# Antonine Wall defensive fortification in Roman Britain Scotland, United Kingdom Settlement · Fortification. 142 CE ## Story • The Antonine Wall was a turf-and-stone Roman frontier built across Scotland's Central Belt from the Firth of Clyde to the Firth of Forth. • Constructed from AD 142 on the orders of Emperor Antoninus Pius, it was intended to replace Hadrian's Wall as the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire. • The wall ran about 63 kilometres and stood roughly 3 metres high and 5 metres wide, protected by a deep ditch and probably a wooden palisade. • It was garrisoned for only about twenty years before being abandoned, and its turf and timber remains are far less visible than those of Hadrian's Wall. • The line is marked by forts, fortlets and distance slabs, and was inscribed as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site in 2008. ## History The Antonine Wall was a turf fortification on stone foundations built by the Romans across the Central Belt of what is now Scotland, running between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth from Old Kilpatrick to Carriden near Bo'ness. It was built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south and was intended to supersede it. While garrisoned, it was the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire. It spanned approximately 63 kilometres and stood about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide, with security bolstered by a deep ditch on the northern side and, it is thought, a wooden palisade on top of the turf. It was the second of two great walls the Romans created in Britain in the second century, and its ruins are less evident than Hadrian's because its turf and wood have largely weathered away. Another reckoning gives its length as 60 kilometres: a fortification in Scotland begun by Emperor Antoninus Pius in 142 as a defence against the peoples of the north, and the north-westernmost part of the Roman Limes. It is named after Antoninus Pius and replaced Hadrian's Wall. Roman forces first arrived in Britain in the first century BC under Julius Caesar, whose two invasions in the summers of 55 and 54 BC led to no permanent presence and probably reached only the River Thames, though they opened the island to cultural, diplomatic and economic exchange. A lasting invasion came in AD 43 on the order of Emperor Claudius, who took Camulodunum, stayed sixteen days and returned to Rome, but kept troops on the island. The Romans first reached what is now Scotland in the Flavian period of AD 69–96, and Agricola, governor from AD 77/78 to 83/84, campaigned through seven seasons, building a line of forts along the Forth–Clyde isthmus in his fourth season and winning at Mons Graupius in his seventh before being recalled. The Flavian withdrawal began in AD 86/7, all Flavian forts north of Newstead appear to have been abandoned by AD 90, and by AD 105 Roman control of the Scottish Lowlands had disintegrated, with the frontier falling back to the Tyne–Solway line. Hadrian visited Britain in AD 122 and ordered a wall 80 miles long from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth, built of stone with forts attached and a massive earthwork ditch, the vallum, to the south. On Hadrian's death in AD 138, Antoninus Pius succeeded to the throne; a wealthy nobleman with a good record, he lacked military experience and may have needed military credentials to strengthen his new imperial powers, with Britain chosen as the vehicle for prestige through a military triumph. The invasion north of Hadrian's Wall took place in AD 139/42, led by the governor of Britain, Lollius Urbicus. Its result was a new frontier line across the Forth–Clyde isthmus, which became known as the Antonine Wall. Construction began in AD 142 on the order of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and the wall was occupied for about twenty years. Quintus Lollius Urbicus, governor of Roman Britain at the time, initially supervised the effort, which may have taken as long as twelve years; estimates of how long it took to complete vary widely, with six and twelve years most commonly proposed. Antoninus Pius never visited Britain, unlike his predecessor Hadrian, and pressure from the Caledonians probably led Antoninus to send the empire's troops farther north. The wall was protected by 16 forts with small fortlets between them, and troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the sites known as the Military Way. The soldiers who built the wall commemorated the construction and their struggles with the Caledonians with decorative slabs, twenty of which survive. The stone foundations and wing walls of the original forts show the original plan was to build a stone wall similar to Hadrian's Wall, but this was quickly amended. The Romans initially planned forts every 10 kilometres before revising this to every 3.3 kilometres, resulting in nineteen forts along the wall. Archaeological evidence from several sites indicates possible changes in the frontier's overall plan and the reconfiguration and rebuilding of certain forts; some forts