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Thomas Jones · Hadrian's Wall

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Tomorrow at dusk, to mark the 1600th anniversary of the departure of the Romans from Britain, flaming torches will be lit every 250 metres along the length of Hadrian's Wall, starting at the North Tyneside end, to create a 'line of light from coast to coast'. It will take about an hour for the light to reach Carlisle,where it will be greeted with a variety of neopagan festivities:

Led by the stirring sounds of street band Tongues of Fire and impressive fiery engines (from Pandeamonium) and lit by thousands of flickering flames, a parade of costumed characters and musicians will follow the elusive and beautiful airborne Heliosphere through the streets.

It should all be very pretty, as long as it doesn't rain.

You may be wondering, though, how the date of the end of the Roman occupation of Britain can appear to be known so precisely. It's not as if there are any surviving fragments of any ancient Briton's diary: 'Saturday, 13 March 410. That's the last of the buggers loaded onto their galleys and hightailing it for Gaul. And good riddance.' Or indeed of any Roman's: 'As I was the last legionary to leave Britain the centurion asked me to turn the lights off. Very funny sir I said.'

The Romans are thought to have left by 410 because, according to the historian Zosimus, following Olympiodorus, the Emperor Honorius wrote to the Britons in that year telling them they'd have to fend for themselves; he needed all the troops he could muster to defend Rome from Alaric, who sacked the city anyway.

As for why the wall's being lit up tomorrow, rather than on any other day of the year: to coincide with a conference at the British Museum this weekend, called 'Debating the End'. As so often, the answer to the question 'how do we know?' turns out to be 'we don't.'


Comments


  • 13 March 2010 at 8:02am
    Geoff Roberts says:
    Can anybody tell me why this is being celebrated? Who's paying for it?

  • 13 March 2010 at 5:11pm
    jsager says:
    Now that is one heck of a birthday bash. Of course it's nice to know that someone is still leaving the lights on for the departed Romans, since the withdraw was only meant to be temporary to deal with the bothersome Vandals who had no respect for culture - drawing mustaches and pirate patches all over nice Roman busts. Not the type of people you bring out the nice china for.

  • 16 March 2010 at 8:16am
    Martin says:
    It's not the only anniversary to have a date arbitrarily assigned to it. After all, one of the biggest of them all, Christmas, bears no relation to the date of Christ's birth, but is just tacked onto the date of a Roman celebration - Saturnalia. Plenty more examples, I'm sure.

  • 19 March 2010 at 8:57pm
    gemma.laming says:
    Come on, cheer up you unhappy Brits! I think it was a great idea, and a wonderful thing to do just before the spring equinox.

    I think it should become a yearly celebration!!

    As ever, it is not just the doing of something like this, it is to think of it in the first place.