Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 62.142.248.1

Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 6
306-37: British legions elevate Constantine the Great, a
successful emperor who makes Christianity the official
faith of the Roman Empire in 311.
350-53: British legions rebel and conquer Gaul under
Magentius, a son of federates. His defeat costs Britain several
legions.
367: The Barbarian Conspiracy: Roman frontier scouts
help Picts sail around Hadrian’s Wall to raid Britain: the
Saxons and Irish also raid, killing the last Count of the
Saxon Shore. The people of northwest Britain, among the
hardest hit, secede from the province.
c. 369: Rome sends Count Theodosius to restore order.
He defeats the barbarians by land and sea, refortifies
walls and equips towns with artillery towers, permits
civilians to bear arms, recognizes the northwest as the
Province of Valentia (named for the current emperor),
and makes sacrifices and other pagan rites illegal.
Increasingly, counts like Theodosius run the Empire.
378: Battle of Adrinople. A Roman army is destroyed by
mounted Goths. Emperor Valens killed. Cavalry becomes
pre-eminent in the Roman army
380: The British theologian Pelagius finishes preaching in
Britain and moves to Gaul.
383-88: The British general Magnus Maximus ennobles
Cambrian tribal chiefs to organize their own defenses
against the Irish, founding the royal houses of Wales.
Then he takes his legions and his Cambrians into Gaul,
slays Emperor Gratian, and rules the Empire until slain by
Theodosius.
395: Roman Empire is divided into East (under Arcadius
at Constantinople) and West (under Honorius at
Ravenna).
396-98: Count Stilicho fights naval campaigns against the
Picts, Irish, and Saxons, making the Channel temporarily
safe. Yet the Irish take land from the Demetae in Cambria,
which lost its garrison under Magnus. In Pictland, St.
Ninnian founds the monastery of Candida Casa.
Fifth Century Britain: Provinces
Roman Britain had five provincial vicars, under the diocese
vicar at Londinium. They ruled the Roman cities
directly, and ruled the British civitases through puppet
kings. With Rome’s collapse, the vicars flee and the civitases
gain power, eventually becoming Pendragon’s
Cymric kingdoms. Outside the five provinces are the wild
Picts and Irish, and the allied kingdom of Armorica.
Southeast (Maxima Caesariensis: cap ita I at Londi n i u m) :
This seat of the diocese has few villas. Its civitases are
peasants, producing food and metals for the Roman
army: its townsfolk are bureaucrats. It is overrun by
Saxons in the fifth century: the Cantiacii, Regnenses, Iceni,
and Belgae civitases are all but destroyed, while the
Trinovantes flee into Londinium and Atrebates territory.
The Atrebates hold off the Saxons, forming the Arthurian
kingdom of Silchester.
Southwest (Britannia Prima: capital at Corinium):
Dotted with villas, much of this land is under private or
tribal ownership. Its decadent magnates make commercial
Corinium their capital instead of military Glevum (also
ruled by Vortigern through his cousin, Count Vitalis, who
is replaced around 450 by the worthy Count Eldol).
Southwesterners support Vortigern. They don’t mind if
Saxons plunder the bureaucratic southeast, they fear the
Irish, whom Vortigern effectively counters. After many
wars, they will become the ruling houses of Escavalon,
Somerset, /agent, and the various kingdoms of Cornwall.
Further west, the more tribal and warlike Cambrians have
“looked to their own defenses” since Magnus Maximus.
Vortigern, Duke of the Silures, settles outsiders here
amongst the rival Ordovices and Dumnonii: they conquer
or eject the Irish. He is the best war-leader in Britain, yet
inferior to generals like Hengist and Uther.
Midlands (Flavia Caesariensis: capital at Lindum): The
Romans kept soldiers here, creating a reserve force midway
between their Pict and Saxon enemies. The departure
of the Legions, and the intrusion of lceni refugees
into Coritani and Catuvellauni lands, reduce this province
to warring factions by Arthur’s time. Its later kingdoms
include Bedegraine, Cameliard, Lambor, Lonazep, and
Brun.
Northeast (Britannia Secunda: capital at Eburacum): A
tough frontier province of Roman soldiers, wild Brigante
hill tribes, and Eburacum’s merchants, who trade with
peoples beyond the Empire. Vortigern finds it so politically
unimportant that he steals the lands of its most loyal
civitas, the Parisi. Its Semi-Christianized Brigantes will
unite against Saxons and southerners under the banner of
Malahaut.
Northwest (Valentia: capital at Luguvallium): This region
seceded from Rome during the Barbarian Conspiracy.
Theodosius recognized it as a fifth province, which lasted
just forty years. Yet “Valentia” remains a land apart during
the fifth century, becoming, by Arthur’s time, a place
of refuge, danger, and magic.