and fortlets were earlier than the wall, while others were built at the same time or added after the rampart, and at Duntocher and Croy Hill forts were built after fortlets had already been constructed on the same site. Many current archaeologists interpret the chronology as an original plan based on six primary forts—Old Kilpatrick, Balmuildy, Bar Hill or Auchendavy, Castlecary, Mumrills and Carriden—with fortlets at intervals of one Roman mile, followed by an altered plan that added the remaining forts. The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort, and the most visible fortlet is Kinneil, at the eastern end of the wall near Bo'ness. The wall was intended to extend Roman territory and dominance by replacing Hadrian's Wall, 160 kilometres to the south, as the frontier of Britannia. The Romans established forts and temporary camps further north of the Antonine Wall to protect their routes to northern Britain, but they did not conquer the Caledonians, and the wall suffered many attacks. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia, though in some contexts the term may refer to the whole area north of Hadrian's Wall. The land north of the Antonine Wall became known as Albany after the settlement of the Gaels in the 6th century. The wall was abandoned only eight years after completion, with the garrisons relocated rearward to Hadrian's Wall. A different chronology places the abandonment within two decades of completion, when the Roman legions withdrew to Hadrian's Wall in 162. In the AD 160s the order came to withdraw from the Antonine Wall; on departure the fort buildings were burnt or demolished, but the rampart and ditch were kept intact. The Romans took valuable and portable items away, discarded heavy and worthless objects, and buried many of these items so that native people could not use them. The decision to abandon the wall was made in or around AD 158, and the process may have stretched over more than six years to AD 164 or later; the final abandonment has been hotly contested, with classical accounts giving few concrete details and datable archaeological finds contradictory. From this point Hadrian's Wall was restored and continued as the primary frontier of Roman Britain until the early fifth century, when official Roman occupation came to an end. After a series of attacks in 197, the emperor Septimius Severus arrived in Scotland in 208 and campaigned against the Maeatae and the Caledonians. While he carried out substantial work on Hadrian's Wall, there is no evidence of any attention being paid to the remains of the Antonine Wall during the campaigns of 208–210. After the wall's abandonment around AD 158–64, the Romans returned to Scotland on limited occasions, most clearly during the reign of Septimius Severus, who reigned from 193 to 211, campaigned in northern Britain, restored a wall probably Hadrian's, travelled to the northern limits of the island and came to terms with the enemy. Later the Caledones and Maiatai revolted and further battle took place, during which Severus became ill and died in 211; shortly afterwards his son Caracalla made peace with the Caledones, and the Romans appear to have abandoned further attempts to conquer Scotland. Recent studies suggest this time was pivotal in the reformation of native communities in later Iron Age Scotland, and that both military and diplomatic activities, including the gifting of hoards, may have played a vital role in establishing new networks. In 730 Bede, following Gildas, mistakenly ascribed the construction of the Antonine Wall to the Britons in his Historia Ecclesiastica. References in Late Roman sources to Severus' wall-building activities led later scholars, including Bede, to mistake references to the Antonine Wall for ones to Hadrian's Wall. In medieval histories such as the chronicles of John of Fordun the wall is called Gryme's dyke, a name that evolved into Graham's dyke, still found in Bo'ness at the wall's eastern end. Edmund Spenser in Book II of The Faerie Queene of 1590 alludes to the wall while misattributing it to Constantine II, and Hector Boece in his 1527 History of Scotland called it the "wall of Abercorn". George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, set a stone from the Antonine Wall in the walls of Dunnottar Castle and had it painted and gilded; the stone is now at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The year AD 411 marked the end of official Roman occupation of Britain, after which the wall became part of the surrounding countryside and was gradually forgotten, and in the late 14th century it acquired the name "Grimisdyke" as its Roman heritage was forgotten. A Roman structure within sight of the wall at Stenhousemuir, Arthur's O'on, a circular stone domed monument that might have been a temple or a tropaeum, was demolished for its stone in 1743, though a replica exists at Penicuik House. The first capable effort to systematically map the Antonine Wall was undertaken in 1764 by William Roy, the forerunner of the Ordnance Survey, whose accurate and detailed drawings are now the only