Site icon FOLLOWING HADRIAN

Felicem diem natalem, Hadriane! #HW1900

followinghadrian

Happy 1946th birthday, Hadrian!

This year, I baked a cake for Hadrian’s birthday inspired by Hadrian’s Wall and the HW1900 festival. 2022 marks the 1900th anniversary of the beginning of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. Starting today on Hadrian’s birthday, the HW1900 festival will celebrate this epic milestone with hundreds of events taking place along the length of the Wall; walks, exhibitions, performances, re-enactments, activities and talks will be part of the celebrations (see here).

To mark the start of the HW1900 festival, Hadrian’s Wall 1900 organised a cake-baking competition. I usually use recipes from ancient Greece and Rome for Hadrian’s birthday cakes, but this time I made an exception to the rule as I wanted to add a “wall effect” to my cake to honour the Hadrian’s Wall anniversary and festival.

Hadrian’s Wall between Milecastle 42 and Turret Turret 41a looking west.

Find out more about the festival here and follow the #HW1900 hashtag on social media platforms. Why not take a virtual walk today along the Wall from Bowness to Gilsland with Anna Gray of Discover Lakeland Guided Tours. The tour will be in 3 parts:

  1. Bowness to Carlisle (24 January)
  2. Carlisle to Banks (25 January)
  3. Banks to Gilsland (26 January)

All presentations will start at 7.00 pm (GMT). Visit site ⇒ Guided tours of the Lake District & Hadrian’s Wall with Discover Lakeland

Also, don’t miss the virtual book launch on Twitter (@perlineamvalli) of Imperial Visitor: Hadrian in Britannia by M. C. Bishop published by The Armatura Press.

Imperial Visitor: Hadrian in Britannia

One thousand nine hundred years ago, Hadrian probably celebrated his 46th birthday in Mogontiacum, the capital and governor’s residence of Upper Germany. In AD 121, Hadrian left Rome and set off on an ambitious tour of the western provinces. His first intended destination was the German frontier (limes) which he probably reached in the autumn or winter. From there, Hadrian was to implement his new military policy of defensive imperialism (read more here). 

The Roman theatre at Mogontiacum was once the largest Roman theatre north of the Alps.

The limit of the empire was to be marked by a continuous wooden palisade running from the Main to the River Neckar. Hadrian visited the fixed quarters of the legions where he lived with the troops, sharing their basic military diet and eating, like a Roman legionary, in the open. His concern was also on keeping the soldiers fit and active, and he insisted that rigorous training programmes be introduced to reinvigorate discipline among the soldiers. During his residence in Germany, Hadrian also visited the provinces of Raetia and Noricum (read more here).

A stretch of the Hadrianic palisade was reconstructed at Markobel in 2003.
Voyage of Hadrian 121-123.
Map created by Simeon Netchev for Following Hadrian (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Click to enlarge.

Exit mobile version