Why did the Romans build Hadrian's Wall...

Why did the Romans build Hadrian's Wall? Couldn't they have just conquered the tribes up north in Scotland/basically killed them off?

No one knows.

Nothing of worth up there, easier to just build a wall than subdue a group of absolute savages

Britain was always a logistical nightmare for Rome, which is why it was one of the first bits of fat to be trimmed when shit started going bad. It probably just wasn't worth it.

Also, Hadrian was not an expansionist, he was more concerned with fortifying secure borders, and making Rome a stable, contiguous state. He was the one who ditched Dacia as well.

>Hadrian
More like Andre.

The Romans conquered and looted. The clans in scotland wouldn't be worth the effort and the armies went elsewhere.

Southern Britain was more developed and more habitable than Scotland. No point in conquering an area which has unruly barbarians and no benefit from civilizing those barbarians

The army was stretched as it is and Britain was basically the edge of the Roman world...your forgetting the distance between auxillary legions bruh.the wall added strategically defense to a limited number of stationed centuries depending on the local threat...frankly beyond it's limits in brittania layed untold threats either localized or muarading

Nothing of worth in Britain either.

They did occupy most of Caledonia for some time, but withdrew probably for logistical reasons. It's worth noting that the Wall wasn't just a barrier to keep out hairy-arsed barbarians, it was part of a wider Imperial strategy of consolidating borders for economic as well as military purposes.

Btw, why didnt barbarians just hop over it since it was so small?

Britain had some pretty significant Tin deposits

Wrong. Gold and lead were abundant, and it was valuable agricultural land. Southern England is incredibly fertile.

thay erynit the Scottis sodger, laddie

cuperium and argentium not enough for yah?

>it was valuable agricultural land
Not when you had Egypt, Carthage, and Anatolia, you dolt. Probably locally, though.

it had significant mineral resources, and seaborne raids by british tribes into gaul were a serious problem

it was mainly built to prevent theft of livestock

Rome hoovered up grain like it was going out of fashion. Literally any good agricultural land was worth taking.

Yeah, but you aren't really going to grow wheat in Britain, are you? More like rye

Lots of coal outcroppings on the surface which fueled the Roman industrial revolution.

Hadrian didn't want to expand Rome any further.

It isn't, that part of the wall is whats left of being bigger.

Yes, wheat was grown in Britain during the Roman period. Along with barley, oats (important as horse feed) and, yes, rye. I don't know why you think you can't grow wheat in Britain.

>why didnt barbarians just hop over it
They were dwarves dude.

They feared the Pictish warrior

>he doesn't know that Scotland is in Britain

>hoovered

Spotted the britfag

Hadrian wasn't an expansionist, he just wanted to consolidate what Rome already securely had. He was the first Emperor to try to base his legitimacy in how things were in Rome itself, instead of how well he did in foreign conquests. This was why he abandoned Mesopotamia despite the efforts of his predecessor to obtain it. He made an unprecedented tour of all the provinces of the empire to try to solve the major problems in each of the provinces, and when he was in Britain the big thing he did was build the wall to keep out the barbarians.

The wall was built as a message by Hadrian to his successors not to try and over-extend the empire like autists like Trajan had dne.

Damnit I wanted to make that joke

why does everyone forget about the Antonine Wall?

sure they fell back to Hadrians and it was used as the border far longer but It tiggers me when the empire greatest extent is shown but they use Hadrians wall border.

They feared becoming the Persians before the Spartans.

>Why did the Romans build Hadrian's Wall?

Obviously because the Picts were savages.

There's a reason they are depicted as whitewalkers in Game of Thrones.

They did make successful forays into Lowland Scotland, but the drain on manpower needed to subdue it wouldn't have been worth it.

The Brigantes (tribe in the North of England) were also restive at this point as well, so seperating the two regions was not a terrible idea.

Also the Antonine Wall was built much further north at a later date, so Hadrian's Wall wasn't the permanent limit of Roman action in the area.

Picts are the wildlings you idiot

Actually Septimius Severus was in the middle of a massive campaign in Caledonia and towards the end he pretty much decided he was going to completely genocide every tribe north of Hadrian's Wall, but then he died soon after and his incompetent troglodyte of a son, Caracalla, called it off.

the wall mainly served as a tax collection point and to keep the picts from stealing livestock.

Which do you think is easier, genociding Scotland or building a wall?

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