Britannia goes it alone
In 286, Rome lost control of Britain, but the ensuing Britannic empire didn’t endure more than a decade, writes Andrew Brown
The 280s AD found the Roman empire in trouble, seriously destabilised in the west by the external threat of raiding Germanic ‘ barbarians’ – Saxons, Franks and Frisians. The outlook in Britain seems to have been brighter, though. As a key exporter of grain to the continent and with a booming agricultural economy, the province off mainland Europe’s north-west corner appears to have been regarded as something of a safe haven. To repel seaborne attack, the Romans built defensive fortifications on both sides of the English Channel. A surge in villa-building seems to have been linked to the movement of wealthy Gallic and RomanoBritish populations to the relative calm of southern Britannia.
Yet by the end of the decade, Britain too had been pitched into deep crisis – one that caused the province to break away from the Roman empire and attempt to go it alone.
The trouble began when Maximian, emperor in the west, appointed a young general, Marcus Aurelius Mauseus Carausius, to command the northern fleet in Gaul and Britain and stabilise the prized trade routes between Britain and the Rhine.
Carausius was an astute general who reinforced coastal fortifications and strengthened the navy. But soon (perhaps due to self-aggrandisement or embezzling captured loot), he had fallen out with Maximian, and found himself sentenced to death. Carausius had no intention of going down without a fight: on learning of his fate, he usurped Roman authority and declared himself emperor.
After several months of campaigning on the continent, Carausius was forced to retreat to Britannia. His Britannic empire at times included territory in northern Gaul, notably Boulogne, but its heartland was Britain and London, its capital. Command of Roman military elements, coupled with sympathetic Gallic, ‘ barbarian’ and British populations, meant Carausius faced little opposition.
Killed by his minister
Carausius was likely quick to control the export of grain in order to bolster the local economy. He also established at least two mints, one of which was in London; another producing coins marked with a ‘C’. These coins reinforced his position by highlighting support of the military (the breakaway produced the first navy in defence of Britain), newfound peace and prosperity, and his role as ‘restorer of Britain’. He styled himself as a Roman emperor, a re-embodiment of Augustus and the ‘renewer of the Romans’.
But Carausius remained a usurper, and a failed invasion by Maximian in c289/90 offers evidence of Rome’s unwillingness to accept his authority. This did not stop Carausius trying to set his own political agenda, and he issued coins carrying his portrait, alongside those of the co-emperors Diocletian and Maximian with the legend CARAVSIVS ET FRATRES SVI – “Carausius and his brothers”. While Britannia’s physical and economic separation from Rome was clear, Carausius sought recognition as an equal with his ‘ brothers’ in Rome – and they probably grudgingly accepted him, while planning to strike at him as soon as they could.
As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait long, for in 293 Carausius was assassinated by his own finance minister, Allectus. Allectus went on to rule in Carausius’s stead, but his administration was even more short-lived than his predecessor’s, falling victim to a two-pronged invasion of Britain in 296.
The Britannic empire had come to an end, and Britain was quickly reintegrated into the Roman empire. This victory was encapsulated in a triumphal march through London by Emperor Constantius I as REDDITOR LVCIS AETERNAE – ‘Restorer of the Eternal Light (of Rome)’. In Britain, it would be more than 100 years before that ‘eternal’ light was extinguished.