Roman and Sub Roman Britain

Roman Britain
Britain was a province of the Roman Empire for over three hundred years, from ad 43 to 410.  The biggest problem facing the Roman governors was how to man the northern border, beyond which the Picts, the area’s native tribes, had not been successfully subdued.  In the early second century, the Ninth Legion completely disappeared, and this prompted the construction, in 122, of Hadrian’s Wall, a fortified wall seventy miles long that protected Britain from continued tribal warfare.  The wall could be patrolled, and was garrisoned from a series of fort built along its length.  It went almost from sea to sea; a series of watch-towers spanned the gap between the Wall’s end at the sea.  The Wall meant that fewer men were needed to garrison Britain, and forces were reduced by about half.  In 139, only six years after the completion of Hadrian’s Wall, the Emperor Antonine ordered the building of the Antonine Wall, further north, smaller, and shorter than Hadrian’s Wall, and built of turf rather than stone.  Following rebellions in 155-58 and again in the early 180s, the Antonine Wall was dismantled and abandoned.  In 192, the Emperor Commodus was assassinated, and one of the contenders for the Empire was Britain’s governor, Clodius Albinus.  He took the legions overseas and was defeated by Septimus Severus.  Taking advantage of this lapse in military power, the northern tribes overwhelmed Hadrian’s Wall to such an extent that portions had to be later rebuilt from the ground up.  Repairs took almost ten years to complete.

The First Saxon Raids
In the 260s, the imperial frontiers had been overrun and, since Gaul was slow to recover, the new army looked to Britain for its supply.  This created a new prosperity and, from the beginning of the fourth century, rich landowners began to build large villas on extensive estates.  This proved tempting to foreign raiders, particularly those inhabiting the eastern shores of the North Sea.  Raiding by Saxon pirates became a problem in the last half of the third century but Carausius, in charge of the British fleet, scored major victories over them.  He was accused of keeping the booty thus gained, rather than turning it over to the imperial treasury.  Rather than be tried, he seized the Low Countries and declared himself emperor.  This state persisted from 287 to 293, when he was assassinated by his chief financial officer, Allectus.  In 296, Emperor Constantius Chlorus came to Britain to put down this rebellion and Allectus fell in battle.  He returned to Britain in 306 to lead a campaign against the Picts, and then died quite suddenly.  The army proclaimed his son, Constantine, emperor, in York; by 324, he had emerged as sole emperor.  Constantine’s military reforms included the establishment in Britain of the dux Britanniarum, commanding garrison troops along Hadrian’s Wall, the comes litoris Saxonici, commanding troops on the Saxon Shore, and, later, the comes Britanniarum, commanding cavalry units.

Roman Emperors in Britain
In 350, the Briton Magnentius was proclaimed emperor after a military conspiracy in Gaul.  He quickly killed Constans, Emperor of the West, but Constans’ brother Constantius started gathering an army, using the Germans of the Rhineland to delay Magnentius’ advance.  They were very successful, sacking a number of wealthy cities.  Constantius, meanwhile, advanced slowly, and eventually defeated Magnentius.  As part of his reprisals, Constantius sent his secretary, Paul, to Britain, and Paul arrested and fined large numbers of wealthy citizens, as is testified by the large numbers of hoards near villas in this period.  This was the beginning of a lack of confidence in the state that grew over the next few decades.

In 360, Emperor Julian dispatched a rescue force to Britain following a Pictish attack.  Another attack occurred in 367, this time an alliance between several barbarian tribes.  Picts, Attacotti and Scots attacked and ravaged Britain, capturing Fullofaudes, the dux Britanniarum and killing Nectaridus, comes of the Maritime Region (probably Saxon Shore).  In 368, Emperor Valentinian dispatched Theodosius, the comes rei militaris, to deal with this attack.  The contemporary historian Ammian records that he restored order, and refortified the province, building or restoring watchtowers in the north that would warn of Pictish attacks.  Many of the Scots remained, in Wales and the north-west, and Theodosius established peace by placing prefects to rule over the tribes instead of their kings.  These prefects passed their titles on to their sons.  Thus, imperial appointments became within a couple of generations royal dynasties.

In 382, the army elevated Magnus Maximus, one of Theodosius’ lieutenants, as emperor.  Maximus withdrew some of the legions in his bid for power, defeated western emperor Gratian, but was himself beaten in 388 by Theodosius, the eastern emperor and son of the other Theodosius.

