Wall of Severus as the mid-5th century predating the 8th-century reign of the Saxon King Offa of Mercia by 300 years. Septimius Severus arrived in Caledonia in 208 after Picts began making a series of attacks and incursions since 197. During these military operations in Scotland, the Wall of Severus was reportedly built. Cassius Dio, a Roman historian who lived at the time of Severus, makes no direct mention to any new fortification but does allude to the existing Antonine and Hadrian Walls. Late Roman historians interchange the name Severan Wall with the Antonine Wall. Other historical writers like Bede - an 8th-century
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