Early Britain-Roman Britain Part 9

Death of Severus--Caracalla and Geta--Roman citizenship--Extended to veterans--_Tabulae honestae, missionis_--Bestowed on all British provincials.

G. 1.--This mighty work kept Severus in Britain for the rest of his life. He incessantly watched over its progress, and not till it was completed turned his steps once more (A.D. 211) towards Rome. But he was not to reach the Imperial city alive. Scarcely had he completed the first stage of the journey than, at York, omens of fatal import foretold his speedy death. A negro soldier presented him with a cypress crown, exclaiming, "_Totum vicisti, totum fuisti. Nunc Deus esto victor_."[305] When he would fain offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, he found himself by mistake at the dark temple of Bellona; and her black victims were led in his train even to the very door of his palace, which he never left again. Dark rumours were circulated that Caracalla, who had already once attempted his father's life, and was already intriguing with his stepmother, was at the bottom of all this, and took good care that the auguries should be fulfilled. Anyhow, Severus never left York till his corpse was carried forth and sent off for burial at Rome. With his last breath he is said solemnly to have warned "my Antonines" that upon their own conduct depended the peace and well-being of the Empire which he had so ably won for them.[306]

G. 2.--The warning was, as usual, in vain. Caracalla and Julia were now free to work their will, and, having speedily got rid of her son Geta, entered upon an incestuous marriage. The very Caledonians, whose conjugal system was of the loosest,[307] cried shame;[308] but the garrison of the Wall which kept them off was, as we have seen, officered by Julia's creatures, and all beyond it was definitely abandoned,[309] not to be recovered for two centuries.[310] The guilty pair returned to Rome, and a hundred and thirty years elapsed before another Augustus visited Britain.[311]

G. 3.--They left behind them no longer a subject race of mere provincials, but a nation of full Roman citizens. For it was Caracalla, seemingly, who, by extending it to the whole Roman world, put the final stroke to the expansion, which had long been in progress, of this once priceless privilege; with its right of appeal to Caesar, of exemption from torture, of recognized marriage, and of eligibility to public office. Originally confined strictly to natives of Rome and of Roman Colonies, it was early bestowed _ipso facto_ on enfranchised slaves, and sometimes given as a compliment to distinguished strangers. After the Social War (B.C. 90) it was extended to all Italians, and Claudius (A.D. 50) allowed Messalina to make it purchasable ("for a great sum," as both the Acts of the Apostles and Dion Ca.s.sius inform us) by provincials.

G. 4.--And they could also earn it by service in the Imperial armies.

A bronze tablet, found at Cilurnum,[312] sets forth that Antoninus Pius confers upon the _emeriti_, or time-expired veterans, of the Gallic, Asturian, Celtiberian, Spanish, and Dacian cohorts in Britain, who have completed twenty-five years' service with the colours, the right of Roman citizenship, and legalizes their marriages, whether existing or future.[313] As there is no reason to suppose that such discharged soldiers commonly returned to their native land, this system must have leavened the population of Britain with a considerable proportion of Roman citizens, even before Caracalla's edict. Besides its privileges, this freedom brought with it certain liabilities, pecuniary and other; and it was to extend the area of these that Caracalla took this apparently liberal step, which had been at least contemplated by more worthy predecessors[314] on philanthropic grounds. Any way, Britain was, by now, in the fullest sense Roman.

ROMANO-BRITISH PLACE-NAMES.[315]

TOWNS, ETC.

Aballaba = Watch-cross AESICA = GREAT CHESTERS AMBOGLANNA = BIRDOSWALD AQUAE (SULIS) = BATH BORCOVICUS = HOUSE-STEADS Branodunum = Brancaster _Braboniac.u.m_ = Ribchester Brige = Broughton _Caesaromagum = Chelmsford_ Calcaria = Tadcaster Calleva = Silchester Camboric.u.m = Cambridge Cataractonis = Catterick _Clausentum = Southampton_ CILURNUM = CHESTERS Colonia = Colchester Concangium = Kendal CORINIUM = CIRENCESTER DANUM = DONCASTER DEVA = CHESTER _Devonis = Devonport_ Dictis = Ambleside DUBRIS = DOVER DURNOVARIA = DORCHESTER Durobrivis = Rochester Durolipons = G.o.dmanchester Durnovernum = Canterbury EBORAc.u.m = YORK _Etocetum = Uttoxeter_ GLEVUM = GLOUCESTER Gobannium = Abergavenny ISCA SILURUM = CAERLEON Isca d.a.m.noniorum = Exeter Isurium = Aldborough (York) LEMANNAE = LYMPNE LINDUM COLONIA = LINCOLN _Longovic.u.m = Lancaster_ LONDINIUM = LONDON Lugovallum = Carlisle Magna = Caervoran Mancunium = Manchester _Moridunum = Seaton Muridunum = Caermarthen Olikana = Ilkley_ Pons Aelii = Newcastle Pontes = Staines PORTUS = PORTCHESTER _Procolitia = Carrawburgh_ RATAE = LEICESTER _Regnum = Chichester_ REGULBIUM = RECULVER RITUPIS = RICHBOROUGH Segedunum = Wall's End SORBIODUNUM = SARUM Spinae = Speen (Berks) URICONUM = WROXETER VENTA BELGARUM = WINCHESTER VENTA ICENONUM = CAISTOR-BY-NORWICH VENTA SILURUM = CAER GWENT VERULAMIUM = VERULAM Vindoballa = Rutchester Vindomara = Ebchester Vindolana = Little Chesters

