C. 17.--In the country the husbandman ploughed and sowed and reaped

and garnered,[252] sometimes as a freeholder, oftener as a tenant;

the miller was found upon every stream; the fisher baited his hook and

cast his net in fen and mere; the Squire hunted and feasted amid his

retainers (who were usually slaves); his wife and daughters occupied

themselves in the management of the house. The language of Rome

was everywhere spoken, the literature of Rome was read amongst the

educated classes; while amongst the peasantry the old Celtic tongue,

and with it, we may be sure, the old Celtic legends and songs, held

its own. Intercourse was easy between the various districts; for along

every great road a series of posting-stations, each with its stud of

relays, was available for the service of travellers. In the towns were

to be found schools, theatres, and courts of justice, with shops of

every sort and kind, while travelling pedlars supplied the needs of

the rural districts. No one, except actual soldiers, dreamt of bearing

arms, or indeed was allowed to do so,[253] and the general aspect of

the land was as wholly peaceful as now. But every one had to pay a

substantial proportion of his income in taxes, in the collection of

which there was not seldom a notable amount of corruption, as amongst

the publicans of Judaea. In the bad days of the decadence this became

almost intolerable;[254] but so long as the central administration

retained its integrity the amount exacted was no more than left to

every class a fair margin for the needs, and even the enjoyments, of

life.

SECTION D.

The unconquered North--Hadrian's Wall--Upper and Lower

Britain--Romano-British coinage--Wall of Antoninus--Britain

Pro-consular.

D. 1.--The weak point of all this peaceful development was that the

northern regions of the island remained unsubdued. It was all very

well for the Roman Treasury, with true departmental shortsightedness,

to declare (as Appian[255] reports) that North Britain was a worthless

district, which could never be profitable [Greek: [_euphoron_]] to

hold. The cost would have been cheap in the end. All through the Roman

occupation it was from the north that trouble was liable to arise,

and ultimately it was the ferocious independence of the Highland clans

that brought Roman Britain to its doom. The Saxons, as tradition tells

us, would never have been invited into the land but for the ravages

of these Picts; and, in sober history, it may well be doubted whether

they could ever have effected a permanent settlement here had not the

Britons, in defending our shores, been constantly exposed to Pictish

attacks from the rear.

D. 2.--Thus our earliest notice of Britain in this period tells us

that Hadrian (A.D. 120), our first Imperial visitor since Claudius

(A.D. 44), found it needful (after a revolt which cost many lives,

and involved, as it seems, the final destruction of the unlucky Ninth

Legion, which had already fared so badly in Boadicea's rebellion[256])

to supplement Agricola's rampart, between Forth and Clyde, with

another from sea to sea, between Tynemouth and Solway, "dividing the

Romans from the barbarians."[257] This does not mean that the district

thus isolated was definitely abandoned,[258] but that its inhabitants

were so imperfectly Romanized that the temptation to raid the more

civilized lands to the south had better be obviated. The Wall of

Hadrian marked the real limit of Roman Britain: beyond it was a

"march," sometimes strongly, more often feebly, garrisoned, but never

effectually occupied, much less civilized. The inhabitants, indeed,

seem to have rapidly lost what civilization they had. Dion Cassius

describes them, in the next generation, as far below the Caledonians

who opposed Agricola, a mere horde of squalid and ferocious

cannibals,[259] going into battle stark-naked (like their descendants

the Galwegians a thousand years later),[260] having neither chief nor

law, fields nor houses. The name Attacotti, by which they came finally

to be known, probably means _Tributary_, and describes their nominal

status towards Rome.

D. 3.--How hopeless the task of effectually incorporating these

barbarians within the Empire appeared to Hadrian is shown by the

extraordinary massiveness of the Wall which he built[261] to keep them

out from the civilized Provinces[262] to the southwards. "Uniting the

estuaries of Tyne and Solway it chose the strongest line of defence

available. Availing itself of a series of bold heights, which slope

steadily to the south, but are craggy precipices to the north, as if

designed by Nature for this very purpose, it pursued its mighty course

across the isthmus with a pertinacious, undeviating determination

which makes its remains unique in Europe, and one of the most

inspiriting scenes in Britain."[263] Its outer fosse (where the nature

of the ground permits) is from 30 to 40 feet wide and some 20 deep, so

sloped that the whole was exposed to direct fire from the Wall,

from which it is separated by a small glacis [_linea_] 10 or 12 feet

across. Beyond it the upcast earth is so disposed as to form the

glacis proper, for about 50 feet before dipping to the general ground

level. The Wall itself is usually 8 feet thick, the outer and inner

faces formed of large blocks of freestone, with an interior core of

carefully-filled-in rubble. The whole thus formed a defence of the

most formidable character, testifying strongly to the respect in which

the valour of the Borderers against whom it was constructed was held

by Hadrian and his soldiers.[264]

D. 4.--This expedition of Hadrian is cited by his biographer, Aelius

Spartianus, as the most noteworthy example of that invincible activity

which led him to take personal cognizance of every region in his

Empire: "_Ante omnes enitebatur ne quid otiosum vel emeret aliquando

vel pasceret."_ His contempt for slothful self-indulgence finds vent

in his reply to the doggerel verses of Florus, who had written:

_Ego nolo Caesar esse, ["To be Caesar I'd not care,

Ambulare per Britannos, Through the Britons far to fare,

Scythicas pati pruinas_. Scythian frost and cold to bear."]

Hadrian made answer:

_Ego nolo Florus esse, ["To be Florus I'd not care,

Ambulare per tabernas, Through the tavern-bars to fare,

Cimices pati rotundas_. Noxious insect-bites to bear."]

To us its special interest (besides the Wall) is found in the bronze

coins commemorating the occasion, the first struck with special

reference to Britain since those of Claudius. These are of various

types, but all of the year 120 (the third Consulate of Hadrian); and

the reverse mostly represents the figure so familiar on our present

bronze coinage, Britannia, spear in hand, on her island rock, with her

shield beside her.[265] This type was constantly repeated with slight

variations in the coinage of the next hundred years; and thus, when,

after an interval of twelve centuries, the British mint began once

more, in the reign of Charles the Second, to issue copper, this device

was again adopted, and still abides with us. The very large number of

types (approaching a hundred) of the Romano-British coinage, from this

reign to that of Caracalla, shows that Hadrian inaugurated the system

of minting coins not only with reference to Britain, but for special

local use. They were doubtless struck within the island; but we can

only conjecture where the earliest mints were situated.

D. 5.--Twenty years after Hadrian's visit we again find (A.D.

139) some little trouble in the north, owing to a feud between the

Brigantes and Genuini, a clan of whom nothing is known but the name.

The former seem to have been the aggressors, and were punished by the

confiscation of a section of their territory by Lollius Urbicus,

the Legate of Antoninus Pius; who further "shut off the excluded

barbarians by a turf wall" (_muro cespitio submotis[266] barbaris

ducto_). The context connects this operation with the Brigantian

troubles; but it is certain that Lollius repaired and strengthened

Agricola's rampart between Forth and Clyde. His name is found in

inscriptions along that line,[267] and that of Antoninus is frequent.

This work consisted of a _vallum_ some 40 miles in length, from

Carriden to Dumbarton, with fortified posts at frequent intervals.

It is locally known as "Graham's Dyke," and, since 1890, has been

systematically explored by the Glasgow Archaeological Society. It is

in the strictest sense "a turf wall"--no mere grass-grown earthwork,

but regularly built of squared sods in place of stones (sometimes on

a stone base). Roman engineers looked upon such a rampart as being the

hardest of all to construct.

SECTION E.

Commodus Britannicus--Ulpius Marcellus--Murder of Perennis--Era of

military turbulence--Pertinax--Albinus--British Army defeated at

Lyons--Severus--Caledonian war--Severus overruns Highlands.

E. 1.--It may very probably be owing to the energy of Lollius that

Britain, "Upper" and "Lower" together as it seems, as inscriptions

tell us, was about this date ranked amongst the Senatorial Provinces

of the Empire, the Pro-consul being C. Valerius Pansa. That it should

have been made a Pro-consulate shows (as is pointed out on p. 142)

that they were now considered amongst the more peaceful governorships.

In fact, though some slight disturbances threatened at the death of

Antoninus (A.D. 161), the country remained quiet till Commodus came to

the throne (A.D. 180). Then, however, we hear of a serious inroad of

the northern barbarians, who burst over the Roman Wall and were not

repulsed without a hard campaign. The Roman commander was Ulpius

Marcellus, a harsh but devoted officer, who fared like a common

soldier, and insisted on the strictest vigilance, being himself "the

most sleepless of generals."[268] The British Army, accordingly, swore

by him, and were minded to proclaim him Emperor,[2] a matter which

all but cost him his life at the hands of Commodus; who, however,

contented himself with assuming, like Claudius, the title of

Britannicus, in virtue of this success.[2] The further precaution was

taken of cashiering not only Ulpius but all the superior officers

of this dangerous army; men of lower rank and less influence being

substituted. The soldiers, however, defeated the design by breaking

out into open mutiny, and tearing to pieces the "enemy of the Army,"

Perennis, Praefect of the Praetorian Guards, who had been sent from

Rome (A.D. 185) to carry out the reform.[269]

E. 2.--This episode shows us how great a solidarity the Army of

Britain had by this time developed. It was always the policy of

Imperial Rome to recruit the forces stationed throughout the Provinces

not from the natives around them, but from those of distant regions.

