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Hadrian's Double Marathon 2009

HISTORY

1850 years ago the Roman Empire covered much of the then known world. It stretched from northern Britain, eastwards for 2,500 miles, to present day Iraq and southwards to the Sahara desert 1,500 miles away. Hadrian’s Wall, designed to keep Barbarians at bay in the most northern outpost of the Roman Empire, was the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain. It is now the best known frontier in the entire Roman Empire.

Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of the wall in AD120 along a route from Tyne (Newcastle) to Solway (Carlisle). When eventually completed 16 years later, Hadrian’s Wall ran for 80 Roman miles (73 modern miles) from Wallsend on the River Tyne to Bowness, on the Solway Firth. The wall is typically 6.5m (20ft) high and about 3m (10ft) deep. Behind the wall there were two further rises on either side of a ditch to give further protection. In 1982, UNESCO awarded World Heritage Site status to Hadrian’s Wall.

“And so, having reformed the army in the manner of a king, Hadrian set out for Britain. There he corrected many faults and was the first to build a wall, 80 miles long, to separate the Romans from the Barbarians.”

Scriptores Historia Augusta, 4th Century AD.

ROUTE