England History

The Last Days of Roman Rule

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Theodosius was the last man to be sole ruler of the whole Roman Empire in both its eastern and western sections, with Constantinople and Rome as capitals. His son, Honorius, became western emperor in 395, and his twenty-eight year reign saw its collapse and dissolution. In Britain, where barbarian raids again resumed, there was one final backlash by the empire, when Honorius' general, Flavius Stilicho - not a Roman but a Vandal in imperial service - made or sent a shock expedition in 398, defeating Saxons, Picts and Scots. But Stilicho, faced with irruptions on every side, fatally disabled the defences of Britannia in 401-2 by withdrawing garrison troops to fight elsewhere. The rump of troops stationed on the island, aware of their own inability to cope, elected a succession of obscure figures as their chief or 'emperor': the last of these took the name Constantine III and attempted to join up with the Roman forces in Gaul and head off the vast numbers of Vandals. Alans and Suevians who had crossed the frozen Rhine at the end of 406, and were spreading into Gaul, and who, it was feared, would cross the Straits of Dover into Britain. Constantine III was successful for a time, but in 411 was defeated and executed by Honorius.

The death-throes of the western empire went on for some time, but already Roman government and rule in Britain were, if not non-existent, at least wholly ineffective. Town development had ceased decades before. Army deserters, self-liberated slaves, escaped criminals, ruined shopkeepers wandered in bands, raiding villas, seeking food, wine, buried treasures. In response to the anarchy which had settled on the land, a contemporary wiiter, Zosimus, recorded that the inhabitants of Britain revolted from Roman rule and expelled their Roman governors: The Britons took up arms and, braving danger for their own independence, freed their cities from the barbarians threatening them.

Thus ended almost four centuries of Roman imperial rule, a time-span equivalent to that from the Union of the Crowns to the present day. For the moment, the Picts, Scots and Saxons were held at bay. The Britons were in control of their land, as they had been until Claudius' invasion. But they were not the same people as in An 43 . This was especially true of those who by family and wealth were the natural leaders of the society: they were by now inescapably Romano-British. Christian, civilised, used to generations of peace and good order, accustomed to defer to the agents of their world's superpower, they faced a profoundly uncertain future.

Britannia in the Later Empire

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If Britannia within its bounds was fairly secure, the same cannot be said of the world beyond. The state of the Roman Empire was like that of a huge, roughly assembled raft afloat on the ocean. When storms arose, partial break-up always threatened; communication from the centre was extremely difficult, and the captains of different sections fought each other for authority over as much of the heaving surface as they could effectively control. With the resumption of calm, the central commander would gradually re-establish overall authority, though each time it would be over a rather different structure, and with a somewhat different system of management. For a time, from 260, Britannia formed part of a 'Gallic empire' until the emperor, Aurelian, restored Roman control in 274. Again, between 287 and 296, breakaway leaders, Carausius and his assassin and successor Allectus, ruled until an imperial army under the Caesar Constantius came to reinstate central authority. Allectus appears to have been the first ruler in Britain to import foreign troops, Franks in this case, to bolster his own forces.

These power struggles had an important effect on the borders of the Roman provinces. To sustain their bids for power, the would-be emperors drew troops away from the legionary garrisons. In 296 Hadrian's Wall, left undefended by Allectus, was stormed from the north: a foretaste of what would later happen on a larger scale. Around 312 the number of provinces was increased to four: Britannia Prima and Maxima Caesariensis from the old Upper Britain; and Britannia Secunda and Flavia Caesariensis from Lower Britain. London, Cirencester, York and Lincoln were the respective capitals. These political and administrative changes reveal a firm governmental control but also a change to more intensive civilian rule compared to the old military division.

Although some historians characterised Britannia as a 'backward' province, this does not seem to have been the case. The Wall to the north and the coastline long kept it free from the invasions and warfare that plagued and finally wrecked the much greater and richer province of Gaul from the later decades of the third century. Town fortifications seem to have begun in Britannia in the late second century, originally in the form of earthworks. By the late third century, these were being replaced by walls. At this time, too, a new danger to the integrity of the provinces was recognised, with the institution of the forts of the 'Saxon Shore'. Across the southern stretches of the North Sea there were portentous movements of peoples taking place. Frankish and Saxon pirates were raiding at sea and on land. The whole immensely long northern frontier of the empire was slowly crumbling under pressure from the Germanic and Slavonic peoples.