Inscriptions tell that the British Legions were chiefly composed of

Spaniards, Aquitanians, Gauls, Frisians, Dalmatians, and Dacians;

while from the 'Notitia' we know that, in the 5th century, such

distant countries as Mauretania, Libya, and even Assyria,[270]

furnished contingents. Britons, in turn, served in Gaul, Spain,

Illyria, Egypt, and Armenia, as well as in Rome itself.

E. 3.--The outburst which led to the slaughter of Perennis was but the

dawn of a long era of military turbulence in Britain. First came the

suppression of the revolt A.D. 187 by the new Legate,[271] Pertinax,

who, at the peril of his life, refused the purple offered him by the

mutineers,[272] and drafted fifteen hundred of the ringleaders into

the Italian service of Commodus;[273] then Commodus died (A.D. 192),

and Pertinax became one of the various pretenders to the Imperial

throne; then followed his murder by Julianus, while Albinus succeeded

to his pretensions as well as to his British government; then that of

Julianus by Severus; then the desperate struggle between Albinus and

Severus for the Empire; the crushing defeat (A.D. 197) of the British

Army at Lyons, the death of Albinus,[274] and the final recognition of

Severus[275] as the acknowledged ruler of the whole Roman world.

E. 4.--Of all the Roman Emperors Severus is the most closely connected

with Britain. The long-continued political and military confusion

amongst the conquerors had naturally excited the independent tribes

of the north. In A.D. 201 the Caledonians beyond Agricola's rampart

threatened it so seriously that Vinius Lupus, the Praetor, was fain

to buy off their attack; and, a few years later, they actually joined

hands with the nominally subject Meatae within the Pale, who thereupon

broke out into open rebellion, and, along with them, poured down upon

the civilized districts to the south. So extreme was the danger that

the Prefect of Britain sent urgent dispatches to Rome, invoking the

Emperor's own presence with the whole force of the Empire.

E. 5.--Severus, in spite of age and infirmity,[276] responded to the

call, and, in a marvellously short time, appeared in Britain, bringing

with him his worthless sons, Caracalla[277] and Geta[278]--"my

Antonines," as he fondly called them,[279] though his life was already

embittered by their wickedness,--and Geta's yet more worthless mother,

Julia Domna. Leaving her and her son in charge south of Hadrian's

Wall, Severus and Caracalla undertook a punitive expedition[280]

beyond it, characterized by ferocity so exceptional[281] that the

names both of Caledonians and Meatae henceforward disappear from

history. The Romans on this occasion penetrated further than even

Agricola had gone, and reached Cape Wrath, where Severus made careful

astronomical observations.[282]

E. 6.--But the cost was fearful. Fifty thousand Roman soldiers

perished through the rigour of the climate and the wiles of the

desperate barbarians; and Severus felt the north so untenable that he

devoted all his energies to strengthening Hadrian's Wall,[283] so as

to render it an impregnable barrier beyond which the savages might be

allowed to range as they pleased.[284]

E. 7.--In what, exactly, his additions consisted we do not know, but

they were so extensive that his name is no less indissolubly connected

with the Wall than that of Hadrian. The inscriptions of the latter

found in the "Mile Castles" show that the line was his work, and

that he did not merely, as some have thought, build the series of

"stations" to support the "Vallum." But it is highly probable that

Severus so strengthened the Wall both in height and thickness as to

make it[285] far more formidable than Hadrian had left it. For now it

was intended to be the actual _limes_ of the Empire.

SECTION F.

Severus completes Hadrian's Wall--Mile

Castles--Stations--Garrison--Vallum--Rival

theories--Evidence--Remains--Coins--Altars--Mithraism--Inscription to

Julia Domna--"Written Rock" on Gelt--Cilurnum aqueduct.

F. 1.--It is to Severus, therefore, that we owe the final development

of this magnificent rampart, the mere remains of which are impressive

so far beyond all that description or drawing can tell. Only those

who have stood upon the heights by Peel Crag and seen the long line of

fortification crowning ridge after ridge in endless succession as

far as the eye can reach, can realize the sense of the vastness and

majesty of Roman Imperialism thus borne in upon the mind. And if this

is so now that the Wall is a ruin scarcely four feet high, and, but

for its greater breadth, indistinguishable from the ordinary local

field-walls, what must it have been when its solid masonry rose to

a height of over twenty feet; with its twenty-three strong

fortresses[286] for the permanent quarters of the garrison, its

great gate-towers[287] at every mile for the accommodation of the

detachments on duty, and its series of watch-turrets which, at every

three or four hundred yards, placed sentinels within sight and call of

each other along the whole line from sea to sea?

F. 2.--Of all this swarming life no trace now remains. So entirely did

it cease to be that the very names of the stations have left no shadow

of memories on their sites. Luguvallum at the one end, and Pons

Aelii at the other, have revived into importance as Carlisle and

Newcastle,[288] but of the rest few indeed remain save as solitary

ruins on the bare Northumbrian fells tenanted only by the flock and

the curlew. But this very solitude in which their names have perished

has preserved to us the means of recovering them. Thanks to it there

is no part of Britain so rich in Roman remains and Roman inscriptions.

At no fewer than twelve of these "stations" such have been already

found relating to troops whom we know from the 'Notitia' to have been

quartered at given spots _per lineam valli_. A Dacian cohort (for

example) has thus left its mark at Birdoswald, and an Asturian

at Chesters, thereby stamping these sites as respectively the

_Amboglanna_ and _Cilurnum_, whose Dacian and Asturian garrisons the

'Notitia' records. The old walls of Cilurnum, moreover, are still

clothed with a pretty little Pyrenaean creeper, _Erinus Hispanicus_,

which these Asturian exiles must have brought with them as a memorial

of their far-off home.

F. 3.--Many such small but vivid touches of the past meet those who

visit the Wall. At "King Arthur's Well," for example, near Thirlwall,

the tiny chives growing in the crevices of the rock are presumably

descendants of those acclimatized there by Roman gastronomy. At

Borcovicus ("House-steads") the wheel-ruts still score the pavement;

at Cilurnum the hypocaust of the bath is still blackened with smoke,

and at various points the decay of Roman prestige is testified to by

the walling up of one half or the other in the wide double gates which

originally facilitated the sorties of the garrisons.

F. 4.--The same decay is probably the key to the problem of the

"Vallum," that standing crux to all archaeological students of the

Wall. Along the whole line this mysterious earthwork keeps company

with the Wall on the south, sometimes in close contact, sometimes

nearly a mile distant. It has been diversely explained as an earlier

British work, as put up by the Romans to cover the fatigue-parties

engaged in building the Wall, and as a later erection intended to

defend the garrison against attacks from the rear. Each of these views

has been keenly debated; the last having the support of the late Dr.

Bruce, the highest of all authorities on the mural antiquities. And

excavations, even the very latest, have produced results which are

claimed by each of the rival theories.[289]

F. 5.--Quite possibly all are in measure true. The "Vallum" as we now

see it is obviously meant for defence against a southern foe. But the

spade has given abundant evidence that the rampart has been altered,

and that, in many places at least, it at one time faced northwards.

Though not an entirely satisfactory solution of the problem, the

following sequence of events would seem, on the whole, best to explain

the phenomena with which we are confronted. Originally a British

earthwork[290] defending the Brigantes against the cattle-lifting

raids of their restless northern neighbours, the "Vallum" was

adapted[291] for like purposes by the Romans, and that more than once.

After being thus utilized, first, perhaps, by Agricola, and afterwards

by Hadrian (for the protection of his working-parties engaged in

quarrying stone for the outer fortifications), it became useless when

the Wall was finally completed,[292] and remained a mere unfortified

mound so long as the Roman power in Southern Britain continued

undisturbed.

But when the garrison of the Wall became liable to attacks from

the rear, the "Vallum" was once more repaired, very probably by

Theodosius,[293] and this time with a ditch to the south, to enable

the soldiers to meet, if needful, a simultaneous assault of Picts in

front and Scots[294] or Saxons behind. Weak though it was as compared

to the Wall, it would still take a good deal of storming, if stoutly

held, and would effectually guard against any mere raid both the small

parties marching along the Military Way[295] from post to post, and

the cattle grazing along the rich meadows which frequently lie between

the two lines of fortification.

