Introduction

The Notitia Dignitatum is a list of officers in various posts, both civil and military, around the Late Roman empire. In the document relating to the western empire, there is a list of posts (and units) along Hadrian’s Wall. It is headed item per lineam valli (‘the same, along the line of the wall’). As such, per lineam valli is the perfect way of describing what I did, walking the line of Hadrian’s Wall up to three times a year for over a decade, so I made it my own, with a website, blog, Twitter account, occasional podcast, series of soundscapes and haiku, and several books all devoted to that theme.

The Knag Burn gateway in Wall Mile 36, just east of Housesteads fort