The Boar Stone: Book Three of the Dalriada Trilogy (69 page)
Read The Boar Stone: Book Three of the Dalriada Trilogy Online
Authors: Jules Watson
Ammianus is not without his sceptics, as he was writing at a later time and probably seeking to glorify the man who came to put down the rebellion. But though there is little archaeological proof, there are various pieces of circumstantial textual evidence to suggest his report is essentially accurate.
So what happened afterwards? According to Ammianus, a commander called Count Theodosius was despatched by the Emperor Valentinian I from Germany with a field army of crack troops to restore order. Over the next two years he defeated the roaming bands of barbarians with their plunder, fortified towns and regarrisoned many forts on Hadrian’s Wall.
But despite this, the outpost forts north of the Wall were abandoned, the hated
areani
spies and scouts disbanded, and all Roman control over the borderlands relinquished. The Romans had indeed left Alba.
The End of Rome in Britain
The fortunes of the Roman military in Britain rose and fell in the following forty years, as the Empire on the continent struggled to retain its power in the face of increasing barbarian incursions from all directions. Again and again, British soldiers were withdrawn from the frontier to shore up defences in Gaul, Germany or Italy, and in
AD
383 an upstart senior British officer, Magnus Maximus, declared himself western emperor, supported by the British forces and nobility. When he left to fight for his throne in the east he took a large army with him, but after his defeat by the eastern emperor those troops never came back.
By the early fifth century the emperors had their hands full trying to defend themselves against the Goths in the east. The Province of Britannia was denuded of troops, and after 402 there is little trace of coins, so it appears the money dried up, too, with no pay for soldiers or officials. Another would-be British emperor, Constantine III, left Britain in 407 to defeat more barbarian invaders and usurp the western throne. He probably took the last remaining regular troops with him.
According to other historians, Britain came under attack from the Saxons around 410, and, after appeals by the British nobility to the Emperor Honorius for help, they were told to look to their own defences. The British towns and tribes reverted to ruling themselves.
So the withdrawal and disintegration of the organized army and the end to centralized Roman government in Britain was a gradual change, rather than a sudden recall. The evidence at Hadrian’s Wall is of a gradual abandonment at some forts, with continued occupation at others, albeit in a more basic form, with people scratching a living among the ruined stone buildings. Disease and desertion would have taken its toll on the remaining garrisons, and eventually the few soldiers that stayed on must have settled down to farm, being absorbed into the local population.
By
AD
410 Britain had therefore ceased to be part of the Roman Empire and was left to its own fate. A century later, the first concerted waves of Saxons, Angles and Jutes were to change it for ever.
Miscellany
Tutors to the Roman nobility were often slaves, so Minna’s acceptance as such at Dunadd was not unusual. Furthermore, slaves could attain a high status, and many were freed by their masters, some of their descendants rising to dizzy heights in society.
Eboracum was the Roman name for York; Luguvalium became Carlisle; and Lindum Lincoln. Gede’s Dun of Bright Water was located at Burghead; Dunadd near Kilmartin in Argyll (which, incidentally, means Coast of the Gael).
The north of Britain does have native poppies – Jared’s ‘red flower’ – and even though the local species are not as potent as the more well-known eastern opium poppy, they do contain natural opiates that could be concentrated to effect sedation.
Saor
is an invented herbal preparation, derived from the Gaelic word for ‘freedom’.
Some plant poisons were used on blades in the ancient world, and though many come from the Mediterranean they could easily be imported into Britain. A noted one was known as wolf’s-bane, as it was used on the barbs of arrows to kill wolves. Better known as aconite, it is extremely dangerous and damages the heart muscle, causing a fast pulse and shallow breathing, and swift death if ingested.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65