From the very edge to the very centre

The Roman emperor Hadrian was born very close to Seville. 

Last year, Nigel and I walked Hadrian's Wall in Cumbria and Northumberland - the very outskirts of his empire,  watched by wary sheep as we paced the rugged boundary. 

This year, however, we visited Hadrian's birthplace, the very heart of civilisation, in Italica, once the third biggest city of the Roman empire (after Rome and Alexandria). In Italica, huge houses, furnished with the most elegant mosaics, were ranged around garden courtyards. Our friend Hilary told us to look out for a mosaic with 32 panels showing life-like portrayals of birds. We found it and lingered, identifying the species. 

But the thing that struck me most in Italica was the public baths. The Italica baths are extensive.  But this is one highlight of Roman life that IS found even at Hadrian's Wall - life on the frontier was conducted without courtyard gardens and exquisite mosaics, but a life without a hot communal bathhouse was not contemplated. The baths at Chesters Roman fort were much smaller than those at Italica, but surely, in the Northumbrian cold, twice as welcome.