The Mammoth Book of King Arthur (5 page)

The army may not have rebelled solely against Marcellus. In Rome, Commodus, alarmed by an assassination attempt, had withdrawn into his palace, leaving the government of the Empire to one of his
favourites, Perennis, who instituted a number of unfavourable changes. The last straw seems to have been his meddling with the command structure of the legionary forces, replacing the senatorial
command with one of lesser rank, called equestrians, similar to senior civil servants. This was so unpopular that the British army took the unprecedented measure of sending a deputation of 1,500
men to Rome in 185. Their ploy was to warn Commodus of another assassination attempt, this time by Perennis. It worked. Perennis was executed and it was then that Pertinax was sent to Britain to
satisfy the troops.

Pertinax could be as severe as Marcellus, and the army mutinied against him, leaving him for dead. He recovered, however, and dealt with the army “with signal severity”, as one
chronicler recorded. Although he quelled the mutiny, Pertinax never gained the full respect of the army, even though they wanted him as their
next candidate for emperor.
Pertinax refused and after two or three years of an uneasy relationship between him and the army, he asked to be relieved of his duties, and became governor of Africa. When Pertinax was governor of
Britain, a conflict erupted in Armorica (Brittany). Pertinax turned to a soldier who has since been swept into the debate as a possible candidate for Arthur: Lucius Artorius Castus.

Lucius Artorius Castus (140–197) was prefect of four legions. When the Sarmatian tribes from Hungary invaded the empire in 170, a five-year war, in which Castus would have been involved,
ensued. In 175, as part of the peace deal, 8,000 Sarmatian cavalry were handed over to serve in the Roman army. 5,500 of these were sent to Britain, and settled at Bremetennacum (Ribchester).
Castus oversaw the transfer and returned to Rome, but returned to Britain in 181 as prefect of the VI Victrix Legion, based at York. Linda Malcor and C. Scott Littleton have suggested that it was
Castus who led his legion, perhaps including the Sarmatian contingent, against the Caledonii in 183, chasing them back north of the border. These battles, they suggest, could equate to the series
later attributed to Arthur by Nennius (
see
Chapter 7). Castus was promoted to the rank of
dux
in about 185, almost certainly as a reward for his service in Britain. After being sent
back to Armorica by Pertinax in the same year for another campaign, Castus retired from the army and spent his last days as a procurator of the province of Liburnia, in Dalmatia. Malcor has
speculated that Castus may have been called back from retirement by the new emperor Septimius Severus at the time of the revolt by Clodius Albinus, and may have died in battle at Lugdunum (Lyon) in
197. He would then have been about 57 years old. Castus’s sarcophagus has been found at Stobrec, near Split, on the Adriatic coast.

3. The revolting British!

Over the next ten years there was an uneasy peace in Britain, but in 207 rebellion erupted again of sufficient magnitude that the emperor Septimius Severus came to Britain with
his sons Caracalla and Geta. Cassius Dio records that Severus was determined to conquer the whole of Britain once and for all, but as ever
the tactics of the enemy north of the
wall made this impossible. Cassius Dio reports that Severus lost up to 50,000 men, which, though surely an exaggeration, shows the scale of the problem.

The campaign stretched out over three years until Severus’s death in York in February 211. His son Caracalla, who had hated this enforced stay in Britain, was anxious to return to Rome to
secure the transfer of power. Somehow he reached peace terms with the Caledonii. The exact nature of this is not known, but he was able to secure a handover of more territory, possibly the area of
Fife, where a new fort was secured at Carpow. The area between the walls seems to have come under Roman command even if it was never formally part of the Empire. It was probably patrolled by the
Votadini, who remained loyal to Rome.

Caracalla also enacted plans prepared by his father to divide Roman Britain in two. This meant there were now two governors rather than one, with less power and less troops at their command.
Severus had been determined not to see a repetition of the Albinus affair. From 211 onwards Britain was divided into Britannia Superior in the south, with its capital at London, and Britannia
Inferior with its capital at York. The dividing line ran from the Wash to the Dee, skirting south to avoid the Pennines. Britannia Superior was the larger area, as well as the more wealthy and
peaceful, and had two legions, whereas Britannia Inferior was essentially a military zone with a minimum of settled civilian life, and had one legion augmented by many auxiliary troops. Although
Caracalla has passed into history as a brutal and wayward emperor, his peace arrangements in Britain were effective, allowing Britain to develop and prosper over the next seventy years.

