Hadrian, who ruled the Roman empire after the death of the great Trajan, was a complex, brilliant and many-sided man. He made two extensive tours of the empire, during the first of which he visited Britain, in AD 122.
Hadrian was keen to secure the empire's defences, rather than extend its territories as Trajan had done, and introduced a new legion, the Sixth, quartered at York. A permanent Tyne-Solway barrier and withdrawal from areas north of it were part of these consolidation projects. The work was planned by Hadrian and his staff and largely carried out by Aulus Platorius Nepos in AD 122-26. The emperor himself was out bareheaded in all weathers along his frontiers (a practice followed by Septimius Severus [q.v.] later). One contemporary writes: 'I wouldn't like to be the emperor as he does his British walkabouts!' He gave his own family name, Pons Aelius, to the settlement he founded above the Tyne Gorge, which later became Newcastle.
Taking every advantage of the terrain, the Roman Wall is the most impressive of all Roman frontier works, indeed the outstanding monument of the Roman occupation of Britain. Like Durham Cathedral and Castle, it is a world heritage site and would be even more impressive had General Wade not plundered it to make a military road during operations against the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.