Whether or not Offa’s Dyke (eighth century) is the Wall of Severus (second century) remains a contentious enigma. THE GREAT WALLS OF BRITAIN HADRIAN’S WALL Graphics: (5) Photos: (2) Hadrian's Wall / Photos (1) Wall of Severus, Offa's Dyke / Map (1) Offa's Dyke Imprint (1) Septimius Severus and Family. The first great Wall in Britain was sanctioned and begun by Hadrian in 120 C.E. According to English Heritage, upon completion, Hadrian's Wall ran 80 Roman miles (73 modern miles) from Wallsend on the River Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth and was of stone throughout its length. David Breeze elaborates: As first planned, Hadrian's Wall was to consist of a stone wall running from Newcastle to the River Irthing, a distance of 45 Roman miles [41 modern miles]. From the Irthing to the Solway the 'wall' was built of turf blocks. . . . The building of Hadrian's Wall was to occupy the legionaries for at least the next six years, and modifications to the Wall were still being carried out at the time of Hadrian's death in 138. However, if one considers the end of the second century and the beginning of the third as "the darkest of the Dark Ages"--a term which infuriates purists--from the beginning to the end of construction for Hadrian's Wall is obscure and impossible to ascertain. R.G. Collingwood tersely but effectively explains the uncertainty surrounding the construction of Hadrian's Wall when he writes "Later historians have handed down to us a persistent tradition that made [Septimius] Severus the actual builder of Hadrian's Wall." Until it was known how thoroughly Hadrian's Wall had been destroyed by the Maeatae tribe of southern Scotland, no one knew whether it was Hadrian or Severus who had erected the majority of the stone barrier. There is no history detailing the period from Antoninus to the beginning of the first decade of the third century. Some inscriptions found on the wall suggest that Roman manpower and money were severely stretched and certain sections of the rampart were financed by the tribal communities. At any rate, Collingwood notes that "All this indicates a vast effort of reconstruction [not initial construction], existing from 197 to 208." These dates which Collingwood gives are consistent with Septimius Severus's connection with Britain, and hence Severus would be a reconstructionist and not a constructionist. Collingwood has no doubt that the Wall project had been designed and undertaken by Hadrian, and that Severus reconstructed a large part of that which had been destroyed. In the booklet Birdoswald: Roman Fort, Tony Wilmott emphasizes that very little is known of this first great wall. He writes: The only Roman written reference to the building of Hadrian's Wall appears in a biography of Hadrian. It states merely that 'Hadrian was the first to build a wall, 80 miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians.’ As a reminder of the Wall's obscure history, he reinforces the truism that "Everything we know about the Wall apart from [the above quotation] comes from the discoveries of antiquarians and archaeologists during the last three centuries." There are clues which verify that at least a segment of the wall was constructed during Hadrian's reign. All of the events which took place from the building of the Turf Wall (Bowness to the Irthing Valley) to the stone fort at Birdoswald occurred when coins issued by Hadrian and earlier emperors were in circulation and when shards of pottery from the second century were discovered. These discoveries are, in other words, dated to Hadrian's sojourn between 122 C.E until his death in 138. In agreement with Collingwood, Wilmott concurs that when Septimius Severus became emperor, the jumble of history and archaeology is untangled a bit. Many inscriptions referring to the reign of Severus record the substantial rebuilding, repair, and renovation of the Wall, three descriptive words which leave no doubt that Severus was neither the designer or the original builder, but the restorer. On the other hand, there are commentaries which deny this. One particular site on Internet, for instance, misinterprets or at least causes confusion about Hadrian's Wall. It describes the wall thusly: "The first [wall] formed of turf only, was raised about the year 120 by Hadrian, who also ordered works of the same kind to be constructed, as boundaries and fences to the empire, in other countries. That wall, crossing the North of England, extended from the Solway Firth to the Tyne, and the remains of it are still to be seen in the counties of Cumberland and Northumberland." The last sentence of the above passage, however, is not explicit in its description. The North Tyne River merges with the South Tyne River at the Roman fortress of Cilurnum and then flows eastward to Newcastle Upon Tyne. If the passage in question means that the turf wall constructed by Hadrian extended from the Solway Firth to the confluence of the North Tyne, then the statement is inaccurate, because other, more reliable sources profess that the turf wall constructed by Hadrian extended from the Solway Firth to the River Irthing (near Gilsland), which is eighteen miles further west than the confluence of the North Tyne. If the passage suggests that the turf wall extended from the Solway Firth through Northumberland and to the Tyne at the estuary of the North Sea, then the faux pas is even worse. The passage also implies that the original wall built by Hadrian was a turf wall for the entire distance. The website says this of a third wall in Britain, the second being labeled as the Antonine Wall: "The third wall was constructed by the emperor Severus about the year 210. This was the strongest and most perfect of all those works, having been fenced with stone, and fortified with towers at regular distances. It followed much the same tract with that of Hadrian, and vestiges of it are also yet visible." This quotation is borrowed from Bede and would be accurate in that Severus was the restorer. Perhaps, however, the term "the third wall" is misleading, especially because there are indeed claims of a different "third" Roman Wall. Hadrian's wall became associated with Arthurian history and legend through Arthur's strife at Camlann. The mystery of Camlann's location was discussed in some detail by Leslie Alcock, who gives the following etymological possibilities: It has been suggested that the name might derive from the British Camboglanna which would give Camlann in the Middle Welsh. In Early Welsh, however, the form should have been Camglann, and therefore if the battle had been entered contemporaneously in a Easter Table we would expect gueith Camglann. The fact that we have gueith camlann may mean either that there never was a contemporary entry in the Primitive Welsh--and so the credibility of the Arthurian entries in the Welsh Easter Annals would be destroyed--or that, in the process of copying and recopying, some scribe had modernized the spelling. Alcock then continues his connection between Camglann and Camlann: The main reason for favouring Camboglanna [as a possible site for Camlann] is that we do know a place of this name, the Roman fort of Birdoswald which stands above the Irthing Valley towards the western end of Hadrian's Wall. Photo © Courtesy English Heritage, Hadrian's Wall, 1993     

This photo was graciously provided by permission from Ian Bapty, Offa's Dyke Archaeological Management Officer, (CPAT) Clwyd-Powys Archeological Trust.


Enigmatically, Blake and Lloyd totally abandoned--with no explanation--their theory of the Wall of Severus in their second book Pendragon . Yet the controversy continues. Without belaboring the point any further, the reader is encouraged to peruse the seven archaeological Roman sites which follow the Wall/Dyke from north to south: Ffridd, the Roman vexillation fortress of Rhyn Park, the Roman fort of Levobrinta at Forden Gaer, the fort and marching camp at Brompton, the fort and marching camp at Stretford Bridge, the fortress of Bravonium and it major settlement, and the Roman vexillation fortress at Clyro. Then re-read Bapty's conundrum and structure your own hypothesis.

Photo ©  Frank D. Reno