Hadrian’s Wall, the ancient marvel that snakes through northern England, quite rightly steals the show when it comes to the frontiers of Roman Britain. It’s a spectacular sight, rolling poetically over hillsides and serving up ruins of fortifications for all to see.

哈德良長城環(huán)繞英格蘭北部地區(qū)，堪稱建筑史上的奇跡。說起古羅馬在統(tǒng)治英國時設(shè)立的邊境，大家肯定都會想到它。哈德良長城更象是形象工程，代表了羅馬帝國的富庶和強大。當(dāng)年為防御建造的這座城墻早已歷史遺跡，供人們前來參觀。

It once reached up to 5m in height and spanned an impressive 73 miles, and today boasts impressive remains with large portions of the original stone wall still intact. Its enduring presence, however, overshadows the true frontier that the Romans, those wily conquerors who built one of the world’s largest empires by the 2nd Century AD, constructed around 100 miles to the north.

哈德良長城最高時達(dá)到5米，長達(dá)73英里，氣勢恢宏。如今這里早已成為旅游勝地，許多城墻仍然保存完好。然而，雄偉的哈德良長城掩蓋了帝國在英格蘭的真正邊界。公元3世紀(jì)，這群足智多謀的征服者在建立了世界最大的帝國之一，真正的邊界位于哈德良長城以北100英里左右。

It’s easy to see why there’s a lingering misconception that the Romans never made it past Hadrian's Wall, let alone into Scotland: it’s much neater and tidier to think that they stopped their foray at the tangible, man-made line that meanders through Northumberland and Cumbria. After all, the Romans were resident at Hadrian’s Wall for close to 300 years, defending their empire’s boundary and embedding themselves in the region. But the story of Rome’s north-west frontier far from ends there, for it was the Antonine Wall that, albeit briefly, held the title of the wildest edge of the empire.

哈德良長城蜿蜒穿過諾森勃蘭郡和坎卜里亞郡，許多人認(rèn)為侵略止步于這條人造邊境，這種想法更合理也更直接。因此可以理解，人們誤以為羅馬帝國的侵略從未突破這座長城,更別提蘇格蘭了。畢竟，羅馬人在哈德良長城附近居住了近300年，保衛(wèi)帝國的邊界，并在這里扎下根來。但羅馬西北邊境的故事遠(yuǎn)不止于此，安東尼長城（Antonine Wall）才是帝國最遠(yuǎn)的邊境，盡管時間并不長。

I grew up in Edinburgh, so this ancient monument rested right on my doorstep. But I had little awareness of its presence, which is mind-boggling when you consider that it was such a remarkable feat of engineering. It stretched some 37 miles from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde across central Scotland, and was built by the very legionnaires stationed there nearly 1,900 years ago. What’s more, today it’s one of Scotland’s six Unesco World Heritage sites, listed as part of its ‘Frontiers of Empire’ series, although arguably the least well known.

我在愛丁堡長大，這個歷史遺跡就在家門口，但我卻幾乎不知道它的存在。對如此卓越的工程壯舉竟然毫不知情簡直令人難以置信。城墻橫跨蘇格蘭中部，從福斯灣（Firth of Forth）一直延伸到克萊德灣（Firth of Clyde），全長約60公里，近1900年前由駐扎在那里的軍團建造。不僅如此，如今它還是蘇格蘭6個聯(lián)合國教科文組織世界遺產(chǎn)（Unesco World Heritage）中的一個，是“帝國邊界”的一部分，應(yīng)該也是最不出名的。

This could, in part, be down to the fact that, unlike its sibling to the south, there isn’t that much ‘wall’ to see. Originally one continuous barrier of earth and clay, it rose as high as 3m and was lined to the north by a great defensive ditch as much as 5m deep. Its layout was similar to Hadrian’s Wall, sprinkled with forts, gateways and watchtowers, but the Antonine Wall never benefitted from the addition of stone to the same extent, ensuring fewer remains. Today, unlike the solid sections found at Hadrian’s Wall, the remains comprise mainly of disjointed turf mounds and complex earthworks.

它不為人所知的一部分原因可能是，相比于南邊那道相似的城墻，這里并看不到什么“墻”。它原本由泥巴和粘土建造，屏障連綿蜿蜒高達(dá)3米，北邊是一條深達(dá)5米的巨大防御溝渠。它的結(jié)構(gòu)與哈德良長城類似，沿途分布著堡壘、城門和瞭望塔。但安東尼長城沒有使用那么多石材，所以留下的殘跡寥寥無幾。如今，不同于哈德良長城結(jié)實的遺跡，安東尼長城所剩的主要是些斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的草皮土墩和復(fù)雜的土方工事。

The Antonine Wall’s lack of celebrity status is also possibly due to its short lifespan. Although its year of completion remains debated (suggestions range from 142 AD to 150 AD), it’s generally accepted that this huge structure was abandoned within two decades.