F.6.--As we have said, the line of country thus occupied teems with

relics of the occupation. Coins by the thousand, ornaments, fragments

of statuary, inscriptions to the Emperors, to the old Roman gods, to

the strange Pantheistic syncretisms of the later Mithraism[296], to

unknown (perhaps local) deities such as Coventina, records of

this, that, and the other body of troops in the garrison, personal

dedications and memorials--all have been found, and are still

constantly being found, in rich abundance. Of the whole number

of Romano-British inscriptions known, nearly half belong to the

Wall.[297]

F.7.--As an example of these inscriptions we may give one discovered

at Caervoran (the Roman _Magna_), and now in the Newcastle Antiquarian

Museum,[298] the interpretation of which has been a matter of

considerable discussion amongst antiquaries. It is written in letters

of the 3rd century and runs as follows:--

IMMINET · LEONIVIRGO · CAELES TI · SITV SPICIFERA · IVSTI · IN

VENTRIXVRBIVM · CONDITRIX EXQVISMVNERIBVS · NOSSECON

TIGITDEOS · ERGOEADEMMATERDIVVM PAX · VIRTVS · CERES · DEA ·

SYRIA LANCEVITAMETIVRAPENSITANS IN · CAELOVISVMSYRIASIDVSEDI

DIT · LIBYAE · COLENDVMINDE CVNCTIDIDICIMVS

ITAINTELLEXITNVMINEINDVCTVS TVO · MARCVSCAECILIVSDO NATIANVS ·

MILITANS · TRIBVNVS INPRAEFECTODONO · PRINCIPIS.

Here we have ten very rough trochaic lines:

Imminet Leoni Virgo caelesti situ Spicifera, justi inventrix,

urbium conditrix; Ex quis muneribus nosse contigit Deos. Ergo

eadem Mater Divum, Pax, Virtus, Ceres, Dea Syria, lance vitam

et jura pensitans. In caelo visum Syria sidus edidit Libyae

colendum: inde cuncti didicimus. Ita intellexit, numine

inductus tuo, Marcus Caecilius Donatianus, militans Tribunus

in Praefecto, dono Principis.

This may be thus rendered:

O'er the Lion hangs the Virgin, in her place in heaven, With

her corn-ear;--justice-finder, city-foundress, she: And in

them that do such office Gods may still be known. She, then,

is the Gods' own Mother, Peace, Strength, Ceres, all; Syria's

Goddess, in her Balance weighing life and Law. Syria sent

this Constellation shining in her sky Forth for Libya's

worship:--thence we all have learnt the lore. Thus hath

come to understanding, by the Godhead led, Marcus Caecilius

Donatianus Serving now as Tribune-Prefect, by the Prince's

grace.

F. 8.--These obscure lines Dr. Hodgkin refers to Julia Domna, the wife

of Severus, the one Emperor that Africa gave to the Roman world.

He was an able astrologer, and from early youth considered himself

destined by his horoscope for the throne. He was thus guided by

astrological considerations to take for his second wife a Syrian

virgin, whose nativity he found to forecast queenship. As his Empress

she shared in the aureole of divinity which rested upon all members

of the Imperial family. This theory explains the references in the

inscription to the constellation Virgo, with its chief star Spica,

having Leo on the one hand and Libra on the other, also to the Syrian

origin of Julia and her connection with Libya, the home of Severus.

It may be added that Dr. Hodgkin's view is confirmed by the fact that

this Empress figures, on coins found in Britain, as the Mother of

the Gods, and also as Ceres. The first line may possibly have special

reference to her influence in Britain during the reign of Severus

and her stepson[299] Caracalla (who was also her second husband), Leo

being a noted astrological sign of Britain.[300] The inscription was

evidently put up in recognition of promotion gained by her favour,

though the exact interpretation of _Tribunus in praefecto_ requires a

greater knowledge of Roman military nomenclature than we possess.

Dr. Hodgkin's "Tribune instead of Prefect" seems scarcely admissible

grammatically.

F. 9.--Another inscription which may be mentioned is that referred to

by Tennyson in 'Gareth and Lynette' (l. 172), which

"the vexillary

Hath left crag-carven over the streaming Gelt."[301]

This is one of the many such records in the quarries south of the Wall

telling of the labours of the fatigue-parties sent out by Severus

to hew stones for his mighty work, and cut on rocks overhanging the

river. It sets forth how a _vexillatio_[302] of the Second Legion

was here engaged, under a lieutenant [_optio_] named Agricola, in the

consulship of Aper and Maximus (A.D. 207);[303] perhaps as a guard

over the actual workers, who were probably a _corvée_ of impressed

natives.

F. 10.--Yet another inscription worth notice was unearthed in 1897,

and tells how a water supply to Cilurnum was brought from a source

in the neighbourhood through a subterraneous conduit by Asturian

engineers under Ulpius Marcellus (A.D. 160). That this should have

been done brings home to us the magnificent thoroughness with which

Rome did her work. Cilurnum stood on a pure and perennial stream, the

North Tyne, with a massively-fortified bridge, and thus could never be

cut off from water; it was only some six acres in total area; yet in

addition to the river it received a water supply which would now be

thought sufficient for a fair-sized town.[304] Well may Dr. Hodgkin

say that "not even the Coliseum of Vespasian or the Pantheon of

Agrippa impresses the mind with a sense of the majestic strength of

Rome so forcibly" as works like this, merely to secure the passage of

a "little British stream, unknown to the majority even of Englishmen."

SECTION G.

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 Cassius 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

_Braboniacum_ = Ribchester

Brige = Broughton

_Caesaromagum = Chelmsford_

Calcaria = Tadcaster

Calleva = Silchester

Camboricum = 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 = Godmanchester

Durnovernum = Canterbury

EBORACUM = YORK

_Etocetum = Uttoxeter_

GLEVUM = GLOUCESTER

Gobannium = Abergavenny

ISCA SILURUM = CAERLEON

Isca Damnoniorum = Exeter

Isurium = Aldborough (York)

LEMANNAE = LYMPNE

LINDUM COLONIA = LINCOLN

_Longovicum = 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 Shore--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 pronunciamentos (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

constituted 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 Shore. His jurisdiction

extended over the northern coast of Gaul and the southern and eastern

shores 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 classical 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 shore).

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 Illyricum. 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 Wessex, 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 pronounced 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 passing 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 Gods 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 noble 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 constitution, _ipso facto_ Augusti.

A. 13.--But already the mutual jealousy and distrust in which that

constitution 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 title 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: ARChÔ],

"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

associated 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 assenting vote to the decisions of Nicaea [[Greek: sumpsêphos

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 _rôle_ 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 'Notitia.'

Magnentius, in turn, was slain (A.D. 353), and the supreme command in

Britain passed to the new Caesar of the West, Julian "the Apostate."

B. 4.--Under him we first find our island mentioned as one of the

great corn-growing districts of the Empire, on which Gaul was able to

draw to a very large extent for the supply of her garrisons. No fewer

than eight hundred wheat-ships sailed from our shores on this errand;

a number which shows how large an area of the island must have been

brought under cultivation, and how much the country had prospered

during the sixty years of unbroken internal peace which had followed

on the suppression of Allectus.

B. 5.--That peace was now to be broken up. The northern tribes had

by this recovered from the awful chastisement inflicted upon them by

Severus,[339] and, after an interval of 150 years, once more (A.D.

362) appeared south of Hadrian's Wall. Whether as yet they _burst

through_ it is uncertain; for now we find a new confederacy of

barbarians. It is no longer that of Caledonians and Meatae, but of

Picts and Scots. And these last were seafarers. Their home was not in

Britain at all, but in the north of Ireland. In their "skiffs"[340]

they were able to turn the flank of the Roman defences, and may well

have thus introduced their allies from beyond Solway also. Anyhow,

penetrate the united hordes did into the quiet cornfields of Roman

Britain, repeating their raids ever more frequently and extending them

ever more widely, till their spearmen were cut [Errata: to] pieces in

450 at Stamford by the swords of the newly-arrived English.[341]

B. 6.--For the moment they were driven back without much difficulty,

by Lupicinus, Julian's Legate (the first Legate we hear of in Britain

since Lollius Urbicus), who, when the death of Constantius II. (in

361) had extinguished that royal line, aided his master to become

"_Dominus totius orbis_"--as he is called in an inscription[342]

describing his triumphant campaigns "_ex oceano Britannico_." And

after "the victory of the Galilaean" (363) had ended Julian's brief

and futile attempt to restore the Higher Paganism (to which several

British inscriptions testify),[343] it was again to an Emperor from

Britain that there fell the Lordship of the World--Valentinian, son

of Gratian, whose dynasty lasted out the remaining century of

Romano-British history.

B. 7.--His reign was marked in our land by a life-and-death struggle

with the inrushing barbarians. The Picts and Scots were now joined by

yet another tribe, the cannibal[344] Attacotti[345] of Valentia, and

their invasions were facilitated by the simultaneous raids of the

Saxon pirates (with whom they may perhaps have been actually in

concert) along the coast. The whole land had been wasted, and more

than one Roman general defeated, when Theodosius, father of the Great

Emperor, was sent, in 368, to the rescue. Crossing from Boulogne to

Richborough in a lucky calm,[346] and fixing his head-quarters at

London, or Augusta, as it was now called [_Londinium vetus oppidum,

quod Augustam posteritas apellavit_], he first, by a skilful

combination of flying columns, cut to pieces the scattered hordes of

the savages as they were making off with their booty, and finally

not only drove them back beyond the Wall, which he repaired and

re-garrisoned,[347] but actually recovered the district right up to

Agricola's rampart, which had been barbarian soil ever since the

days of Severus.[348] It was now (369) formed into a fifth British

province, and named Valentia in honour of Valens, the brother and

colleague of the Emperor.

