Was there an alternative to building Hadrian's Wall?

Answer 1

No there was not an alternative

William Wallace would have thrown the roans clear out of England if it wasnt for hadrians wall.

No there was not an alternative

William Wallace would have thrown the roans clear out of England if it wasnt for hadrians wall.

No there was not an alternative

William Wallace would have thrown the roans clear out of England if it wasnt for hadrians wall.

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The above answer is entirely misinformed and false, and the inquirer is advised to give no credibility to it. The Romans had withdrawn from Brittania in 410, and the Western Roman Empire had fallen in 476; centuries before Sir William Wallace. By that time, Hadrian's Wall was no longer of any military value, nor did it mark the political boundary between England and Scotland.

To answer the question, it is necessary to look at the situation before the wall was built. Rome had lost many men over the years in constant fighting with the Picts and Scots because no irrefutable boundary was drawn. The wall marked a boundary that the Picts and Scots could not argue with. Unlike the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall had gates allowing travel from one side to another, but it effectively ended the border squabbling and skirmishing. The only alternative to building Hadrian's Wall would have been to not build it, and let the border warfare continue. Without a wall, there was no boundary that all of the Caledonians would respect. To the East, the Roman Empire faced more unified "barbarians." to whom fighting was not a constant way of life, and walls were unnecessary there.

Regarding William Wallace, some confusion may have been caused by the movie Braveheart. The war paint of the pagan Scots was no longer practiced in Christian Scotland, but it was a deliberately used in the movie to help the audience distinguish the Scottish Army from the English Army.