Hadrian's Wall scholars! The below is a quotation found by @halduncan.com, from a translation of Hector Boece's Historia Gentis Scotorum, published 1527, in which he asserts, long before John Hodgson, that the wall in the north was Hadrian's, not Severus'. - ThreadSky

tonykeen58.bsky.social • 40 days ago

Hadrian's Wall scholars! The below is a quotation found by @halduncan.com, from a translation of Hector Boece's Historia Gentis Scotorum, published 1527, in which he asserts, long before John Hodgson, that the wall in the north was Hadrian's, not Severus'.

Reposted from Hal Duncan

"In our annals it is stated that this wall was begun by Hadrian, but completed a number of years thereafter by the emperor Severus, which, I imagine, is why our common writers call it the Wall of Severus..."

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tonykeen58.bsky.social•40 days ago

I can find no mention of Boece in any of the standard accounts of the Wall and its discovery. Has this ever been noticed before? @clairemillington.bsky.social @romanscotland.bsky.social @mancent.bsky.social @petesavin.bsky.social

halduncan.com•40 days ago

The translator notes in their introduction that the Bellenden translation abridges and skips passages, so maybe it's been languishing in the original Latin until now? It seems a pretty legit modern translation though: https://philological.cal.bham.ac.uk/boece/

tonykeen58.bsky.social•40 days ago

Well, it is pretty much what the Latin says. I've also looked at Bellenden, and whilst he does compress, he doesn't omit the basic statement. I think it just never got into the Hadrian's Wall literature. ... (1/?)

tonykeen58.bsky.social•40 days ago

... I'm sure that William Camden, the first person to write a proper account of the Wall, would have read Boece, but evidently didn't think this comment worth noting (he thought the Wall was the 'Wall of Severus'). ... (2/?)

tonykeen58.bsky.social•40 days ago

... After that, no-one writing about Hadrian's Wall imagined that a relatively obscure thirteenth-century history of Scotland would have anything to say on the question of who built the Wall, and so it escaped the notice even of careful scholars such as David Breeze and Richard Hingley. ... (3/4)

tonykeen58.bsky.social•40 days ago

... Boece is, of course, drawing his conclusion entirely on the basis of literary sources, and hasn't access to the inscriptions that John Hodgson uses. But it's interesting that his conclusion, that Hadrian began the Wall, but it was completed by Severus, isn't that far from what people now think.

romanscotland.bsky.social•3 days ago

Late to the party. I certainly know his Antonine Wall section has been talked about. Have you checked Breeze & Dobson.

tonykeen58.bsky.social•3 days ago

Nothing in Breeze and Dobson (who aren't really interested in the history of Wall scholarship). Nothing either in Hingley (who absolutely is), de la Bédoyère, the Handbook, or Hodgson.

romanscotland.bsky.social•3 days ago

Are you sure it's a reference to Hadrians Wall. Have a vague recollection that the Antonine Wall was also labelled the Severan wall at one point. Possibly covered by Keppie in his antiquarian book. Alternatively I'd suggest emailing Hingley and asking.

tonykeen58.bsky.social•2 days ago

Absolutely definitely Hadrian's Wall - there's a clear reference to it running from the Tyne to the Esk.

clairemillington.bsky.social•40 days ago

Hmm I'm not aware of this, am on a train home though will try to look later.

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