Great Britain -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- Great Britain
The following summary of the books and articles on Roman Britain which
appeared in 1914 is grouped under two heads, first, those few which deal
with general aspects of the subject, and secondly, the far larger number
which concern special sites or areas. In this second class, those which
belong to England are placed under their counties in alphabetical order,
while those which belong to Wales and Scotland are grouped under these
two headings. I have in general admitted only matter which was published
in 1914, or which bears that date.
1. GENERAL
(1) Mr. G. L. Cheesman's _Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army_ (Oxford
University Press) does not deal especially with Roman Britain, but it
deserves brief notice here. It is an excellent and up-to-date sketch
of an important section of the Roman army, with which British
archaeologists are much concerned. It also contains valuable lists,
which can be found nowhere else, of the 'auxiliary' regiments stationed
in Britain (pp. 146-9 and 170-1). It is full, cheap, compact; every
historical and archaeological library should get it.
(2) A learned and scholarly attempt to settle the obscure chronology of
the north British frontiers in the fourth century has been made by Mr.
H. Craster, Fellow of All Souls, and one of the excavators of Corbridge,
in the _Archaeological Journal_ (lxxi. 25-44). His conclusions are novel
and, though to some extent disputable, are well worth printing. Starting
from the known fact that, during much of the third century, the north
frontier of Roman Britain coincided roughly with the line of Cheviot and
was then withdrawn to the line of Hadrian's Wall, he distinguishes five
stages in the subsequent history. (1) At or just before the outset of
the fourth century, in the reign of Diocletian, the Wall was reorganized
in some ill-recorded fashion. (2) Thirty years later, towards the end
of Constantine's reign, about A.D. 320-30, it was (he thinks) further
reorganized; perhaps its mile-castles were then discarded. (3) Thirty or
forty years later still, after disturbances which (he conjectures)
included the temporary loss of Hadrian's Wall and the destruction of its
garrisons, Theodosius carried out in 369 a fuller reorganization. This
garrison had consisted of the regiments known to us by various evidence
as posted 'per lineam valli' in the third and early fourth centuries;
their places were now filled by soldiers of whom we know absolutely
nothing. (4) In 383 Maximus withdrew these unknown troops for his
continental wars. Now perhaps the line of the Wall had to be given up,
but Tyne and Solway, South Shields, Corbridge, and Carlisle were still
held. (5) Finally, about 395-9, Stilicho ordered a last reorganization;
he withdrew the frontier from the Tyne to the Tees, from Carlisle to
Lancaster, and garrisoned the new line with new soldiery--those, namely,
which are listed in the Notitia as serving under the Dux Britanniarum,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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