As the winter months in South Dakota drew near (and they are long), I realized that I needed an exercise plan. I’m an historian by education and inclination, so what better way to keep up with a fitness routine than by setting a suitable historic goal? A vicarious hike along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England perfectly fitted the bill.

Starting with a few YouTube videos produced by those who have actually walked the wall in real life, I acquired a pedometer and set a goal to cover the same mile length as the Wall, but on my treadmill over the course of the winter months. (As an update, I’m about halfway through.)

I quickly realized that to really get a kick out of the project, I would need a basic knowledge of Hadrian’s Wall and its role in Roman Britain. And for that I needed a look into Rome’s role in Britain, and, finally, a better understanding of the Roman Empire, its history and its overwhelming impact on our world, even after the fall of Rome, and through the Byzantine Empire, the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire, the Early Modern era, the Enlightenment, and all the way up into our modern world, which is to say, all the way from approximately 500 BC to the present day. Our world is tremendously impacted by the Roman Republic, as well as the Roman Empire. We simply cannot avoid it, more on that in a later post.

My first book of “research” material was the Rosemary Sutcliff Eagle of the Ninth trilogy. The three volumes, The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, and The Lantern Bearers, take the reader from the first century of Roman occupation in Britain all the way to the last days of Roman rule, and beyond. While these stories have their historical flaws, since archeological discoveries of the late 20^th century corrected some of the conclusions the author makes, they are still a very imaginative and descriptive introduction to the world of Roman Britain, and they are great stories!

After reading those three books, I moved on to a solid history of Roman Britain. Roman Britain: A New History 55 BC-AD 450 by Patricia Southern came to me via Amazon as an ex-library book from Wales, I thought this was a very nice bit of historic connectivity. I will warn you, if you want to retrace my steps historically, histories written by British authors are very meaty with detail, but if you aren’t used to that depth and methodical chronological progression you might find them a bit, well…heavy going. I don’t, but I’m a full-blown history nerd.

And now I’ve moved on to a survey of Roman history extracted from “The Great Courses” History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective taught by Professor Gregory S. Aldrete. Supplemented by the Hillsdale College free online course The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic.

Though my college history and art history degrees took me to many fascinating places (China, Scythia, Latin America, et al), historically, I didn’t spend much time in ancient Rome or Classical history in general, so what started as a fun fitness project to keep me focused has turned into a degree adjunct.

I’ve posted a lot in the past, during the early years of my blog, about gateways to history. There are many small discoveries or curiosities that pique our interest and gradually pull us into more detailed research of any given historical event, personage, or era. Sometimes it’s an epic movie, other times a documentary, sometimes a map, travel, or even an object. So, I’ll add to that list a vicarious fitness project, which swathed in a history topic, can pull you toward a better understanding of past events and people.

Keep thinking history!