Roman Britain / by R.G. Collingwood.

  • R. G. Collingwood
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Roman Britain / by R.G. Collingwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    down and he died at York in 211 without having effected any permanent conquest. His work in the north, however, had lasting results. The records of rebuilding on and near Hadrian’s Wall come thick and fast in the next fifteen years, and for sixty years the frontier had peace. The tribes of the Lowlands and of northern England were reduced and pacified, it seems, between 180 and 208 ; and the tribes beyond the Forth were induced by the campaigns of Severus to refrain from another great onslaught on the Roman defences. Later tradition was so much impressed by the importance of this visit of Severus in the history of the frontier, that it ascribed to him the building of the Roman Wall. The third century was a period of peace and prosperity. In the south, the towns were growing, country-houses were springing up in greater numbers, the population appears to have been in¬ creasing probably in numbers, certainly in civilization and wealth. Towards the end of the century there were troubles. About 275 another disaster overthrew the buildings of the northern forts, and in 287 the Saxon raids on the south-east coast began. In 288 Carausius, a native of the Low Countries who had been put by Diocletian in command of the fleet in the Channel, and was con¬ demned to death for failure to check these raids, fled to Britain and there assumed the title of Emperor. Rome, unable to suppress him while he commanded the sea, permitted him to usurp the title and to govern Britain, which he did with ability. He restored peace on the frontier and rebuilt its fortifications, but was assassinated in 294 by Allectus, one of his own officers, who was himself defeated and killed two years later .by Constantius, the legitimate Emperor, who came in person to reconquer Britain. It would be an anachronism to suppose that the independence of Britain under Carausius and Allectus corresponded with, or was supported by, any outburst of nationalist feeling. To imagine that the Britons of the third century demanded home rule or
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