RIVERS AND ESTUARIES.

Alaunus Fl. = Tweed Belisama Est. = Mouth of Mersey CLOTA EST. = FIRTH OF CLYDE _Cunio Fl. = Conway_ TUNA EST. = SOLWAY MORICAMBE EST. = MORCAMBE BAY SABRINA FL. = SEVERN Setantion Est. = Mouth of Ribble Seteia Est. = Mouth of Dee TAMARIS FL. = TAMAR TAMESIS FL. = THAMES Tava Est. = Firth of Tay _Tuerobis Fl. = Tavy_ VARAR EST. = MORAY FIRTH Vedra Fl. = Wear

CAPES AND ISLANDS.

BOLERIUM PR. = LAND'S END CANTIUM PR. = N. FORELAND Epidium Pr. = Mull of Cantire Herculis Pr. = Hartland Point MANNA I. = MAN MONA I. = ANGLESEY Noranton Pr. = Mull of Galloway OCRINUM PR. = THE LIZARD OCTAPITARUM PR. = ST. DAVID'S HEAD Orcas Pr. = Dunnet Head Taexalum Pr. = Kinnaird Head TANATOS I. = THANET VECTIS I. = I. OF WIGHT VIRVEDRUM PR. = CAPE WRATH

N.B.--Many of these names vary notably in our several authorities: e.g. Manna is also written Mona, Monaoida, Monapia, Mevania.

CHAPTER. V

THE END OF ROMAN BRITAIN, A.D. 211-455

SECTION A.

Era of Pretenders--Probus--Vandlebury--First notice of Saxons--Origin of name--Count of the Saxon Sh.o.r.e--Carausius--Allectus--Last Romano-British coinage--Britain Mistress of the Sea--Reforms of Diocletian--Constantius Chlorus--Re-conquest of Britain--Diocletian provinces--Diocletian persecution--The last "Divus"--General scramble for Empire--British Army wins for Constantine--Christianity established.

A. 1.--After the death of Severus in A.D. 211, Roman historians tell us nothing more concerning Britain till we come to the rise of the only other Emperor who died at York, Constantius Chlorus. During the miserable period which the wickedness of Caracalla brought upon the Roman world, when Pretender after Pretender flits across the scene, most to fail, some for a moment to succeed, but all alike to end their brief course in blood, our island remained fairly quiet. The Army of Britain made one or two futile p.r.o.nunciamentos (the least unsuccessful being those for Postumus in A.D. 258, and Victorinus in A.D. 265), and in 277 the Emperor Probus, probably to keep it in check, leavened it with a large force recruited from amongst his Vandal prisoners,[316]

whose name may, perhaps, still survive in Vandlebury Camp, on the Gog-Magog[317] Hills, near Cambridge. But not till the energy and genius of Diocletian began to bring back to order the chaos into which the Roman world had fallen does Britain play any real part in the higher politics.

A. 2.--Then, however, we suddenly find ourselves confronted with names destined to exert a supreme influence on the future of our land. The Saxons from the Elbe, and the Franks from the Rhine had already begun their pirate raids along the coasts to the westwards.[318] Each tribe derived its name from its peculiar national weapon (the Franks from their throwing-axe (_franca_),[319] the Saxons from the _saexes_, long murderous knives, snouted like a Norwegian knife of the present day, which they used with such deadly effect);[320] and their appearance const.i.tuted a new and fearful danger to the Roman Empire. Never, since the Mediterranean pirates were crushed by Pompey (B.C. 66) had it been exposed to attacks by sea. A special effort was needed to meet this new situation, and we find, accordingly, a new officer now added to the Imperial muster,--the Count of the Saxon Sh.o.r.e. His jurisdiction extended over the northern coast of Gaul and the southern and eastern sh.o.r.es of Britain, the head-quarters of his fleet being at Boulogne.