安東尼長城之所以名氣不大，可能也與它的短命有關(guān)。盡管其建成年份仍有爭議（應(yīng)該在公元142年到公元150年之間），但人們普遍認(rèn)為，這個龐大的建筑不到20年就被廢棄了。

What is certain, as Dr Louisa Campbell, postdoctoral fellow in archaeology at the University of Glasgow told me, is that the wall was a show of force, “a massive and labour-intensive physical presence”.

格拉斯哥大學(xué)考古學(xué)博士后坎貝爾博士（Louisa Campbell）告訴我，可以肯定安東尼長城展示了國力，是“一個體量巨大、凝結(jié)了大量勞動的實體存在”。

“The wall would most likely have been perceived as an intimidating structure and a hostile imposition to the cultural landscape, separating groups stretching back many generations,” she said, concluding that it was “unlikely to have been particularly welcomed by the locals”.

她說：“人們可能認(rèn)為這道城墻令人生畏，也有損于當(dāng)?shù)氐奈幕螒B(tài)，將不知多少代的族群分隔開來，”她的結(jié)論是它“可能不太受當(dāng)?shù)厝藲g迎”。

Unsurprising, really, when you consider that these locals resided in a land ruled by warriors and tribes deemed to be beyond the grasp of Rome. Despite various incursions, encampments and even some mutually beneficial trading relations, Caledonia, the Roman term for the unconquered lands to the north, remained a thorn in the side of many an emperor. The Antonine Wall marked the outer limits of what Rome saw as civilisation. What’s more, it was an uncommon one at that.

這么說也不奇怪。你想想看，這些當(dāng)?shù)厝司幼〉牡胤奖涣_馬士兵和部落統(tǒng)治，可這片土地本來被認(rèn)為是超出了羅馬的勢力范圍。盡管出現(xiàn)了各種入侵和安營扎寨之舉，甚至形成了互惠互利的貿(mào)易關(guān)系，但喀里多尼亞（Caledonia，羅馬人對北方未被征服土地的稱呼）仍然是許多皇帝心頭的刺。在羅馬看來，安東尼長城標(biāo)志著文明的邊界。不僅如此，它還具有非同尋常的意義。

“Built frontiers were quite unusual in the Roman world as the army typically relied on natural boundaries such as rivers or mountains,” said Dr Fraser Hunter, principal curator of Roman Collections at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. “The Antonine Wall, therefore, gives us rare insights into the Roman Empire’s attempts to control the edges of its world.”

“羅馬帝國人工建造邊界的舉動相當(dāng)罕見，軍隊通常依靠河流或者山脈這樣的自然邊界，”愛丁堡蘇格蘭國家博物館（National Museum of Scotland）羅馬藏品的負(fù)責(zé)人亨特博士（Fraser Hunter）說：“安東尼長城給了我們一個難得的機會，讓我們看到羅馬帝國為了控制帝國邊疆所做的努力?！?/b>

Speculation continues about precisely why it was abandoned. “This was a difficult edge of the empire,” Hunter stated, “partly from the landscape, partly the hostility which they encountered in places, but also from the logistical point of view, meaning that extended supply lines were needed.”

關(guān)于它被遺棄的確切原因一直存在種種揣測?！斑@里是帝國難以駕馭的邊界，”亨特說：“部分是因為地勢的緣故，部分是因為他們在某些地方受到敵意，而且從后勤的角度來看，將這里定為邊界意味著需要延長補給線?！?/b>

Campbell agrees. “A combination of pressures elsewhere in the empire, less receptive locals, challenging terrain and environmental conditions probably contributed to Rome’s decision to withdraw from the Antonine Wall and re-garrison the previous frontier at Hadrian’s Wall,” she said.

坎貝爾同意這種說法。她說：“帝國在本國以外所承受的壓力、當(dāng)?shù)厝说姆纯?、艱難的地形和環(huán)境條件，種種因素組合到一起，可能促使羅馬決定放棄安東尼長城，重新駐扎在之前的邊界——哈德良長城?！?/b>

The story of the Antonine Wall has not been completely lost. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, Scotland’s first public museum, hosts a permanent exhibition on the Antonine Wall, displaying treasures from everyday items, such as ancient leather shoes, jewellery and coins, to carved distance stones, which marked the completion of sections as it was built. Campbell, who’s worked closely on many of the Roman exhibits here, hails it as “an outstanding collection of obxts”.

