Talk:Wall of Severus

Military history: Fortifications / British / European / Roman & Byzantine / Classical

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Scholarly Consensus

The statement that "Scholarly consensus believes [the ancient sources] are most likely referring to the Antonine Wall", seems too strong. Maldonado ("The Early Medieval Antonine Wall" Britannia, 46, 225-245, 2015) wrote "there are very few contemporary mentions of the Antonine Wall and by the fourth century even Roman writers could not remember who built it, many attributing it to Severus.", which gives a more balanced view. Later on, the statement "Current academic consensus believes that Severus' campaigns involved repairing and strengthening the abandoned Antonine Wall before falling back to Hadrian's Wall" is not supported by the reference cited, nor by anything else I can find. David Breeze, in his 2006 book on the Antonine Wall, states: "There is no indication that the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla paid any attention to the [Antonine] Wall when they crossed it during their campaigns against the Caledonians and Maeatae between 208 and 210. All our sources are silent on the point" (p. 171). I suggest adding these quotes and references. In contrast, there is clear evidence that there was repair and reconstruction of the Solway-Tyne fortifications during Severus' campaigns, and a number of 19th Century writers refer to this wall as the Severan Wall, rather than by the more familiar attribution to Hadrian. For example, in Clerk (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 3, 37-43, 1857) we find a reference to "a small altar, found at House-steads (the ancient Borovicus), on the Roman Wall of Severus". This should be discussed. I'll make appropriate changes in the next few days. Kognos (talk) 11:01, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]