From 350 began the process, ultimately disastrous to Britannia, of imperial usurpers drawing troops away from the provinces to help their own ambitions on the European mainland. This also introduced a form of recurrent civil war, since the victor, like Emperor Constantius II in 353, would severely punish a 'rebellious' province that had, whether under duress or not, supported a usurper. The unrest and resentment brought about by this policy encouraged an alliance of Picts and Scots (the latter still one of the peoples of Ireland) to invade the north. They were forced back by elite units of the Roman army, sent over under the command of Lupicinus, the senior general of the western emperor, Julian. But, when Julian became sole emperor and focused his attention eastwards on Persia, the attacks from north and west resumed with greater intensity. A large-scale invasion took place in 367, with Saxons seemingly acting in conjunction with the Picts and Scots. These were plundering expeditions rather than conquering raids. The British provinces, once so secure, were in great disarray. The barbarian invaders were reaching as far as London, and the imperial forces were too depleted to withstand them. Emperor Wentinian sent the military count, Theodosius, to repeat what had been done by Lupicinus. Landing at Richborough (by this time a major coastal fortress) he secured London and moved rapidly against the roving war-bands. By 369 he had largely restored the order and morale of the provinces. The accounts of his campaign refer to a fifth province. Valentia, probably in the area around Carlisle, a strategic district south of the Wall. Theodosius sought to make a lasting disposition, and his campaign secured a few years of relative peace. Ironically, it was an army revolt that launched a new stage of disorder, when in 383 the army in Britain proclaimed its general, Magnus Maximus, as emperor. Invading Gaul with his army, Magnus defeated the western emperor, Gratian, and ruled until 388 when he was defeated in northern Italy by the eastern emperor, Theodosius the Great, son of the count who had reclaimed Britannia.

Pax Romana

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The Romans changed the map of eastern England with a vast work of reclamation in the Fens, which until the first century ad had formed an indeterminate region of shallow sea and tidal marsh, completely uninhabitable save for a few island sites. The new land was let out to native farmers, and the canalised rivers formed communication links into the interior of the country, traversed by barges carrying agricultural produce. The legions also built the best roads England was to see for a millennium and a half: well-founded, stone-surfaced routes linking the main settlements and often running straight for many miles, though bending to ease the gradients where hills and steep slopes had to be tackled. Unlike the prehistoric trackways, which followed the dry chalk and limestone ridges, the Roman roads struck across country to link the key military depots to one another, and a host of Streets, Strattons and Strettons remain in place names to mark their way-stations, just as -chester names mark their castra, or fortified settlements.

The countryside these roads traversed was still inhabited by the British tribes. The conquest had changed their lives to some degree; they had to pay taxes and could be recruited into Roman auxiliary forces. They became familiar with the concept of coinage and markets, and with the methods of Roman local administration. The empire was not extended in the interests of peace but of commerce and profit: the Pax Romana was necessary in order to ensure that provinces got on with the task of enriching Rome and the aristocratic, mercantile and military family groups at the apex of its social pyramid. Romans took over the iron and lead mines and salt-workings and extended them. Quarries were opened up. In the south, large estates dominated by villas - the typical Roman farm plus country house complex -were established, sometimes on a palatial scale, and occupied by leaders of the Romanised Britons as well as by wealthy colonists. Cereal growing was their main activity, to supply the demands of the army garrisons and the growing towns. The enforced peace made it easier for country people to concentrate on farm work. Livestock rearing was also of great importance, not only for meat but for all the essential by-products of the animals, from wool and horn to leather and glue. The Romans introduced various new crops, including the cabbage, turnip, carrot and celery, as well as rye, oats and flax. But they also brought the rose, violet and lily, among other flowers. The Romano-British population ate better under Roman rule than in earlier days.

In 122 Emperor Hadrian included Britannia in one of his perpetual tours of the vast Roman Empire. The northern part of the province was by no means secure either from Caledonian invasion or from internal uprising. It was Hadrian who defined the limits of the Roman province of Britannia and instigated the construction of a massive wall, crossing the breadth of the country from the Tyne Estuary to the southern shore of the Solway Firth. Despite later Roman attempts to conquer northwards, this was to remain the outermost boundary of the empire. In the mid-second century, there was a serious revolt among the Brigantes, and after this had been crushed, their civitas, or administrative state, was broken up and their territory largely taken into imperial control. The old tribal structure of pre-Roman Britain was destroyed in terms of political power, though its traditions and language lived on.

The third century and the first decades of the fourth were a time of relative stability and prosperity. Military activity was focused on attempts to suppress the warrior peoples of Caledonia. Roman troops could gain fighting experience in the badlands north of Hadrian's Wall, and massive expeditions were launched from the legionary headquarters at York under Emperor Septimius Severus in 208-9 and Emperor Constantius in 306. Between these imperial visitations, the provincial government was pulled to and fro by the rivalries of would-be military rulers of north-west Europe. From 260 it had been divided into two provinces, Britannia Superior, with its military centres at Chester and Caerleon to the south; and Britannia Inferior, with its headquarters at York, forming the northern province. Britannia was wealthy, its internal stability secured by its three legionary centres, its prosperity sustained by the new urban culture developed under Roman rule. The towns of Roman Britain were mostly very small, but they were true urban nuclei, trading centres, homes of craftsmen, shopkeepers and merchants, with public facilities like bath-houses, and with their own local government.

