[00:03.696]When we think of Hadrian's Wall, we tend to think of the Romans rather like US cavalrymen deep in Indian country,
[00:08.657]defending the flag, peering through the cracks and waiting nervously for war drums and smoke signals.
[00:17.029]A place where paranoia sweated from every stone.
[00:20.737]But it wasn't really like that at all.
[00:23.082]As fantastically ambitious as this was
[00:25.387]stretching 73 miles from coast to coast from the Solway to the Tyne
[00:31.459]And although Hadrian probably conceived it in response to a rebellion
[00:35.419]On the part of those people in the Romans loftily referred to as "Brittunculi"--nasty wretched little Brits.
[00:42.590]Almost certainly, he didn't mean it as an impermeable barrier against barbarian onslaught from the north.
[00:55.017]The wall was studded with milecastles and turrets afforts like this one at Housesteads.
[01:01.206]But as Britain settled down in the second century AD
[01:04.880]These places became up-country hill stations more like social centres and business centres than really grim, heavily-manned barracks.