When, too, we may ask, did he build the Wall? not assuredly when he issued forth on the expedition that was to win him so much renown, and which occupied him the greater part of the time he was in Britain. He was then bent upon aggression, not defence. Neither is it probable that he would do it on his return. According to Spartian, he had at that time proved himself not only victorious, but the founder of eternal peace, and thus had removed all ground for apprehension in the direction of Caledonia. Or, on the other hand, according to the more accurate and trustworthy historians, Herodian and Dion Cassius, he was returning worn out with disease and the endless fatigues he had sustained; chagrined at the havoc which the islanders had made in his army, though they uniformly refused to hazard a general engagement; and broken-hearted at the misconduct and ingratitude of his sons, and so would, we may suppose, have been deficient in the spirit and the means to embark in so large a work. That he should have repaired some of the stations, particularly those upon the line of his march, when about to enter upon what he hoped to be the crowning enterprise of his life, and that he should have maintained garrisons in them to make good his communications with the south, is not only probable, but is rendered almost certain by the inscriptions which several of them have yielded; but that, in such circumstances, he should have planned and executed the whole line of the Wall, its castles and turrets, and several of the stations, is almost incredible. [Sidenote: POPULAR OPINION.] But it may be asked, if Hadrian formed the whole Barrier, how is it that the popular voice should ascribe the most important part of it not to him, but to Severus? That the Wall is generally called by the name of Severus, is at once admitted. So long ago as the reign of Elizabeth, Spencer wrote— Next there came Tyne, along whose stony bank That Roman monarch built a brazen wall, Which mote the feebled Britons strongly flank Against the Picts, that swarmed over all, Which yet thereof _Gualsever_ they do call.