The Fall of Rome
In 398, the Saxons, Scots and Picts organized another coordinated attack, put down by the Vandal-born general, Stilicho.  A more serious threat arose a couple of years later, when the citizens of Constantinople massacred Germanic soldiers who had seized the city, and banned Germanic foederati.  During the fourth century, Rome made much use of mercenaries, laeti (barbarian warriors recruited into the Roman army, often as cavalry units) and foederati (whole tribes given land and supply in return for defence against hostile invaders).  Maximus probably installed foederati in Wales before leaving Britain.  The Visigoths, who had been stationed in the Balkans, saw an opportunity to invade Italy.  Twice Stilicho fended the Visigoths off and, in 403, withdrew legions from the Rhine and Britain, notably from Hadrian’s Wall.  Immediately, the Rhine was crossed by large numbers of Vandals, Suebi, and Alans.  The British proclaimed their own emperor, Constantine III, who traveled to Gaul and expelled the invaders.  Following a coup in 408, Stilicho was executed, and Honorius’ government turned on Constantine, who was eventually defeated by an internal dispute with one of his generals, Gerontius.  In August 410, discontented Roman plebeians opened the gates of Rome to Alaric, the Visigoth.  Although he left just a few days later, laden down with booty, the psychological effect was profound.  Rome had fallen.

Independent Britain
In 409, there had been a massive Saxon attack on Britain.  The British response seems to have been to expel the Roman officers installed by Constantine, and Honorius wrote not to the Duke of the Britons, nor to the Count of the Saxon Shore, but to the local councils, the civitates, telling them to look to their own defence.  Very little information is available for the years following 410, largely because the break with Rome also involved a break with the Mediterranean historians whose record provides us with an account of Roman Britain.  There may have been a Roman rescue mission in 418, but if so, it was unsuccessful, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

During this period, urban society declined, and rural hillforts were reoccupied, implying a reversion to British tribalism, with war-leaders claiming sovereignty on the basis of Stilicho’s frontier policy, not to mention kinship to Maximus.  There was also something of a revival in Celtic paganism, which influenced the Arthurian legend and Welsh folklore at a later date.  The move away from Rome seems to have been centred on Vortigern, a chieftain from central Wales, and most likely a Pelagian.  In 429, Pope Celestine I sent Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, to oppose the Pelagian heresy in Britain; Germanus did so in public debate, and repelled a combined invasion of Picts and Saxons. The victory was apparently bloodless—the Britons cried “Alleluia!” and the enemy fled.

The Wars Against the Saxons
The Saxon raids, however, increased in intensity and Vortigern, rising to ascendancy, adopted the Roman policy of employing them as auxiliaries (foederati) against the Picts, and so diverting their aggression away from Britain.  The first of these were the brothers Hengist and Horsa, who settled in Kent. This plan succeeded at first—the Picts were subdued for good.  Unfortunately, without the Imperial treasury, Vortigern lacked the funds to maintain this policy and, after a dispute about payment, the Saxons embarked on an expansion into British territory marked by violence and bloodshed.

In 446 and after, the Britons, lacking military strength, appealed to Emperor Aetius, but no help was forthcoming.  Out of this chaos rose a leader of Romanized Catholic (as opposed to heretical) Christians, possibly from Gloucestershire or (according to Welsh legend) northern Wales, Ambrosius Aurelianus.  Under Ambrosius, the Britons counter-attacked against the Saxons, and finally routed them at the siege of Mount Badon.  This siege (according to Gildas) brought about a generation of peace. The Saxons were probably contained in Kent and the south coast, and did not advance at any time from 514 to 547. But Mount Badon was too late for Ambrosius.  According to Gildas, foreign wars ceased after Badon, but not civil wars, so Badon was obviously an important battle.  Welsh tradition asserted unanimously that the British general at Badon was Arthur.

Works Cited
Alcock, Leslie.  Arthur’s Britain.  Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
Ashe, Geoffrey.  “The Arthurian Fact.”  The Quest for Arthur’s Britain.  Ed. Geoffrey Ashe.  London: Paladin, 1968.  27-57.
Blair, Peter Hunter.  Roman Britain and Early England, 55 bc-ad 871.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1963.
Morris, John.  The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650.  Vol. 1.  Roman Britain and the Empire of Arthur.  Chichester: Phillimore, 1973.
Snyder, Christopher A.  An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons a.d. 400-600.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1998.