Who was Hadrian?

North East England is famous for the wall which separates England from Scotland. Hadrian’s Wall was built under the order of Emperor Hadrian, but who was he and why did he build a 73 mile-long wall?

Hadrian ruled Rome for 20 years until his death in AD 138, aged 60. During his rule he travelled extensively throughout his empire, spending more time in countries other than Italy. He is most famously know for building Hadrian’s wall which was finished in AD122, taking just six years to build. Hadrian’s Wall wasn’t, as popular stories would have you believe, built to keep the rowdy Scots out of England. It is believed that it was used as some kind of border control where the population movement between the north and the south could be monitored.

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