B. 8.--The Twentieth Legion, whose head-quarters had so long been at

Chester, seems to have been moved to guard this new province. Forty

years later Claudian speaks of it as holding the furthest outposts in

Britain, in his well-known description of the dying Pict:

"Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis,

Quae Scoto dat frena truci, ferroque notatas

Perlegit exsangues Picto moriente figuras."

["From Britain's bound the outpost legion came,

Which curbs the savage Scot, and fading sees

The steel-wrought figures on the dying Pict."]

The same poet makes Theodosius fight and conquer even in the Orkneys

and in Ireland;

"--maduerunt Saxone fuso

Orcades; incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule;

Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne."[349]

["With Saxon slaughter flowed the Orkney strand,

With Pictish blood cold Thule warmer grew;

And icy Erin wept her Scotchmen slain."]

The relief, however, was but momentary. Five years later (374) another

great Saxon raid is recorded; yet eight years more and the Picts and

Scots have again to be driven from the land; and in the next decade

their attacks became incessant.

SECTION C.

Roman evacuation of Britain begun--Maximus--Settlement of

Brittany--Stilicho restores the Wall--Radagaisus invades

Italy--Twentieth Legion leaves Britain--Britain in the

'Notitia'--Final effort of British Army--The last Constantine--Last

Imperial Rescript to Britain--Sack of Rome by Alaric--Collapse of

Roman rule in Britain.

C. 1.--By this time the evacuation of Britain by the Roman soldiery

had fairly begun. Maximus, the last victor over the Scots, the "Pirate

of Richborough," as Ausonius calls him, set up as Emperor (A.D. 383);

and the Army of Britain again marched on Rome, and again, as under

Constantine, brought its leader in triumph to the Capitol (A.D. 387).

But this time it did not return. When Maximus was defeated and slain

(A.D. 388) at Aquileia by the Imperial brothers-in-law Valentinian II.

and Theodosius the Great[350] (sons of the so-named leaders connected

with Britain), his soldiers, as they retreated homewards, straggled

on the march; settling, amid the general confusion, here and there,

mostly in Armorica, which now first began to be called Brittany.[351]

This tale rests only on the authority of Nennius, but it is far from

improbable, especially as his sequel--that a fresh legion dispatched

to Britain by Stilicho (in 396) once more repelled the Picts and

Scots, and re-secured the Wall--is confirmed by Claudian, who makes

Britain (in a sea-coloured cloak and bearskin head-gear) hail Stilicho

as her deliverer:

Inde Caledonio velata Britannia monstro, Ferro picta genas,

cujus vestigia verrit Coerulus, Oceanique aestum mentitur,

amictus: "Me quoque vicinis percuntem gentibus," inquit,

"Munivit Stilichon, totam quum Scotus Iernen Movit, et infesto

spumavit remige Tethys. Illius effectum curis, ne tela timerem

Scotica, ne Pictum tremerem, ne litore toto Prospicerem dubiis

venturum Saxona ventis."[352]

[Then next, with Caledonian bearskin cowled, Her cheek

steel-tinctured, and her trailing robe Of green-shot blue,

like her own Ocean's tide, Britannia spake: "Me too," she

cried, "in act To perish 'mid the shock of neighbouring

hordes, Did Stilicho defend, when the wild Scot All Erin

raised against me, and the wave Foamed 'neath the stroke of

many a foeman's oar. So wrought his pains that now I fear no

more Those Scottish darts, nor tremble at the Pict, Nor mark,

where'er to sea mine eyes I turn, The Saxon coming on each

shifting wind."]

C. 2.--Which legion it was which Stilicho sent to Britain is much more

questionable. The Roman legions were seldom moved from province to

province, and it is perhaps more probable that he filled up the three

quartered in the island to something like their proper strength. But

a crisis was now at hand which broke down all ordinary rules. Rome was

threatened with such a danger as she had not known since Marius, five

hundred years before, had destroyed the Cimbri and Teutones (B.C.

101). A like horde of Teutonic invaders, nearly half a million

strong, came pouring over the Alps, under "Radagaisus the Goth," as

contemporary historians call him, though his claim, to Gothic lineage

is not undisputed. And these were not, like Alaric and his Visigoths,

who were to reap the fruits of this effort, semi-civilized Christians,

but heathen savages of the most ferocious type. Every nerve had to be

strained to crush them; and Stilicho did crush them. But it was at a

fearful cost. Every Roman soldier within reach had to be swept to the

rescue, and thus the Rhine frontier was left defenceless against the

barbarian hordes pressing upon it. Vandals, Sueves, Alans, Franks,

Burgundians, rushed tumultuously over the peaceful and fertile fields

of Gaul, never to be driven forth again.

C. 3.--Of the three British legions one only seems to have been thus

withdrawn,--the Twentieth, whose head-quarters had been so long at

Chester, and whose more recent duty had been to garrison the outlying

province of Valentia, which may now perhaps have been again abandoned.

It seems to have been actually on the march towards Italy[353] when

there was drawn up that wonderful document which gives us our last and

completest glimpse of Roman Britain--the _Notitia Dignitatum Utriusque

Imperii_.

C. 4.--This invaluable work sets forth in detail the whole machinery

of the Imperial Government, its official hierarchy, both civil

and military, in every land, and a summary of the forces under the

authority of each commander. A reference in Claudian would seem

to show that it was compiled by the industry of Celerinus, the

_Primicerius Notariorum_ or Head Clerk of the Treasury. The poet tells

us how this indefatigable statistician--

"Cunctorum tabulas assignat honorum, Regnorum tractat numeros,

constringit in unum Sparsas Imperii vires, cuneosque recenset

Dispositos; quae Sarmaticis custodia ripis, Quae saevis

objecta Getis, quae Saxona frenat Vel Scotum legio; quantae

cinxere cohortes Oceanum, quanto pacatur milite Rhenus."[354]

["Each rank, each office in his lists he shows, Tells every

subject realm, together draws The Empire's scattered force,

recounts the hosts In order meet;--which Legion is on guard By

Danube's banks, which fronts the savage Goth, Which curbs the

Saxon, which the Scot; what bands Begird the Ocean, what keep

watch on Rhine."]

To us the 'Notitia' is only known by the 16th-century copies of a

10th-century MS. which has now disappeared.[355] But these were made

with exceptional care, and are as nearly as may be facsimiles of the

original, even preserving its illuminated illustrations, including the

distinctive insignia of every corps in the Roman Army.

C. 5.--The number of these corps had, we find, grown erormously since

the days of Hadrian, when, as Dion Cassius tells us, there were 19

"Civic Legions" (of which three were quartered in Britain). No fewer

than 132 are now enumerated, together with 108 auxiliary bodies. But

we may be sure that each of these "legions" was not the complete Army

Corps of old,[356] though possibly the 25 of the First Class, the

_Legiones Palatinae_, may have kept something of their ancient

effectiveness. Indeed it is not wholly improbable that these alone

represent the old "civil" army; the Second and Third Class

"legions," with their extraordinary names ("Comitatenses" and

"Pseudo-Comitatenses"), being indeed merely so called by "courtesy,"

or even "sham courtesy."

C. 6.--In Britain we find the two remaining legions of the

old garrison, the Second, now quartered not at Caerleon but at

Richborough, under the Count of the Saxon Shore, and the Sixth under

the "Duke of the Britains," holding the north (with its head-quarters

doubtless, as of yore, at York, though this is not mentioned). Along

with each legion are named ten "squads" [_numeri_], which may perhaps

represent the ten cohorts into which legions were of old divided. The

word cohort seems to have changed its meaning, and now to signify

an independent military unit under a "Tribune." Eighteen of these,

together with six squadrons [_alae_] of cavalry, each commanded by a

"Praefect," form the garrison of the Wall;--a separate organization,

though, like the rest of the northern forces, under the Duke of the

Britains. The ten squads belonging to the Sixth Legion (each under a

Prefect) are distributed in garrison throughout Yorkshire,

Lancashire, and Westmoreland. Those of the Second (each commanded by a

"Praepositus") are partly under the Count of the Saxon Shore, holding

the coast from the Wash to Arundel,[357] partly under the "Count of

Britain," who was probably the senior officer in the island[358]

and responsible for its defence in general. Besides these bodies of

infantry the British Army comprised eighteen cavalry units; three,

besides the six on the Wall, being in the north, three on the Saxon

Shore, and the remaining six under the immediate command of the Count

of Britain, to whose troops no special quarters are assigned. Not a

single station is mentioned beyond the Wall, which supports the theory

that the withdrawal of the Twentieth Legion had involved the practical

abandonment of Valentia.[359]

C. 7.--The two Counts and the Duke were the military leaders of

Britain. The chief civil officer was the "respectable" Vicar of the

Diocese of Britain, one of the six Vicars under the "illustrious"

Pro-consul of Africa. Under him were the Governors of the five

Provinces, two of these being "Consulars" of "Right Renowned" rank

[_clarissimi_,] the other three "Right Perfect" [_perfectissimi_]

"Presidents." The Vicar was assisted by a staff of Civil Servants,

nine heads of departments being enumerated. Their names, however, have

become so wholly obsolete as to tell us nothing of their respective

functions.

