Note 81 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN PROVINCE IN SCOTLAND.

That Severus built or had reconstructed a wall in Britain rests upon the direct authority of Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Spartian, Orosius, and Eusebius. Spartian, who wrote in 280, says (c. 18), ‘Britanniam, quod maximum ejus imperii decus est, muro per transversam insulam ducto, utrimque ad finem oceani munivit.’ Unfortunately he does not give the length of the wall, which would have indicated its position; but he also says (c. 22), ‘Post murum aut vallum missum in Britannia, quum ad proximam mansionem rediret, non solum victor, sed etiam in aeternum pace fundata;’ which shows that it was after his expedition into Caledonia; and it is rather remarkable that at Cramond—the proxima mansio—behind the wall of Antoninus, was found a medal of Severus, having on the reverse the inscription, ‘fundator pacis.’ Aurelius Victor, who wrote 360, says, ‘His majora aggressus Britanniam quae ad ea utilis erat, pulsis hostibus, muro munivit, per transversam insulam ducto, utrimque ad finem oceani’ (De Caes. 20). And again: ‘Hic in Britannia vallum per triginta duo passuum millia a mari ad mare deduxit’ (Epit. 40). And Eutropius, who wrote at the same time, says, ‘Novissimum bellum in Britannia habuit: utque receptas provincias omni securitate muniret, vallum per 32 millia passuum a mari ad mare deduxit’ (viii. 19).

Both these writers place the construction of the vallum after the war, and if it was thirty-two Roman miles in length, it can only have extended across the peninsula between the Forth and the Clyde. Orosius, who wrote in 417, says, ‘Severus victor in Britannias defectu pene omnium sociorum trahitur. Ubi magnis gravibusque praeliis saepe gestis, receptam partem insulae a caeteris indomitis gentibus vallo distinguendam putavit. Itaque magnam fossam firmissimumque vallum, crebris insuper turribus communitum, per centum triginta et duo millia passuum a mari ad mare duxit.’ Eusebius, as reported by St. Jerome, says, ‘Severus in Britannos bellum transfert, ubi, ut receptas provincias ab incursione barbarica faceret securiores, vallum per 132 passuum millia a mari ad mare duxit.’

The length here given of 132 Roman miles is as inconsistent with the distance between the Tyne and the Solway, as it is with that between the Forth and the Clyde. Horsley, who considered that the earthen vallum between the Tyne and the Solway was the work of Hadrian, and the murus or wall which runs parallel to it, the work of Severus, supposed that in the original MS. of these writers the distance had been written LXXXII and that C had been written by mistake for L, which would reduce the distance to eighty-two miles; but no MS. supports this conjecture, and Mr. Bruce, in his work on the wall, clearly establishes that both are the work of Hadrian.

It is inconceivable that our best historians should have gone so entirely against the direct testimony of the older authorities. They have in this given too much weight to the opinion of Bede, who first declared the remains of the wall between the Tyne and the Solway to be those of Severus’s wall, for opinion it is only, and he was naturally biassed by the remains of the northern rampart being always before his eyes. Nennius gives the native tradition before his time when he quotes the passage from Eusebius, and adds, ‘et vocatur Britannico sermone Guaul a Penguaul quae villa Scotici Cenail, Anglice vero Peneltun dicitur, usque ad ostium fluminis Cluth et Cairpentaloch, quo murus ille finitur rustico opere;’ thus clearly placing the wall between the Forth and Clyde.

Moreover, placing Severus’s wall between the Tyne and Solway involves the manifest inconsistency, that, after penetrating almost to the end of the island, and making a peace, in which territory was ceded to him, he abandoned the whole of his conquests, and withdrew the frontier of the province to where it had been placed by Hadrian. Chalmers, who saw this difficulty, supposes that he built the wall before he commenced his conquests; but this is equally against the direct statement of the older authorities, that it was built after he had driven back his enemies and concluded peace. Mr. Bruce has the pertinent remark that ‘if Severus built the wall (between Tyne and Solway), we should expect to find frequent intimations of the fact in the stations and mile castles. The truth, however, is that from Wallsend to Bowness we do not meet with a single inscription belonging to the reign of Severus, while we meet with several belonging to that of Hadrian’ (p. 382).