Themed Section: Hadrian's Progress through the North-Western Provinces in a.d. 121–122

Abstract

The following collection of seven papers marks the passing of 1900 years since Hadrian travelled through Germany and Britain, setting many things right according to the ancient historians. The emperor left Roman in A.D. 121, probably in the early spring, progressing through Gaul to the German frontier provinces, where he spent the winter. By the summer of the following year he was in Britain, where he almost certainly inspected the building of his great wall on the northern frontier. Winter found him in Tarraco, the principal city of Hispania Tarraconensis. In A.D. 123, he crossed to Africa and then travelled to the east, eventually returning to Rome in A.D. 125. More journeys were to follow, and the amount of time that Hadrian spent in the provinces was exceptional: his successor, Antoninus Pius, never left Italy after he gained power. Consolidation of the frontiers and the prosperity of the provinces were priorities for Hadrian in his administration of the empire. Wolfram Thill argues that the iconography of the Anaglypha Panels in the Roman Forum reflected concerns in the Senate about these policies and reminded the emperor not to neglect matters closer to home. Work on defining the frontier in Upper Germany with a wooden palisade began shortly before Hadrian’s visit, as Thiel explains. This barrier followed a line previously controlled by watch towers, fortlets and forts. Hadrian’s Wall in Britain, also following an existing line of control, was a much stronger fortification, reflecting the troubled state of the frontier which contrasted with the settled conditions in Germany when the palisade was built. Bidwell nevertheless proposes that the first of four stages in the development of the Hadrian’s Wall system incorporated the Devil’s Causeway, a road controlled by forts which ran for 87 km north of the Wall, along the western edge of the densely settled coastal plain of Northumberland. Thiel also refers to Hadrian’s promotions of towns and cities in Upper Germany and Raetia, part of a wider policy of urban development also discussed by Fulford and by Reddé and Mees. In the absence of the rich epigraphic record in the eastern parts of the empire, it is unclear how extensive Hadrian’s benefactions were in the western frontier provinces. Some of his policies had a less welcome effect on some local populations. The building of Hadrian’s Wall, as Bruhn and Hodgson demonstrate, soon disrupted the pattern of settlement which had flourished in north-east England during the late Iron Age and survived the early decades of conquest. Beyond the Wall there seems to have been a shift to more pastoral agriculture supporting far fewer people. To the south, there is increasing evidence for the settlement of immigrants in parts of modern County Durham and North Yorkshire, corresponding to the Britannia 53 (2022), 3–4 doi:10.1017/S0068113X22000186