C. 8.--Whatever these may have been they did not include the financial

administration of the Diocese, the general management of which was in

the hands of two officers, the "Accountant of Britain" [_Rationalis

Summarum Britanniarum_] and the "Provost of the London Treasury"

[_Praepositus thesaurorum Augustensium_].[360] Both these were

subordinates of the "Count of the Sacred Largesses" [_Comes Sacrarum

Largitionum_], one of the greatest officers of State, corresponding to

our First Lord of the Treasury, whose name reminds us that all public

expenditure was supposed to be the personal benevolence of His Sacred

Majesty the Emperor, and all sources of public revenue his personal

property. The Emperor, however, had actually in every province domains

of his own, managed by the Count of the Privy Purse [_Comes Rei

Privatae_], whose subordinate in Britain was entitled the "Accountant

of the Privy Purse for Britain" [_Rationalis Rei Privatae per

Britanniam_]. Both these Counts were "Illustrious" [_illustres_];

that is, of the highest order of the Imperial peerage below the "Right

Noble" [_nobilissimi_] members of the Imperial Family.

C. 9.--Such and so complete was the system of civil and military

government in Roman Britain up to the very point of its sudden and

utter collapse. When the 'Notitia' was compiled, neither Celerinus, as

he wrote, nor the officials whose functions and ranks he noted, could

have dreamt that within ten short years the whole elaborate fabric

would, so far as Britain was concerned, be swept away utterly and for

ever. Yet so it was.

C. 10.--For what was left of the British Army now made a last effort

to save the West for Rome, and once more set up Imperial Pretenders

of its own.[361] The first two of these, Marcus and Gratian, were

speedily found unequal to the post, and paid the usual penalty of such

incompetence; but the third, a private soldier named Constantine, all

but succeeded in emulating the triumph of his great namesake. For four

years (407-411) he was able to hold not only Britain, but Gaul and

Spain also under his sceptre; and the wretched Honorius, the unworthy

son and successor of Theodosius, who was cowering amid the marshes of

Ravenna, and had murdered his champion Stilicho, was fain to recognize

the usurper as a legitimate Augustus. Only by treachery was he put

down at last, the traitor being the commander of his British forces,

Gerontius. Both names continued for many an age favourites in British

nomenclature, and both have been swept into the cycle of Arturian

romance, the latter as "Geraint."

C. 11.--Neither Gerontius nor his soldiers ever got back to their old

homes in Britain. What became of them we do not know. But Zosimus[362]

tells us that Honorius now sent a formal rescript to the British

cities abrogating the Lex Julia, which forbade civilians to carry

arms, and bidding them look to their own safety. For now the end had

really come, and the Eternal City itself had been sacked by barbarian

hands. Never before and never since does history record a sacked city

so mildly treated by the conquerors. Heretics as the Visi-goths

were, they never forgot that the vanquished Catholics were their

fellow-Christians, and, barbarians as they were, they left an example

of mercy in victory which puts to the blush much more recent Christian

and civilized warfare.

C. 12.--But, for all that, the moral effect of Alaric's capture of

Rome was portentous, and shook the very foundations of civilization

throughout the world. To Jerome, in his cell at Bethlehem, the tidings

came like the shock of an earthquake. Augustine, as he penned his 'De

Civitate Dei,' felt the old world ended indeed, and the Kingdom of

Heaven indeed at hand. And in Britain the whole elaborate system of

Imperial civil and military government seems to have crumbled to the

ground almost at once. It is noticeable that the rescript of Honorius

is addressed simply to "the cities" of Britain, the local municipal

officers of each several place. No higher authority remained. The

Vicar of Britain, with his staff, the Count and Duke of the

Britains with their soldiery, the Count of the Saxon Shore with his

coastguard,--all were gone. It is possible that, as the deserted

provincials learnt to combine for defence, the Dictators they chose

from time to time to lead the national forces may have derived some

of their authority from the remembrance of these old dignities. "The

dragon of the great Pendragonship,"[363] the tufa of Caswallon

(633), and the purple of Cunedda[364] may well have been derived (as

Professor Rhys suggests) from this source. But practically the history

of Roman Britain ends with a crash at the Fall of Rome.

SECTION D.

Beginning of English Conquest--Vortigern--Jutes in Thanet--Battle of

Stamford--Massacre of Britons--Valentinian III.--Latest Roman coin

found in Britain--Progress of Conquest--The Cymry--Survival of

Romano-British titles--Arturian Romances--Procopius--Belisarius--Roman

claims revived by Charlemagne--The British Empire.

D. 1.--Little remains to be told, and that little rests upon no

contemporary authority known to us. In Gildas, the nearest, writing in

the next century, we find little more than a monotonous threnody over

the awful visitation of the English Conquest, the wholesale and utter

destruction of cities, the desecration of churches, the massacre of

clergy and people. Nennius (as, for the sake of convenience, modern

writers mostly agree to call the unknown author of the 'Historia

Britonum') gives us legends of British incompetence and Saxon

treachery which doubtless represent the substantial features of the

break-up, and preserve, quite possibly, even some of the details. Bede

and the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' assign actual dates to the various

events, but we have no means of testing their accuracy.

D. 2.--Broadly we know that the unhappy civilians, who were not only

without military experience, but had up to this moment been actually

forbidden to carry arms, naturally proved unable to face the ferocious

enemies who swarmed in upon them. They could neither hold the Wall

against the Picts nor the coast against the Saxons. It may well be

true that they chose a _Dux Britannorum_,[365] and that his name may

have been something like Vortigern, and that he (when a final appeal

for Roman aid proved vain)[366] may have taken into his pay (as

Carausius did) the crews of certain pirate "keels" [_chiulae_],[367]

and settled them in Thanet. The very names of their English captains,

"Hengist and Horsa," may not be so mythical as critics commonly

assume.[368] And the tale of the victory at Stamford, when the

spears of the Scottish invaders were cut to pieces by the

swords of the English mercenaries,[369] has a very true ring

about it. So has also the sequel, which tells how, when the inevitable

quarrel arose between employers and employed, the Saxon leader gave

the signal for the fray by suddenly shouting to his men, _Nimed eure

saxes_[370] (_i.e._ "Draw your knives!"), and massacred the hapless

Britons of Kent almost without resistance.

D. 3.--The date of this first English settlement is doubtful. Bede

fixes it as 449, which agrees with the order of events in Gildas, and

with the notice in Nennius that it was forty years after the end of

Roman rule in Britain [_transacto Romanorum in Britannia imperio_].

But Nennius also declares that this was in the fourth year of

Vortigern, and that his accession coincided with that of the nephew

and successor of Honorius, Valentinian III., son of Galla Placidia,

which would bring in the Saxons 428. It may perhaps be some very

slight confirmation of the later date, that Valentinian is the last

Emperor whose coins have been found in Britain.[371]

D. 4.--Anyhow, the arrival of the successive swarms of Anglo-Saxons

from the mouth of the Elbe, and their hard-won conquest of Eastern

Britain during the 5th century, is certain. The western half of the

island, from Clydesdale southwards, resisted much longer, and, in

spite of its long and straggling frontier, held together for more

than a century. Not till the decisive victory of the Northumbrians at

Chester (A.D. 607), and that of the West Saxons at Beandune (A.D. 614)

was this Cymrian federation finally broken into three fragments, each

destined shortly to disintegrate into an ever-shifting medley of petty

principalities. Yet in each the ideal of national and racial unity

embodied in the word Cymry[372] long survived; and titles borne to

this day by our Royal House, "Duke of Cornwall," "Prince of Wales,"

"Duke of Albany," are the far-off echoes, lingering in each, of the

Roman "Comes Britanniae" and "Dux Britanniarum." The three feathers of

the Principality may in like manner be traced to the _tufa_, or plume,

borne before the supreme authority amongst the Romans of old, as the

like are borne before the Supreme Head of the Roman Church to this

day. And age after age the Cymric harpers sang of the days when

British armies had marched in triumph to Rome, and the Empire had

been won by British princes, till the exploits of their mystical

"Arthur"[373] became the nucleus of a whole cycle of mediaeval

romance, and even, for a while, a real force in practical

politics.[374]

D. 5.--And as the Britons never quite forgot their claims on the

Empire, so the Empire never quite forgot its claims on Britain. How

entirely the island was cut off from Rome we can best appreciate by

the references to it in Procopius. This learned author, writing under

Justinian, scarcely 150 years since the day when the land was fully

Roman, conceives of Britannia and Brittia as two widely distant

islands--the one off the coast of Spain, the other off the mouth

of the Rhine.[375] The latter is shared between the Angili,

Phrissones,[376] and Britons, and is divided _from North to

South_[377] by a mighty Wall, beyond which no mortal man can

breathe. Hither are ferried over from Gaul by night the souls of the

departed;[378] the fishermen, whom a mysterious voice summons to the

work, seeing no one, but perceiving their barks to be heavily sunk in

the water, yet accomplishing the voyage with supernatural celerity.