reliable record where the wall has been destroyed by later development; another dating places Roy's survey of the wall in 1755. Roman objects discovered during the construction of the Forth–Clyde Canal between 1760 and 1790 sparked an interest in Roman Scotland, and the Glasgow Archaeological Society carried out the first modern archaeological work in 1890–93. Sir George Macdonald carried out systematic work on the wall, published in 1911 and in an expanded second edition in 1934; his work provided the basis for a large-scale folio produced by the Ordnance Survey in 1931. The Ordnance Survey produced a revised folio in 1954–1957, carried out a new complete survey in 1979–80, and published a smaller-scale map at 1:25,000 in 1969. In 1926 the first section of the Antonine Wall was added to the schedule of monuments of national importance. Modern computer techniques using GIS and LIDAR can now map the wall in three dimensions, making it easier to study how visible forts and fortlets were to neighbouring stations, and lidar scans have been carried out to establish the length of the wall and the Roman distance units used. Certain elements of the Limes line have been excavated, some reconstructed and a few destroyed. Recent research by Glasgow University has shown that the distance stones, stone sculptures unique to the Antonine Wall which were embedded in the wall to mark the lengths built by each legion, were brightly painted, unlike their present bare appearance. These stones are preserved in the university's museum and are said to be the best-preserved examples of statuary from any Roman frontier. Several of the slabs have been analysed by techniques including portable X-ray fluorescence, tiny remnants of paint have been detected by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, several of the distance slabs have been scanned and 3D videos produced, and there are plans to reproduce the slabs digitally and as real physical copies in their authentic colours, with a copy of the Bridgeness Slab already made and available in Bo'ness. Archaeological excavation and stray finds along the wall have revealed a wide range of Roman artefacts; leather shoes show the presence of women and children along the wall, and the site holds the most important sculpture collection from any Roman frontier, with many finds viewable at the Hunterian Museum or the National Museum of Scotland. The UK government's nomination of the Antonine Wall for World Heritage status was first officially announced in 2003, was backed by the Scottish Government since 2005 and by Scotland's then Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson since 2006, and became the UK's official nomination in late January 2007. The Antonine Wall was listed as an extension to the World Heritage Site "Frontiers of the Roman Empire" on 7 July 2008. Several individual sites along the line of the wall are in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and all sites are unmanned and open at all reasonable times. Many remains have come under the care of Historic Environment Scotland and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, and forts, fortlets, wall sections, enclosures and temporary camps lie along the wall. ## Photographs - [Course of the Antonine Wall near Bar Hill — Chris Wimbush](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Bar_Hill.jpg) - [OS Map of the Antonine Wall, in Southern Scotland, at a scale of 1:25,000 or about 2.5 inches to one mile. — Director General of the Ordnance Survey, UK](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Ordnance_Survey_Map_of_the_Antonine_Wall%2C_Published_1969.jpg) - [Antonine wall at Barr Hill near Twechar. — Excalibur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Antonine_wall.JPG) - [Roman Forts on the Antonine Wall — myself](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Antonine.Wall.Roman.forts.jpg) - [Antonine Wall. Relic of Antonine Wall in Bearsden cemetery — Chris Upson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_49196.jpg) - [Antonine's Wall at Watling Lodge Antonine's Wall running across central Scotland from the Forth to the Clyde was built in 142AD and is 37 miles long. It marked — ronnie leask](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Antonine%27s_Wall_at_Watling_Lodge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1140335.jpg) - [Antonine Wall A long and well preserved stretch of the wall, easily visible now that it is regularly mown. — Richard Webb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1460062.jpg) - [Antonine Wall A wooded section of the earthwork. — Richard Webb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1464443.jpg) - [A different looking Antonine Wall Overlooking East Dullatur Farm, more like a terraced fortified line than a wall. — BJ Smur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/A_different_looking_Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1523264.jpg) - [The Antonine Wall ditch looking west at Roughcastle, Falkirk, Scotland. — Rosser1954](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Antonine_Wall_ditch_looking_west_at_Roughcastle%2C_Falkirk%2C_Scotland.jpg) ## Sources - [Antonine Wall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall) — Wikipedia - [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q210957) — Wikidata - [UNESCO World Heritage Centre](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/430/) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [Antonine Wall](https://www.antoninewall.org/about-the-antonine-wall/key-findings-and-artefacts) — antoninewall.org - [Antonine Wall](https://www.antoninewall.org/education-and-research/archaeological-sites) — antoninewall.org - [Antonine Wall](https://www.antoninewall.org/) — antoninewall.org - [Bar Hill.