We now hear little of Britain, and nothing of the nations beyond the boundary of the Roman province, for a period of fifty years, till in the year 360 a new and very important feature in the history of the Roman occupation of Britain manifested itself. This was the commencement of those formidable and systematic inroads of the Barbarian tribes into the province, which were not merely temporary expeditions for plunder, but evidently aimed at the subversion of the Roman government in Britain, and, though checked at intervals, were ever again renewed till the Romans finally abandoned the possession of the island.
From the expedition of Severus to the commencement of these formidable attacks a period of 150 years had elapsed, and the few notices we have of the events in Britain show that the integrity of the province had on the whole been maintained, and that the provincial Britons enjoyed some degree of security within its bounds, while the northern tribes were restrained from making incursions beyond their territory by the well-guarded wall, which with its numerous posts along its line, and, in advance of it, in the ceded district, protected the frontier. The ten years’ independent kingdom under Carausius and Allectus had not affected this state of matters. The provincial Britons must have been equally protected, especially under the vigorous government of the former. There are even indications of its influence having extended over the independent tribes, and bodies of them, whom Allectus had enlisted, were found in his army. On the termination of this independent empire, they emerge under a new name; and their defeat and expulsion from the province was a necessary consequence of the renewed union of Britain with the continental provinces under the same authority.
During this period of a century and a half, the quiet and prosperity enjoyed by the provincial Britons led to a corresponding advance in wealth and civilisation, and Britain became rapidly one of the most valuable provinces of the Empire. Instead of being estimated, as Appian represents it in the second century, as of so little value that the part of the island possessed by the Romans was a mere encumbrance to them, it is now described by Eumenius, in the end of the third century, as a possession whose loss to the Empire under Carausius was severely felt. ‘So productive,’ says he, ‘is it in fruit, and so fertile in pastures, so rich in metals and valuable for its contributions to the treasury, surrounded on all sides with abundance of harbours, and an immense line of coast.’[[87]] The cultivation of grain, and the amount of its produce, had so greatly increased, that it had become of importance as an exporting country; and during the reign of Julian it had formed his great resource, from whence he drew a large supply of corn during the great scarcity on the Continent.
Division of Roman Britain into four provinces.
A change had likewise taken place in its government. By the arrangement introduced by Diocletian, and confirmed and established by Constantine, the Roman Empire was divided into four portions, to correspond with the two Emperors and two Cæsars. Each of these dioceses, as they were called, was placed under a great officer termed the prætorian prefect. The diocese of the west consisted of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, and the latter country was governed by a vicarius or vicar. Roman Britain, which from the time of Severus had consisted of two provinces, termed Upper and Lower Britain, was now divided into four provinces,—Maxima Cæsariensis, Flavia, Britannia Prima, and Britannia Secunda,[[88]] the two former or new provinces being apparently named after his father, who had been Cæsar, and was the founder of the Flavian family. In the absence of any direct indication of the position of these provinces, the natural inference certainly is, that each of the former provinces had been divided into two; and that, while Upper Britain now consisted of Britannia Secunda and Flavia, Lower Britain was represented by Britannia Prima and Maxima Cæsariensis. Each of these provinces had its governor, either a consul or a president. The troops were under the command of the ‘Dux Britanniarum’ and the ‘Comes tractus maritimi.’ Under the former were the troops stationed north of a line drawn from the Humber to the Mersey, following the course of the river Don, and on the Roman wall between the Solway and the Tyne; and those under the latter along the maritime tract, exposed to the incursions of the Franks and Saxons, extending from the Wash to Portsmouth. The former appears, therefore, to have been the military leader in the two northern provinces, while the functions of the latter were exercised within the two southern.
A.D. 360.
Province invaded by Picts and Scots.
The first serious attack upon the province took place in the year 360, and proceeded from two nations. The one consisted of that union of tribes which had now become generally known by the name of ‘Picti’ or Picts, the distinctive appellation of the independent tribes beyond the northern frontier after Britain had been recovered from the usurpation of Carausius; but along with them appear now for the first time as actors in the scene of British war a new nation or people emerging from Ireland, and known to the Romans under the name of ‘Scoti.’[[89]] Having broken the agreed-on peace, they ravaged—to use the words of the historian who records it—the districts adjacent to the limits of the province, and filled the provincial Britons with consternation, who dreaded a renewal by this formidable combination of the incursions which had now for so long a time ceased. We learn from the account given by the historian of their eventual recovery, that the districts ravaged by the Picts were those extending from the territories of the independent tribes to the wall of Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway, and that the districts occupied by the Scots were in a different direction. They lay on the western frontier, and consisted of part of the mountain region of Wales on the coast opposite to Ierne, or the island of Ireland, from whence they came.[[90]] The Emperor Julian was unable to render effectual assistance, and Lupicinus, whom he sent, appears to have been unable to do more than maintain the provinces from further encroachment.
A.D. 364.
Ravaged by Picts, Scots, Saxons, and Attacotts.
During four years the invading tribes retained possession of the districts they had occupied, and were with difficulty prevented from overrunning the province; but in the fourth year a more formidable irruption took place. To the two nations of the Picts and the Scots were now added two other invading tribes—the Saxons, who had already made themselves known and dreaded by their piratical incursions on the coasts; and the Attacotti, who, we shall afterwards find, were a part of the inhabitants of the territory on the north of Hadrian’s wall, from which the Romans had been driven out on its seizure by the independent tribes.[[91]] They now joined the Picts in invading the province from the north, while the attack of the Saxons must have been directed against the south-eastern shore; and thus, assailing the provinces on three sides—the Saxons making incursions on the coast between the Wash and Portsmouth, afterwards termed the Saxon Shore, where they appear to have slain Nectarides, the Count of the maritime tract, the Picts and Attacotts on the north placing Fallofaudus, the Dux Britanniarum, whose duty it was to guard the northern frontier, in extreme peril, and the Scots penetrating through the mountains of Wales—the invading tribes penetrated so far into the interior, and the extent and character of their ravages so greatly threatened the very existence of the Roman government, that the Emperor became roused to the imminence of the danger, and after various officers had been sent without effect, the most eminent commander of the day, Theodosius the elder, was despatched to the assistance of the Britons. He found the province in the possession of the Picts, the Scots, and the Attacotts, who were ravaging it and plundering the inhabitants in different directions. The Picts, we are told, were then divided into two nations, the ‘Dicalidonæ’ and the ‘Vecturiones,’ a division evidently corresponding to the twofold division of the hostile tribes in the time of Severus, the ‘Caledonii’ and the ‘Mæatæ.’ The similarity of name and situation sufficiently identifies the first-mentioned people in each of the twofold divisions. The Mæatæ had been obliged to cede a part of their territory to the Romans, so that part of the nation had passed under their rule, and a part only remaining independent probably gave rise to the new name of ‘Vecturiones.’ The ‘Attacotti,’ we are told, were a warlike nation of the Britons, and the epithet applied to the ‘Scoti’ of ranging here and there shows that their attacks must have been made on different parts of the coast.[[92]]
A.D. 369.
Province restored by Theodosius.