D. 6.--About the same date Belisarius offered to the Goths,[379] in

exchange for their claim to Sicily, which his victories had already

rendered practically nugatory, the Roman claims to Britain, "a much

larger island," which were equally outside the scope of practical

politics for the moment, but might at any favourable opportunity be

once more brought forward. And, when the Western Empire was revived

under Charlemagne, they were in fact brought forward, and actually

submitted to by half the island. The Celtic princes of Scotland, the

Anglians of Northumbria, and the Jutes of Kent alike owned the new

Caesar as their Suzerain. And the claim was only abrogated by the

triumph of the counter-claim first made by Egbert, emphasized by

Edward the Elder, and repeated again and again by our monarchs

their descendants, that the British Crown owes no allegiance to any

potentate on earth, being itself not only Royal, but in the fullest

sense Imperial.[380]

SECTION E.

Survivals of Romano-British civilization--Romano-British

Church--Legends of its origin--St. Paul--St. Peter--Joseph

of Arimathaea--Glastonbury--Historical notices--Claudia and

Pudens--Pomponia--Church of St. Pudentiana--Patristic references

to Britain--Tertullian--Origen--Legend of Lucius--Native

Christianity--British Bishops at Councils--Testimony of Chrysostom and

Jerome.

E. 1.--Few questions have been more keenly debated than the extent to

which Roman civilization in Britain survived the English Conquest.

On the one hand we have such high authorities as Professor Freeman

assuring us that our forefathers swept it away as ruthlessly and as

thoroughly as the Saracens in Africa; on the other, those who consider

that little more disturbance was wrought than by the Danish invasions.

The truth probably lies between the two, but much nearer to the former

than the latter. The substitution of an English for the Roman name of

almost every Roman site in the country[381] could scarcely have taken

place had there been anything like continuity in their inhabitants.

Even the Roman roads, as we have seen,[382] received English

designations. We may well believe that most Romano-British

towns shared the fate of Anderida (the one recorded instance of

destruction),[383] and that the word "chester" was only applied to

the Roman _ruins_ by their destroyers.[384] But such places as London,

York, and Lincoln may well have lived on through the first generation

of mere savage onslaught, after which the English gradually began to

tolerate even for themselves a town life.

E. 2.--And though in the country districts the agricultural population

were swept away pitilessly to make room for the invaders,[385] till

the fens of Ely[386] and the caves of Ribblesdale[387] became the

only refuge of the vanquished, yet, undoubtedly, many must have

been retained as slaves, especially amongst the women, to leaven the

language of the conquerors with many a Latin word, and their ferocity

with many a recollection of the gentler Roman past.

E. 3.--And there was one link with that past which not all the

massacres and fire-raisings of the Conquest availed to break. The

Romano-British populations might be slaughtered, the Romano-British

towns destroyed, but the Romano-British Church lived on; the most

precious and most abiding legacy bestowed by Rome upon our island.

E. 4.--The origin of that Church has been assigned by tradition

to directly Apostolic sources. The often-quoted passage from

Theodoret,[388] of St. Paul having "brought help" to "the isles of the

sea" [[Greek: tais en to pelagei diakeimenais nêsois]], can scarcely,

however, refer to this island. No classical author ever uses the

word [Greek: pelagos] of the Oceanic waters; and the epithet [Greek:

diakeimenais], coming, as it does, in connection with the Apostle's

preaching in Italy and Spain, seems rather to point to the islands

between these peninsulas--Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands.

But the well-known words of St. Clement of Rome,[389] that St. Paul's

missionary journeys extended to "the End of the West" [Greek: to terma

tês duseôs], were, as early as the 6th century, held to imply a visit

to Britain (for our island was popularly supposed by the ancients to

lie west of Spain).[390] The lines of Venantius (A.D. 580) even seem

to contain a reference to the tradition that he landed at Portsmouth:

"Transit et Oceanum, vel qua facit insula portum, Quasque

Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thule."

["Yea, through the ocean he passed, where the Port is made by

an island, And through each British realm, and where the world

endeth at Thule."]

E. 5.--The Menology of the Greek Church (6th century) ascribes the

organization of the British Church to the visitation, not of St. Paul,

but of St. Peter in person.

[Greek: O Petros ... ehis Bretannian paraginetai. Entha dô

cheirotribôsas [_sic_] kai polla tôn hakatanomatôn hethnôn

eis tôn tou Christou pistin epispasamenos ... kai pollous

toi logoi photisas tôs charitos, ekklaesias te sustêsamenos,

episkopous te kai presbuterous kai diakonous

cheipotonhêsas, dôdekatôi etei tou Kaisaros authis eis Rômên

paraginetai.][391]

["Peter ... cometh even unto Britain. Yea, there abode he

long, and many of the lawless folk did he draw to the Faith of

Christ ... and many did he enlighten with the Word of Grace.

Churches, too, did he set up, and ordained bishops and priests

and deacons. And in the twelfth year of Caesar[392] came he

again unto Rome."]

The 'Acta Sanctorum' also mentions this tradition (filtered through

Simeon Metaphrastes), and adds that St. Peter was in Britain during

Boadicea's rebellion, when he incurred great danger.

E. 6--The 'Synopsis Apostolorum,' ascribed to Dorotheus (A.D. 180),

but really a 6th-century compilation, gives us yet another Apostolic

preacher, St. Simon Zelotes. This is probably due to a mere confusion

between [Greek: Mabritania] [Mauretania] and [Greek: Bretannia]. But

it is impossible to deny that the Princes of the Apostles _may_

both have visited Britain, nor indeed is there anything essentially

improbable in their doing so. We know that Britain was an object of

special interest at Rome during the period of the Conquest, and it

would be quite likely that the idea of simultaneously conquering

this new Roman dominion for Christ should suggest itself to the two

Apostles so specially connected with the Roman Church.[393]

E. 7.--But while we may _possibly_ accept this legend, it is otherwise

with the famous and beautiful story which ascribes the foundation of

our earliest church at Glastonbury to the pilgrimage of St. Joseph of

Arimathaea, whose staff, while he rested on Weary-all Hill, took root,

and became the famous winter thorn, which

"Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord,"[394]

and who, accordingly, set up, hard by, a little church of wattle to be

the centre of local Christianity.

E. 8.--Such was the tale which accounted for the fact that this humble

edifice developed into the stateliest sanctuary of all Britain. We

first find it, in its final shape, in Geoffrey of Monmouth (1150);

but already in the 10th century the special sanctity of the shrine was

ascribed to a supernatural origin,[395] as a contemporary Life of St.

Dunstan assures us; and it is declared, in an undisputed Charter of

Edgar, to be "the first church in the Kingdom built by the disciples

of Christ." But no earlier reference is known; for the passages

cited from Gildas and Melkinus are quite untrustworthy. So striking a

phenomenon as the winter thorn would be certain to become an object

of heathen devotion;[396] and, as usual, the early preachers would

Christianize the local cult, as they Christianized the Druidical

figment of a Holy Cup (perhaps also local in its origin), into the

sublime mysticism of the Sangreal legend, connected likewise with

Joseph of Arimathaea.[397]

E. 9.--That the original church of Glaston was really of wattle

is more than probable, for the remains of British buildings thus

constructed have been found abundantly in the neighbouring peat. The

Arimathaean theory of its consecration became so generally accepted

that at the Council of Constance (1419) precedence was actually

accorded to our Bishops as representing the senior Church of

Christendom. But the oldest variant of the legend says nothing about

Arimathaea, but speaks only of an undetermined "Joseph" as the leader

[_decurio_][398] of twelve missionary comrades who with him settled

down at Glastonbury. And this may well be true. Such bands (as we

see in the Life of Columba) were the regular system in Celtic mission

work, and survived in that of the Preaching Friars:

"For thirteen is a Covent, as I guess."[399]

E. 10.--And though such high authorities as Mr. Haddan have come to

the conclusion that Christianity in Britain was confined to a small

minority even amongst the Roman inhabitants of the island, and almost

vanished with them, yet the catena of references to British converts

can scarcely be thus set aside. They begin in Apostolic times and

in special connection with St. Paul. Martial tells us of a British

princess named Claudia Rufina[400] (very probably the daughter of that

Claudius Cogidubnus whom we meet in Tacitus as at once a British

King and an Imperial Legate),[2] whose beauty and wit made no little

sensation in Rome; whither she had doubtless been sent at once for

education and as a hostage for her father's fidelity. And one of

the most beautiful of his Epigrams speaks of the marriage of this

foreigner to a Roman of high family named Pudens, belonging to the

Gens Aemilia (of which the Pauline family formed a part):

"Claudia, Rufe, meo nubet peregrina Pudenti,

Macte esto taedis, O Hymenaee, suis.

Diligat illa senem quondam; sed et ipsa marito,

Tunc quoque cum fuerit, non videatur anus."[401]

[To RUFUS. Claudia, from far-off climes, my Pudens weds: With

choicest bliss, O Hymen, crown their heads! May she still love

her spouse when gray and old, He in her age unfaded charms

behold.]