A legal distinction was applied between native peoples and Roman citizens, but this came to an end in 212, in the reign of the emperor, Cara-calla, when all free-born inhabitants of the empire were granted the rights and status of Roman citizens. In Britannia as elsewhere, this still left a substantial population of slaves who were the property of their masters and had no civic rights. This was not a Roman innovation; the British tribes were long familiar with the practice of slave-ownership, though it is impossible to gauge its extent or its contribution to the economy. In the south, towns grew as open places, at fords, road junctions, or close to an old tribal centre, as with Dorchester and the adjacent hill-fort of Maiden Castle. Some were manufacturing places, like the pottery centre of Durobrivae (Water Newton) on the River Nene. As a port and commercial centre, London was probably already the largest town, and a centre of civilian administration. Latin was the language of these urban communities, though everyone save transient Roman administrators must also have spoken Brittonic. The town councils were manned by decurions, citizens whose wealth and status qualified them - often reluctantly - for leadership. Tax collection, and the making-up of any arrears in the assessment, were prime aspects of their responsibility.

The Romans and Britannia

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The Roman general, Julius Caesar, decided to make a reconnaissance expedition into the island, which he called Britannia. This was in 55 bc. It was not prompted by mere curiosity; there was close contact between the inhabitants of Britain and those of Gaul, and this included military help against the Romans. Caesar himself reported that some British tribes, hard-pressed by their neighbours, had offered to surrender to Roman rule in order to obtain Roman support. His landing was opposed at first, but the Britons surrendered, only to attack again. Caesar returned to Gaul with his forces, but the Romans considered it a great victory. A year later he returned with a more substantial expedition, five legions and two thousand cavalry, on six hundred specially constructed ships. This time the Romans remained for two months. The Britons of the south-east united against them under a single commander, Cassivellaunus, but in the only battle, they were defeated, and they resorted to harassing tactics as the Romans pressed inland, fording the Thames and entering Essex. But British unity did not last, and Caesar stormed Cassivellaunus's base. The British leader made peace, hostages were given and an annual tribute was to be paid to Rome. Caesar returned satisfied. Britannia was not colonised, or annexed to Rome, but it acknowledged Roman supremacy.

Almost ninety years went by, with Britannia still beyond the limit of the Roman Empire, but linked through a steady pattern of trading and diplomatic contacts. Some British tribal leaders made alliances with the Romans, while others remained aloof. In 43 ad, under the reign of the emperor, Claudius, the Romans made the decisive move to reduce Britannia to an imperial province. Four legions were landed, at Richborough in Kent, and met little resistance as they pushed northwards to capture Camulodunum, now Colchester, centre of the strong kingdom that had until a short time before been ruled by Cunobelinus. The emperor himself made a brief visit to this remote and exotic new addition to the Roman world. His general, Aulus Plautius, extended Roman rule over the south-east regions, from the Wash to Southampton Water. But the further the invaders went from the south-east, the more fierce and hostile were the native inhabitants. In the south-west, and west of the Severn, and north of the Trent, only hard fighting and military occupation secured the Roman position. In 61 a rebellion broke out in a region they had thought pacified, when the East Anglian Iceni tribe rose, under its queen, Boudicca, and attacked and destroyed the Roman camp-towns of Camulodunum, Verulamium (St Albans) and Londinium (London). Boudicca, who had no son, had claimed to rule after the death of her husband; the Romans refused this and whipped her and her daughters. The governor, Suetonius Paulinus, who had been campaigning in north-west Wales against the tribe of Ordovices, hastily returned and defeated the Iceni, with heavy and drastic reprisals. Boudicca killed herself. The British tribes had certainly not lived in a state of mutual peace, but the organised terror of Roman colonial warfare was a new and horrifying experience for them. If the Roman army brought civilisation in its wake, it first prepared the ground by burning, rape, plunder, extortion and mass killings.

It was with a campaign of virtual genocide that the governor, Agricola, appointed to Britain in 78 and in charge until 85, smashed the Ordovices and established control of the great tribe of the Brigantes, whose territory lay right across the country north of the Humber. Three great legionary fortresses were set up to sustain Roman rule, at Eboracum (York), Deva (Chester) and Isca (Caerleon): each placed to give quick access to the still doubtful hill districts. For three hundred years the country would be Romano-British, though most of the garrison soldiers were not Roman or even Italian, but from eastern Europe: present-day Romania and the Adriatic coastal states. Many of them settled after long service, and veterans' colonies were set up at Lincoln, Colchester and Gloucester. Roman life and influence was strongest in the towns, and the countryside retained its Brittonic speech and Celtic lifestyle. The Romans had however eradicated, or tried very hard to eradicate, their druidical religion, whose great centre had been the island of Anglesey. The druids, priests, counsellors, prophets and lore-masters, had been seen as the prime source of anti-Roman agitation, and a torrent of propaganda was turned on them, as well as military force. Though worship of the Celtic gods and nature spirits certainly continued, and the Romans were not hostile to the local gods, the campaign against the druids and their cult may have helped to create a religious vacuum from which Christianity would later benefit.

