In 193 the emperor Helvius Pertinax (66; fl.161-193) was assassinated and replaced by Didius Julianus (58/60 r.193.03-06) Three rivals, supported by their legions, promptly claimed the emperorship: Pescennius Niger (c.65; fl.191-194) in Syria, Septimius Severus (65; fl.162-211) in Pannonia Superior; and 04Clodius Septimius Albinus (c.47; (fl.175-197), governor of Britain (c.192-c.197), who took a substantial part of his forces to the continent to contest the succession. Dio implies that after this weakening of the Roman forces in Britain, the Maeatae came south to plunder and destroy.
Didius Julianus was murdered and Severus entered Rome unopposed on 9 June. To free his hands to deal with Niger, Severus declared Albinus to be caesar, a title that designated him as Severus’ successor to the throne. Albinus (probably hoping to become emperor if Niger defeated Severus) accepted the offer, added the name Septimius to his own and became Severus’ ally.
In 194 Severus’ general 62Cornelius Anullinus (fl.170-199) defeated and killed Pescennius Niger. Severus elevated his son Caracalla (29; fl.202-217) to Caesar; Albinus, clearly no longer the successor to the throne, discarded his allegiance to Severus and claimed the title of augustus (co-emperor).
After defeating Albinus at Lugdunum in 197, Severus sent Virius Lupus (c.45; fl.196-205+) as governor of Britain (197-c.200). On his arrival Virius discovered that the Maeatae, who apparently lived in the Scottish Lowlands between the Hadrian and the Antonine walls, had gained a firm hold on part of the province. Unable to drive them out by force, and learning that Caledonians (tribes north of the Antonine), were likely to join them, he bribed them to withdraw.
It was around this time that Britain south of Hadrian’s Wall, an area describing ‘Province of Britannia’, was split into two provinces: the southern ‘upper province’ became Britannia Superior, administered from London; and the northern ‘lower province’, which included Hadrian’s Wall, became Britannia Inferior, centred on York. The two provinces were probably formalised around 213 by Caracalla (29; r.198-217).
Albinus’ legions had suffered large casualties at Lugdunum and although after the battle Severus had sent the survivors back to their posts in Britain it meant that the province and Hadrian’s Wall were still undermanned. A massive increase in raids and attacks in the north brought Severus himself leading an army of forty thousand men to Britain early in 208.
Severus brought his two sons with him and preparations were made for the campaign. He marched north to Hadrian’s Wall and initiated the rebuilding and completing the whole of the wall in stone, the western portion had previously been mostly turf and timber; this led to later Romans calling Hadrian’s Wall the Severan Wall. He then occupied all the land between Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall and began to reconstruct the latter.
In 210 Caracalla led an expedition north of the Antonine wall. Severus became ill and went to York where he died on 4 February 211. Caracalla then concluded a peace and returned to Rome. It is not known what arrangements he had made, but the frontier remained stable for the next eighty-five years.
Notitia Dignitatum (‘Register of Dignitaries’), written about the fourth century but known only from an 11th century copy called the Codex Spirensis, lists the official posts and military units of the later Roman Empire. It is the only historical source for the Saxon Shore and lists the comes Britanniarum (‘Count of the Britains’) the comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam (‘Count of the Saxon Shore for Britain’) and the lower ranking dux Britanniarum (military ‘leader of Britain’).
During the early third century, in response to attacks by coastal raiders on Britain’s east coast, the Romans built fortifications on both sides of the English Channel. Initially, the forts were built, for the most part, next to the mouths of estuaries in order to deter raiders’ access to the interior by boat and included: the Wash – Branodunum/Brancaster, Norfolk; the Thames – Regulbium/Reculver, Kent; and the Great Estuary (now silted up), west of Great Yarmouth – Garian-nonum/Burgh, Norfolk or /Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk.
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