Roman soldiers are important and interesting in the history of the Roman conquest of Britain but they are far from the whole story. Travelling with the army were thousands of men, women and children who came to Hadrian’s Wall as part of soldiers’ families, as craftsmen and women, and merchants, or because they were enslaved. These are the people who lived mainly in the settlements around the forts, and in the burgeoning towns of Corbridge and Carlisle, where there were economic opportunities offered by the garrisons.
Dr Claire Millington, Visiting Research Fellow
30 April 2026
Tracing Roman civilian lives through the archaeology of Hadrian's Wall
Dr Claire Millington publishes new book exploring the families behind Roman soldiers at Hadrian's Wall.
Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Classics, Dr Claire Millington has published new book, Roman Life on Hadrian’s Wall, piecing together wide-ranging archaeological evidence to tell these people’s stories.
“My PhD centred on Roman officers’ households at frontiers across western Europe and north Africa, and I wanted to extend my research into civilians at Hadrian’s Wall where the archaeological evidence for these people is so compelling. I also wanted to tell their stories in a format that is accessible to a wider public than purely academia. This book is the result.”
Pioneering merchants and traders, soldiers’ wives and children, and slaves are among the many civilians who settled alongside the Roman army at Hadrian’s Wall. These people’s lives can be traced through the things they left behind. Children lost socks and wooden swords when they played, and wives and daughters wore fancy hairpins that fell out when they went to the bathhouses. Hunting dogs were fed and bred for soldiers’ sport, and slaves wrote letters and kept fort hypocausts burning. Roman life on Hadrian’s wall aims to change how you think about everyday Roman life at this remote frontier.
Dr Claire Millington is a Roman archaeologist, academic and writer. Her love of Roman archaeology was sparked during a posting to Rome for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, after which she undertook a master’s degree in Classical Studies through the Open University. Her PhD was awarded by King’s College London in 2022 where she is now Visiting Research Fellow, and forms the basis of ‘Military Households of Roman Auxiliary Commanders in Western Europe and North Africa’ (BAR publishing).
She is a huge public archaeology fan so she was thrilled to work on the Time Team excavations of Broughton Roman villa (2021 and 2022), and has surveyed river foreshore archaeology with the Museum of London Archaeology Thames Discovery Project as well as excavating Roman forts at Vindolanda.