The Roman-Inspired Statue Arria and Antonine Wall, the True Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire

The Roman-Inspired Statue Arria and Antonine Wall, the True Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire

The Roman-Inspired Statue Next to a Scottish Motorway and Antonine Wall (Arria and Roman Scotland)

Chapters:
0:00 Arria Statue
0:29 Antonine Wall

This is the M80 motorway, connecting Glasgow and Stirling. And this is the quarter of a million pound statue called Arria. Standing at 33ft, this stunning statue of a mermaid was created by the Glasgow-based sculptor Andy Scott, who also designed the Kelpies sculpture amongst others.
But what is the story of this statue, and how does it connect to one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen: the Roman Empire. To find out, we need to travel about 8 miles north east…

The Arria statue is named after Arria Fadilla, the mother of the Roman Emperor, Antoninus Pius, who ruled the Roman Empire from 138 to 161 AD. In 142 AD, Antonius ordered construction on a wall that would stretch right across the country we call Scotland today, from Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde to Bo’ness on the Firth of Forth, a wall we now know as Antonine Wall. This was the Roman Empire’s true north western frontier, and it was about 100 miles north of Harian’s wall, another Roman wall in the north of modern England.

Today, I’ve taken you to Rough Castle in Falkirk, the town I was born in incidentally, with this site very close to the Falkirk Wheel. Rough Castle is home to the remains of a Roman position on Antonine wall. The wall took around 12 years to construct, and it stretched approximately 39 miles across the country, being about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide. It was built largely of turf on stone foundations, which is why so little of it remains, worn away through time. For extra security however, a ditch was dug by the Romans just to the north of the wall, and this is still visible today.

These strange holes in the ground at Rough Castle are actually the remains of a Roman defensive booby trap that was just north of the Wall. The Romans hid sharp wooden spikes smeared in animal fat to encourage sepsis in the holes and covered the holes with ferns to conceal them. These traps are called Lilia, meaning Lillies, a name coined by Caesar’s army years earlier given how they looked.

These traps were obviously intended to provide an extra layer of defense against attacks from the ancient Scottish peoples, and Antonine Wall was attacked on various occasions by ancient Scottish tribes. But who were these ancient Scottish people at that time? One group was the Caledonians, a tribal confederation to the north of the country. A less well known group however that was in immediate proximity to the wall was a tribal confederation called the Maeatae, whose main stronghold was Dumyat Hill in the Stirling area. I made a video on the Maeatae that goes into more detail that I’ll link below or you can click above to watch after this video.

Sources:

BBC News - 'Carbuncle' town Cumbernauld unveils 33ft Arria statue https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...

Antonine Wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin...

Our History - • The Secrets Of Antonine Wall: The Sequel T...

The Bridgeness Roman Distance Slab - https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-col...

Lilia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilia

Celtic History Decoded - What Scottish Tribal Confederation Fought the Roman Empire? Meet The Maeatae (Dumyat Hill, Ochil’s) • What Scottish Tribal Confederation Fought ...

Antonine Wall: Rough Castle https://www.historicenvironment.scot/...

#scotland #romanempire #history

Arria statue M80 motorway - Roman Empire Scotland Documentary - Antonine Wall - Rough Castle - Roman Scotland