Another fortnight of digging at Vindolanda ended earlier this month. It was my second season of excavations there, and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time last year (read here). As I was alone this time, I booked the Excavate & Stay two-week placement and stayed at the Hedley Centre located near… Continue reading Digging at Vindolanda (2023)
After spending the winter of AD 122/3 in Tarraco (see here), Hadrian left Spain and set sail for Antioch and the Euphrates frontier, probably reaching his destination in June 123. According to a drastically abbreviated passage in the Historia Augusta, the Emperor aimed to meet the Parthian king (or receive Parthian envoys), indicating a renewal of hostilities between… Continue reading June AD 123 – Hadrian returns to the East and inspects the frontiers of northern Syria and Cappadocia (#Hadrian1900)
This summer, in the year we celebrate the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian's Wall, I participated in the excavations at Vindolanda, the famous frontier fort and settlement in Northern England at the edge of the Roman Empire. Vindolanda is a fascinating excavation site, one of the most productive in the world. Every year, between April and… Continue reading Digging at Vindolanda (2022)
At some stage during his inspections of the northern military borders and fortifications, Hadrian was in the province of Noricum. The evidence for this visit derives from coins celebrating his official arrival (adventus) and, as in Raetia (see here), the army (exercitus Noricus). He may even have visited the famous iron mines that produced the highly prized… Continue reading Winter AD 121/2 – Hadrian inspects the northern frontiers: part 3 Noricum (#Hadrian1900)
After Hadrian inspected the military forces and installations in Germania Superior (see here), the Emperor visited the limes and the army troops of the neighbouring province of Raetia, now part of German Bavaria. At the time of Hadrian's visit in AD 122, no legion was stationed in this area. Still, the province relied on its large auxiliaries… Continue reading Winter AD 121/2 – Hadrian inspects the northern frontiers: part 2 Raetia (#Hadrian1900)
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… Continue reading Felicem diem natalem, Hadriane! #HW1900
In the year 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 of that year. A passage in Dio Cassius describing Hadrian bareheaded in the "German snows" (Dio 69.9.4) plausibly… Continue reading Winter AD 121/2 – Hadrian inspects the northern frontiers: part 1 Germania Superior (#Hadrian1900)
Hadrian's deep concern with consolidating and defining the Empire started very early in his reign. Upon ascending the throne, the new emperor abandoned Trajan's newly conquered provinces beyond the Euphrates and rapidly took the opportunity to carry out his new frontier policy. He first embarked on a quick inspection of the military bases along the… Continue reading AD 120 – The army erects a wooden palisade on the German frontier (#Hadrian1900)
Soon after suppressing the disturbances that had broken out in Moesia Inferior (see previous post here), Hadrian embarked on a quick inspection of the military bases along the lower and middle Danube frontier. The new emperor knew the area well through his appointment as governor of the province of Pannonia Inferior in AD 106, also… Continue reading Late spring AD 118 – Hadrian inspects his troops along the Danube Limes (#Hadrian1900)
In the early spring of AD 118, Hadrian reached the Danubian province of Lower Moesia (present-day Dobrudja in Romania). This territory, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, was established as the province of Moesia in the last years of Augustus' reign and later separated into two parts (Upper and Lower Moesia)… Continue reading Early spring AD 118 – Hadrian conducts negotiations with the king of the Roxolani in Moesia Inferior (#Hadrian1900)
