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8 YORK.
within its walls, for the accommodation of the
emperors when they came to Britain. " Eboracum
holds a place which is unique in the history of Britain,
which is shared by one other city only in the lands
north of the Alps.
York, and York alone among the
cities of Britain, has been the dwelling place of the
Caesars of Rome. London was even then the great
seat of commerce, but York was the seat of empire.
York saw the last days of Severus in one age, and of
Constantius in another ; and from York Constantine
went forth to change the face of the European world
for all time." ^
The end of the fourth century witnessed the decline
of the Roman power in Britain, and at the beginning
of the sixth her legions were finally withdrawn.
History is silent as to the precise time when the
Angles made their first descent upon the shores of
Northumbria, or when they became masters of
Eboracum. " We might freely give up much about
other places,'' as Mr. Freeman justly observes, "to
get in e.xchange a single ray of light to throw on the
struggle which made Eboracum English." It is
supposed by Mr. Skene that as early as a.d. 374 the
Saxons had gained a settlement on the eastern coast
of Scotland.
When the Romans retired, other incursions would
un([uestionably soon follow. Their entrance into the
Humber would probably be undisputed. Horde
after horde would arrive. The tidal waters of the
Ouse would bear their small craft up to the very walls
'" Points in Early Northumbrian History." (" Macmillan's
Magazine," Sept. 1876.)