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3 
are considerable remains^ wbich show that, instead of being 
a mere earthen mound, the rampart was of mingled stone and 
earth, strengthened by sods of turf. Stations were erected along 
the line, which appear to have been either revetted with stone 
or built entirely of that material, and there were smaller castella 
between them. In short, the difference between the wall of 
Antoninus and that for Avhich Hadrian and Severus are respect¬ 
ively claimed as builders, is that the latter was of stone from end 
to end, while in the former stone was not continuously used. 
Numerous inscriptions, in w^hich the name of Antoninus or his 
legate, Urbicus, occur, have been found along the line. Those 
who attribute the building of a continuous wall to Hadrian rely 
on the inscriptions of the age of Hadrian found in different 
parts of it. And this w^ould be decisive, if it were certain, that 
they had been from the first in the place in wdiich they have 
been found. Hitherto this has not been proved ; it does not 
appear that any one of them has been so connected with the wall 
of the station in which it was found as to prove that it was placed 
there at the time when the w^all was built. Now if we suppose that 
Hadrian’s w^all was like that of Antoninus, partly turf and partly 
stone, having either in itself or in the adjacent stations, inscrip¬ 
tions to his honour, it is c[uite conceivable that w^hen Severus 
built a continuous wall of stone the old materials would be used 
for its construction, and that among them inscribed stones of 
Hadrian’s time might be used. It was quite natural that 
Severus, after his return from his campaign in Caledonia, should 
be impressed with the necessity of strengthening the barrier 
which Hadrian had erected, and this will explain the ascription 
of the entire wall to him by the Latin historians, Spartian, 
Aurelius Victor, and Eutropius. It is true that no inscription 
to Severus has been found on the wall, but from an inscription 
on a quarry near the line it appears that it was worked during 
his reign. Mr. Merivale, author of a History of the Homans 
under the Empire, now Dean of Ely, rejects the claim both of 
Hadrian and Severus, and supposes the wall to have been built 
in tbe reign of the Emperor Theodosius and by the command 
of his renowned general Stilicho. But he relies chiefly upon 
the evidence of the poet Claudian, who wrote in an adulatory 
