Dobson, eds., Britain and Rome: Essays Presented to Eric Birley. 'The Vallum-Its Problems Restated', in M. The History of the Roman Wall, Which Crosses the Island of Britain. It may have been for these reasons that the Antonine Wall was not garrisoned for very long. It is worth noticing at this point that the Antonine Wall was a less formidable barrier than Hadrian's Wall, for two main reasons: firstly, because it was built out of turf rather than stone and secondly, because it had no equivalent ditch system like the Vallum behind the Wall. It is now accepted that units of that Roman legion built the section of Hadrian's Wall which includes the milecastle, and they would have automatically included the names of the current emperor and governor on the tablet. The inscription on the tablet, probably made and erected to mark the completion of the milecastle, includes the names of Hadrian and Aulus Platorius Nepos (Governor of Britannia during Hadrian's reign), as well as 'Legio II Augusta' (Second Augustan Legion). Hodgson based his view on evidence which included a stone tablet now in the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, which had been found in Milecastle 38 on the Wall in the previous century, its significance having been overlooked. After John Hodgson published the final portion of his History of Northumberland in 1840, it became generally accepted that the Wall and Vallum had been built during the reign of Hadrian. Before the middle of the 19th century, the Vallum was most commonly known as Agricola's Ditch, since antiquarians wrongly thought that it had been constructed during the period when Agricola was Governor of Britannia, the Roman province spanning what is now England, Wales and southern Scotland.
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