138 IDENTIFIED STATIONS ON THE 



Stations; commenced, perhaps, by Severus, and finished, or repaired 

 by his successors." 



Mr. Merivale, the author of '■' the History of the Komans under the 

 Empire," and other works characterized by learning and judgment, 

 takes nearly the same view as Gildas. His opinion is stated in an 

 article in the Quarterly Bevieiv, vol. cvii, published of course in that 

 periodical without a name, but referred to and acknowledged by the 

 author in his " History of the Romans under the Empire," vol. vii, p. 

 436. In the following extract from the article, Mr. Merivale's opinion 

 is briefly expressed : — " Early in the fourth century the island was 

 overrun by the barbarians of Caledonia, whom we now first hear of 

 under the name of Picts and Scots, and their predatory hordes were 

 encountered by Theodosius, the general of the Emperor Valens, in the 

 neighbourhood of London, in the year 368. The invaders were routed 

 and driven back beyond both the limitary ramparts, and Theodosius 

 restored, as we are expressly informed by a respectable historian, the 

 camps, castles, and prseienturse, or chains of forts in the north, and 

 reconstituted the province beyond the Solway under the designation of 

 Valentia. As, however, no prudent general could hope to retain the 

 permanent occupation of this exposed district, it might be judged 

 expedient to take this opportunity of securing the lower and more 

 important line of defences by the strongest fortifications. If, hitherto, 

 the bulwarks of the Lower Isthmus had been confined to the camps 

 and mounds of Hadrian and Severus, it was now, we may suppose, 

 that the stations were fenced with masonry, and the wall designated, 

 and at least partly executed, with broad openings at every mile for the 

 temporary shelter of the exposed provincials beyond it. After the 

 retirement of Theodosius, the frontiers were again assailed by the 

 restless savages. Stilicho, about 400, issued orders from Gaul for 

 putting the island in a state of defence against the Saxons, the Picts, 

 and the Scots, and, if , we may rely on the evidence of the poet 

 Claudian, his designs were carried fully into execution. We may at 

 least admit that his engineers continued and extended the plan of 

 Theodosius. Finally, after the withdrawal of the Roman garrison by 

 Maximus, the Picts and Scots repeated their attacks, and the single 

 legion which was sent from Rome in 414, and again a few years later, 

 may have assisted or at least advised the natives in putting the finish- 

 ing stroke to their defensive works, and thus the wall, the remains of 

 which we now see, may have occupied, from first to last, fifty years in 

 building." 



