Brampton, England: Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall comes up every so often during a visit to Northern England. That raises the question, who exactly was Hadrian? Those who don't know Roman history, which is most of us, need some information.

Hadrian had a pretty good run as the emperor of Rome. It lasted from 117 to 138 A.D., when he died at the age of 62. He had married well, getting together with the grandniece of the Emperor Trajan. That led to the biggest job in Rome.

After taking over, he put four potential rivals in the senate to death, which as you'd expect didn't help his relations with that group. Hadrian wasn't too worried about expanding the empire, unlike some of his predecessors. He was more concerned with consolidating his gains by building strong borders and unifying the population. 

Hadrian traveled quite a bit, and came to Northern England around 122. The wall probably was planned by then if not started, but he gave the project a boost by showing up. It ran about 73 miles when completed. The wall wasn't the official border between England and Scotland, but it was close. 

Once the Romans departed, the wall turned into a place to scoop up material for such projects as roads. There are still portions of it left, although none are at the original height. It is considered the largest Roman artifact in the world. The portion we visited was well out in the country, which made the detour in our tour quite nice.