Hadrian's Wall

London: BCA. Very Good/Very Good. 1978. Reprint. Hard Cover. Sm 4to 0718116526 Reprint replublished by BCA, London. Dust jacket complete. Green cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. Previous owner's book plate on f. paste down. Colour & b/w photographs, illustrations, maps. 205 pages clean and tight. In 122 A.D. the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited the northernmost corner of the Roman Empire - Britain. The object of his visit was the reorganisation of the frontier's defence system and the result was what we call today Hadrian's Wall - the most extraordinary ancient monument in Britain. Seventy-three miles long, from Wallsend-on-Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west, the Wall was a system of defence in depth, not just an eight foot thick and twelve foot high curtain. This system included a large ditch, the Wall itself, a series of 16 forts each housing 500 to 800 men, 80 small forts called milecastles and 158 towers. The Wall was built to prevent the northern tribes from raiding and plundering Roman Britain, but even Hadrian's Wall could not hold back the rugged Northerners permanently and it was overrun and damaged in the late second century, the third century and in 367 A.D. In each of these cases the Wall was recovered and repaired but after the successful barbarian attacks of 383 A.D. the Wall was never re-taken by Rome. In this volume James Forde-Johnston presents a complete history of the Wall - why and how it was built, its position in the Roman Empire, what life along the Wall was like and why it eventually fell. This narrative is aided by more than 100 illustrations, including 16pp in full colour. The book ends with a short guide to the Wall today - what there is to see and how best to see it. For each sale of Hadrian's Wall, fifty pence is being donated by the publishers to the National Trust for the purchase of land along the Wall. .