It may have been in consequence of this marriage that Pudens joined

with Claudius Cogidubnus in setting up the Imperial Temple at

Chichester.[402] And the fact that Claudia was an adopted member of

the Rufine family shows that she was connected with the Gens Pomponia

to which this family belonged.

E. 11.--Now Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, had married

a Pomponia, who in A.D. 57 was accused of practising an illicit

religion, and, though pronounced guiltless by her husband (to whose

domestic tribunal she was left, as Roman Law permitted), passed

the rest of her life in retirement.[403] When we read of an illicit

religion in connection with Britain, our first thought is, naturally,

that Druidism is intended.[404] But there are strong reasons for

supposing that Pomponia was actually a Christian. The names of her

family are found in one of the earliest Christian catacombs in Rome,

that of Calixtus; and that Christianity had its converts in very

high quarters we know from the case of Clemens and Domitilla, closely

related to the Imperial throne.

E. 12.--Turning next to St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, we find,

in close connection, the names of Pudens and Claudia (along with

that of the future Pope Linus) amongst the salutations from Roman

Christians. And recent excavations have established the fact that the

house of Pudens was used for Christian worship at this date, and is

now represented by the church known as St. Pudentiana.[405] That this

should have been so proves that this Pudens was no slave going under

his master's name (as was sometimes done), but a man of good position

in Rome. Short of actual proof it would be hard to imagine a series

of evidences more morally convincing that the Pudens and Claudia of

Martial are the Pudens and Claudia of St. Paul, and that they, as well

as Pomponia, were Christians. Whether, then, St. Paul did or did

not actually visit Britain, the earliest British Christianity is, at

least, closely connected with his name.

E. 13.--Neither legendary nor historical sources tell us of any

further development of British Christianity till the latter days of

the 2nd century. Then, however, it had become sufficiently widespread

to furnish a common-place for ecclesiastical declamation on

the all-conquering influence of the Gospel. Both Tertullian and

Origen[406] thus use it. The former numbers in his catalogue of

believing countries even the districts of Britain beyond the Roman

pale, _Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subdita_[407].

And in this lies the interest of his reference, as pointing to the

native rather than the Roman element being the predominant factor

in the British Church. For just at this period comes in the legend

preserved by Bede,[408] that a mission was sent to Britain by Pope

Eleutherius[409] in response to an appeal from "Lucius Britanniae

Rex." The story, which Bede probably got from the 'Catalogus

Pontificum,'[410] may be apocryphal; but it would never have been

invented had British Christianity been found merely or mainly in the

Roman veneer of the population. Modern criticism finds in it this

kernel of truth, that the persecution which gave the Gallican Church

the martyrs of Lyons, also sent her scattered refugees as missionaries

into the less dangerous regions of Britain;--those remoter parts, in

especial, where even the long arm of the Imperial Government could not

reach them.

E. 14.--The Picts, however, as a nation, remained savage heathens even

to the 7th century, and the bulk of our Christian population must

have been within the Roman pale; but little vexed, it would seem,

by persecution, till it came into conflict with the thorough-going

Imperialism of Diocletian.[411] Its martyrs were then numbered,

according to Gildas, by thousands, according to Bede by hundreds; and

their chief, St. Alban, at least, is a fairly established historical

entity.[412] Nor is there any reason to doubt that after Constantine

South Britain was as fully Christian as any country in Europe. In

the earliest days of his reign (A.D. 314) we find three bishops,[413]

together with a priest and a deacon, representing[414] the British

Church at the Council of Arles (which, amongst other things, condemned

the marriage of the "innocent divorcee"[415]). And the same number

figure in the Council of Ariminum (360), as the only prelates (out of

the 400) who deigned to accept from the Emperor the expenses of their

journey and attendance.

E. 15.--This Council was called by Constantius II. in the semi-Arian

interest, and not allowed to break up till after repudiating the

Nicene formula. But the lapse was only for a moment. Before the

decade was out Athanasius could write of Britain as notoriously

orthodox,[416] and before the century closes we have frequent

references to our island as a fully Christian and Catholic land.

Chrysostom speaks of its churches and its altars and "the power of

the Word" in its pulpits,[417] of its diligent study of Scripture and

Catholic doctrine,[418] of its acceptance of Catholic discipline,[419]

of its use of Catholic formulae: "Whithersoever thou goest," he says,

"throughout the whole world, be it to India, to Africa, or to Britain,

thou wilt find _In the beginning was the Word_."[420] Jerome, in turn,

tells of British pilgrimages to Jerusalem[421] and to Rome;[422] and,

in his famous passage on the world-wide Communion of the Roman See,

mentions Britain by name: "Nec altera Romanae Urbis Ecclesia, altera

totius orbis existimanda est. Et Galliae, et Britanniae, et Africa, et

Persis, et Oriens, et Indio, et omnes barbarae nationes, unum Christum

adorant, unam observant regulam veritatis."[423]

["Neither is the Church of the City of Rome to be held one,

and that of the whole world another. Both Gaul and Britain

and Africa and Persia and the East and India, and all the

barbarian nations, adore one Christ, observe one Rule of

Truth."]

SECTION F.

British Missionaries--Ninias--Patrick--Beatus--Heresiarchs--Pelagius

Fastidius--Pelagianism stamped out by Germanus--The Alleluia

Battle--Romano-British churches--Why so seldom found--Conclusion.

F. 1.--The fruits of all this vigorous Christian life soon showed

themselves in the Church of Britain by the evolution of noteworthy

individual Christians. First in order comes Ninias, the Apostle of the

Southern Picts, commissioned to the work, after years of training at

Rome, by Pope Siricius (A.D. 394), and fired by the example of St.

Martin, the great prelate of Gaul. To this saint (or, to speak more

exactly, under his invocation) Ninias, on hearing of his death in A.D.

400, dedicated his newly-built church at Whithern[424] in Galloway,

the earliest recorded example of this kind of dedication in

Britain.[425] Galloway may have been the native home of Ninias, and

was certainly the head-quarters of his ministry.

F. 2.--The work of Ninias amongst the Picts was followed in the next

generation by the more abiding work of St. Patrick amongst the Scots

of Ireland. Nay, even the Continent was indebted to British piety;

though few British visitors to the Swiss Oberland remember that the

Christianity they see around them is due to the zeal of a British

Mission. Yet there seems no solid reason for doubting that so it is.

Somewhere about the time of St. Patrick, two British priests, Beatus

and Justus, entered the district by the Brunig Pass, and set up their

first church at Einigen, near Thun. There Justus abode as the settled

Missioner of the neighbourhood, while Beatus made his home in the

ivy-clad cave above the lake which still bears his name,[426] sailing

up and down with the Gospel message, and evangelizing the valleys

and uplands now so familiar to his fellow-countrymen--Grindelwald,

Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, Kandersteg.

F. 3.--And while the light of the Gospel was thus spreading on every

side from our land, Britain was also becoming all too famous as the

nurse of error. The British Pelagius,[427] who erred concerning

the doctrine of free-will, grew to be a heresiarch of the first

order;[428] and his follower Fastidius, or Faustus, the saintly Abbot

of Lerins in the Hyères, the friend of Sidonius Apollinaris,[429] was,

in his day, only less renowned. He asserted the materiality of the

soul. Both were able writers; and Pelagius was the first to adopt the

plan of promulgating his heresies not as his own, but as the tenets of

supposititious individuals of his acquaintance.

F. 4.--Pelagianism spread so widely in Britain that the Catholics

implored for aid from over-sea. St. Germanus of Auxerre, and St.

Lupus, Bishop of Troyes (whose sanctity had disarmed the ferocity even

of Attila), came[430] accordingly (in 429) and vindicated the faith in

a synod held at Verulam so successfully that the neighbouring shrine

of St. Alban was the scene of a special service of thanksgiving. In

a second Mission, fifteen years later, Germanus set the seal to his

work, stamping out throughout all the land both this new heresy and

such remains of heathenism as were still to be found in Southern

Britain. While thus engaged on the Border he found his work endangered

by a raiding host of Picts or Saxons, or both. The Saint, who had been

a military chieftain in his youth, promptly took the field at the head

of his flock, many of whom were but newly baptized. It was Easter Eve,

and he took advantage of the sacred ceremonies of that holy season,

which were then actually performed by night. From the New Fire, the

"Lumen Christi," was kindled a line of beacons along the Christian

lines, and when Germanus intoned the threefold Easter Alleluia,

the familiar strain was echoed from lip to lip throughout the host.

Stricken with panic at the sudden outburst of light and song, the

enemy, without a blow, broke and fled.[431]

F. 5.--This story, as told by Constantius, and confirmed by both

Nennius and Bede, incidentally furnishes us with something of a key

to the main difficulty in accepting the widely-spread Romano-British

Christianity to which the foregoing citations testify. What, it is

asked, has become of all the Romano-British churches? Why are no

traces of them found amongst the abundant Roman remains all over the

land? That they were the special objects of destruction at the Saxon

invasion we learn from Gildas. But this does not account for their

very foundations having disappeared; yet at Silchester[432] alone have

modern excavations unearthed any even approximately certain example of

them. Where are all the rest?

