THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 200
The First Act in the Fall of Roman Britain
13-6. The First Act in the Fall of Roman Britain
The civilisation of the towns appears to have been of the Roman type. Not only do the Communications with the Continent seem to have been conducted chiefly between the Kentish ports and those of the opposite Gaulish littoral, and in particular between Rutupiae (Richborough, just north of Sandwich) and Gessoriacum, otherwise called Bononia, now Boulogne. There was also not infrequent intercourse between Colchester and the Rhine estuary, to which we may ascribe various German products found in Roman Colchester, though not elsewhere in Roman Britain. On occasion men also reached or left the island by long sea passages. Troops, it appears, were sometimes shipped direct from Fectio (Vechten, near Utrecht), the port of the Rhine, to the mouth of the Tyne in Northumberland, while traders now and then sailed direct from Gaul to Ireland and to British ports on the Irish Channel.
The police of the seas was entrusted to a classis Britannica, which intermittent references in our authorities shew to have existed from the middle of the first century (that is from the original conquest or soon after) till at least the end of the third century. Despite its title, the principal station of this fleet was not in Britain but at Boulogne, and its work was the preservation of order on either coast of the Straits of Dover. This fleet appears to have been a police flotilla rather than a naval force, but for once it emerged into the political importance which fleets often assume. About 286 a Menapian (i.e. probably, Belgian) by name Carausius became commandant, possibly with extended powers to cope with the increasing piracy; he set himself up as colleague to the two reigning emperors, Maximian and Diocletian, enlarged his fleet, allied himself with the searobbers, and in 289 actually extorted some kind of recognition at Rome. But in 293 he was murdered and his successor Allectus was crushed by the Emperor Constantius Chlorus in 296. Carausius was apparently an able man. But in his aims lie differed little from many other pretenders to the throne whom the later third century produced: his object was not an independent Britain but a share in the government of the Empire. His special significance is that he shewed, for the first time in history, how a fleet might detach Britain from its geographical connexion with the north-western Continent. Twelve centuries passed before this possibility was again realised.
The preceding paragraphs have described the main features of Roman Britain, civil and military, during the main part of its existence. In the fourth century, change was plainly imminent. Barbarian sailors, Saxons and others, began, as we have seen, rather earlier than 300 to issue from the other shores of the German Ocean and to vex the coasts of Gaul and probably also those of Britain. Carausius in 280 or 287 was sent to repress them. After his and his successor's deaths, some change, the nature of which is not yet quite clear, was made in the classis Britannica, and we now hear hardly anything more of it.
A system of coast defence was established from the Wash to the Isle of Wight. It consisted of some nine forts, each planted on a harbour and garrisoned by a regiment of horse or foot. The British Fleet, so far as Britain was concerned, may have been divided up amongst these forts or may have been entirely suspended. But it is difficult to make out (owing to the general obscurity) whether the change was made in the interests of coast defence or as a preventive against another Carausius. The new system was known — from the name of the chief assailant — as the Saxon Shore (Litus Saxonicum).
Whatever the step and whatever the motive, Britain appears for a while to have escaped the Saxon pillages. During the first years of the fourth century, it enjoyed indeed considerable prosperity. But no Golden Age lasts long. Before 350, probably in 343, the Emperor Constans had to cross the Channel and drive out the raiders — not Saxons only, but Picts from the north and Scots (Irish) from the north-west. This event opens the first act in the Fall of Roman Britain (343-383).
In 360 further interference was needed and Lupicinus, magister armorum, was sent over from Gaul. Probably he effected little: certainly we read that in 368 all Britain was in evil plight and Theodosius, father of Theodosius I, Rome's best general at that time, was despatched with large forces. He won a complete success. In 368 he cleared the invading bands out of the south: in 369 he moved north, restoring towns and forts and limites, including presumably Hadrian's Wall. So decisive was his victory that one district — now unfortunately unidentifiable — which he rescued from the barbarians, was named Valentia in honour of the then Emperor of the West, Valentinian I. For some years after this Britain disappears from recorded history, and may be thought to have enjoyed comparative peace.
Such is the account given us by ancient writers of the period circa 343-383. It sounds as though things were already “about as bad as they could be.” But a similar tale is told of many other provinces, and yet the Empire survived "When Ausonius wrote his Mosella in 371, he described the Moselle valley as a rich and fertile and happy countryside. Britain had no Ausonius. But she can adduce archaeological evidence, which is often more valuable than literature. The coins which have been found in Romano-British villas, ill-recorded as they too often are, give us a clue. They suggest that some country houses and farms were destroyed or abandoned as early as 350 or 360, but that more of them remained occupied till about 385 or even later. It is not surprising to read in Ammianus that about 360 Britain was able to export corn regularly to northern Germany and Gaul.
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