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The
Antonine Wall Factsheet
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- The Wall stretched from West Kilpatrick
on the Clyde to Carriden on the Forth.
- It took the 6th and 20th legions, with
auxiliary troops, only two years to construct its 36 miles
of rampart, ditch, road way and the 20 or so forts long
its length. It was occupied for over 25 years.
- It is a tribute to the skill of the Roman
engineers that the great engineers who built the Forth Clyde
Canal or the Edinburgh to Glasgow Railway used the same
line across the country.
- The wall’s rampart was 39,726 Roman
paces or 36 miles, 620 yards long. Made of turf taken from
local pastures it rose to a height of around 20 ft from
a 24ft stone foundation.
- On its northern side, along the whole length
of the wall, ran a huge ditch, 20 feet deep and 40 feet
wide, which some believe could have been filled with water
if the northern tribes threatened.
- Along the wall were
probably about 20 forts: three at
each end and one every two miles between.
Some of these were possibly sited
on forts Agicola had used before he
invaded northern Scotland in 83 AD.
- All the forts were
connected by a roman road, known as
the military way, that ran behind
the southern side of the rampart for
communication and moving troops. Beacons
were also sited along the wall's length
as an early warning system in the
event of attack.
- The Antonine Wall served
to protect the province of Britainnia
from the Caledonian tribes. If they
did attempt to raid across the wall
they would have to breach its defences.
Once they managed that, the Romans
would have allowed them to cross over,
then would have cut them off with
troops arriving from the wall's major
garrisons along the military way.
- The wall may also have
operated as a customs and surveillance
post. Trade flowed across the frontier
but it all had to pass through the
gates of the wall forts where information
could be gathered and taxes collected.
Small settlements near the forts would
thrive on the cross border trade and
the revenues from supplying the troops
with local goods.
- Soon after the Emperor
Antonine died, his successor, Marcus
Aurelius, moved the frontier back
to the more easily defendable Hadrian’s
Wall. Antonine’s symbolic triumph
was no longer required.
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