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bar_Hill.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Ordnance Survey Map of the Antonine Wall, Published 1969.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ordnance_Survey_Map_of_the_Antonine_Wall,_Published_1969.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine wall.JPG](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine_wall.JPG) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine.Wall.Roman.forts.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine.Wall.Roman.forts.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine Wall - geograph.org.uk - 49196.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_49196.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine's Wall at Watling Lodge - geograph.org.uk - 1140335.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine%27s_Wall_at_Watling_Lodge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1140335.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine Wall - geograph.org.uk - 1460062.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1460062.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine Wall - geograph.org.uk - 1464443.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1464443.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [A different looking Antonine Wall - geograph.org.uk - 1523264.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_different_looking_Antonine_Wall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1523264.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons - [Antonine Wall ditch looking west at Roughcastle, Falkirk, Scotland.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonine_Wall_ditch_looking_west_at_Roughcastle,_Falkirk,_Scotland.jpg) — Wikimedia Commons ## Detailed history The Antonine Wall was a turf fortification on stone foundations built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, running between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth, from Old Kilpatrick to Carriden near Bo'ness. It was built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south and was intended to supersede it. While it was garrisoned, it was the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire. It spanned approximately 63 kilometres and stood about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide, with security bolstered by a deep ditch on the northern side and, it is thought, a wooden palisade on top of the turf. It was the second of two great walls the Romans created in Britain in the second century, and its ruins are less evident than Hadrian's because its turf and wood have largely weathered away. Another reckoning gives its length as 60 kilometres: a fortification in Scotland begun by Emperor Antoninus Pius in 142 as a defence against the peoples of the north, and the north-westernmost part of the Roman Limes. It is named after Antoninus Pius and replaced Hadrian's Wall. Roman forces first arrived in Britain in the first century BC under Julius Caesar, whose two invasions in the summers of 55 and 54 BC led to no permanent presence and probably reached only the River Thames, though they opened the island to cultural, diplomatic and economic exchange. A lasting invasion came in AD 43 on the order of Emperor Claudius, who took Camulodunum, stayed sixteen days and returned to Rome, but kept troops on the island. The Romans first reached what is now Scotland in the Flavian period of AD 69–96, and Agricola, governor from AD 77/78 to 83/84, campaigned through seven seasons, building a line of forts along the Forth–Clyde isthmus in his fourth season and winning at Mons Graupius in his seventh before being recalled. The Flavian withdrawal began in AD 86/7, all Flavian forts north of Newstead appear to have been abandoned by AD 90, and by AD 105 Roman control of the Scottish Lowlands had disintegrated, with the frontier falling back to the Tyne–Solway line. Hadrian visited Britain in AD 122 and ordered a wall 80 miles long from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth, built of stone with forts attached and a massive earthwork ditch, the vallum, to the south. On Hadrian's death in AD 138, Antoninus Pius succeeded to the throne; a wealthy nobleman with a good record, he lacked military experience and may have needed military credentials to strengthen his new imperial powers, with Britain chosen as the vehicle for