A. 3.--The first man to be placed in this position was Carausius,[321]

a Frisian adventurer of low birth, but great military reputation, to which unfortunately he proved unequal. When his command was not followed by the looked-for putting-down of the pirate raiders, he was suspected, probably with truth, of a secret understanding with them.

The Government accordingly sent down orders for his execution, to which he replied (A.D. 286) by open rebellion, took the pirate fleets into his pay, and having thus got the undisputed command of the sea, succeeded in maintaining himself as Emperor in Britain for the rest of his life.

A. 4.--His reign and that of his successor (and murderer) Allectus are marked by the last and most extraordinary development of Romano-British coinage. Since the time of Caracalla no coins which can be definitely proved to deserve this name are found; but now, in less than ten years, our mints struck no fewer than five hundred several issues, all of different types. Nearly all are of bronze, with the radiated head of the Emperor on the obverse, and on the reverse devices of every imaginable kind. The British Lion once more figures, as in the days of Cymbeline; and we have also the Roman Wolf, the Sea-horse, the Cow (as a symbol of Prosperity), Plenty, Peace, Victory, Prudence, Health, Safety, Might, Good Luck, Glory, all symbolized in various ways. But the favourite type of all is the British warship; for now Britannia, for the first time, ruled the waves, and was, indeed, so entirely Mistress of the Sea that her fleet appeared even in Mediterranean waters.[322] The vessels figured are invariably not Saxon "keels," but cla.s.sical galleys, with their rams and outboard rowing galleries, and are always represented as cleared for action (when the great mainsail and its yard were left on sh.o.r.e).

A. 5.--The usurpation of Carausius, "the pirate," as the Imperial panegyrists called him,[323] brought Diocletian's great reform of the Roman administration within the scope of practical politics in Britain. The old system of Provinces, some Imperial, some Senatorial, with each Pro-praetor or Pro-consul responsible only and immediately to the central government at Rome, had obviously become outgrown. And the Provinces themselves were much too large. Diocletian accordingly began by dividing the Empire into four "Prefectures," two in the east and two in the west. Each pair was to be under one of the co-Augusti, who again was to entrust one of his Prefectures to the "Caesar"[324]

or heir-apparent of his choice. Thus Diocletian held the East, while Galerius, his "Caesar," took the Prefecture of Illyric.u.m. His colleague Maximian, as Augustus of the West, ruled in Italy; and the remaining Prefecture, that of "the Gauls," fell to the Western Caesar, Constantius Chlorus. Each Prefecture, again, was divided into "Dioceses" (that of Constantius containing those of Britain, Gaul, Spain, and Mauretania), each under a "Vicar," and comprising a certain number of "Provinces" (that of Britain having four). Thus a regular hierarchy with rank above rank of responsibility was established, and so firmly that Diocletian's system lasted (so far as provincial government was concerned) till the very latest days of the Roman dominion.

A. 6.--When Constantius thus became Caesar of the West, his first task was to restore Britain to the Imperial system. He was already, it seems, connected with the island, and had married a British lady named Helen.[325] Their son Constantine, a youth of special promise (according to the panegyrists), had been born at York, about A.D.

274, and now appeared on the scene to aid his father's operations with supernatural speed, "_quasi divino quodam curriculo_."[326]

Extraordinary celerity, indeed, marked all these operations. Allectus was on his guard, with one squadron at Boulogne to sweep the coast of Gaul, and another cruising in the Channel. By a sudden dash Constantius [in A.D. 296] seized the mouth of Boulogne harbour, threw a boom across it, "_defixis in aditu trabibus_," and effectually barred the pirates from access to the sea.[327] Meanwhile the fleet which he had been building simultaneously in various Gallic ports was able to rendezvous undisturbed at Havre.

A. 7.--His men were no expert mariners like their adversaries; and, for this very reason, were ready, with their Caesar at their head, to put to sea in threatening weather, which made their better-skilled pilots hesitate. "What can we fear?" was the cry, "Caesar is with us."

Dropping down the Seine with the tide on a wild and rainy morning, they set sail with a cross wind, probably from the north-east, a rare thing with ancient ships. As they neared the British coast the breeze sank to a dead calm, with a heavy mist lying on the waveless sea, in which the fleet found it impossible to keep together. One division, with Constantius himself on board, made their land-fall somewhere in the west, perhaps at Exeter, the other far to the east, possibly at Richborough.

