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Hadrian's Wall

by Adrian Goldsworthy

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1327205,619 (3.3)None
From an award-winning historian of ancient Rome, a definitive history of Hadrian's Wall. Stretching eighty miles from coast to coast across northern England, Hadrian's Wall is the largest Roman artifact known today. It is commonly viewed as a defiant barrier, the end of the empire, a place where civilization stopped and barbarism began. In fact, the massive structure remains shrouded in mystery. Was the wall intended to keep out the Picts, who inhabited the North? Or was it merely a symbol of Roman power and wealth? What was life like for soldiers stationed along its expanse? How was the extraordinary structure built-with what technology, skills, and materials? In Hadrian's Wall, Adrian Goldsworthy embarks on a historical and archaeological investigation, sifting fact from legend while simultaneously situating the wall in the wider scene of Roman Britain. The result is a concise and enthralling history of a great architectural marvel of the ancient world.--Publisher.… (more)
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While there is nothing particularly wrong with this book, once one has finished with it one wishes that there was more about the actual wall; this is mostly a distillation of Goldsworthy's admittedly great knowledge of the Roman army in Britain. ( )
  Shrike58 | Jul 9, 2020 |
While I am a big fan of Adrian Goldsworthy, this book disappointed me.

The book was both brief, and at times lacked Goldsworthy's normally interesting and informative writing style. Particularly in the early sections, I found his descriptions somewhat confusing.

Inexplicably, the book was published in an undersized format. Accordingly, the text, particularly when accompanying photographs, can be difficult to read. Further, many of black-and-white photos do not clearly illustrate their subject.

Overall, a far cry the author's typically outstanding standing works. ( )
  la2bkk | Jun 14, 2020 |
Hadrian's Wall and the associated forts are the largest Roman ruins visible in the world. It is 80 miles long and reaches from the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea across hills and dales to the banks of the Tyne on the North Sea and marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. It wasn't the only wall built to be the northernmost frontier, that honour goes to the Antonine Wall. This was started in 142AD and abandoned around 20 years later when legions were moved back to the more substantial Hadrian's Wall. Long thought to be a barrier keeping out the Picts and Ancient Britons that lived north of this wall, it turns out to have a much deeper and complicated history.

Adrian Goldsworthy brings us up right up to on the latest hypothesis' and theories of Hadrian's Wall, considering how it functioned, how it was built and whether it served a military function or it was just a demonstration of power to the marauding tribes. By drawing on the recent archaeological discoveries, in particular, the details gleaned from the tablets discovered at Vindolanda, he pieces together a vivid picture of how life would be there for a soldier on the furthest outpost from Rome. It is a beautifully produced book, full of maps, photos and images of what we know of life in the UK 2000 years ago; definitely a book for any lover of Roman history. ( )
  PDCRead | Apr 6, 2020 |
This was fairly interesting. Well researched. #hadrians wall ( )
  Arkrayder | Feb 7, 2019 |
An adequate introduction to a fascinating historical monument in Britain. ( )
  Osdolai | Jan 20, 2019 |
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Hadrian’s Wall is unquestionably the most impressive and monumental frontier system from the Roman Empire. The wall is a major tourist destination, where one can hike the 84-mile path from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth, stopping along the way at well-curated museums at Vindolanda, Carvoran and Birdoswald, not mention enough pubs to fuel the journey. This book is a brief survey of the wall and its garrison. Goldsworthy himself states that the project is less about Hadrian’s Wall than about the Roman army on Hadrian’s Wall. This is well within his bailiwick, as prior to departing academia for a career as a popular writer and public ambassador for the Classics, Goldsworthy wrote an Oxford DPhil thesis on the Imperial Roman army, which subsequently was published as a landmark book on the topic.
 
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Britain was a late addition to the Roman Empire, conquered at a time when expansion was becoming rare, but the actual conquest in AD 43 was not the first military contact between the empire and the Britons.
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From an award-winning historian of ancient Rome, a definitive history of Hadrian's Wall. Stretching eighty miles from coast to coast across northern England, Hadrian's Wall is the largest Roman artifact known today. It is commonly viewed as a defiant barrier, the end of the empire, a place where civilization stopped and barbarism began. In fact, the massive structure remains shrouded in mystery. Was the wall intended to keep out the Picts, who inhabited the North? Or was it merely a symbol of Roman power and wealth? What was life like for soldiers stationed along its expanse? How was the extraordinary structure built-with what technology, skills, and materials? In Hadrian's Wall, Adrian Goldsworthy embarks on a historical and archaeological investigation, sifting fact from legend while simultaneously situating the wall in the wider scene of Roman Britain. The result is a concise and enthralling history of a great architectural marvel of the ancient world.--Publisher.

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