12 Man Roman Fort Discovered in Scotland

[Uomo Senza Nome]

Lost' 2nd-century Roman fort discovered in Scotland | Live Science

It was part of the greater defensive wall in Scotland. Basically improved Earthworks with 2 barracks in the middle and a tower on either end.

[tirls]

Ancient customs station.

[mzmc]

Okay, okay, like... this is all pretty cool, but...

How have I never heard of the Antonine Wall before?!?

I was convinced Hadrian's Wall was the farthest the Roman Empire ever extended north. I thought I live and breathe (Western) Roman Empire history.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

The wall survived only a short period of time. But also it was made out of wood and turf instead of stone like Hadrian's wall. 

The overwhelming majority of castles and forts built in history were made out of wood. However nobody thinks of a castle being made out of wood because none of them have survived to modern day. 

[flybynight]

Lost' 2nd-century Roman fort discovered in Scotland | Live Science

It was part of the greater defensive wall in Scotland. Basically improved Earthworks with 2 barracks in the middle and a tower on either end.

HOW in the hell could 12 men defend that ?

[Uomo Senza Nome]

You can see the patrol walking into the base for scale. Figure the walls are about 2m + 1m of fortifications on top for only being 3m or about 10' high. The whole compound approximately 22mX22m or about the size of large American home say about 5000-6000 sqft. + the moat area. Evenly spaced you have one defender for every 20' of wall.


With the missile weapons of the day; bow, sling, javelin, plumbatae, cheriobalistra, possibly even a scorpio or compound bows twelve people should be able to cover the walls until help arrived via the wall line or from behind the wall.

[tirls]

The Romans had forts every mile or so along the wall and actually a line further north with watchtowers and forts. It wouldn't be long for reinforcements to arrive. 

Despite this they didn't defend it successfully. There isn't evidence of the Caledonians defeating them, the wall was probably abandoned, but it only lasted a decade and there is evidence of attacks on the wall. There were some tribes in between Hadrian and Antonine wall, that most likely cooperated somewhat, but shortly after the abandonment of the Antonine wall, attacks on Hadrian's wall started up. It might be that the relations between native tribes and the Romans shifted. So it is possible that the Romans simply got out before things got dire, or they decided that it was too trouble. The Romans in general were not good in conquering people without a infrastructure.

Antoninus , the emperor at the time, was unusually peaceful and the campaign against Scotland and the beginning of his reign was more likely to show that he could. The extant writings about Antonine wall that we have are quite sparse and oftentimes faulty as a result.

The wall did have a stone foundation. There's a hiking path along a section of it.

[MacWa77ace]

[tirls]

There's a line of forts from roughly Loch Lomond to northeast of Brechin. Around the highlands fault line.