prestige through a military triumph. The invasion north of Hadrian's Wall took place in AD 139/42, led by the governor of Britain, Lollius Urbicus. Its result was a new frontier line across the Forth–Clyde isthmus, which became known as the Antonine Wall. Construction began in AD 142 on the order of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and the wall was occupied for about twenty years. Quintus Lollius Urbicus, governor of Roman Britain at the time, initially supervised the effort, which may have taken as long as twelve years; estimates of how long it took to complete vary widely, with six and twelve years most commonly proposed. Antoninus Pius never visited Britain, unlike his predecessor Hadrian, and pressure from the Caledonians probably led Antoninus to send the empire's troops farther north. The wall was protected by 16 forts with small fortlets between them, and troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the sites known as the Military Way. The soldiers who built the wall commemorated the construction and their struggles with the Caledonians with decorative slabs, twenty of which survive. The stone foundations and wing walls of the original forts show the original plan was to build a stone wall similar to Hadrian's Wall, but this was quickly amended. The Romans initially planned forts every 10 kilometres before revising this to every 3.3 kilometres, resulting in nineteen forts along the wall. Archaeological evidence from several sites indicates possible changes in the frontier's overall plan and the reconfiguration and rebuilding of certain forts; some forts and fortlets were earlier than the wall, while others were built at the same time or added after the rampart, and at Duntocher and Croy Hill forts were built after fortlets had already been constructed on the same site. Many current archaeologists interpret the chronology as an original plan based on six primary forts—Old Kilpatrick, Balmuildy, Bar Hill or Auchendavy, Castlecary, Mumrills and Carriden—with fortlets at intervals of one Roman mile, followed by an altered plan that added the remaining forts. The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort, and the most visible fortlet is Kinneil, at the eastern end of the wall near Bo'ness. The wall was intended to extend Roman territory and dominance by replacing Hadrian's Wall, 160 kilometres to the south, as the frontier of Britannia. The Romans established forts and temporary camps further north of the Antonine Wall to protect their routes to northern Britain, but they did not conquer the Caledonians, and the wall suffered many attacks. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia, though in some contexts the term may refer to the whole area north of Hadrian's Wall. The land north of the Antonine Wall became known as Albany after the settlement of the Gaels in the 6th century. The wall was abandoned only eight years after completion, with the garrisons relocated rearward to Hadrian's Wall. A different chronology places the abandonment within two decades of completion, when the Roman legions withdrew to Hadrian's Wall in 162. In the AD 160s the order came to withdraw from the Antonine Wall; on departure the fort buildings were burnt or demolished, but the rampart and ditch were kept intact. The Romans took valuable and portable items away, discarded heavy and worthless objects, and buried many of these items so that native people could not use them. The decision to abandon the wall was made in or around AD 158, and the process may have stretched over more than six years to AD 164 or later; the final abandonment has been hotly contested, with classical accounts giving few concrete details and datable archaeological finds contradictory. From this point Hadrian's Wall was restored and continued as the primary frontier of Roman Britain until the early fifth century, when official Roman occupation came to an end. After a series of attacks in 197, the emperor Septimius Severus arrived in Scotland in 208 and campaigned against the Maeatae and the Caledonians. While he carried out substantial work on Hadrian's Wall, there is no evidence of any attention being paid to the remains of the Antonine Wall during the campaigns of 208–210. After the wall's abandonment around AD 158–64, the Romans returned to Scotland on limited occasions, most clearly during the reign of Septimius Severus, who reigned from 193 to 211, campaigned in northern Britain, restored a wall probably Hadrian's, travelled to the northern limits of the island and came to terms with the enemy. Later the Caledones and Maiatai revolted and further battle took place, during which Severus became ill and died in 211; shortly afterwards his son Caracalla made peace with the Caledones, and the Romans appear to have abandoned further attempts to conquer Scotland. Recent studies suggest this time was pivotal in the reformation of native communities in later Iron Age Scotland, and that both military and diplomatic activities, including the gifting of hoards, may have played a vital role in establishing new networks. In 730 Bede, following