A. 8.--But the wonderful luck which attended Constantius, and on which his panegyrists specially dwell, made all turn out for the best. The mist enabled both his divisions to escape the notice of the British fleet, which was lying off the Isle of Wight on the watch for him; and the unexpected landing at two such distant points utterly demoralized the usurper. Of the large force which had been mustered for land defence, only the Frankish auxiliaries could be got together in time to meet Constantius--who, having burnt his ships (for his only hope now lay in victory), was marching, with his wonted speed, straight on London. One battle,[328] in which scarcely a single Roman fell on the British side, was enough; the corpse of Allectus [_ipse vexillarius latrocinii_] was found, stripped of the Imperial insignia, amongst the heaps of slain barbarians, and the routed Franks fled to London. Here, while they were engaged in sacking the city before evacuating it, they were set upon by the eastern division of the Roman army (under Asclepiodotus the Praetorian Prefect)[329] and slaughtered almost to a man. The rescued metropolis eagerly welcomed its deliverers, and the example was followed by the rest of Britain; the more readily that the few surviving Franks were distributed throughout the land to perish in the provincial amphitheatres.

A. 9.--The Diocletian system was now introduced; and, instead of Hadrian's old divisions of Upper and Lower Britain, the island south of his Wall was distributed into four Provinces, "Britannia Prima,"

"Britannia Secunda," "Maxima Caesariensis," and "Flavia Caesariensis."

That the Thames, the Severn, and the Humber formed the frontier lines between these new divisions is probable. But their identification, in the current maps of Roman Britain, with the later Wess.e.x, Wales, Northumbria, and Mercia (with East Anglia), respectively, is purely conjectural.[330] All that we know is that when the district between Hadrian's Wall and Agricola's Rampart was reconquered in 369, it was made a fifth British Province under the name Valentia. The Governor of each Province exercised his functions under the "Vicar" of the "Diocese," an official of "Respectable" rank--the second in precedence of the Diocletian hierarchy (exclusive of the Imperial Family).

A. 10.--With the Diocletian administration necessarily came the Diocletian Persecution--an essential feature of the situation. There is no reason to imagine that the great reforming Emperor had, like his colleague Maximian, any personal hatred for Christianity. But Christianity was not among the _religiones licitae_ of the Empire.

Over and over again it had been p.r.o.nounced by Imperial Rescript unlawful. This being so, Diocletian saw in its toleration merely one of those corruptions of lax government which it was his special mission to sweep away, and proceeded to deal with it as with any other abuse,--to be put down with whole-hearted vigour and rigour.

A. 11.--The Faith had by this time everywhere become so widespread that the good-will of its professors was a political power to be reckoned with. Few of the pa.s.sing Pretenders of the Era of Confusion had dared to despise it, some had even courted it; and thus throughout the Empire the Christian hierarchy had been established, and Christian churches been built everywhere; while Christians swarmed in every department of the Imperial service,--their neglect of the official worship winked at, while they, in turn, were not vigorous in rebuking the idolatry of their heathen fellow-servants. Now all was changed.

The sacred edifices were thrown down, or (as in the famous case of St.

Clement's at Rome) made over for heathen worship, the sacred books and vessels destroyed, and every citizen, however humble, had to produce a _libellus_,[331] or magisterial certificate, testifying that he had formally done homage to the G.o.ds of the State, by burning incense at their shrines, by pouring libations in their name, and by partaking of the victims sacrificed upon their altars. Torture and death were the lot of all recusants; and to the n.o.ble army of martyrs who now sealed their testimony with their blood Britain is said (by Gildas) to have contributed a contingent of no fewer than seventeen thousand, headed by St. Alban at Verulam.

A. 12.--So thorough-going a persecution the Church had never known.

But it came too late for Diocletian's purpose; and it was probably the latent consciousness of his failure that impelled him, in 305, to resign the purple and retire to his cabbage-garden at Dyrrhachium.

Maximian found himself unwillingly obliged to retire likewise; and the two Caesars, Galerius and Constantius, became, by the operation of the new const.i.tution, _ipso facto_ Augusti.

A. 13.--But already the mutual jealousy and distrust in which that const.i.tution was so soon to perish began to manifest themselves.

