Grain and Chaff from an English Manor Part 26

(5) Under Antoninus Pius a revolt of the Brigantes (between Humber and Mersey) was put down by A. Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140. Lollius also completed the northern defences, begun by Hadrian, with a new wall further north between the Firth and the Clyde.

(6) While Marcus Aurelius was emperor, according to a tradition preserved by Bede, the British Church came into close connection with Rome and received what he calls a mission--more probably a band of fugitives from persecution. Though the tale is doubtful in details, it is evidence to show that Christianity was strong in the island by this time.

(9) Decius, husband of Etruscilla, was responsible for the great persecution of Christians in 250-51; the occasion was the 1,000th anniversary of Rome's foundation.

(10) Gallienus, son of Valerian, was entrusted with the west on his father's accession in 253 and defended the Rhine frontier until he was left sole Emperor in 258, when Valerian was captured by Shapur of Persia. Various usurpations compelled Gallienus to enter Italy, and he left the Rhine defences in charge of a general--M. Ca.s.sianius Latinius Postumus.

(11) Postumus at once had to face a great invasion of Franks. He gained some successes and was therefore proclaimed emperor by the armies of Gaul and Britain. Before long dissensions broke out in the Gallic empire and several commanders rose and fell in rapid succession. It is conceivable that some of these are represented in the coins found in Blackbanks, but these specimens are too badly weathered for certain identification to be possible.

(12) On March 4, 268, Gallienus was a.s.sa.s.sinated. His successor was M.

Aurelius Claudius, afterwards surnamed Gothicus, a skilful general who did the empire great service by his victories over invaders from Switzerland and the Tyrol by the sh.o.r.es of the Lago di Garda, and over the Goths at Naissus (Nish).

(13) Tetricus is of interest only because his surrender to Aurelian in 273 marks the collapse of the Gallic empire.

(15-18) Diocletian became Augustus in 284, and co-opted Maximian as his colleague two years later. About the same time Carausius, commander of the Channel fleet, crossed to Britain and had himself proclaimed independent emperor. In 290 he was acknowledged as third colleague by the Augusti, but no place was found for him when in 293 the government of the Roman world was divided between Diocletian, Maximian, and two newly chosen Caesars--Galerius and Flavius Valerius Constantius, later called Chlorus. By this arrangement the recovery of Britain from Allectus--who had murdered Carausius about 294--fell to Constantius, and he accomplished this by a sudden attack in 296.

Constantius was twice married. His first wife, Helena, bore him a son, Constantine the Great; his second was a step-daughter of Maximian, named Theodora, to whom coin 18 belongs.

Britain was now divided into four Diocletian provinces, to which a fifth--Valentia--was later added when the country north of Hadrian's wall was re-occupied. The only other event of Diocletian's reign to be noticed is the persecution of Christians in which, according to tradition, St. Alban lost his life at Verulam about 303.

(19-20) On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated. Constantius and Galerius now became Augusti. Trouble arose over the two vacant Caesarships. It was the aim of Galerius to exclude Constantine, but the latter escaped to his father's camp at York, a few weeks before Constantius died on July 25, 306, after a victory over the Picts and Scots. Constantine was in power under various t.i.tles in Gaul and Britain for five years until, in 311, when Galerius died, he began his march on Rome, during which he is said to have had his vision of the cross with the words [Greek: en touto nika]. In 314 the bishops of York, London, and some other uncertain British see attended the Council of Arles which sat to deal with the Donatist schism. The British Church was also represented at the Council of Nicaea, called by Constantine in 325 to consider the Arian heresy, when the Nicene Creed in its original form was authorized; the British vote was orthodox. It was Constantine who in 321 first made Sunday a holiday, but whether Christianity or Mithraism prompted him to this is doubtful.

(22-23) When Constantine the Great died in 337 the empire was divided between his sons. Constantius II. received the east; Constans, Africa, Italy, and the Danuvian region; Constantine II., Gaul and Spain. In 340 Constantine II. attacked Constans and was killed. Constans then ruled the united west; it seems that Constans and Constantius II.

visited Britain in 343. Constans was a.s.sa.s.sinated in 350; this left Constantius II. alone. His policy of toleration towards the Arians led to a great Church Council in 359. The eastern bishops met at Seleucia, the western at Ariminum, where Britain was represented. By a certain amount of coercion Constantius forced his views on the Western Council. At this time the prosperity of Britain was great and corn was exported in large quant.i.ties.

(24) In 367 Valentinian I. made his son Gratian, Augustus. Gratian was later married to Constantia, daughter of Constantius II. Roman power was now a.s.serted once more against the Picts and Scots, and also against the Saxon raiders by Theodosius, whose son became Augustus in 379. Gratian himself was occupied on the Continent. In 383 Magnus Maximus was proclaimed emperor in Britain, and Gratian was murdered on August 25.

The coins were not a h.o.a.rd; they were found all over the Roman area I have described, but especially in Blackbanks, and they became visible generally when the surface was fallow and had broken down into fine mould from the action of the weather. Their scattered occurrence, and the period they cover, suggest continuous habitation throughout the most important part of the Roman occupation of Britain, and, with their related history, they occupy a distinguished place in a record of the harvest of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor.

NOTES

[1: Celebrated breeders of the respective sorts.]

[2: Fig. 1 shows the flattened _S_ formed by the stream.

Fig. 2 shows the short circuit formed later at _A_ and the island _B_ When the old bed of the stream round _B_ gets filled up, the island _B_ disappears, and its area and that part of the old bed formerly on the west side of the stream is transferred to the east side.]

[3: Mr. H.A. Evans sends me a very interesting note on this subject.

He refers me to Shakespeare, _Henry VIII., III., II., 282_, where Surrey, alluding to Wolsey, says:

"If we live thus tamely, To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet, Farewell n.o.bility; let his grace go forward, And dare us with his cap like larks."

The verb _dare_ here used is quite a distinct word from _dare_ = to venture to do. It means to daze or render helpless with the sight of something. To dare larks is to fascinate or daze them in order to catch them. The "dare" is made of small bits of looking-gla.s.s fastened on scarlet cloth. Shakespeare's use of the word in the pa.s.sage quoted is evidently an allusion to the scarlet biretta of the cardinal. In Hogarth's "Distressed Poet" a "dare" is suspended above the chimney-piece.]