The Antonine Wall is an outstanding monument to the ingenuity and engineering prowess of the Roman army. Archaeological finds of stone distance slabs record the construction of various lengths of the Wall providing details of the identity of the legionary work parties and the exact length of the frontier completed. These show that the whole frontier system was built by detachments of soldiers from the three legions of the provincial army stationed in Britain (II, VI and XX), and confirm written accounts and other depictions, such as that on Trajan?s Column, of the everyday life of the Roman soldier as a construction worker.

BRIDGENESS DISTANCE SLAB

There is no evidence that the army received any significant outside help in the work involved in constructing the thirty-seven miles of the Wall, across the breadth of central Scotland. It was a massive project involving the building of a superstructure of turf which was protected on the north side by a broad V-shaped defensive ditch, and serviced by a road that ran roughly parallel to the Wall. The legionnaires were also responsible for the construction of the forts spaced at approximately two-mile intervals along the Wall, and the intervening fortlets. The forts were constructed in the same manner as the wall, generally using the wall itself for their northern rampart. It has been estimated that around 7000 legionaries were involved in the building project, and that the work could have been completed in 250 days.

The forts were the base and home for the Roman soldiers and auxiliary units defending the Wall, and provide one of the principal sources of archaeological information on the life of the Roman soldier. The headquarters building (the principia) which lay at the centre of the fort consisted of an open courtyard at the front, a large hall or basilica containing the commanding officer's tribunal, rooms at the back for the administrative staff and a shrine for the unit's standards. To one side lay a house for the commanding officer, the praetorium. On the other side of the principia usually lay one or two granaries (horrea). The workshop (fabrica) and a hospital (valetudinarium) were also normally in the central range. The rest of the fort was usually fully occupied by barrack-blocks, stables and storehouses. There was usually an annexe adjacent to the fort which protected military equipment that could not be housed within the fort and frequently sheltered the bath-house.

The accommodation reflected the hierarchy within the regiment. The commanding officer had his own house that he shared with his wife, family and slaves. At the end of each barrack block there was accommodation, consisting of a suite of rooms, for the centurion or decurion. The soldiers were arranged eight to a room within the barracks. The concern for the health and hygiene of the troops is reflected in the provision of a hospital, communal latrine and a bath-house at each fort. In the bath-house soldiers were offered a choice of bathing: the steam or Turkish bath (inherited by the Turks from the Romans) and the hot dry or sauna treatment.

Although the Roman army took great care of its men, providing a standard of hygiene and medical care unsurpassed in any army till the late nineteenth century, no recreational facilities were provided. There were not even any communal messing facilities. As soldiers slept eight to a room, it is likely that they pooled their food with one man taking on the cooking for the group and that they ate in their barrack-rooms. This is supported by the discovery of cooking implements marked with the name of barrack-room groups.

Analysis of the sewage deposits at Bearsden indicates that the soldiers had a mainly vegetarian diet, the staples of which were dairy and wheat products. It is likely that the wheat was ground down on the hand-querns each squad of men had at its disposal, to produce bread, porridge and pasta-type dishes. Archaeological finds of agricultural implements, such as the scythes from Newstead, confirm that these staple items of the Roman military diet were acquired locally. The sewage analysis also shows that other local items on the soldiers? menu included fruits (raspberries, blackberries, bilberries and strawberries), nuts, seafood (oysters, mussels and whelks), and some meat (mutton, beef, bacon, boar and deer) and beer. There is also evidence of non-native foods such as figs, coriander, dill, wine and items such the opium poppy which must have been imported from the continent.

In peace-time conditions the army would have controlled the local tribes, gone out on patrol, escorted supplies, served on guard duty and kept itself in readiness for war. There is little archaeological evidence of significant attacks on the Antonine Wall, and life for a soldier stationed there was probably mostly uneventful. The construction of earthworks to protect Marching Camps was a regular duty of the Roman soldiers, and there is archaeological evidence that they learned and maintained their skills by constructing Practice Camps. Excess of inactivity and potential staleness were guarded against by a number of such expedients to stimulate alertness, and it was this training and attitude of professionalism that made the Roman army superior to its opponents for a long time. In addition to the routine business of the frontier army, examples of jewellery, fine tableware, and high quality and elaborate ceremonial parade equipment provide evidence of how the refinements of Roman life and the pomp and ceremony of the Roman army reached even this remote part of the Imperial frontier. Archaeological finds of cult statues and altars also attest to the spiritual and religious dimension in the life of the Roman soldiers.

The Roman army was a volunteer army; conscription was only resorted to in unusual circumstances. One of the reasons that ensured a continual stream of recruits was the pay. The soldier enlisted for a period of 25 years and during that time was well paid and cared for, and on retirement received a cash sum if he was a legionary, or Roman citizenship if he was an auxiliary. The army, therefore, brought money into local areas, which would have provided a lucrative market for traders, and there is archaeological evidence of the development of civil settlements outside the Roman forts. These would have offered various diversions for the soldiers from the normal round of military duties. Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry, though it is known that many did contract unofficial unions with local women. The soldiers' unofficial families would live in these settlements and when a soldier retired he would often move out of the fort into the civil settlement.

The Antonine Wall was abandoned after 20 years when the Roman army withdrew from Scotland in AD 164, pulling the northern frontier back down to Hadrian's Wall. After invasions from the north in AD 197, the emperor Septimius Severus arrived in AD 208 to restore order along the Scottish borders, briefly reoccupying and repairing portions of the Antonine Wall. However, after only a few years the Antonine Wall was abandoned permanently and the main Roman defensive line reverted south again to Hadrian's Wall.