Celts in Britain

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As the use of bronze and then iron in tool- and weapon-making became known, the transition comes from the Stone Ages to a period which marks the start of our own 'Common Era' or ad era. By this time, the inhabitants of England were speakers of a language known to be part of the Celtic group. At this time, the Celtic languages were spoken over a great extent of central and western Europe. The language of England has been given the name Brittonic, to correspond with the people's own name for the land which was Prydein, 'Britain'. The origins of the Celtic languages are still not fully understood. In other parts of the British Isles, a difterent branch of the same group was spoken: this was Goidelic, a precursor of present-day Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland. It is generally agreed among language scholars that the Brittonic speech reached Britain from the continent, probably in the fifth century bc. The means by which it reached and spread are uncertain, though various theories have been made at different times. The enforcement of a new language by invaders - often characterised as tall, red-haired, and 'aristocratic' - with iron weapons was a popular theory until the mid-twentieth century. Then most scholars dropped it in favour of the concept of a more subtle and slow advance, brought about by trading and social contacts with richer and more advanced cultures, perhaps including the transmission of religious beliefs and practices; and not related to large-scale invasion or compulsory change.

By the first century BC, Celtic languages were spoken by a wide range of European peoples, many of whom were descendants of the early inhabitants of the land, people whose original languages, with the exception of Basque, are almost completely unknown. It is likely that the majority of the inhabitants of Britain at that time were the direct descendants of Stone Age settlers, though undoubtedly there were also communities of more recent arrivals; and perhaps in some or many cases, these more recent settlers had established a political dominance over the 'aboriginal' inhabitants. This does not imply that their language also took over: a thousand years or so later, the Normans established political control, but their language failed to establish itself against that of the majority population. From around 1000 bc another significant change in the social order became apparent, with the building of hill-forts on many prominent sites. Pnor to that, the most imposing constructions were those made to house the dead or to enable religious rituals of which we know nothing, other that the stone circles and other megalithic monuments were raised by people who could measure the seasonal movements of the sun and had other quite precise astronomical knowledge.

The first known foreign explorers to reach the British archipelago were Greeks, from the western Greek colonial city of Massilia (now Marseilles). Around 330 bc the navigator, Pytheas, made his way into the North Sea, and reached what he referred to as Thule', possibly Norway. In the ancient world, the British Isles were known only for a single product, tin, which was mined from very early times in Cornwall, and an established trading route conveyed the rare and valuable ore across the south-western peninsula and over the sea to Gaul. When the Romans reached the north coast of Gaul, they already knew a lot about the great island and its inhabitants, from spies, informers, traders and tribes who wanted to have them as allies. Their own invasion of northern Gaul had been responsible for the movement into Britain of large numbers of refugees belonging to a big tribe, the Belgae, from their territory in what is now north-east France and Flanders.

Prehistoric England

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If we allow three human generations to a hundred years, then just a little more than two hundred of them will take us back far before the nineteenth century, seventy centuries, to around 5000 bc, when the inhabitants of southern England were setting up great monumental structures which still exist today. England had had human occupants for a long time before that. Its oldest known human remains go back to the Middle Pleistocene era, 200,000 years ago: skull bones of that era found at Swanscombe in the Thames Valley have been identified as those of a sub-species oiHomo sapiens, a user of stone hand-axes and other implements. Caves in Somerset, Devon, Derbyshire and Kent have shown traces of occupancy from the mid-Palaeolithic period, some 35,000-40,000 years bc, perhaps left by Neanderthal man, the species which was supplanted by our own.

Our own sub-species, Homo sapiens sapiens, has been traced back for about 35,000 years in Europe, though no skeletal evidence from so far back is found in England. The most southerly part of England, south of the Thames and the Bristol Channel, was never covered even by the furthest advance of ice sheets in the ice ages, though the landscape would have been a sub-arctic tundra, inhospitable to settlement. At that time, the English Channel had not yet been formed and Great Britain formed an extension of the continental land-mass. Though there were great rivers to cross, settlers from east and south were able to come on dry land until around 6000 bc, when rising sea levels formed the North Sea and the English Channel as we know them. In geological terms, the Channel is a very recent stretch of sea. Inhabitants on both sides, across many generations, had ample time to adapt to the changes in their landscape, though ultimately, twenty-one miles of still-widening salt water confirmed the existence of Europe's largest island. As with all islands, its cut-off state would encourage the development of species not known on the continent; hand-in-hand with those developments would grow an insular state of mind among the human inhabitants. But prehistoric Europeans were too enterprising to allow a narrow sea to be a barrier, and there was uninterrupted trading and contact, and also immigration, or even invasion, by boat.

From the Upper Palaeolithic period through the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods (Old, Middle and Newr Stone Ages) there is a continuous record of human activity, particularly in the south and east. The people were hunters and fishers, living on lake verges in temporary or transportable dwellings. As the Palaeolithic period merged slowly into the Mesolithic, the range of human activity began to develop, with the domestication of animals, the start of farming techniques and eventually the use of pottery and more specialised tools. Monumental grave mounds were built in the form of long barrows. It was during the fourth millennium bc that farming began to be practised in England, and this coincides with permanent settlements and a change in burial practice to mega-lithic tombs. Henge monuments, like the earliest erections at Stonehenge, belong to this era.

