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6. Love in the Borderlands

On Hadrian’s Wall a slave girl from Hertfordshire and a lonely traveller from Syria meet and marry. Their story inspires poets and artists, but is this true love or exploitation?

At the very edge of Empire, inscribed on a beautifully carved tombstone, there’s a story of love across the tracks. On Hadrian’s Wall a slave girl from Hertfordshire and a lonely traveller from Syria meet and marry. The story of Regina and Barates has inspired poets and writers eager for a simple love story to illuminate a dark and dangerous world. But how true might this be? What brought this couple together across cultures and thousands of miles? Was their alliance true love or forced marriage?

Mary Beard tracks our couple from Palmyra to South Shields, revealing the cultural mix of the Empire and the power dynamics of slave and master with the help of Syrian poet, Nouri Al-Jarrah.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Greg Woolf, University of California Los Angeles and Frances McIntosh, English Heritage

Cast: John Collingwood Bruce played by Josh Bryant-Jones and reading of The Stone Serpent by Tyler Cameron

Translation of The Stone Serpent: Catherine Cobham

Arabic Translation: Samira Kawar

Special thanks to Alex Croom and Tyne and Wear Museums

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 22 Jul 2024 00:15

Broadcasts

  • Wed 13 Dec 2023 11:30
  • Mon 22 Jul 2024 00:15

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