Twitter Ye Not - Hadrian's Wall

Twitter Ye Not - Hadrian's Wall

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

It was during mid-September in 122AD that construction began on Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman territory in Britain. We imagine the Twitter feed of that ancient and industrious time.

On the one side I have shown the Emperor Hadrian, aka Publius Aelius Trajanus Hadrianus Augustus, third of the so-called Five Good Emperors, supervising contruction of his famous wall. He holds a-loft a map of the northern outer reaches of the Roman Empire, with his proposed barrier separating unruly Caledonia from the rest of Britannia and mainland Europe.

The wall was built by Roman centurians (hence the hard hat sign) - even then you couldn't trust English manual workers!

On the other side of the construction stands an irate Pict, unhappy at the thought of being hemmed in so discourteously. Contemporary accounts say the Picts usually fought naked (in Scotland! brrrrr!) with only swords, shields, a neck torc and talismanic woad 'tattoos' for protection. The markings on his skin are based on actual Pictish designs.

Hadrian was homosexual (that's why he's enjoying the view that extra wall-block shields from our eyes!) and when his Bithynian Greek lover, Antinous, was drowned tragically in the Nile, Hadrian founded the Egyptian city of Antinopolis in his memory, and had Antinous deified – an unprecedented honour for one not of the ruling family. Now that's what I call a send-off!