Antoni nus's Wall The Wall of Antoninus Pius, which ancient- p. 158. ly reach'd from the Frith of Forth, to the Frith of Clyde, makes the Subject of the laft Chapter.inScotland. On this Wall is a Series of Forts or Stations, Stations on many of them probably prior to the Wall; andis. which may be fuppofed to be the principal part of thofe which Julius Agricola erected cross this Ifthmus, in the fourth Summer after his coming over Legate to Britain. The Limits of this Limits of Wall have raised fome difpute, viz. Whether it". commenc'd eastward from Caeridden, ar from P.159. Kinniel; and whether it extended weftward to old Kirk Patrick, or to Dunglass. Mr. Horsley thinks it might have ended at old Kirk Patrick, yet Stations at proper distances have been continued further. Its Length, according to his Survey, p. 160. makes thirty-four English Miles and three quarters, without allowing for the bendings. Its Thickness is about four Yards, From the In-Infcriptions fcriptions found on it, the Author gathers, that the whole Legio Secunda Augufta was concern'd in building it, and the Vexillations of the twentieth and fixth: and the quantity of Work perform'd by the Vexillations, appears to have nearly equalled that of the whole Legions; as he fhews by a particular Eftimation. The Materials Materials of it, Capitolinus tells us, were Turf: of it. Mr. Gordon conjectur'd its Foundation might be of Stone, which has fince been verified, and the ftone Foundation laid open near a Mile together. Some Conduits were alfo discover'd in the Foundation for the Paffage of Water. on it. P. 161. P. 163. Its Course is on the Brow of the Hill, not in the Course of it. freighteft Line from Sea to Sea, but often fetching a compafs for the fake of the higher ground. There is no regular Series of Caftella or Turrets on it; but befide the larger Forts or Stations, a Explorato-fmaller fort of Exploratory Turrets or Mounts ry Mounts. difpers'd here and there, which having been made of Earth, are much demolish'd. The Works of it. Works of this Wall are a great Ditch, the From P. 373 main Vallum Agger or Rampart, and a military Way; alfo fome faint appearances of another Agger, a Pavement, and fomething like a Terrafs, from which is a Glacis. The military Way is very fine: Its Courfe in a right Line from Station to Station, following the Wall pretty near, and rarely quitting it above an hundred Yards. 1 Mr. Horfley proceeds to a more particular De164, to fcription of this Wall, fhewing the Course it takes, the Rivulets it croffes, and the Villages thro', or near which it paffes, with its different degrees of Appearance; giving also a more particular account of the feveral Forts that have been upon it, which 'tis obfervable were as clofe again as those on the Wall of Severus. The number of thefe, he computes, must have been twenty-one, the Places of feveral of which he affigns, and gives Conjectures concerning others. Other An- The Book clofes with an Account of two tiquities in other pieces of Antiquity. The firft call'd ArScotland. P. 174. thur's Oon or Oven, which is within fight of AntoArthur's ninus's Wall, two Miles north from Falkirk; beOven. ing a round Building, with an Aperture a-top, resembling the Pantheon. Its Structure and Dimensions are particularly defcrib'd by the Author: the Defign of it has occafion'd a great variety of Sentiments; fome will have it to have been a Temple, either to the God Terminus, or, as others chufe, to Romulus; others only a Sacellum; and others a Mausoleum, to which laft Opinion Mr. Horley inclines, confirming it by by an Inftance of a Sepulchre built in the fame manner at Rome: Two Miles from this Dunapafis, is the Dunapafis, which is the fecond piece of p. 175. Antiquity. It confifts of two Mounts, ufually fuppofed to have been erected as Boundaries at the Conclufion of fome Peace between the Britons and Romans. Mr. Horley rather takes them to have been exploratory Mounts, For Illuftration of the Work, we have a great Maps and number of Draughts and Maps, done with re-Draughts. markable Exactnefs, viz. A Map of Britain, as it ftood under the Romans, collected from Ptolemy, Antonine's Itinerary, the Notitia Imperii, and Infcriptions; with proper Distinctions of the feveral Places, as mention'd in each Author, A general Map of the Roman Walls in the North of England, including the Stations per Lineam valli: nine particular Maps of