created by Conftantlne the Great, had 

 under him feven companies of foot, two troops of horfe, the 

 fecond legion, and a cohort, to protect the fea-coafls from the 

 Saxon rovers. The Roman array in Britain under Nero were 

 70,000 (c). 



The notion of their having a brazen trumpet in the wall, be- 

 tween one Caflellum and another, through the whole length, to 

 give an alarm in cafes of danger, on the ftrictefl: enquiry is 

 groundlefs. Some of our anceftors, indeed, held their lands by 

 cornage, by blowing a horn on the approach of an enemy, which 

 cuflom was probably borrowed from them. 



Rauco ftrepuerunt cornua cantu. FV/gv 



i 



(b) Iter. Sfiptentr. 



(c) Ph. Tr. NP. 337. 



This 



