THE ROMAN WITHDRAWAL FROM BRITAIN – 410 OR 435? A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/j.v9i3.793Keywords:
Roman Britain, Honorius, Zosimus, Gildas, LimitaneiAbstract
This article discusses the evidence to support a continued official Roman imperial presence in Britain after the traditional date of 409-410, with the possibility of the final loss of the British provinces occurring sometime around 435-440. It will explore the reasons why the later date is to be preferred, commencing with an analysis of why any dating of events based on Zosimus and Gildas should be ignored, including why the replacement of Britain with Bruttium is consistent within Zosimus’s narrative. It then assesses the remaining evidence, looking first at how other official Roman withdrawals were managed, and what the evidence for the continued existence of the Limitanei implies for any official withdrawal around 410. This is followed by an analysis of how ongoing religious appointments to Britain within the framework of an imperial church would co-exist with ongoing civil and secular appointments. It then assesses the material evidence for both pottery and coinage before concluding with an analysis of the empire’s economic situation in 410 compared to 435-440 and its ability to hold on to the British provinces.Downloads
References
ATKINSON 2020
Atkinson, K., Empress Galla Placidia and the Fall of the Roman Empire (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers).
BARRY 2019
Barry, J., Bishops in Flight: Exile and Displacement in Late Antiquity (Oakland, California: University of California Press).
BIRLEY 2005
Birley, A. R., The Roman Government of Britain (Oxford - New York: Oxford University Press).
BURY 1958
Bury, J. B., History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, Vol. I (New York: Dover Publications).
CHADWICK 2001
Chadwick, H., The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
ERRINGTON 2007
Errington, R. M., Roman Imperial Policy from Julian to Theodosius (Chapell Hill: University of North Carolina Press).
ESMONDE-CLEARY 2002
Esmonde-Cleary, A., The Ending of Roman Britain (London: Taylor & Francis).
ESMONDE-CLEARY 2011
Esmonde-Cleary, S., The Ending(s) of Roman Britain. In: Hinton, D. A./Hamerow, H./Crawford, S. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 13-29.
FITZPATRICK-MATTHEWS/FLEMING 2016
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, H., Fleming, R., The Perils of Periodization: Roman Ceramics in Britain after 400 CE. Fragments 5, 1-33 http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.9772151.0005.001 Accessed 23 July 2022.
FLEMING 2021
Fleming, R., The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 CE (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated).
GIBBON 1781
Gibbon, E., The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. II (London: Strahan-Cadell).
GOLDSWORTHY 2010
Goldsworthy, A., The Fall of the West: The Death of the Roman Superpower (London: Phoenix).
HEATHER 2007
Heather, P., The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
HEATHER 2009
Heather, P., Empires and Barbarians: Migration, Development and the Birth of Europe (London: Macmillan).
HUMFRESS 2003
Humfress, C., A New Legal Cosmos: Late Roman Lawyers and the Early Medieval Church. In: Linehan, P./Nelson, J. L. (eds.), The Medieval World (London - New York: Routledge), 557-575.
JONES 1964
Jones, A. M. H., The Later Roman Empire 284-602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey, Vol. II (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).
JONES 1986
Jones, M. E., The Historicity of the Alleluja Victory, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 18/3, 363-373.
LAVYCOCK 2012
Laycock, S., Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflicts and the End of Roman Britain (Stroud: History Press).
MCEVOY 2013
McEvoy, M. A., Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
MILETT 1990
Millett, M., The Romanization of Britain (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press).
MORRIS/JONES/MARTINDALE 1971
Morris, J./Jones, A. H. M./Martindale, J. R., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume 2, AD 395-527 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
NORTON 2007
Norton, P., Episcopal Elections 250-600: Hierarchy and Popular Will in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
PAUL 2007
Paul, A., Form, Function and Technology in Pottery Production from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. In: Lavan, L./Zanini, E./Sarantis, A. (eds.), Technology in Transition A.D. 300-650 (Boston: Brill), 159-186.
POTTER 2004
Potter, D. S., The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395 (London: Routledge).
RAPP 2000
Rapp, C., The Elite Status of Bishops in Late Antiquity in Ecclesiastical, Spiritual and Social Contexts. Arethusa 33/3, 379-399.
RAPP 2013
Rapp, C., Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition (Berkeley: University of California Press).
SCHARF 1990
Scharf, R., Die Kanzleireform des Stilicho und das ro ̈mische Britannien. Historia 39, 461-74.
SOUTHERN 2001
Southern, P., The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine (London - New York: Routledge).
SOUTHERN 2004
Southern, P., The Army in Late Roman Britain. In: Todd, M. (ed.), A Companion to Roman Britain (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing), 393-409.
THOMPSON 1982
Thompson, E. A., Zosimus 6. 10. 2 and the Letters of Honorius, The Classical Quarterly 32/2, 445-462.
VAN NUFFELEN 2015
Van Nuffelen, P., Not Much Happened: 410 and All That, The Journal of Roman Studies 105, 322-329.
WATTS 1991
Watts, D., Christians and Pagans in Roman Britain (London: Routledge).
WILMOTT/COOL/EVANS 2013
Wilmott, T./Cool, H./Evans, J., Excavations at the Hadrian’s Wall fort of Birdoswald (Banna), Cumbria: 1996-2000. In: Wilmott, T. (ed.), Hadrian's Wall: Archaeological Research by English Heritage 1976-2000 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, Historic England), 203-387.
WOOD 2004
Wood, I., The Final Phase. In Todd, M. (ed.), A Companion to Roman Britain (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing), 428-443.
WOODS 2012
Woods, D., On the Alleged Letters of Honorius to the Cities of Britain in 410, Latomus 71/3, 818-826.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, we use CC BY-NC-ND license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs) wich only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
