Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 62.142.248.1

Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 6
“They consulted how they might obtain help to avoid or repel the frequent fierce
attacks of their northern neighbors, and all agreed with the advice of their king,
Vortigern, to call on the assistance of the Saxon Peoples across the sea.”
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People
This timeline for fifth century Britain adds six new
Historical Phases prior to the five phases of Arthur’s reign
described in The Boy King. Periods already covered by
The Boy King are abbreviated, or are limited to a Saxon
view of the same events. Use this chronology to run
adventures before Arthur, and to understand the background
of Arthur’s Saxon wars.
The Mythic Age
A Long Time Ago
In the Mythic Age gods and giants walked the earth and
great dynasties were founded. The age has no fixed date:
it is always “back before back before.” A Saxon account
of the Creation and the gods appears in the “Magic” section
of the previous chapter.
The Mythic Age overlaps with The Roman Age (below).
The Saxons remember Attila the Hun as Etzel, husband of
the warrior-queen Kreimhild. The Britons mythologize
the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus as the visionary
chieftain Macsen Wledig.
The Roman Age
55 BC - AD 399
For centuries, the Romans and Celts dominated Western
Europe, finally united under the Roman Empire, which by
the second century AD governed Gaul, Britain, and all the
rest of Celtic Europe save Ireland. In Romano-British cities
like Camulodunum the Celtic and Roman gods mingled in
the Imperial Temple as naturally as their worshippers
strolled together in the forums, markets, and baths outside
it. By then, both peoples wore togas, spoke a patois
of Celtic and Latin, and learned mores from the
Mediterranean - like the new ideas of their fellow
Roman subject, Jesus Christ.
The German or Gothic tribes entered Western Europe
long after the Romans and Celts. They arrived as nomadic
warriors: not tied to cities or farms: crafty from hunting
and huge from a diet of meat: sending excess sons to conquer
their neighbors: total strangers to Christianity and
civilized mores. Their languages were but distant cousins
of Latin and Celtic: likewise their gods, who still demanded
absolute piety and human sacrifice. Unable to easily
assimilate these new barbarians, the Romans hired them
as federates, taught them mass warfare, and resettled
them to defend Roman croplands against their own kind
- with disastrous results when the federates’ pay ran
short. Weakened by internal wars, Rome lost to the
Germans, and its Celtic client-kings lost with it.
55-54 BC: Julius Caesar invades Britain twice, but does
not occupy it.
AD 9: Three Roman legions (over 12,000 men)
ambushed and slain by the German chieftain Arminius at
Tuetoberger Wald. The loss forces Emperor Augustus to
cancel his planned invasion of Britain.
43: Claudius begins Roman occupation of Britain.
122: The borders of Britainia are established for the next
1,300 years. Rome controls everything south of Solway
Firth: the Picts to the north are badly beaten but not conquered,
so Emperor Hadrian builds his Wall to seal them
off.
190-211: Legions in Britain proclaim its governor, Clodius
Albinus, as Emperor, while legions on the Danube frontier
elevate the general Septemius Severus. The two emperors
fight for many years until Severus wins in 197. He stocks
Britain with loyal soldiers and, for the first time, permits
them to marry local women, recognizing their children as
citizens. During his reign, the first British saint, Albans, is
martyred at Verulamium for defying a Roman magistrate
in 208. Severus dies at Eburacum in 211.
c. 275: Saxons begin to raid Britain. To discourage them,
Romans build the Saxon Shore forts in the southeast,
under the Comes Litoris Saxonici (“Count of the Saxon
Shore”). Meanwhile, Pids and Irish raid the north and
west. Despite this, many rich Gauls emigrate to Britain,
because civil wars have left Gaul weakly defended.