MITHRAS AND THE ROMAN WALL. 
121 
broke on the northern and sometimes on the southern boundary, 
but it ceased not until the Roman intruder had been driven from 
the island, and then only to be succeeded by the worse horrors of 
civil wars and internecine feuds of Britons and Picts, Normans 
and Saxons, Border reavers and Scotch troopers, until at last that 
was accomplished by " the monstrous regiment of a woman," as 
John Knox says, which Hadrian could not do, and Severus failed 
to accomplish. Then a bright occidental star (quoting from 
Dr. Bruce) beamed upon those northern parts, and Law began to 
assert its supremacy. 
In the reign of Commodus, a.d. 180, the Britons broke through 
the wall, killed the Roman general, ruined the army, and carried 
everything before them. 
At length the presence of Severus in Britain began to turn the 
tide once more in favour of Rome. Herodian, in his account of 
Severus's proceedings, describes the Britons thus : " The natives 
swim through the fens, or run through them up to their waist in 
mud • for the greater part of their bodies being naked, they 
regard not the dirt. They wear iron round their necks and waist, 
esteeming this as much value as others do gold. They are a very 
bloody and warlike people, using a little shield or target and a 
spear." 
As the Roman wall is sometimes spoken of as having been built 
by Severus, it may be as well to mention that both Herodian and 
Dion Cassius, as epitomized by Xiphilene, speak of the wall as 
already existing. The latter says, " The two most considerable 
bodies of the people in the island are the Caledonians and the 
Meatoe ; the latter dwell near the barrier wall which separates the 
island into two parts, and the others live beyond them." We 
may conclude therefore that the wall was built, not by Severus, but 
by Hadrian. 
The constant rebellions of the northern tribes at last so irritated 
Severus that he decreed a war of extermination against them ; but 
in the midst of his enterprise he died, at York, February 4th, 
A.D. 211. 
It is not within the scope of the present paper to trace beyond 
this period the history of the Roman occupation of Britain. I 
shall turn therefore to consider the extent and construction of the 
wall built, as we assume, by Hadrian. The wall is a barrier across 
the neck of this island, extending from Wallsend on the Tyne to 
