That Severus built or had reconstructed a wall in Britain rests upon the direct authority of Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Spartian, Orosius, and Eusebius. Spartian, who wrote in 280, says (c. 18), ‘Britanniam, quod maximum ejus imperii decus est, muro per transversam insulam ducto, utrimque ad finem oceani munivit.’ Unfortunately he does not give the length of the wall, which would have indicated its position; but he also says (c. 22), ‘Post murum aut vallum missum in Britannia, quum ad proximam mansionem rediret, non solum victor, sed etiam in aeternum _pace fundata_;’ which shows that it was after his expedition into Caledonia; and it is rather remarkable that at Cramond—the proxima mansio—behind the wall of Antoninus, was found a medal of Severus, having on the reverse the inscription, ‘fundator pacis.’ Aurelius Victor, who wrote 360, says, ‘His majora aggressus Britanniam quae ad ea utilis erat, pulsis hostibus, muro munivit, per transversam insulam ducto, utrimque ad finem oceani’ (_De Caes._ 20). And again: ‘Hic in Britannia vallum per triginta duo passuum millia a mari ad mare deduxit’ (_Epit._ 40). And Eutropius, who wrote at the same time, says, ‘Novissimum bellum in Britannia habuit: utque receptas provincias omni securitate muniret, vallum per 32 millia passuum a mari ad mare deduxit’ (viii. 19). Both these writers place the construction of the vallum after the war, and if it was thirty-two Roman miles in length, it can only have extended across the peninsula between the Forth and the Clyde. Orosius, who wrote in 417, says, ‘Severus victor in Britannias defectu pene omnium sociorum trahitur. Ubi magnis gravibusque praeliis saepe gestis, receptam partem insulae a caeteris indomitis gentibus vallo distinguendam putavit. Itaque magnam fossam firmissimumque vallum, crebris insuper turribus communitum, per centum triginta et duo millia passuum a mari ad mare duxit.’ Eusebius, as reported by St. Jerome, says, ‘Severus in Britannos bellum transfert, ubi, ut receptas provincias ab incursione barbarica faceret securiores, vallum per 132 passuum millia a mari ad mare duxit.’ The length here given of 132 Roman miles is as inconsistent with the distance between the Tyne and the Solway, as it is with that between the Forth and the Clyde. Horsley, who considered that the earthen vallum between the Tyne and the Solway was the work of Hadrian, and the murus or wall which runs parallel to it, the work of Severus, supposed that in the original MS. of these writers the distance had been written LXXXII and that C had been written by mistake for L, which would reduce the distance to eighty-two miles; but no MS. supports this conjecture, and Mr. Bruce, in his work on the wall, clearly establishes that both are the work of Hadrian.