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Roman armies first invaded Britian under Julius Caesar in 55 BC, but permanent conquest only began in AD 43. In that year the Emperor Claudius launched an invasion of the island. Forty years later the Romans defeated the Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Graupius and the conquest of the island seemed complete. Subsequent reverses on the Danube led to troop withdrawals from Britian and thus, shortly after AD 100, the northernmost army units in Britian lay along the Tyne-Solway isthmus. It was on this line in the 120s that the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of the Wall which now bears his name. When eventually completed, Hadrian's Wall ran for eighty Roman miles (seventy-three modern miles or one hundred seventeen kilometers) from Wallsend on the river Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth and was of stone throughout its length.
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