Garrison

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The wall was garrisoned by auxiliary (i.e., non-legionary) units of the army (non-citizens). Their numbers fluctuated throughout the occupation, but may have been around 9,000 strong in general, including infantry and cavalry. The new forts could hold garrisons of 500 men, while cavalry units of 1,000 troops were stationed at either end. The total number of soldiers manning the early wall was probably greater than 10,000.

They suffered serious attacks in 180, and especially between 196 and 197 when the garrison had been seriously weakened, following which major reconstruction had to be carried out under Septimius Severus. The region near the wall remained peaceful for most of the rest of the third century. It is thought that many in the garrison may have married and integrated into the local community. Berk came with the turkey's and attacked the Roman's then there conquered Britain. HHHHHHHHHH

 
Part of Hadrian's wall near Housesteads.

After Hadrian

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In the years after Hadrian's death in 138, the new emperor, Antoninus Pius essentially abandoned the wall, though leaving it occupied in a support role, and began building a new wall in Scotland proper, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) north, the Antonine Wall. This turf wall ran 40 Roman miles (about 37.8 mi or 61 km) and had significantly more forts than Hadrian's Wall. Antoninus was unable to conquer the northern tribes, and so when Marcus Aurelius became emperor he abandoned the Antonine Wall and occupied Hadrian's Wall once again in 164. The Wall remained occupied by Roman troops until their withdrawal from Britain.

In the late fourth century, barbarian invasions, economic decline, and military coups loosened the Empire's hold on Britain. By 410, the Roman administration and its legions were gone, and Britain was left to look to its own defences and government. The garrisons, by now probably made up mostly of local Britons who had nowhere else to go, probably lingered on in some form for generations. Archaeology is beginning to reveal that some parts of the Wall remained occupied well into the fifth century. Enough also survived in the eighth century for spolia from it to find its way into the construction of Jarrow Priory, and for Bede to see and describe the Wall thus in Historia Ecclesiastica 1.5, although he misidentified it as being built by Septimius Severus:

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But in time the wall was abandoned and fell into ruin. Over the centuries and even into the twentieth century a large proportion of the stone was reused in other local buildings.

In fiction

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Sycamore Gap (the "Robin Hood Tree")
  • Hadrian's Wall was featured extensively in the movie King Arthur, which aimed to depict the story of the people the Arthurian legends were supposedly based on. The one kilometre (0.6 mi) long replica of Hadrian's Wall located in County Kildare, Ireland, was the largest movie set ever built in that country, and took a crew of 300 construction workers four and a half months to build. The fort in the movie where Arthur and his Sarmatian "knights" were garrisoned was based on the Roman fort of Vindolanda (see above).
  • The wall and its defence in the fourth century were described in Rudyard Kipling's short stories 'On the Great Wall' and 'The Winged Hats', both included in Puck of Pook's Hill.