We can skim over the next fifty years or so, pausing only to mention that whilst Britain experienced a period of unusual calm, the rest of the Roman empire was plunged into turbulence with a
succession of minor and short-lived emperors. During this period there was an off-shoot Gallic Empire, which included France and Britain, and which lasted from 260–274. A brief stability was
restored under the dual control of Diocletian and Maximian, from 285, but soon after the Empire faced another rebel who used Britain as his base. This was Carausius.

During the third century, and especially from 260 onwards, the
Roman borders became subject to raids and incursions from Germanic tribes. It led to several British cities
being walled, and stronger defences created around the British coast, with new forts at Reculver in Kent and Brancaster in Norfolk. This was the start of what later became known as the “Saxon
shore”. The port of Dover was also rebuilt and the Roman fleet was strengthened to patrol the Channel against Saxon and Frankish pirates. Carausius, based in Gaul, at Boulogne, was placed in
charge of that fleet, and was thus the prototype of a later official post called the Count of the Saxon Shore. He was a canny individual, popular with his troops, and not averse to a little piracy
of his own. He often waited until after the barbarian raid and then captured the ships, keeping the booty for himself. When Maximian learned of this he ordered Carausius’s arrest, but
Carausius used his popularity and declared himself Emperor in 286, shifting his base to Britain. Carausius seems to have been readily accepted by the British, perhaps because he was a Celt rather
than a Roman. In any case the British had by now built a reputation for supporting any rebel against Rome. Carausius may well have intended to restore the Gallic Empire, since he kept a hold on
Boulogne for as long as he could.

Archaeological evidence seems to suggest that Britain prospered during Carausius’s reign. He not only completed the fortification programme already initiated but built further forts and
castles, such as Portus Aderni (Portchester) and Cardiff Castle, and probably started work on the massive fort at Anderida (Pevensey). He also established the first mint in London. Unfortunately,
he also apparently withdrew troops from Hadrian’s Wall to defend the Saxon shore and the Welsh coast, allowing the Caledonii to take advantage for the first time in nearly a century.

Because of his defences and his fleet, attempts to capture Carausius proved difficult, and Maximian suffered heavy losses. In 293 he delegated the problem to his new caesar, Constantius. After a
long siege, Constantius regained Boulogne and was able to blockade Britain. Though still popular, Carausius became weakened and was murdered by his second-in-command Allectus, who proclaimed
himself Emperor. Allectus had been Carausius’s treasurer, ensuring that the troops were paid, and thus was able to retain their support. He remained independent for a further three
years until Constantius mounted a major invasion on two fronts. Allectus was killed in battle, either near Farnham in Surrey, or near Silchester, by Constantius’s second in
command Asclepiodotus. Allectus’s troops fled to London where they met Constantius’s army and were defeated. Legend has it that many were executed and their bodies thrown into the
Walbrook.

Both Carausius and Asclepiodotus left their mark in British myth, though in reverse. By the time Geoffrey of Monmouth produced his
History
, Carausius had become the enemy of the British,
an invader and usurper, who killed Bassianus (Caracalla’s original name) and ruled in his place. Geoffrey correctly has him killed by Allectus and then Allectus murdered by Asclepiodotus, but
identifies the latter as a Briton and Duke of Cornwall. Geoffrey states that Asclepiodotus reigned for ten years before being in turn killed by King Coel, the Old King Cole of the nursery rhyme.
Coel will feature again in our history, though in his rightful place, but this story serves to show how soon oral history and legend transmute facts into pseudo-history. With Carausius we are, in
fact, a little over a hundred years away from the start of the Arthurian period, yet that is sufficient time for history to mutate into myth. Such mutation is something we have to bear in mind
throughout this book.