Prehistoryc England: Index

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Villas, Roman

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‘Villa’ is a Latin word for farm, which has been appropriated by antiquaries and archaeologists to denote Romano-British rural establishments which exhibit Roman-style architecture, however debased. Villas develop from the late 1st cent., often overlying Iron Age buildings and are seen as the indigenous aristocracy taking on Roman ways. By the first half of the 4th cent. there were probably 1,000 villas, ranging from simple cottages to vast palatial complexes such as Bignor (Sussex) and Woodchester. Villas were in decline in the later 4th cent. and passed out of use in the first half of the 5th.

A Dictionary of British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 2001.

trading

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Trading companies monopolized overseas trade, made great fortunes, and played a part in the history of imperialism. The state supported their power and the companies made the state rich. The most important early English example was the Merchants of the Staple which ran the wool trade from the 12th to 14th cents. It was followed, at the end of the 15th cent., by the Merchant Venturers of London, monopolists of the expanding cloth industry's overseas trade. In the last quarter of the 16th cent. English overseas trade boomed. The French, Spanish, Russian, Barbary, Levant, and Eastland (Baltic) companies all date from this time. However the development of an effective navy at the end of the 17th cent. put an end to the need for monopoly trading in Europe; only those companies that went across the world, such as the East India Company (1600), still needed to protect themselves.

A Dictionary of British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Theodosius the Great

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Theodosius, Flavius (or Theodosius the Great) (349–95 AD) Roman emperor in the East (379–94) and sole emperor (394–95). The son of a famous general, Count Theodosius, Gratian appointed him co-emperor in 378. After failing to defeat the GOTHS he formed a treaty with them in 382. He was a champion of strict political and religious orthodoxy. His two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, succeeded him.

A Dictionary of World History. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Theodosius

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Count Theodosius was sent by the emperor Valentinian I to restore order in Britain after the Barbarian Conspiracy of AD 367. His measures probably included rebuilding work on Hadrian's Wall, the construction of early-warning signal stations on the Yorkshire coast, and the addition of bastions to the walls of towns. Unlike many army commanders of this time, he was a provincial landowner rather than a career soldier. He was made emperor in AD 379 and reigned until his death in AD 395.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Timothy Darvill. Oxford University Press, 2002.

taxes

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In ancient Israel the only taxes imposed on people mentioned in the Bible were for the maintenance of the tabernacle and its officiants (Deut. 18: 1 ff.) but kings exacted much more in order to pay the army and the court (1 Kgs. 12: 11). In Palestine under the Romans a poll tax had to be paid to Caesar (Matt. 22: 17). Jews paid a temple tax (Matt. 17: 24) of a half- shekel every year, and also had to pay customs duties (Mark 2: 14) at Jericho, since a frontier post which lay between the Roman province of Judah and Perea, part of the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. It provided an important source of his revenue. It was at Jericho that Jesus encountered Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1–10), an official hugely unpopular because, as a subcontractor, he took the money and remitted it to his employer, who in turn sent it on to Rome. This procedure allowed much scope for greed and dishonesty. The collectors were known as publicani, hence the English ‘publicans’ of AV, RV.

A Dictionary of the Bible. W. R. F. Browning. Oxford University Press, 1997.

tax collection

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tax collection n perception de l'impôt f, recouvrement de l'impôt

The Oxford Business French Dictionary. Ed. Marianne Chalmers and Martine Pierquin. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Suetonius Paulinus

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Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was governor of Britain at the time of the Boudiccan revolt in c.AD 60. Having recently captured Anglesey, he retreated from North Wales and went on to defeat BOUDICCA. However, he was subsequently withdrawn from Britain because it was feared that he would abuse the Britons' surrender and punish future offenders too harshly.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Timothy Darvill. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Stonehenge

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A unique megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Its alleged connection with the Druids dates from the 17th century, when people's ideas about what constituted ‘the past’ were very vague. In the 12th century it was believed to be a monument over King Arthur's grave; other theories have attributed it to the Phoenicians, Romans, Vikings, and visitors from other worlds; modern theory inclines to the view that it was a temple. Scientific study and excavation have identified three main constructional phases between c.3000 BC and c.1500 BC, i.e. it was completed in the Bronze Age. The circular bank and ditch, double circle of ‘bluestones’ (spotted dolerite), and circle of sarsen stones (some with stone lintels), are concentric, and the main axis is aligned on the midsummer sunrise – an orientation that was probably for ritual rather than scientific purposes. It is believed that the ‘bluestones’ were transported from the Prescelly Hills, Pembrokeshire, Wales, a distance of 320 km (200 miles). In 1998, English Heritage announced that access to the megaliths by pedestrians would be improved and that the car park would be made less obtrusive.

A Dictionary of World History. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Flavius Stilicho

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Stlicho, Flavius (C. AD 365–408), general of the Roman armies and, when the young emperor Honorius (b. 384) succeeded Theodosius I in 395, the effective ruler of the western Roman empire. He successfully repelled the first invasions into Italy of Alaric and the Visigoths in 401 and 403, but was put to death by order of Honorius in 408 (before the sack of Rome by Alaric in 410). See CLAUDIAN.

The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996.