F. 6.--The question is partly answered when we read that the soldiers

of Germanus had erected in their camp a church of wattle, and that

such was the usual material of which, even as late as 446, British

churches were built (as at Glastonbury). Seldom indeed would such

leave any trace behind them; and thus the country churches of Roman

Britain would be sought in vain by excavators. In the towns, however,

stone or brick would assuredly be used, and to account for the paucity

of ecclesiastical ruins three answers may be suggested.

F. 7.--First, the number of continuously unoccupied Romano-British

cities is very small indeed. Except at Silchester, Anderida, and

Uriconium, almost every one has become an English town. But when this

took place early in the English settlement of the land, the ruins of

the Romano-British churches would still be clearly traceable at the

conversion of the English, and would be rebuilt (as St. Martin's at

Canterbury was in all probability rebuilt)[433] for the use of English

Christianity, the old material[434] being worked up into the new

edifices. It is probable that many of our churches thus stand on the

very spot where the Romano-British churches stood of old. But this

very fact would obliterate the remains of these churches.

F. 8.--Secondly, it is very possible that many of the heathen temples

may, after the edict of Theodosius (A.D. 392), have been turned into

churches (like the Pantheon at Rome), so that _their_ remains may mark

ecclesiastical sites. There are reasons for believing that in various

places, such as St. Paul's, London, St. Peter's, Cambridge, and St.

Mary's, Ribchester, Christian worship did actually thus succeed Pagan

on the same site.

F. 9.--Thirdly, as Lanciani points out, the earliest Christian

churches were simply the ordinary dwelling-houses of such wealthier

converts as were willing to permit meetings for worship beneath their

roof, which in time became formally consecrated to that purpose. Such

a dwelling-house usually consisted of an oblong central hall, with

a pillared colonnade, opening into a roofed cloister or peristyle on

either side, at one end into a smaller guest-room [_tablinum_], at the

other into the porch of entry. The whole was arranged thus:

Small Guest Room. P P e e r r i Central Hall, i s with pillars

s t on each side t y (often roofless). y l l e e Porch of

Entry.

It will be readily seen that we have here a building on the lines of

an ordinary church. The small original congregation would meet, like

other guests, in the reception-room. As numbers increased, the hall

and adjoining cloisters would have to be used (the former being roofed

in); the reception-room being reserved for the most honoured members,

and ultimately becoming the chancel of a fully-developed church, with

nave and aisles complete.[435] It _may_ be, therefore, that some of

the Roman villas found in Britain were really churches.[436]

F. 10.--This, however, is a less probable explanation of the absence

of ecclesiastical remains; and the large majority of Romano-British

church sites are, as I believe, still in actual use amongst us for

their original purpose. And it may be considered as fairly proved,

that before Britain was cut off from the Empire the Romano-British

Church had a rite[437] and a vigorous corporate life of its own, which

the wave of heathen invasion could not wholly submerge. It lived on,

shattered, perhaps, and disorganized, but not utterly crushed, to

be strengthened in due time by a closer union with its parent stem,

through the Mission of Augustine, to feel the reflex glow of its own

missionary efforts in the fervour of Columba and his followers,[438]

and, finally, to form an integral part of that Ecclesia Anglicana

whose influence knit our country into one, and inspired the Great

Charter of our constitutional liberties.[439] Her faith and her

freedom are the abiding debt which Britain owes to her connection with

Rome.

INDEX

Aaron of Caerleon, 259

Addeomarus, 130

Adder-beads, 71

Adelfius, 259

Adminius, 126, 128, 130

Aetius, 245

Agricola, 156, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165

Agriculture, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 191, 231

Agrippina, 140, 149, 150

Akeman Street, 166

Alaric, 237, 243

Alban, St., 227, 259

Albany, 247

Albinus, 200

Albion, 32

Alexander Severus, 71

Allectus, 220, 223, 224, 231

Alleluia Battle, 264

Alpine dogs, 191

Amber, 48, 49

Ambleteuse, 86, 95

Amboglanna, 174, 204

Aminus. _See_ Adminius

Amphitheatres, 185, 224

Ancalites, 55, 120

Ancyran Tablet, 128

Anderida, 56, 240, 250, 265

Anglesey, 154, 161

Antedrigus, 131, 146

Antonines, 213

Antoninus Pius, 171, 197, 214

Aquae Sulis, 183. _See_ Bath

Aquila, 257

Arianism, 230

Arms, 49, 178

Army of Britain, 159, 160, 199, 200, 218, 228, 230, 235, 242

Army of Church, 268

Arthur, 247

Arthur's Well, 205

Asclepiodotus, 224

Ash-pits, 177, 186

Asturians, 204, 205

Atrebates, 55, 56, 82, 87, 125, 127, 142

Attacotti, 46, 194, 233

Augusta, 180, 233

Augustine, 243

Augustus, 128, 129

Avebury, 30

Bards, 66

Barham Down, 110, 114

Barns, British, 40

Barrows, 29, 60

Basilicas, 185

Baskets, 43

Basques, 51

Bath, 60, 170, 174, 183

Battle Bridge, 157

Beads, 48, 128

Beatus, St., 262

Bee-keeping, 42

Beer, 42

Belgae, 52, 57, 61

Belisarius, 249

Bericus. _See_ Vericus

Bibroci, 55, 56, 120

Birdoswald, 174, 203, 204

Bishops, British, 230, 255, 259

Boadicea, 152, 157, 158, 253

Borcovicus, 205

Boulogne, 86, 220, 223, 233

Breeches, 47

Brigantes, 49, 57, 146, 148, 160, 197, 206

Brige, 175

Britain, "Upper" and "Lower," 195

Britannia coins, 197

Britannia I. and II., 59, 225

Britannicus, 136, 140, 199

British coins, 38, 125, 126, 127

" Lion, 126, 210 221

Britons, Origin of, 32

Brittany, 235

Bronze, 30, 33

Brownies, 29

Brutus, 151

Cadiz, 34

Cadwallon. _See_ Cassivellaunus

Caer Caradoc, 148

Caergwent, 184

Caerleon, 150, 166, 179, 182, 195, 239, 259

Caer Segent, 56

Caesar, Julius:

Earlier career, 73-83

First invasion, 83-101

Second invasion, 102-123

Caesar (as title), 222

Caesar's horse, 107

Caledonians, 163, 194, 201, 202, 213, 232

Caligula, 126, 130

Calleva, 56, 172, etc. _See_ Silchester

Cambridge, 171, 175, 178, 266

Camelodune, 127, 135, 147, 152, 154, 176

Cangi, 146

Cannibalism, 46, 233

Canterbury, 265

Caracalla, 171, 201, 212-214

Caractacus (Caradoc, Caratac), 127, 134, 137, 147, 148, 149

Carausius, 180, 220, 221, 245

Carlisle, 175, 204

Cartismandua, 148, 150, 160

Cassi, 54, 55, 120

Cassiterides, 34

Cassivellaunus (Caswallon), 109, 113-122, 127

Cateuchlani (Cattivellauni), 55, 58, 59, 109, 121, 127

Cattle, British, 45

Celestine, Pope, 263

Celtic types, 50

Cerealis, 160

Cerne Abbas, 65

Chariots, British, 50, 92, 99, 115, 129, 134, 163

Charnwood, 190

Chedworth, 58, 267

Chester, 162, 167, 174, 179, 182, 195, 247, 250

"Chester" (suffix), 175, 183, 250

Chesters. _See_ Cilurnum

Chichester, 141

Chives, 205

Christianity, British, 225-230, 251-268

Churches, British, 185, 264-267

Cicero, 36, 75, 77, 104-106, 122, 151

Cilurnum, 204, 205, 211

Cirencester, 225. _See_ Corinium

Citizenship, Roman, 140, 141, 213, 214

Clans, British, 52, 55-59

Claudia Rufina, 141, 256, 257

Claudius, 131, 134-143, 147, 149, 150

Clement, St., 252

Climate, British, 40, 185

Cogidubnus, 141, 256

Cohorts, 86, 114, 239

Coins, British, 38, 54, 125-127

" Romano-British, 139, 177, 197, 221, 246

Colchester (Colonia), 167, 171, 175, 176, 222. _See_ Camelodune

Colonies, 147, 152-154, 175

Columba, 71, 72, 268

Comitatenses, 239

Commius, 54, 83, 87, 94, 101, 121, 124-127, 130

Commodus, 199, 200

Constans, 230

Constantine I., 222, 227-229

" III., 242

Constantius I., 180, 222-224, 227-229

Constantius II., 231, 260

Cony Castle, 30

Coracles, 37, 245

Corinium 179, 189-191. _See_ Cirencester

Corn-growing, 40, 191, 231

Coronation Oath, 260

Council of Ariminum, 230, 260

" Arles, 230, 259

" Cloveshoo, 267

" Constance, 255

" Nice, 230

Count of Britain, 240, 243, 247

" the Saxon Shore, 220, 240, 243

Counts of the Empire, 240

Coway Stakes, 119

Cromlechs, 29

Cymbeline (Cunobelin), 54, 126-128

Cymry, 247