Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go, the house?
Brian: It says, "Romans go home. "
Centurion: No it doesn't ! What's the latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on !
Brian: Er, "Romanus" !
Centurion: Vocative plural of "Romanus" is?
Brian: Er, er, "Romani" !
Centurion: [Writes "Romani" over Brian's graffiti] "Eunt"? What is "eunt"? Conjugate the verb, "to go" !
Brian: Er, "Ire". Er, "eo", "is", "it", "imus", "itis", "eunt".
Centurion: So, "eunt" is...?
Brian: Third person plural present indicative, "they go".
Centurion: But, "Romans, go home" is an order. So you must use...?
[He twists Brian's ear]
Brian: Aaagh ! The imperative !
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: Aaaagh ! Er, er, "i" !
Centurion: How many Romans?
Brian: Aaaaagh ! Plural, plural, er, "ite" !
Centurion: [Writes "ite"] "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion towards, isn't it?
Brian: Dative !
[the Centurion holds a sword to his throat]
Brian: Aaagh ! Not the dative, not the dative ! Er, er, accusative, "Domum" !
Centurion: But "Domus" takes the locative, which is...?
Brian: Er, "Domum" !
Centurion: [Writes "Domum"] Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
Centurion: Hail Caesar ! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.
Distance of this circular walk: 7m
Walked: 27 September 2008
If there was any graffiti on Hadrian's Wall, which bounded the far corner of the Roman Empire, then it's long gone. As is the vast majority of the wall itself.
I have to take my hat off to the tourism people responsible for marketing the area, for getting so much value from something long gone. It's not fair to say that it's not there any more, because there are visible signs, but you have to look for them. On arrival at Greenhead near Gilsland (near Carlisle) I saw big letters on the side of a bus saying 'Hadrian's Wall Country'. It does all lead you to believe that there's a wall there to see and walk along.
To be fair, it's a well marked route, with plenty of information boards and bits and pieces to see and some glorious English countryside. I had just been expecting to see a wall - that's all!
Our starting point was close to Thirlwall Castle. Built long after the romans had gone, out of stones robbed from the wall itself, it's a fascinating piece of history. It marks a time of conflict, not between the Romans and those just beyond their empire, but between the Scots and English.
This route took us north-east; away from the route of the wall, but through some gorgeous scenery. The weather had looked dodgy (at best) when we set off, but as you can see it was superb for most of this walk.
Having turned south to join the river, footpaths took us back to Gilsland and the route of the wall. Our first sign of the wall was Poltcross Burn Milecastle, accommodation for about 60 soldiers or possibly prisoners. There's not much left, but the information boards show how (we think) it looked. The wall extended east and west from here.
This awesome arch, straight out of Lara Croft, is much later. The railway line runs over it.
This is what's left of the wall itself in this area. A bit of a mound and a bit of a ditch. Interestingly, you're asked not to walk in single file or worn bits of ground as an erosion measure. It's easy to see why a ditch and a mound like this is a good defence measure and puts those beyond it at something of a disadvantage. Even without the wall, it would be quite difficult to scramble over this lot with your sword in your hand and an enemy throwing things at you.
5 comments:
Cool, Pea! I'm so jealous!
Many hee hees for the Life of Brian sketch. Brilliant stuff.
Something tells me you miss playing Tomb Raider. I must confess to a yearning to get up in the attic and dig out my Playstation 1 and the original game (so much better than any of the sequels).
It's good to see that there is at least some sign of the wall up there. Do you remember walking around Venta Icenorum at Caistor here in Norfolk? They've recently been excavating a bit more of the walls so it's slightly less of a bare meadow now.
This is a great post. Did you do any more of the wall? will you be doing the full length at any time?
I must confess, Im in love with English Archaeology. So much of it is based on random ditches and mounds!
Thankyou SO much for posting! Ill be sure to pay a visit to Hadrian's Wall earlier on next year when Im in the UK.
Thanks Dive, yes, of course I remember the one near you. I did get much more of a sense of history there than I did at Hadrian's Wall, possibly on account of there being so much more to see.
Nice to hear from you espressohead. I should have said in the post that the walk we followed was 'Gilsland and Walltown' available free from this page:http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall/downloads.asp?PageId=124 - it's a great website with loads of information and resources. I'm told that there are sections of wall to see on the right-hand (east) side of the country rather than the west where we were.
Nice post.
I walked the whole damned thing back in August (see
here) and I have to agree that there ain't much left - you don't see any wall until two days in, and very little for the last two days, and it only takes six. Mind you having said that I don't care if I never see another milecastle again..!
I wish we'd taken longer and done a couple of the circular walks en-route.
Great! Thanks for the link and the heads up!
=D
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