the fame Walls, which take them up at one extreme, and carry them in a Series to the other: a Draught of a part of the Walls between one Caftellum and another: two Profiles of the Walls: two Roman Camps: five Secondary Stations, per Lineam valli: a general Map of Antonine's Wall: and four particular ones, which carry it fucceffively from the eaft end to the west. The Reader may hereby fee what a Fund of Matter is provided for his Entertainment. We have done little more than indicate, leaving the Curious to go to the Fountain-head, where they may drink their fill. A good deal of the more interefting part remains even unindicated; fince befide what came directly into Mr. Horsley's road, he has taken occafion to give a good number of Incidental Inquiries and Decifions, many of Incidental them curious enough, and which let confiderable Inquiries. light into ancient Writers, as well as into the obfcure obfcure parts of divers Sciences, particularly the ancient military Art, and Fortification, as practifed both among the Romans and the Britons. P.5. Men in a Such, for inftance, are his Decifions of the number of Men, Horse, Vexillarii, &c. in a Roman Legion. From a Paffage in Cafar*, Number of wherein two Ships of Burthen † are faid to have Legion. brought three hundred Men; compar'd with another Paffage of the fame Historian, where he fays, that eighty of thefe Naves Onerarie were judged fufficient for transporting the Foot of two Legions he argues,that as two of these Ships carried three hundred Soldiers, eighty would carry twelve thousand, and confequently there were about fix thousand Foot in a Legion. Cæfar indeed fays elsewhere, that he had scarce feven thousand Men with him, when it is evident from the Series of the Story, that he had two Legions and four hundred Horse §. But this may be reconciled, by fuppofing those latter Legions not compleat, and the former full and ftrong. In effect, the Diversity of Accounts given by Roman Authors, can hardly be folved without a like Suppofition, viz. That the Numbers were various at various times, and even at the fame time, in various Legions, according to their Condition. Eutropius ** fpeaking of ten Legions computes them at fixty thoufand Men ; which is evidently a Mistake, fince it appears from Livy, that those fame Legions, by reafon of the Loffes in them, made up but forty two thousand Foot, and three thousand Horfe. And ++it may not seem improbable hence, that fix thousand was the ufual Number, and that this *De Bell. Gall. c. 32, 33. was + Naves Onerariæ. Ib.1.5. c.41. § Ib. c. 38, 39, 40 tt In Loc. citat, P.5. was what led the Hiftorian into the Error. For the Number of Horfe in a Legion, it may be Number of confider'd, that a Transport fufficient for a hun- Horfe in a Legion. dred and fifty Foot, will carry between forty and fifty Horfe. This makes the number of Horfe in Cæfar's eighteen Transports about eight hundred, and gives four hundred Horfe for each Legion. In Cafar's fecond Expedition, when he brought with him five Legions and two thoufand Horse, the proportion holds much the fame. On the whole, the Foot in a Legion seems generally to have been about fifteen times as many as the Horse. For the Number of Auxiliaries in Number a Roman Legion, it appears from Tacitus, that of Auxins liaries in a the auxiliary Cohorts of the fourteenth Legion Legion. were appointed by Vitellius as a Check upon the p. 87. Legion, and would have ventur'd to engage with it, if the two Pretorian Cohorts had not interpos'd and turn'd the Scale. By which it should feem, that the Auxiliaries were nearly equal in number to the Legion; which accordingly is confirm'd by a Paffage of Polybius, who tells us, that the Number of the Allies or Auxiliaries, as to Foot, was equal to the Roman Legions, and double as to Horfe *. And to the like purpose we have a Teftimony of Livy t. Suppofing this therefore the ufual Proportion, ten Cohorts of Auxiliaries muft have been the ordinary Number affign'd to a Legion.-For the Number Number of of Vexillarii in a Legion, Hyginus tells us ex- Vexillarii preffly it was fix hundred +, which Account fuits in a Legion. well enough with what Vegetius writes, that every Century had its Vexillum, and was divided into ten parts, each of which was commanded by an Officer, call'd Decanus . Suppofing one of those Divifions { *L.6. p. 472: + L.22. c. 36. 4 Diplomat. L. 1. c. 13. P. 96. |
