Gents Mag 1853 part 1 p.179

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 1 p.179
Hadrian   Hadrian's Wall
	Hadrian, Builder of the Roman Wall book review Hadrian the Builder of the Roman Wall: a Paper read at the Monthly Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 4 Aug. 1852, in reply to "The Roman Wall: an attempt to substantiate the claims of Severus to the authorship of the Roman Wall. By Robert Bell." By the Rev. John Collingwood Bruce, M.A., F.S.A. London and Newcastle. Pp. 38. 1852. - The pamphlet published by Mr. R. Bell, to which this is a reply, has not reached us; but we gather from Mr. Bruce's tract what may be considered as the substance of his arguments. The first, and on which he appears to lay the greatest stress, is founded on the well-known inscription on the upper part of an ancient quarry on the banks of the river Gelt, which mentions a vexillation of the Second legion, with the date of the consulship of Aper and Maximus, A.D. 207, about four years previous to the death of Severus, and shortly before his coming to Britain. From this inscription he maintains that the building of the wall was contemporaneous, and adds that "the Hadrianites endeavour to evade this powerful proof that the wall was built by Severus by the supposition that the inscription was made when the wall was only repaired by Severus, in the year 207. But it must be observed that the inscription is nearly at the top of a rock, and the quarry has been worked to an enormous extent down to the bed of the river, a depth of at least fifty feet." Mr. Bruce meets this objection to his own conclusions in favour of Hadrian by observing tha, "because a vexillation of the Second legion carved some lines upon the face of a quarry on the Gelt, we are not necessarily to infer that they were engaged in extensive operations there, - that it is admitted on all hands that the Second legion was extensively employed upon the Wall, and so was the Sixth, and so was the Twentieth. The inscriptions on the Wall itself do, indeed, prove that the second legion was engaged in the erection of that structure, and in three instances the name of Hadrian is coupled with that of the Second legion on those inscriptions, whilst the inscription at Gelt merely establishes the fact that a part of that legion was in Cumberland in the reign of Severus." Mr. Bell ridicules Mr. Bruce's notion that most of the inscriptions recording the Second legion (as well as others) may, from their peculiar character, be supposed to have been executed prior to the reign of Severus. In this he will hardly be supported by any one who has closely studied the general shape of the letters and their ligatures, and has compared the earlier inscriptions with those of a later date. The matter also is essential to be observed, and the form varies as much as the letters. Had Mr. Bell attended to this important key, he would probably have paused before he had cited on his side of the question the suppostitious inscription in Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale, SEPT. SEVERO. IMP. QVIMVRVM HVNC CONDIDIT. The evidence of ancient writers in reference to the building of the Wall is rather obscure and conflicting; but we are inclined, upon taking a careful review of it, to strike a balance in favour of Mr. Bruce. Neither Xiphiline nor Herodian, the latter of whom gives a pretty minute account of the campaign of Severus in Britain, make any mention of Severus as builder of the Wall, which probably they would have done had he really been its constructor. Xiphiline speaks of the Maeatae as dwelling near the barrier wall, a mode of expression which implies its existence at the time of the coming of Severus. Spartian, a writer of inferior merit, who is quoted by Mr. Bell in favour of the claims of Severus, says that this emperor fortified Britain with a wall drawn across the island, ending on each side at the sea, which was the chief glory of his reign, and for which he received the name of Britannicus. But the same author, in a passage overlooked by Mr. Bell, states that Hadrian went to Britain, where he corrected many things, and first drew a wall eighty miles long to sepearate the Romans from the barbarians. Aurelius Victor uses precisely the same words as Spartian in attributing the wall to Severus. Eutropius is on the same side, but he makes the wall one hundred and thirty-two miles in length. Cassiodorus and Paulous Diaconus are late writers, and equally unsatisfactory on this point. Paulus lived five hundred years after Severus, and borrowed the very words of Eutropius, substituting XXXV for CXXXII, M.P. as the length of the wall. But whatever credit may be attached to the evidence of ancient writers, their testi-
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