Scotland during the Roman Empire remains of a defensive line made of turf circa 7 metres (20 ft) high, with nineteen forts. It was constructed after 139 and extended for . It was possibly after the defences were finished that Urbicus turned his attention upon the fourth lowland Scottish tribe, the Novantae who inhabited the Dumfries and Galloway peninsula. The main lowland tribes, sandwiched as they were between Hadrian's Wall of stone to the south and the new turf wall to the north, later formed a confederation against Roman rule, collectively known as the Maeatae. The Antonine Wall had a variety of purposes. It provided
City Wall and Moat wooden towers. Attackers had to construct bridges from their wooden towers in order to reach the top of the wall, thus exposing themselves to the defenders of the city. Archaeologists have not been able to provide a precise date for the construction of the city wall and its moat, although historical chronicles suggest the 9th century. Both wall and moat were built atop the Phoenician cemetery, and cut across the ruins of the Phoenico-Persian, Hellenistic and Roman residences. In the late 19th century, the city wall and its moat lost their strategic significance. By the early 1900s, the wall had