Hadrian's Wall

defensive fortification in Roman Britain

15 dated entries naming Hadrian's Wall, drawn from 15 separate years between 122 CE and 653 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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2nd century

122Emperor Hadrian orders that a 73-mile (117-kilometer) wall be built to mark the northern Roman Empire while personally visiting the area. Hadrian's Wall, as it comes to be known, is intended to keep the Caledonians, Picts and other tribes at bay.source
123Housesteads Fort is constructed on Hadrian's Wall north of Bardon Mill.source
128Hadrian's Wall is completed in Britain. Built mostly of stone in the east and with a wooden palisade in the west. They construct at least 16 forts, with about 15,000 legionaries digging ditches, quarrying rock and cutting stone, preventing idleness which led to unrest and rebellions in the ranks.source
132Merchants in Britain build structures outside the forts of Hadrian's Wall, and offer goods and services (including brothels) to Roman soldiers, who receive salaries in a region that otherwise has virtually no ready money.source
180Northern British from beyond Hadrian's Wall invade the North of modern-day England, causing Emperor Commodus to allow swathes of Northern cities to establish city walls.source
193In Britain, Clodius Albinus allies with Septimius Severus, and accepts the title of Caesar. British tribes take advantage of the disorder in the Empire, and damage Hadrian's Wall. Extensive repairs to the defence work is carried out by the legionaries.source
196Hadrian's Wall in Britain is partially destroyed.source

3rd century

205Hadrian's Wall is restored, after heavy raids by Caledonian tribes had overrun much of northern Britain.source
206Hadrian's Wall is retaken for the first time, since the Pictish uprising of 180.source
208Emperor Septimius Severus leads an expedition (20,000 men) into Britannia, crosses Hadrian's Wall and moves through eastern Scotland. The Roman army pushes the Caledonians back to the River Tay and Severus signs a peace treaty. He repairs the Antonine Wall (his repairs are sometimes called the Severan Wall).source

4th century

333Emperor Constantine the Great pulls Roman troops out of Britain, and abandons work on Hadrian's Wall.source
367Great Conspiracy: The Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall revolts and allows Picts from Caledonia to devastate Britain. Simultaneously Attacotti, the Scotti from Hibernia (Ireland), and the Saxons from Germania invade the island's mid-western and south-eastern borders. They sack the cities and murder, rape or enslave Romano-British civilians.source
368Winter – The barbarians are driven back to their homelands, Hadrian's Wall is retaken and order returns to the Roman diocese. Theodosius reorganises the abandoned forts and mounts punitive expeditions in Hibernia (Ireland).source

5th century

428King Vortigern invites a number of Germanic warriors to aid him in consolidating his position in Britain, according to the Historia Brittonum. He hires Saxons who are probably settled in Kent as mercenaries to fight against the Picts and the Scots beyond Hadrian's Wall.source

7th century

653Peada marries Alchflaed, daughter of King Oswiu of Bernicia, and is baptised at Ad Murum (in the region of Hadrian's Wall) by bishop Finan.source