Southampton Water

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Port and county district in Hampshire, S England. At the head of Southampton Water, and a port since Roman times, it is Britain's principal passenger port and a major commercial port, now heavily containerized. Industries: shipbuilding, engineering, oil refining. Pop. (1994) 214,000.

World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.

Romans

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In the New Testament, a letter by Saint Paul to the Christians of Rome. It was written in c.AD 57, probably while Paul was in Corinth. He declares the universality of the saving power of God realized in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.

Roman Empire

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The Julio-Claudian Emperors

27 BC–AD 14 Augustus (C. Julius Caesar Octavianus) (son of C. Octavius; maternal grandson of Julia, sister of C. Julius Caesar)
14–37 Tiberius (Ti. Claudius Nero) (son of Livia, later married to Augustus, and Ti. Claudius Nero)
37–41 Caligula (C. Caesar) (grandnephew; maternal grandson of Julia, daughter of Augustus)
41–54 Claudius (Ti. Claudius Drusus) (uncle; maternal grandson of Octavia, sister of Augustus)
54–68 Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar) (son of Agrippina, sister of Caligula, and Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus)
68–69 Galba (Ser. Sulpicius Galba)
69 Otho (M. Salvius Otho)
69 Vitellius (A. Vitellius)

The Flavian Emperors

69–79 Vespasian (T. Flavius Vespasianus)
79–81 Titus (T. Flavius Vespasianus) (son)
81–96 Domitian (T. Flavius Domitianus) (brother)

The Five Good Emperors

96–98 Nerva (M. Cocceius Nerva)
98–117 Trajan (M. Ulpius Trajanus)
117–138 Hadrian (P. Aelius Hadrianus)
138–161 Antoninus Pius (T. Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus)
161–169 Lucius Verus (L. Aurelius Verus)
161–180 Marcus Aurelius (M. Aurelius Antoninus)
180–192 Commodus (M. Aurelius Commodus Antoninus) (son; co-regent 177)
193 Pertinax (P. Helvius Pertinax)
193 Didius Julianus (M. Didius Severus Julianus)

The Severi

193–211 Septimius Severus (L. Septimius Severus)
211 Geta (L. or P. Septimius Geta) (son; co-regent 209)
211–217 Caracalla (M. Aurelius Antoninus) (brother; co-regent 198)
217–218 Macrinus (M. Opellius Macrinus)
218 Diadumenian (M. Opellius Diadumenianus) (son; co-regent)
218–222 Elagabalus (M. Aurelius Antoninus) (maternal grandson of Julia Maesa, sister-in-law of Septimius Severus)
222–235 Severus Alexander (M. Aurelius Alexander) (maternal grandson of Julia Maesa)

The Soldier-Emperors

235–238 Maximinus the Thracian (C. Julius Verus Maximinus)
238 Gordian I (M. Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus)/Gordian II (M. Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus) (son)
238 Balbinus (D. Caelius Calvinus Balbinus)/Pupienus Maximus (M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus)
238–244 Gordian III (M. Antonius Gordianus) (maternal grandson of Gordian I)
244–249 Philip I, the Arabian (M. Julius Philippus)
247–249 Philip II (M. Julius Severus Philippus) (son)
249–251 Decius (C. Messius Quintus Decius)
251 Herennius Etruscus (Q. Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius) (son; co-regent)
251 Hostilian (C. Valens Hostilianus Messius Quintus) (brother; co-regent with Trebonianus Gallus)
251–253 Trebonianus Gallus (C. Vibius Trebonianus Gallus)
251–253 Volusian (C. Vibius Afinius Gallus Veldumnianus Volusianus) (son)
253 Aemilian (M. Aemilius Aemilianus)
253–260 Valerian (P. Licinius Valerianus) (deposed)
253–268 Gallienus (P. Licinius Egnatius Gallienus) (son)
260 Saloninus (P. Licinius Cornelius Saloninus Valerianus) (son)
268–270 Claudius II, Gothicus (M. Aurelius Claudius)
270 Quintillus (M. Aurelius Quintillus) (brother)
270–275 Aurelian (L. Domitius Aurelianus)
275–276 Tacitus (M. Claudius Tacitus)
276 Florian (M. Annius Florianus)
276–282 Probus (M. Aurelius Probus)
282–283 Carus (M. Aurelius Carus)
283–284 Numerian (M. Aurelius Numerianus) (son)
283–285 Carinus (M. Aurelius Carinus) (brother; co-regent 283)

The ‘Gallic Empire’

260–269 Postumus (M. Cassianius Latinius Postumus)
269 Laelian (Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus)
269 Marius (M. Aurelius Marius)
269–271 Victorinus (M. Piavonius Victorinus)
271–274 Tetricus (C. Pius Esuvius Tetricus) (deposed)

Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

284–305 Diocletian (C. Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus) (abdicated, died 311)
286–305 Maximian (M. Aurelius Valerius Maximianus) (Caesar 285; abdicated; resumed the title of Augustus 307–8, 309–10)
305–306 Constantius I, Chlorus (Fl. Valerius Constantius) (Caesar 293)
305–311 Galerius (C. Galerius Valerius Maximianus) (Caesar 293)
306–307 Severus (Fl. Valerius Severus) (Caesar 305; deposed, died 307)
307–312 Maxentius (M. Aurelius Valerius Maxentius) (son of Maximian)

