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that it had a regular governor, and was afterwards called
VALENTIA, in honour of the emperor Valentinian *.
Theodosius, the son, when by his valour he had obtained the
empire, took due care of the frontier, appointing that the
magister officiorum should give an account yearly to
the emperor of the condition of the soldiery, castles, and
lines. But when the Roman affairs began to be evidently on
the decline, the Picts and Scots breaking through the turf
wall at Bodotria, ravaged this country in a dreadful
manner; a Roman legion under Gallio of Ravenna, was sent to
their relief †, who, after repulsing the barbarians,
being recalled to defend Gaul, advised the Britans (to
borrow the words of Gildas [k] and Bede [l]), "to erect a
wall cross the island between the two seas for a defence to
keep out the enemy, and so returned home in great triumph.
The islanders setting about this wall as they were ordered,
did not employ stone so much as sods, having no person fit
for the work, by which means they made a wall of no use."
"For being," as Gildas observes, "raised by the common
people without a leader, of sods instead of stones, it did
no good." Of the place where this was erected Bede proceeds
thus [m]: "They made it between two straits or bays of the
sea for some thousand miles, that where the water ceased to
be a defence there the wall might secure the frontier from
the inroads of the enemy." Such a wall Marcellinus tells us
[n] carried on a for a great length, defended Assyria from
foreign invasion; and, at this day, the Chinese, according
to Osorius [o], defend their vallies and plains against the
Tattars by walls. "Of this work then raised, i.e. a
very broad a high wall, evident traces still remain. For it
begins about two miles from the monastery Abercurvinig to
the east in a place called in the Pictish language
Penvahel, but in English Penveltun, and
running west ends at the city Alcluith. But their
antient enemies no sooner saw the Roman soldiers gone, but
they came in ships, broke down the frontier, destroyed all
that came in their way,cutting down and trampling on all
they met with like ripe corn, and overrun the whole country.
Embassadors upon this were again sent to Rome to implore
assistance in moving strains, that their wretched country
might not be utterly ruined, and the name of a Roman
province, which had so long done them honour, be lost and
rendered contemptible by the barbarity of foreign nations.
Again a legion was sent, which coming unexpectedly in Autumn
made a great slaughter of the enemy, drove beyond the arms
of the sea all that could escape, who before used every year
to carry off their booty beyond these arms without any
troops to oppose them." The Romans now retired to Severus's
wall, and per lineam valli (as it is expressed in the
Notitia ‡, written about the end of the reign of
Theodosius the younger), i.e. along the length of the
wall on both sides within and without, planted in proper
stations five troops of horse with their praefects, fifteen
cohorts with their tribunes, one Numerus and one Cuneus: all
which have been or will be pointed out in their proper
places. Bede [p] proceeds to give this account of the times
that followed. "The Romans then told the Britans that they
could no longer encumber themselves with such troublesome
expeditions for their defence, but advised them to take up
arms themselves, and risk encounters with the enemy, who
might possibly have the advantage over them merely through
their own inactivity. The Romans further thinking it a piece
of service to their allies, whom they were going to abandon,
drew a wall of strong stone strait from sea to sea, between
the cities erected there for fear of the enemy, where
Severus had formerly raised his wall." I shall here subjoin
the words of Gildas [q], from whom Bede borrowed the above.
"The Romans immediately run a wall, not like the former, at
public and private expence, by the assistance of the
wretched natives, in their usual style of building, strait
from sea to sea between the cities erected there for fear of
the enemy." Now hear Bede again [r]: "This wall, so famous
and visible to this day, they built at public and private
expence, assisted by the Britans, eight feet broad and
twelve high, in a strait line from east to west [s], as may
be seen to this day." From which words of Bede we see a
certain ingenious writer [t] shut his own eyes when he
charged two others with being blind, and so warmly contends
against Boetius and other Scotish writers, that Severus's
wall was in Scotland. For does not Bede after speaking of
the wall at Abercurving in Scotland expressly say,
that the wall was built of strong stone where Severus built
his wall, and where was that stone wall unless on this spot
between Tinemouth and the frith of Eden? Where then was
Severus's wall? Here are still such strong traces of the
wall that one may follow its track, and, in the wastes as
they are called, I myself have seen large pieces of it
running a great way, wanting only the battlements.
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I have seen its track running in high hills in an
extraordinary manner, and then coming down to levels, where
the country is more open, having a broad deep ditch in front
without, now filled up in many places, and within an agger
or military way, but greatly interrupted. It had a number of
towers or castles, a mile asunder, called Castle
steeds, and within small fortified towns, now called
Chesters, whose foundations are visible, of a square
form, and towers between them, in which the soldiers were
stationed to awe the barbarians, and the Areani had
their posts till displaced by Theodosius before-mentioned
for their treachery. "These kind of men were of antient
institution, their business being (according to Amm.
Marcellinus [u]) to scout about for a considerable distance
on both sides, and give notice to our commanders of any
disturbances among the neighbouring nations." So that those
who established them seem to have followed the advice of
that person [x] who addressed a treatise of the art of
war to Theodosius and his sons. "Among the advantages to
the state must be reckoned a care for frontiers on every
side, whose security is best provided for by a number of
castles. So that they should be erected at the distance of
every
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