a symbiotic relationship that he and the British territory could share. It was based on his need for man power, which Britain had plenty to loan out. In return, Hadrian would fortify the territory and protect it from the northern savages. His past militarized protection experiences usually presented him with an expansive section of land to keep account of; but since Britain was surrounded by water in most directions his first inspiration was to build a wall. Looking back on his struggle at the Rhine-Danube region, Hadrian knew that if a military force were to be compromised a stronghold built for retreat would only lead them to death. His strategic mind led him to believe that mobility was crucial in remaining tactically offensive, so a system of fortifications spread out to increase the area of control and communication was his ideal option.

Hadrian’s Wall began near the River Tyne and stretched all the way to the Solway. It wasn’t meant to be manned at every point along its length, but rather act as a system that would drive the traffic of his enemies. “Because its course was plotted from one natural advantage to the next, the wall seems to have chosen the most difficult route across the English countryside.” It climbs to steep crags and clings to dangerous ridges. Enemy forces would not only deal with a man-made wall in their path, but in many cases they found themselves faced with natural structures that made traversing the wall even more difficult; not to mention the ditch on the north side of the wall that was twenty seven feet wide and nine feet deep. “The gateways allowed the passage of troops for operations to the north and were points where civilian traffic between north and south could be controlled.” The wall was intended to be made of mortared masonry up until the River Irving, where limestone was no longer available locally. The wall continued on made of turf. Gates were built along the wall roughly every one Roman Mile (1.5 km). Behind each gate was a reinforced guard tower that would house the patrol.

Another one of the reasons Hadrian’s construction of the wall is such an astonishing feat is because the entire project was done by hand. Roman legionaries would spend time completing a pre-specified length of the wall, and then allow the next legion to come along and continue where they left off. Unlike most Roman architecture, the stones used to build the wall were small, about eight inches in width and nine inches in length. Historians attribute the use of small stones to the work that was required to get them to the wall. Every stone would have to be carried by the backs of men or animals, and cross a distance of eight miles all the way from a quarry in Cumberland. Then, without the aid of pulleys or ropes, legionaries would place each ston