Dynasty of Constantine

307–337 Constantine I, the Great (Fl. Valerius Constantinus) (son of Constantius I; Caesar 306)
308–324 Licinius (Valerius Licinianus Licinius) (deposed, died 325)
310–313 Maximinus II (Galerius Valerius Maximinus) (son of Galerius' sister; Caesar 305)
316–317 Valerius Valens (C. Aurelius Valerius Valens)
324 Martinian (Martius Martinianus) (deposed, died 325)
337–340 Constantine II (Fl. Claudius Constantinus) (son of Constantine I)
337–350 Constans (Fl. Julius Constans) (brother)
337–361 Constantius II (Fl. Julius Constantius) (brother)
350–353 Magnentius (Fl. Magnus Magnentius)
360–363 Julian the Apostate (Fl. Claudius Julianus) (nephew of Constantine I)
363–364 Jovian (Fl. Jovianus)

Dynasty of Valentinian

364–375 Valentinian I (Fl. Valentinianus)
364–378 Valens (Fl. Valens) (brother)
375–383 Gratian (Fl. Gratianus) (son of Valentinian I; co-regent 367)
375–392 Valentinian II (Fl. Valentinianus) (brother)

Dynasty of Theodosius

379–395 Theodosius I, the Great (Fl. Theodosius)
383–388 Maximus (Magnus Maximus)
387–388 Victor (Fl. Victor) (son)
392–394 Eugenius (Fl. Eugenius)

Western Roman Emperors

395–423 Honorius (Fl. Honorius) (son of Theodosius I; co-regent 393)
421 Constantius III (Fl. Constantius)
423–425 John (Johannes)
425–455 Valentinian III (Fl. Placidus Valentinianus) (son of Constantius III; maternal grandson of Theodosius I)
455 Petronius Maximus
455–456 Avitus (Eparchius Avitus) (deposed, died 456)
457–461 Majorian (Julius Valerius Majorianus)
461–465 Libius Severus
467–472 Anthemius (Procopius Anthemius)
472 Olybrius (Anicius Olybrius)
473–474 Glycerius (deposed)
474–480 Julius Nepos
475–476 Romulus Augustus (deposed; end of direct imperial rule in the west 476/80)

Notes
Chronology
For Geta's death in December 211, see T. D. Barnes, Journal of Theological Studies, new series, XIX (1968), 522–4; for the date of Valerian's capture, Aufstieg und Niedergang, 818–20. Dates for the ‘Gallic Empire’ follow ibid., 853–1012; other regional usurpers and pretenders are omitted.
Calendar and Dating
For the Julian year of 365 days, with an intercalary day every fourth year, see A. E. Samuel, Greek and Roman Chronology: Calendars and Years in Classical Antiquity (Munich, 1972), 155–8. Under Augustus, the Egyptian vague year was synchronized with the Julian year, so that the Egyptian new year's day, 1 Thoth, fell on 29 August . Ibid., 177.Roman emperors numbered not their regnal years, but their years of tribunician power (tribunicia potestas); this was renewed annually, either on the anniversary of its first conferment, or on a fixed date. H. Mattingly, ‘“;Tribunicia Potestate”’, Journal of Roman Studies, XX (1930), 78–91. Egyptian materials are dated by regnal years, beginning 29 August (see above).
Names and Titles
As many emperors changed their names on adoption or accession, or both, it has not been possible to present them in a fully consistent manner. The names given are relatively familiar forms, and do not include elements of the imperial style: Nero Claudius Caesar rather than L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, M. Ulpius Trajanus and not Imp. Caesar Nerva Trajanus Augustus. For details on nomenclature, see the biographical articles in Paulys Realencyclopädie.

The style was complex, and included both ‘republican’ and ‘imperial’ elements; the basic title of emperor was Imperator Caesar [name] Augustus. See M. Hammond, ‘Imperial Elements in the Formula of the Roman Emperors during the First Two and a Half Centuries of the Empire’, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, XXV (1957), 17–64. Co-regents with full powers had the title of Augustus; rulers denoted above as Caesars were junior partners in Diocletian's tetrarchic system.
Latin praenomina

A.: Aulus M.: Marcus
C.: Gaius P.: Publius
Cn.: Gnaeus Q.: Quintus
D.: Decimus Ser.: Servius
Fl.: Flavius T.: Titus
L.: Lucius Ti.: Tiberius

Bibliography
Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini and W. Haase, II: Principat, pt. 2 (Berlin, 1975).
Barnes, T. D., The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Cambridge, Mass., 1982).
Mattingly, H. et al., eds., The Roman Imperial Coinage (9 vols. in 12 pts., London, 1926–84).
Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. G. Wissowa et al. (49 vols. in 83 pts., Stuttgart and Munich, 1893–1978).
Schwartz, J., Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (3 vols. in 4 pts., Cambridge, 1971–1992).