Galerius, though properly only Emperor of the East, seized on Rome, and with it on the person of the young Constantine, whom he hoped to keep as hostage for his father's submission. The youth, however, contrived to flee, and post down to join Constantius in Gaul, slaughtering every stud of relays along the entire road to delay his pursuers. Both father and son at once sailed for Britain, where the former shortly died, like Severus, at York. With their arrival the persecution promptly ceased;[332] for Helena, at least, was an ardent Christian, and her husband well-affected to the Faith. Yet, on his death, he was, like his predecessors, proclaimed _Divus_; the last formal bestowal of that t.i.tle being thus, like the first,[333]

specially connected with Britain. Constantius was buried, according to Nennius,[334] at Segontium, wherever that may have been; and Constantine, though not yet even a Caesar, was at once proclaimed by the soldiers (at his native York) Augustus in his father's room.

A. 14.--This was the signal for a whole outburst of similar proclamations all over the Roman world, Licinius, Constantine's brother-in-law, declared himself Emperor at Carnutum, Maxentius, son of Maximian and son-in-law of Galerius, in Rome, Severus in the Illyrian provinces, and Maximin (who had been a Caesar) in Syria.

Galerius still reigned, and even Maximian revoked his resignation and appeared once more as Augustus. But one by one this medley of Pretenders swept each other away, and the survival of the fittest was exemplified by the final victory of Constantine over them all. For a few years he bided his time, and then, at the head of the British army, marched on Rome. Clear-sighted enough to perceive that events were irresistibly tending to the triumph of Christianity, he declared himself the champion of the Faith; and it was not under the Roman Eagle, but the Banner of Christ,[335] that his soldiers fought and won. Coins of his found in Britain, bearing the Sacred Monogram which led his men to the crowning victory of 312 at the Milvian Bridge (the intertwined letters [Greek: Chi] and [Greek: Rho] between [Greek: Alpha] and [Greek: Omega], the whole forming the word [Greek: ARCho], "I reign"), with the motto _Hoc Signo Victor Eris_, testify to the special part taken by our country in the establishment of our Faith as the officially recognized religion of Rome,--that is to say, of the whole civilized world. And henceforward, as long as Britain remained Roman at all, it was a monarch of British connection who occupied the Imperial throne. The dynasties of Constantius, Valentinian, and Theodosius, who between them (with the brief interlude of the reign of Julian) fill the next 150 years (300-450), were all markedly a.s.sociated with our island. So, indeed, was Julian also.

SECTION B.

Spread of Gospel--Arianism--Britain orthodox--Last Imperial visit--Heathen temples stripped--British Emperors--Magnentius--Gratian--Julian--British corn-trade--First inroad of Picts and Scots--Valentinian--Saxon raids--Campaign of Theodosius--Re-conquest of Valentia.

B. 1.--For a whole generation after the triumph of Constantine tranquillity reigned in Britain. The ruined Christian churches were everywhere restored, and new ones built; and in Britain, as elsewhere, the Gospel spread rapidly and widely--the more so that the Church here was but little troubled[336] by the desperate struggle with Arianism which was convulsing the East. Britain, as Athanasius tells us, gave an a.s.senting vote to the decisions of Nicaea [[Greek: sumpsephos etunchane]], and British Bishops actually sat in the Councils of Arles (314) and of Ariminum (360).

B. 2.--The old heathen worship still continued side by side with the new Faith; but signs soon appeared that the Church would tolerate no such rivalry when once her power was equal to its suppression. Julius Firmicus (who wrote against "Profane Religions" in 343) implores the sons of Constantine to continue their good work of stripping the temples and melting down the images;--in special connection with a visit paid by them that year to Britain[337] (our last Imperial visit), when they had actually been permitted to cross the Channel in winter-time; an irrefragable proof of Heaven's approval of their iconoclasm. It is highly probable that they pursued here also a course at once so pious and so profitable, and that the fanes of the ancient deities but lingered on in poverty and neglect till finally suppressed by Theodosius (A.D. 390).

B. 3.--And now Britain resumed her _role_ of Emperor-maker.[338]

After the death of Constans, (A.D. 350), Magnentius, an officer in the Gallic army of British birth, set up as Augustus, and was supported by Gratian, the leader of the Army of Britain, and by his son Valentinian. Magnentius himself had his capital at Treves, and for three years reigned over the whole Prefecture of the Gauls. He professed a special zeal for orthodoxy, and was the first to introduce burning, as the appropriate punishment for heresy, into the penal code of Christendom. Meanwhile his colleague Decentius advanced against Constantius, and was defeated, at Nursa on the Drave, with such awful slaughter that the old Roman Legions never recovered from the shock.

Henceforward the name signifies a more or less numerous body, more or less promiscuously armed, such as we find so many of in the 'Not.i.tia.'

Magnentius, in turn, was slain (A.D. 353), and the supreme command in Britain pa.s.sed to the new Caesar of the West, Julian "the Apostate."