The truth is that Carausius’s rebellion had a more significant impact upon Britain. The caesar, Constantius, having rid Britain of Allectus, undertook a lightning tour to check defences,
especially on the northern frontier. Contemporary accounts refer for the first time to the tribes as the Picts, though there’s little reason to believe they are any other than the Caledonii
and other northern tribes. Constantius ordered some refurbishments and then returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph.

He returned to Britain ten years later, in 305, this time as Emperor. He was later joined by his son Constantine. The intervening decade had seen Diocletian introduce a series of sweeping
reforms to the administration of the Empire, though precisely when they were enforced in Britain is not clear. Diocletian divided the Empire into twelve dioceses, each with a
vicarius
in
charge. Every diocese was divided into provinces, each with its own governor. Britain was one diocese and now had four provinces. The former northern province of Britannia
Inferior was divided in two from the Mersey to the Humber. The northernmost province became Britannia Secunda, with its capital at York, whilst the southern half became Flavia
Caesariensis, with a capital at Lincoln. The former southern province of Britannia Superior was also split in half by a line heading almost straight north from Southampton. The west, including
Wales and the south-west, became Britannia Prima, with the capital at Cirencester. To the east was Maxima Caesariensis, with the capital at London. London also seems to have been the overall
diocesan capital. This further division was to have consequences a century later with the re-emergence of British kingdoms. These reforms also separated the civic administration from the military.
Whilst Britain was administered by a
vicarius
based in London, the northern forces were controlled by the
dux Britanniarum
, based in York. Diocletian was going to have no more
rebellious usurpers able to call upon vast armies though, as we shall soon see, this did not work in Britain.

Diocletian also issued a violent edict against Christianity. It was probably at this time that Britain saw its first martyr in Alban, who was executed at Verulamium (St Albans). Christianity had
a strong hold in Britain, and was a factor in how the provinces developed distinct from the rest of the Empire.

Constantius undertook a series of campaigns in northern Britain against the Picts. Little is known about this, but it seems to have been successful as there was comparative peace for another
fifty years. For Constantius, alas, there was little time to appreciate his achievement. He was seriously ill, possibly with leukaemia (his nickname was Constantius the Pale), and he died in York
in July 306, aged 56.

Under Diocletian’s reforms, Constantius should automatically have been succeeded as emperor by his nominated caesar, Flavius Valerius Severus. In fact, Constantius had not selected his
successor; it had been done for him by Galerius, his co-emperor in the east. Not everyone wanted Severus as emperor, least of all the British, and true to tradition the British troops promptly
nominated their own successor, Constantius’s son Constantine. Galerius begrudgingly made Constantine the successor to Severus, but it was a far from simple succession, and it would be
eighteen years before Constantine became sole emperor.

Because Constantine became such a great emperor and, most significantly, made Christianity the official religion of Rome, and because his cause had been promoted by the
British, he was well remembered in Britain and entered popular folklore.

Constantine’s mother Helena was a native of Bithynia (in present-day northern Turkey) and never, apparently, came to Britain. Later beatified, Helena became a devout Christian and
undertook a pilgrimage to Palestine in 326, founding several churches. She is supposed to have found the True Cross in Jerusalem, though dates conflict; she died in about 330 whilst the legend of
the discovery of the Cross dates from about 335, during the construction of Constantine’s basilica. At some stage the legend grew that Helen was British, the daughter of King Coel of
Colchester, whom we have already met in myth as the murderer of Asclepiodotus. This legend took a firm hold in Britain, because it made Constantine a Briton and the grandson of Coel. It is probable
that later chroniclers, especially Geoffrey of Monmouth, confused Helena with Elen, wife of a later British usurper-emperor, Magnus Maximus, who also had a son called Constantine. Elen was the
daughter of the British chieftain Eudaf (of whom more later).

But the legend refuses to die. As we have seen, myths have a habit of ousting history, and we have to be on our guard.

4. The End of Empire

By good organisation, strength of character and sheer charisma, Constantine kept the Roman empire together, but thereafter the empire was on the decline. His successors fought
each other, crumbling the empire at its heart and weakening it at its frontiers, making it vulnerable to barbarian attack. This was as evident in Britain as elsewhere in the empire.