By Crasterfarian
The Stanegate road stretched across England and became the most northerly demarcation defensive line in Britannia. Built under the command of one of Rome’s most famous generals, Agricola, it was a military border long before Hadrian had his ‘Big Idea’. But where did that idea come from…?
Constructed between 70 and 80 AD and studded with a series of forts, the Stanegate possibly ran from Concangis (Chester-Le-Street) to Angerton in Cumbria — though this hasn’t been definitively proven. Angerton lies at the head of a muddy estuary on the western edge of Cumbria, just south of where Maia fort on Hadrian’s Wall would later rise.
At every Roman mile along its length there was a milestone indicating the distance to and from the previous and next fort. A Roman mile was measured by 1000 paces, or in modern terms 1,481 meters, or 92% of a modern mile.
If the Stanegate did extend to Angerton from Concangis, then, in a straight line, that would be approximately 65 miles or 71 Roman miles, meaning that there were at least 71 of these milestones made and sited.
This milestone stands 120m NE of Vindolanda fort, as the Stanegate dropped into the little river valley of the Bradley Burn and climbed back up passing the north gate of the fort.
It’s remarkable that it has survived. Not only has it survived, but it is complete and is the only one in Britain still in its original position since it was dropped into its hole socket by Roman engineers in the 70s AD.
The Stanegate predates Hadrian’s Wall by some 50 years, so the inscription on the monolith would have originally been dedicated to Emperor Vespasian.
That’s not what is written here though. This milestone has been re-dedicated to the new Emperor Hadrian, in advance of his visit to Britannia.
It was this visit in 122AD that prompted his command to build the Wall. So that started me thinking….
Hadrian and his entourage may have travelled the Stanegate to inspect Vindolanda, where they heard first-hand of the Brigantian raids and guerrilla attacks disrupting Roman supply lines.
Perhaps it was there, standing at the edge of his empire, as far from Rome as he could have been, that he resolved to draw a permanent line in stone.
Let us also not forget the legend of the 9th Legion and its disappearance in the early 2nd century somewhere in the North.
The original inscription has long since faded under the weight of centuries. But early antiquarians, including John Horsley, recorded what they could still see in the 18th century. In his 1732 work Britannia Romana, he noted the inscription:
IMP CAES TRAIANO HADRIANO AVG
Which expands to:
Imperator Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus
Its inscription will have read the same as all the other milestones along this road, including the partial stump of another still in situ milestone just to the west of the fort which was detailed as:
IMP · CAESAR · TRAIANVS · HADRIANVS · AVG · PONT · MAX · TRIB · POT · COS · III · P · P
“Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, Chief Priest, holder of tribunician power, consul for the third time, Father of the Fatherland.”
To me, this is more than just a milestone. It is a snapshot in time, a moment where an emperor stood, listened, and decided. It is the seed from which the Wall grew.
Why rededicate the milestone, and presumably the other 70, if he wasn’t coming?
This stone has stood through it all. Through everything we now know of history.
No matter what nature threw at it: rain, wind, snow, or what mankind brought to its feet: wars, invasions, turmoil, here it remains.
It has been passed by legionaries, centurions, tribunes… Hadrian himself. as well as Septimius Severus, the first African emperor of Rome, born in Leptis Magna in North Africa. He too will likely have passed this very point during his Wall refurbishment tour in the late 2nd century, before dying at York in 211 AD.
Just imagine all it has seen.
The only evidential writing of the command to begin the Wall’s construction didn’t appear until the 3rd century when Cassius Dio detailed it in his Roman History, Book 69 stating that:
“[Hadrian] was the first to build a wall, 80 miles long, to separate the Romans from the Barbarian.”
With love from the Crasterfarian xx