但安東尼長城的故事并沒有灰飛煙滅。蘇格蘭第一家公共博物館——格拉斯哥大學(xué)的亨特利亞博物館（Hunterian Museum）設(shè)有一個關(guān)于它的永久性展覽，展出了古代的皮鞋、珠寶和硬幣等日常用品，以及精雕細(xì)琢的距離石（用于標(biāo)志某一部分工程完工）等各種珍寶。坎貝爾在這里親手布置過許多羅馬展覽，稱博物館是“一個極為出色的收藏”

In addition, there are 47 named sites along the route for travellers to explore, although unsurprisingly not all of them were created equal given the wall’s lack of solid stone credentials. I planned a route westwards by car from Edinburgh to take in some of the must-see sections.

此外，安東尼長城遺跡沿途還有47個有名字的景點供游客探索，鑒于它并非堅實的石頭長城，所以景點的保存情況參差有別，這一點倒并不令人意外。我計劃從愛丁堡開車向西，參觀一些必看的地方。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處


It was always going to be an interesting recce: for starters, the wall’s route through Scotland's central belt covers much lowland territory that was at the heart of the Scottish Industrial Revolution. This takes anyone on a quest to follow the Antonine Wall through areas scarred by heavy industry, such as former coal and oil shale mines and past old ironworks. Interestingly, the ruins run parallel to some of the region’s major arteries including the Forth and Clyde canal, walker’s paradise The John Muir Way, and the main railway line between Edinburgh and Glasgow, proving that this stretch continues to be as important today as it was to the Romans.

這個旅程一定很有意思。整個長城穿過蘇格蘭的中部地帶，有許多低地，曾是蘇格蘭工業(yè)革命的中心。如果你之前沒來過，只要跟著安東尼長城走，就能穿過那些留有重工業(yè)疤痕的地區(qū)，像是從前的煤礦、油頁巖礦，以及舊鋼鐵廠。有意思的是，城墻遺跡與這里許多主要線路走向相同，包括福斯—克萊德運河、被稱為徒步者天堂的“約翰·繆爾之路”（The John Muir Way），以及連接愛丁堡和格拉斯哥之間的主要鐵路線，說明這段路在今天仍然像當(dāng)年對羅馬人一樣重要。

My first stop was the town of Falkirk, around 26 miles west of Edinburgh, which stood out as a hotbed of remains with a number of different sites in quick succession. “I have a soft spot for the wall in Callendar Park, as it survived the urban sprawl of Falkirk,” Hunter had confided to me. Indeed, the park, which surrounds the museum at Callendar House, hosts a generous portion of the rampart and ditch, and provided me with my first excitable glimpse of the Antonine Wall. Inside Callendar House, there’s also a small exhibition detailing the history of the Antonine Wall under the expert eye of local archaeologist Geoff Bailey.

我的第一站是愛丁堡以西約42公里的法爾柯克（Falkirk），許多遺址都集中在這里?！拔覍▊惖鹿珗@（Callendar Park）里的那段長城情有獨鐘，因為它在法爾柯克的城市擴張中得以幸存，”亨特向我吐露。的確，環(huán)繞著卡倫德宮（Callendar House）博物館的公園里有大片的城墻和溝渠，讓我第一次興奮地一窺安東尼長城的樣貌。在卡倫德宮還有一個小展覽，詳細(xì)介紹了安東尼長城的歷史，有當(dāng)?shù)乜脊艑＜邑惱℅eoff Bailey）為展覽提供專業(yè)指導(dǎo)。

Less than three miles from Callendar House is Watling Lodge, where along a rather unprepossessing B-road, the tell-tale rise and fall of the ditch crawling over a low-lying hill was clear to see. Also in the area is Rough Castle. The remains of this once-upon-a-time fort are widely lauded as the jewel in the crown of the Antonine Wall, easily accessed by a path from the Falkirk Wheel (another, more contemporary, engineering success story).

距離卡倫德宮不到5公里的地方就是沃特林小舍（Watling Lodge），它位于一條不起眼的路上，從那里可以清楚地看到低矮丘陵上蜿蜒起伏的溝渠。拉夫城堡（Rough Castle）也在這個地區(qū)。這座曾經(jīng)存在的堡壘，其遺跡被廣泛譽為安東尼長城王冠上的明珠，從法爾柯克輪（Falkirk Wheel，一個更為現(xiàn)代的成功工程案例）有一條路很方便就過來了。

Although Rough Castle was the second smallest fort along the wall, Bailey said, “it has everything to give the impression of what a fort looked like.” And it’s instantly obvious why it’s so revered. Whether walking along the boggy bottom of the ditch or high on the ridge of the rampart, the sheer scale is overwhelming. Standing on a damp mossy section of rampart looking across to the west of Scotland, I couldn’t help but wonder how far from home those legionnaires must have felt in this savage outpost prone to bouts of bad weather and hostility from ill-tempered natives.

