Hadrian's Wall lights up to mark 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman rule

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 14th March 2010 | Rhianna King

[ZULU]

Why are they celebrating?

At least the Romans TRIED to keep the barbarians out.

[Cronos]

The final succesors in Britain were French Vikings called Normans.

Actually the final successors were from Hanover (the present Royal Family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha that conveniently renamed themselves Windsor during WWI)

[Cronos]

I actually support the Persians on that — they were the ones bringing civilisation after all

[Cronos]

one man's Mede is another man's Persian,

I rolleth on the flooreth and laugheth aloudeth!

[Cronos]

Well, one of the better theories is that the Goths were from Gothaland which is the land of the Geats or south-eastern Sweden. The Geats who stayed behind merged with the Swedes. There was a dispute in the middle ages I think between who was more heroic and the Spanish won saying that they were the Goths who left home to go awandering!

[rbg81]

I seem to remember that Caesar conquered the Southern part of Britain, but then left fortifications & small garrisons there that fell into disrepair. Don’t know if any of those were still intact when Claudius began his conquest. So, its possible that Claudius had to start almost from scratch. I remember a line from Suetonius describing Britain as an “errant province”. Tragically, I’m not as up on my Roman history as I should be.

[wildbill]

The wall wasn’t really to mark the furthest extent of the Roman Empire— It was to keep the wild Scots who couldn’t be tamed out of the part of England they had civilized.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Before the Romans, England was just a series of petty barbarian tribal kings.

With the Roman invasion came civilization, archetecture, trade, enlightnment for four hundred years.

When the Romans left England, it’s civilization collapsed back into petty barbarian kingdoms just as if the Romans had never been there.
Kind of like Zimbabwe.

[justa-hairyape]

My guess is serving on the wall was shear terror. The wall was overrun in numerous locations over the years and was so overrun on one occasion that it had to be rebuilt at a completely different location. Think about it, what kind of people could hold a Roman Legion back on the small northern Tip of an Island ? The same people who later had to defend themselves from the first Viking Invasions.

[DuncanWaring]

Those torches would pair nicely with pitchforks in Sodom-on-the-Potomac.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Thanks for that!

Always very nice to be reminded of how really good Kipling was.

"You can talk of gin and beer, when quartered safe out here and sent to penny fights and Aldershot it,

But when you talk of slaughter, you will do your work on water and lick the bloomin' boots of him that's got it."

[lowtaxsmallgov]

An ironic statement coming from someone called “Cronos”, no?

Suggesting that one side - either one - represented civilization while the other did not, I don’t think I’d agree with that.

Isn’t the difference that one was a democratic civilization, while the other a theocratic monarchy?

[bboop]

It sounds like a wonderful trip. Lovely that they were able to do it. I love the old Roman things — the wall, right in the midst of London’s financial area, the old roads hither and yon. We are searching out the Milvian Bridge north of Rome on our next trip. Where Constantine saw the Cross — ‘In this sign conquer.’

[Tax-chick]

That should be very interesting. I’d love to go to Rome!

“Old” things here in North Carolina are mid-18th century ;-).

[Cronos]

"An ironic statement coming from someone called “Cronos”, no?" --> I know :)

however, if you look at the entire Indo-European gods (and the Roman-Greek gods are from that ethos), you see that the primitive Aryans believed in two families of divine beings -->

In Hinduism this was the Devas and the Asuras. And the Asuras got relegated to the level of demons while the Devas became God.

Among their rivals, the Iranic peoples (including the Scyths, sarmatians etc.), the opposite happened -- the Ahuras were raised to higher levels and the Daevas became minor godlings. And ZOroaster raised Ahura Mazda to the highest levels

In the more primitive Baltics, Slavic and Germanics, they retained the idea of two families of divinities -- like the Aesir and VAnir.

The Greeks presumably took this idea and kept it as Titans and Olympians but were influenced by Phoenicians (like the story of Europa).

Anyway, yes, the Persians DID represent civilisation yes, just as did the Greeks.

[Dustbunny]

Wow, that is so neat. Thanks for posting.

[Dustbunny]

Oooops. That reply was for naturalman1975.

[Verginius Rufus]

So that explains the great stone walls in Zimbabwe--a legacy of Roman rule.

The Romans controlled southern Scotland for a time--the Antonine Wall marked the division between their empire and the wild Caledonians, but they later withdrew to the line of Hadrian's Wall.

[JustPiper]

~ping

[colorado tanker]

That whole dialog in Life of Brian about correcting the grammar is hysterical. Darn near as funny as the “Who's on First” routine.