Gildas, mistakenly ascribed the construction of the Antonine Wall to the Britons in his Historia Ecclesiastica. References in Late Roman sources to Severus' wall-building activities led later scholars, including Bede, to mistake references to the Antonine Wall for ones to Hadrian's Wall. In medieval histories such as the chronicles of John of Fordun the wall is called Gryme's dyke, a name that evolved into Graham's dyke, still found in Bo'ness at the wall's eastern end. Edmund Spenser in Book II of The Faerie Queene of 1590 alludes to the wall while misattributing it to Constantine II, and Hector Boece in his 1527 History of Scotland called it the "wall of Abercorn". George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, set a stone from the Antonine Wall in the walls of Dunnottar Castle and had it painted and gilded; the stone is now at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The year AD 411 marked the end of official Roman occupation of Britain, after which the wall became part of the surrounding countryside and was gradually forgotten, and in the late 14th century it acquired the name "Grimisdyke" as its Roman heritage was forgotten. A Roman structure within sight of the wall at Stenhousemuir, Arthur's O'on, a circular stone domed monument that might have been a temple or a tropaeum, was demolished for its stone in 1743, though a replica exists at Penicuik House. The first capable effort to systematically map the Antonine Wall was undertaken in 1764 by William Roy, the forerunner of the Ordnance Survey, whose accurate and detailed drawings are now the only reliable record where the wall has been destroyed by later development; another dating places Roy's survey of the wall in 1755. Roman objects discovered during the construction of the Forth–Clyde Canal between 1760 and 1790 sparked an interest in Roman Scotland, and the Glasgow Archaeological Society carried out the first modern archaeological work in 1890–93. Sir George Macdonald carried out systematic work on the wall, published in 1911 and in an expanded second edition in 1934; his work provided the basis for a large-scale folio produced by the Ordnance Survey in 1931. The Ordnance Survey produced a revised folio in 1954–1957, carried out a new complete survey in 1979–80, and published a smaller-scale map at 1:25,000 in 1969. In 1926 the first section of the Antonine Wall was added to the schedule of monuments of national importance. Modern computer techniques using GIS and LIDAR can now map the wall in three dimensions, making it easier to study how visible forts and fortlets were to neighbouring stations, and lidar scans have been carried out to establish the length of the wall and the Roman distance units used. Certain elements of the Limes line have been excavated, some reconstructed and a few destroyed. Recent research by Glasgow University has shown that the distance stones, stone sculptures unique to the Antonine Wall which were embedded in the wall to mark the lengths built by each legion, were brightly painted, unlike their present bare appearance. These stones are preserved in the university's museum and are said to be the best-preserved examples of statuary from any Roman frontier. Several of the slabs have been analysed by techniques including portable X-ray fluorescence, tiny remnants of paint have been detected by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, several of the distance slabs have been scanned and 3D videos produced, and there are plans to reproduce the slabs digitally and as real physical copies in their authentic colours, with a copy of the Bridgeness Slab already made and available in Bo'ness. Archaeological excavation and stray finds along the wall have revealed a wide range of Roman artefacts; leather shoes show the presence of women and children along the wall, and the site holds the most important sculpture collection from any Roman frontier, with many finds viewable at the Hunterian Museum or the National Museum of Scotland. The UK government's nomination of the Antonine Wall for World Heritage status was first officially announced in 2003, was backed by the Scottish Government since 2005 and by Scotland's then Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson since 2006, and became the UK's official nomination in late January 2007. The Antonine Wall was listed as an extension to the World Heritage Site "Frontiers of the Roman Empire" on 7 July 2008. Several individual sites along the line of the wall are in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and all sites are unmanned and open at all reasonable times. Many remains have come under the care of Historic Environment Scotland and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, and forts, fortlets, wall sections, enclosures and temporary camps lie along the wall. Antoninus Pius was born on 19 September 86 near Lanuvium in Italy, into the Aurelii Fulvi, a relatively new senatorial family from Gallia Narbonensis whose rise had been supported by the Flavians. His father, Titus Aurelius Fulvus, held the ordinary consulship in 89 and died