Roman history

View from Hadrian's Wall into England.













Sheep using the path along Hadrian's Wall. The wall was originally built by Romans who had conquered England to keep out the barbaric hill-dwelling Scots (about the same idea as China's wall), but eventually became largely to make sure Scots paid taxes when they traded with England.







The hiking path atop Hadrian's Wall, a popular destination for hikers domestic and international. The entire coast-to-coast hike (mostly beside not atop the wall) takes six days.









Among other things, the Romans brought phallic symbols large and small (small pendant at front) to Britain.












Romans brought plumbing to Britain. This was in Houstead's fort along the wall. A big tank sat in the distance with rainwater which slowly flowed along the narrow aqueducts for handwashing, then it flowed below the wooden seats that would have covered the outside edges here and then would take the waste outside of the fort walls. They used sponges for wiping.











That's Constantine, the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity. He was declared Emperor here in [old] York. He happened to be here on a military campaign when his father died. Soon after, when the Roman military was losing power, Britain was more or less abandoned and most troops sent to Europe.