Dynasties of the World. John E. Morby. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Richborough

2006-06-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Kent. Rutupiae c.150, Ratteburg 1197. ‘Stronghold called *Repta’. Reduced form of ancient Celtic name (probably ‘muddy waters or estuary’) + OE burh.

A Dictionary of British Place-Names. A. D. Mills. Oxford University Press, 2003.

religion

2006-06-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Code of beliefs and practices formulated in response to a spiritual awareness of existence. It may involve either faith in a state of existence after earthly death, or a desire for union with an omnipotent spiritual being, or a combination of the two. Polytheistic religions, such as those of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, entailed the worship of many distinct gods or personifications of nature. Many cultures classified their deities into hierarchies known as pantheons; some religions, such as Hinduism, still have such pantheons. Other ancient religions, some of which incorporated belief in a state of existence after death, were more of a system of ethical philosophy concentrating on metaphysical contemplation (for example, Buddhism and Taoism). The ancient Hebrews were among the first people to worship a single omniscient and omnipotent being, Yahweh. He gave them His protection in return for their total faith and obedience. Common to all religions dominated by a single omnipotent force (monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) is the idea that the power is all places at once, and that it is beyond the physical plane occupied by humans. In many religions, both monotheistic and polytheistic, sacrifice to an individual god or to God is an important element, either in propitiation, or to redeem the faithful from some wrongdoing, or in thanksgiving.

World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.

Against the Romans

2006-06-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

Overview: The last major conflict of the Gallic War, Alйsia was the last stand of Vercingetorix. Vercingetorix defeated the Romans at Gergovia September 52 B.C.E., Vercingetorix attacked the Romans with his cavalry near Divio (modern Dijon), but afterwards had to flee towards Alйsia. Caesar laid siege on Alйsia and Vercingetorix with about a force of 70,000. In addition to the 50,000 men inside the fortress, Vercingetorix gathered a large relieving force to assist in a breakout (estimates of this relieving force vary from 100,000 to 250,000 men.) After a number of failed attempts to relieve the fortress from both outside and from within, Vercingetorix surrendered. He was taken to Rome and executed six years later.

The Gaulish city Alйsia has been the place where the final battle between the Romans and the Gauls ended.
After a long hunt in which he 'advised' the helping towns to burn their crops, Vercingetorix sought refuge in this city in August 52 B.C.E., accompanied by about 80,000 - 95,000 warriors.
The about 60,000 Romans (10 or 11 legions) led by Caesar, builded a long, high, fortification around the city ("contravallation") so no one could escape.
Because of a possible relief of the town by a so-called "armeй de secours" the Romans later also build a second, outer, fortification ("circonvallation") to be protected against the Gaulish liberation fighters.
Those fighters indeed attempted to liberate Alйsia. The Atrebati (led by Commios), Arverni (Vercassivellaunos) en (H)Edui (Eporedorix and Viridomar) brought together an incredible 300,000 men, which couldn't defeit the Romans.
After a siege of 2 months Vercingetorix handed himself to the chiefs of the tribes to let them do whatever was wise: to kill him or hand him over to Caesar.
They decided Vercingetorix had to surrender to Caesar and so he did, September 52 B.C.E. Vercingetorix was then taken to Rome as a slave where he spent the rest of his life in prison. Six years later he was strangled in the arena during a feast in honour of Caesar.

prehistory

2006-06-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

Period of human cultural development before the invention of writing. See Bronze Age; Iron Age; Mesolithic; Neolithic; Palaeolithic; Stone Age

World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.

prehistoric (prehistory) [De]. Generally referring to the time before written history assists understanding of the past. The term ‘prehistory’ was first introduced into the English language in 1851 by Daniel WILSON in the title of his book The prehistoric annals of Scotland (London: Macmillan). The French term préhistorique was in use from the 1830s to refer to the time before the appearance of writing.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Timothy Darvill. Oxford University Press, 2002.

North Sea

2006-06-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Arm of the Atlantic Ocean, lying between the E coast of Britain and the European mainland and connected to the English Channel by the Straits of Dover. Generally shallow, it is c.960km (600mi) long, with a maximum width of 640km (400mi). It is a major fishing ground, shipping route, and (since 1970) an important source of oil and natural gas. Area: c.580,000sq km (220,000sq mi).

World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.

Normans

2006-06-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

The reigns of the first four post-Conquest kings were dominated by the establishment of their dynasty and by the succession question, complicated by the connection between England and Normandy. The characteristic of Norman rule has often been identified as firmness, but there was little alternative for a small group of military adventurers, unsupported by mass immigration, and in the midst of a resentful populace. Highly significant was William I's promulgation of ‘Englishry’: that if a murdered man could not be proved to be English, it would be presumed that he was a Norman, and the hundred fined accordingly. A more lasting consequence of the Conquest was the impetus given to expansion within the British isles, into southern Scotland, south Wales, and the east of Ireland. Welsh chroniclers, inclined at first to welcome the newcomers as an alternative to the hated Saxons, soon came to realize that ‘the French’ were, if anything, more ruthless and disagreeable.

The Kings and Queens of Britain. John Cannon and Anne Hargreaves. Oxford University Press, 2001.