What Was Life Actually Like For Romans Stationed on Hadrians Wall? with Dan Snow

Dan Snow explores the physical remains of Hadrian’s vast project of 122AD - over 80 Roman miles of wall, turrets and forts, stretching from coast to coast across northern England. Mile after mile of stone marching over the horizon.

But why did the Romans go to all this effort? We dig into the key questions: was the wall a barrier or a porous border; a hubristic vanity project or a vital line of defence; who lived on and around the wall; and why has it endured in popular culture for nearly two thousand years, right up to Game of Thrones?

Dan meets leading experts along the Wall and visits some of the key sites - from Arbeia in the east (where tombstones reveal people here from as far away as Syria) to Birdoswald in the west (where a blatant carving of a phallic symbol shows the Wall was more than just a barrier).

A Roman historian wrote that when the Emperor Hadrian came to Britain in AD 122 he ‘put many things to right and was the first to build a wall 80 miles long from sea to sea to separate the Romans from the Barbarians’.

In this film we discover what that massive engineering and construction project really meant - and the impact it had on Roman Britain and beyond.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free exclusive podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsely, Mary Beard and more. Watch, listen and read history wherever you are, whenever you want it. Available on all devices: Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Roku, Xbox, Chromecast, and iOs & Android.

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[luckyspurs]

Find historical experts so engaging and charismatic in a way to listen to.

It's just fun listening to people who really care and are doing something they clearly love as a job. There's a bounce and energy to it.

[bd]

another quite exceptional documentary. the problem with these, oddly enough, is they cannot be listened to passively while e.g. gaming or writing an essay; the quality is so superior i find i have to actively watch the documentary and keep my other tasks on standby for the duration (of course, a not unsavoury problem to have!)

[amc]

Brilliant. Live an hour away from the wall, only visited a few times but learned more in this doc than anything else. Thankyou guys.

[TerryHickey-xtmf]

I am English but my parents took us off to the antipodes, after 60 years my (Australian) wife and I went back to see what my family had left all those years ago. One of my main objectives was to visit Hadrian's wall. We were not disappointed, just like the video, we were amazed at the sheer scale of the forts, something I knew nothing about when I was a kid. The one we went to housed 800 men, and the all the forts were quite close together.. The main road sort of follows the wall from coast to coast, and it took us quite a while to travel it by car. Just imagine having to 'build' your way across? My mate here in NZ is from Scotland, and we have endless fun discussing what we, and they, did all that time ago. The bottom line is at least after the Romans left we had viniculture, could walk the streets at night in safety, and indeed had decent streets to walk on at last. . Sewerage systems, baths, Latin, and of course the right of men to have a baby.

[williamrobinson]

Beautifully written and presented.
Nice one Dan and team! 🌟👍

[adamtodd]

Dan entirely squandered the opportunity to say 'Biggus, Dickus'.

[SpLiC]

What a wonderful documentary. More Rome, Greece etc please Dan mate, i can't get enough of antiquity. Thanks again History Hit, brilliant.

[jokir]

They didn’t really touch on the vallum that much in this but there are some parts where it is walkable and the ditches and undulations are still there, admittedly not as deep now. Even after 2000 years the earthworks are still apparent! When you were digging those ditches could you have imagined millennia later they would still be a visible feature? I find that amazing.

[Maybeabandaid]

Lovely.
I know how I am spending my Thursday evening.

[gregor]

W. H. Auden got it right -

Roman Wall Blues
Over the heather the wet wind blows,
I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose.

The rain comes pattering out of the sky,
I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why.

The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,
My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone.

Aulus goes hanging around her place,
I don't like his manners, I don't like his face.

Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish;
There'd be no kissing if he had his wish.

She gave me a ring but I diced it away;
I want my girl and I want my pay.

When I'm a veteran with only one eye
I shall do nothing but look at the sky.

[nzessmam]

Arbeia is not actually part of the wall. It was the supply depot for the wall located in modern day South Shields on the south side of the river mouth. The most easterly fort was Segadunum found in Wallsend. On the North bank of the Tyne.
Arbeia is well worth a visit - it not only has a reconstruction of the western gatehouse but it has reconstructions of a barrack block and the commandant’s house. I have been many times.

[nohbuddy]

11:08 I always love in shot/reverse shot with interviews how they have to get the person asking questions to nod lol

[terencegamble]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thank you. History Hit gives me another dimension to my understanding of the human condition over time.

[badofcheese]

I live right by Hadrian’s wall. Don’t pay enough attention to it. Very interesting.

[EGSBiographies-omwb]

Thsi vid was well worth my time to watch. As an ignorant Yankee, I didnt know anything about Hedrons Wall until I saw a vid from Simon Whistler a couple years ago.

[ichbinzwardummaber]

Just noticed again these days, how much inspiration J.R.R Martin gained from british history
War of the roses, the Hadrian Wall and everywhere smaller things all over the history of Westeros, like Aegon the Conqueror inspired by the Norman Invasion

[gaius_enceladus]

it's cold up here, by Jupiter.
I hope Livia can send me some thick woolen socks, by Mercury! "

[jonbaxter]

An incredible piece of history you can actually see and wander about on.

[FazMaster]

A fantastic documentary/journey! A subject I knew absolutely nothing about. Now to dig in deeper!

[Jayjay-qeum]

American author George R.R. Martin has acknowledge that Hadrian's Wall was the inspiration for "The Wall" in his best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire.