New Insights into the Planning of Antonine Wall

This study reinterprets the Antonine Wall, showing that its design differed fundamentally from Hadrian’s Wall and reflected more ambitious objectives. Drawing on new survey evidence and recent discoveries, it offers fresh insights into the Wall’s planning, purpose and operation, and reassesses Roman frontier strategy in Scotland. Until comparatively recently it was widely believed that the design of the Antonine Wall had begun life as a replica of Hadrian’s Wall. However, a close survey of the line of the Antonine Wall, carried out by the author in 2008, showed that its design had in fact been developed on a quite different basis. The years since then have been spent by the author in seeking to unravel why the design of the two walls should have been so different and what the Romans had been seeking to achieve when setting out their wall across Scotland. It gradually became clear that the design of the Antonine Wall had embraced several novel features, which had been driven by very ambitious intentions, and the author published a detailed examination of these in 2018. Shortly afterwards, fresh evidence was provided by John Reid, an observant resident of the Falkirk area (through which the Antonine Wall runs), and this has led to new insights into what the Romans had designed and how they intended the Wall to function. This publication draws out these new insights and presents a clearer picture of what the planners of the Antonine Wall had been seeking to do. It also records some of the possibilities that had been projected by Reid and which other scholars may themselves wish to consider.