Nic Fields

The frontiers of the empire took many forms. Some of them were completely open with scarcely any boundary definition, while a military road marked others. Some of them followed the lines of rivers, while others were closed off with manmade barriers. The latter were not of uniform design, except that most were accompanied by one or more ditches. Hadrian’s Wall was extremely elaborate, composed of three separate defensive features, a ditch to the north, then the wide stone curtain-wall with turrets, milecastles and forts strung out along it, and finally a larger earthwork to the south. Running some 75 miles from sea to sea, it has been justifiably described as over the top.