雖然拉夫城堡是城墻沿線第二小的堡壘，但貝利說：“你對堡壘的印象在它身上都能找到”，它如此受人敬仰的原因也就顯而易見了。無論是沿著泥濘的溝底行走，還是沿著城墻的脊背走在高處，單是體量就令人嘆為觀止。站在長滿青苔的潮濕城墻上眺望蘇格蘭西部，我不禁在想，在這個天氣惡劣、當(dāng)?shù)厝似獠缓眠€懷有敵意的荒蠻邊境上，在那些軍團士兵的心中，故鄉(xiāng)該是多么遙遠(yuǎn)的存在。

A couple of miles further west, I came to the site at Seabegs Wood, which reared up around a bend in the road leaving little time to pull into the parking space. Here, it’s all about the Military Way, the wide, arrow-straight service road that ran behind the wall, whose remains can still be seen.

繼續(xù)西行幾公里，我來到了希伯格斯林地（Seabegs Wood），路上拐了個彎后突然就是遺址了，害我差點錯過停車點。這里都是軍事道路，是一條位于城墻后面，筆直寬闊的供補給道，遺跡仍然可覓。

Eight miles on, a short walk up a sharp, steep hill revealed why Bailey asserted that the site at Croy Hill was “visually the most attractive section where you’ve got the crags”. As well as splendid views over the valley to the west, these dramatic crags show where the ditch was sheared through the rock – no mean feat nearly two millennia ago.

再開13公里，然后爬上一個陡峭的小山坡，就明白貝利為何堅持認(rèn)為克羅伊山（Croy Hill）“有峭壁所以最為引人入勝”。除了向西俯瞰山谷的壯麗景色外，這些險峻的峭壁還顯示出溝渠在巖石中鑿砌的位置——這在將近兩千年前絕非易事。

Things got higher still at nearby Bar Hill Fort. “Bar Hill is a place of exceptional beauty,” Campbell said, “as it’s the highest point along the Antonine Wall and provides amazing panoramic views across the surrounding landscape.” That it does, as well as a brief, thigh-burning hike up to its ruins, which include the stone remains of a well and the outline of a bathhouse.

附近的巴丘堡（Bar Hill Fort）地勢更高。“巴丘特別美，”坎貝爾說，“是安東尼長城沿線的最高點，可以將周圍壯麗的景色盡收眼底?！钡拇_如此，經(jīng)過短暫的燃脂之旅，徒步登上它的廢墟，你會看到一口石井的遺跡，以及一間澡堂的大致輪廓。

The highlight, however, resided in the grounds of a small park tucked along a busy main road in the well-to-do neighbourhood of Bearsden, just a few miles north-west of Glasgow. Behind a low wall sits the more substantial remains of a Roman bathhouse, a somewhat surreal thought when you consider legionnaires once relaxed in the steam in this spot now enveloped by a 1970’s housing estate.

然而，此行最大的亮點是在一個小公園里，公園就在格拉斯哥西北幾公里處，位于富裕的貝爾斯登區(qū)（Bearsden）一條繁忙的主干道旁。在一堵矮墻后面，是一處更大的羅馬澡堂遺跡，周圍都是上世紀(jì)70年代興建的住宅，想象羅馬軍團的軍人曾經(jīng)在這里的蒸汽中泡澡放松，難免有一種超現(xiàn)實之感。

Of course, this cherry-picked approach to experiencing the Antonine Wall was only ever going to be an introduction. It gave me a flavour of what to look for and showed how addictive hunting down sections can be; no wonder there are experts and enthusiasts championing this forgotten frontier as a major attraction.

當(dāng)然，這種經(jīng)過挑選的安東尼長城之旅只是一個開始，讓我知道應(yīng)該看些什么，也知道了尋找遺跡是多么令人上癮，難怪會有專家和愛好者把這片被遺忘的邊疆地帶當(dāng)成重要的景點。

The story of the Antonine Wall may be more of a short read than a full-length feature, but it’s one that should be spoken of in harmony with its peer, Hadrian’s Wall. It has left a legacy of intrigue, archaeology, history, walks and activities – proof enough that it was, for a time, a pivotal frontier of the mighty Roman Empire.

安東尼長城的故事更像是篇精干短文，而非鴻篇巨制，但它足以與哈德良長城相提并論。它給我們留下了大量陰謀、考古與歷史信息，還有徒步和各種活動，林林總總足以證明，它曾一度是強大的羅馬帝國一段重要的邊境。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處


“The wall is a lovely example of Rome’s endeavours to control what is now Scotland and the challenges the empire faced,” Hunter said. “It was an experiment – a massive-scale engineering exercise to try to separate Roman from non-Roman worlds.”

“這道城墻是很好的例證，證明了羅馬當(dāng)年為控制現(xiàn)今的蘇格蘭所做的努力，也體現(xiàn)了帝國所面臨的種種挑戰(zhàn)，”亨特說：“建造長城是一次實驗，是一個規(guī)模浩大的工程，試圖將羅馬人與非羅馬人的世界分隔開。”