This is the sort of wall the Romans built at Dover. This is Portchester, a Roman shore fort, a truly colossal structure that makes all too clear the scale of threat the Romans felt the barbarians posed. Inside it, lies a Norman castle, built a thousand years later and now completely dwarfed by it. It was one of several such forts strung out along the southern and eastern coasts. But not even fortifications like those of Portchester or Hadrian's Wall in the north, could work without adequate troops. As more and more legionaries were sucked back to fight for Rome on the continent, and as Picts and Saxons spotting the weakness, started raids of their own from the north and east, Britannia couldn't help but feel the chill of vulnerability.


这便是罗马人在多佛所筑的城墙，这是切斯特港、罗马海滨堡垒，这庞然巨物使得罗马人对蛮族入侵的惧怕，不言自明。内部构造与一千年后的诺曼第城堡相似，而与外城相比，却如此矮小。这是并肩严守着东南海岸的堡垒之一。但即使像切斯特港这样的防御工事，或北部横亘的哈德良长城。若无与之匹配的军队，都难以发挥作用。由于大批罗马兵团被召回欧洲大陆作战，而皮克特人与撒克逊人趁其羸弱之时，开始分别从东北方向刺探敌情，不列颠尼亚自知危若累卵。