shortly afterwards, leaving the boy to be raised by his maternal grandfather, Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus, a man reputed for integrity and culture and a friend of Pliny the Younger. His mother, Arria Fadilla, remarried Publius Julius Lupus, suffect consul in 98, and the union produced two daughters, Arria Lupula and Julia Fadilla. Antoninus himself held various offices under Hadrian, married Hadrian's niece Faustina, and was adopted as Hadrian's son and successor shortly before Hadrian's death. He took the cognomen Pius after his accession, either because he pressed the Senate to deify his adoptive father or because he had saved senators condemned to death in Hadrian's final years. Antoninus and Faustina the Elder are believed to have had a happy marriage, though her character attracted rumour, and she bore him four children: two sons, Marcus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus, both of whom died before 138 and whose sepulchral inscriptions were found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome, and two daughters, Aurelia Fadilla, who died in 135 after marrying the consul of 145 Lucius Plautius Lamia Silvanus and appears to have had no children, and Annia Galeria Faustina Minor, the future empress Faustina the Younger, born between 125 and 130, who married her maternal cousin Marcus Aurelius in 146. When Faustina died in 141, Antoninus was greatly distressed; he asked the Senate to deify her, authorised a temple in her name in the Roman Forum served by priestesses, struck coins inscribed "DIVA FAUSTINA", and founded a charity called the Puellae Faustinianae, or Girls of Faustina, to assist destitute girls of good family. His reign is notable for the peaceful state of the empire, with no major revolts or military incursions, and he proved an effective administrator who left his successors a large treasury surplus, expanded free access to drinking water throughout the empire, encouraged legal conformity and eased the enfranchisement of freed slaves. He died of illness on 7 March 161 and was succeeded by his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as co-emperors. The wall was abandoned within two decades of its completion, when the legions withdrew to Hadrian's Wall in 162; over time the Romans may have reached an accommodation with the Brythonic tribes of the area, whom they may have fostered as possible buffer states that would later become "The Old North". The political impulse behind the wall lay in the new emperor's need to convert a civilian accession into military prestige. The wall's purpose was therefore twofold: to extend Roman territory and dominance in place of the southern barrier, and to advertise the success of a reign otherwise remembered for its quiet. The frontier was never a sealed border but a managed zone. The garrisons themselves left traces of ordinary life rather than only of soldiering: leather shoes recovered along the line show that women and children lived at the wall, not merely the troops who manned it. The building programme shifted more than once as it went forward. The stone foundations and wing walls of the earliest forts reveal a first intention to raise a stone wall in the manner of Hadrian's, an intention quickly set aside. Forts were first envisaged at intervals of ten kilometres, then at 3.3 kilometres, giving nineteen along the line, and at Duntocher and Croy Hill forts were raised on ground where fortlets had already been built. The distance stones set into it to mark the lengths built by each legion were brightly painted, a fact established by recent laboratory work on surviving traces of pigment; the slabs are held in a university museum and are reckoned the finest statuary from any Roman frontier. The wider artefact assemblage from excavation and stray finds is likewise exceptional, with many objects displayed in Glasgow and Edinburgh. One account has the wall given up only eight years after completion, with the garrisons pulled back to Hadrian's Wall; another places the withdrawal within two decades, when the legions retired south in 162. On departure the fort buildings were burnt or demolished while the rampart and ditch were left standing, and the Romans carried off what was portable, discarded what was heavy and worthless, and buried much of it so that local people could not turn it to use. The decision to leave was taken in or around 158, and the process may have run on past 164; the final abandonment remains disputed, since the classical texts are thin and the datable finds contradictory. Severus, campaigning in Scotland in 208–210, gave the old line no attention, though late sources on his wall-building later confused scholars, and Bede, following Gildas, wrongly credited the turf wall to the Britons. The modern recovery of the wall began with mapping. The first stretch was scheduled as a monument of national importance in 1926, and GIS and lidar now allow the wall to be modelled in three dimensions and its intervisibility and Roman distance units studied. Canonical page: https://getsitesee.com/places/antonine-wall