The rest of Roman Britain was controlled by a network of forts, each housing a legion or smaller Roman force. Typical of these was the Roman fort at Caerleon in south Wales near Newport. It was founded under the Emperor Vespasian whose legion, II Augusta, had played such an important part in capturing the Celtic hillforts of southern England. He wished to see the conquest of the Silures in Wales and ordered his general Sextus Julius Frontinus to execute the campaign. Frontinus needed a base near the Welsh coast so ships could bring supplies and men to his army and he chose a site on the river Usk. Initially, the rectangular fortress that was built around AD 75 was constructed of timber and earth ramparts with a wooden palisade above it, not too dissimilar to a Celtic hillfort, but as the campaign in Wales succeeded, a more long-term construction of stone walls with towers was built. It became the home of II Augusta whose over 5,000 soldiers occupied a complex including barracks, workshops, granaries, a hospital and baths. For entertainment, an amphitheatre was constructed outside the walls where the soldiers and locals could enjoy gladiatorial combats and other less bloody shows. Remains of the barracks, baths and walls can still be seen today, along with the amphitheatre, which in the Middle Ages gained the reputation of being the original Round Table of Arthur and his knights.
Section of Hadrian’s Wall near Cawfields. Although impressive in scale and construction, it was never intended purely as a military defence, but more as a way of regulating trade between north and south. [Skyscan/English Heritage]
Roman rule in Britain continued until the 4th century AD. For many Celtic and Roman landlords, life in Britain was better than it was in mainland Europe where, from France to the Balkans, invasions by German and Turkic tribes were becoming depressingy frequent. Britain was insulated from this chaos and a strong Romano-British army was able to counter attacks by barbarian raiders. German pirates posed a threat, but a series of castles was erected along the southern and eastern coast of England, creating a line of defence known as the Litus Saxonicum or Saxon Shore. The best preserved of these fortresses are at Pevensey and Portchester; their massive stone walls and tall towers look more like medieval castles. The Roman fort at Portchester near Portsmouth is almost a perfect rectangle with rounded bastions built into the walls which could mount bolt-throwing artillery to harass pirates.
Celtic warriors jeer and taunt their enemy. Insults hurled before a battle were an important way of testing an opponent’s morale and also strengthening one’s own courage. The recreated warrior on the left wears a shirt of mail plus a bronze helmet, while the warrior in the middle goes into battle stripped to the waist. Tattoos and body painting were popular among Celtic warriors. [Philipp Elliot-Wright/English Heritage]
Towards the end of the 4th century, barbarian tribes such as the Picts, Scots and Saxons began to act in alliance, or at least seem to have coordinated their attacks, menacing several parts of Roman Britain at the same time and stretching the defence forces to breaking point. In AD 410, Roman rule officially came to an end with a letter from the Emperor Honorius telling the Romano-Britains to look after themselves; Rome could no longer defend them as the great city itself had been sacked by the Visigoths. It was a blow to Roman administration in Britain, but there were too many local landlords who enjoyed the Roman style of life for it to change overnight. The change came slowly as Saxon raiders became settlers and a Germanic influence grew stronger among the ruling families.
If King Arthur existed in the late 5th century AD, which seems likely, then this is what his warriors would have looked like. Essentially late Roman in style, they have elements of arms and armour influenced by Germanic warriors at the time such as the Saxons. [Dan Shadrake]
With the end of Roman rule in Britain, a number of Germanic and Scandinavian invaders fought for control of the island, including Saxons, Angles and Vikings. Their period of rule is often called the Dark Ages, but their literature and craftwork reveals tales of great heroes.
Saxons, Jutes, Angles, and Frisians, all from tribes in what is now the Netherlands or Denmark, crossed to late Roman Britain in increasing numbers. Some came for plunder, others to serve the Romano-British as mercenaries. It has been claimed that the Saxon conquest of Britain in the 5th century brought in a new era of ‘Britishness’, that the Romano-Celtic people were superseded by a Germanic nation, thus giving birth to the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ people. This was developed by some 19th century historians who favoured the idea of a Germanic base to British culture rather than a Celtic or Mediterranean one, perhaps because the British royal family happened to be of German origin. Such a vision is untrue.
The Saxon conquest of Britain in the 5th century took the form of a mercenary revolt in which a handful of Germanic warlords, Hengist being the most prominent, seized the estates of their Romano-British paymasters. Recent genetic research reveals that the majority of modern British people are of Celtic, not Germanic origin. The Saxon conquest of Britain was a struggle between a Saxon elite and a Romano-British elite. Nevertheless, the Saxon conquest was a war in which the most famous character of early British history figured prominently: Arthur. Despite the recent discovery of an ancient piece of slate bearing the name ‘Artognou’, all we really know about the King Arthur of legend is a list of twelve battles he fought throughout Britain. All the classic tales about Merlin, Guinevere, and Lancelot were composed by later medieval authors such as Sir Thomas Malory who wrote Le Morte D’Arthur in the 15th century. Around AD 460, there is record of a Romano-British warlord called Ambrosius Aurelianus who commanded a force of noble horsemen protecting their West Country and Welsh estates from Saxon raiders. Arthur was probably of a similar background and took over from Ambrosius when he died. Arthur was a Christian, described by the chronicler Nennius, as carrying ‘the image of the holy Mary, the Everlasting Virgin, on his shield’.
Armoured Saxon warrior of the 10th century. His sun wheel shield design is based on those seen in contemporary Saxon manuscripts. [Regia Anglorum]
The climax of Arthur’s campaign against the Saxons was the battle of Badon Hill. Nennius describes the hot water that bubbled up at the natural springs of Badon as one of the wonders of Britain and it is possible that this was the Roman settlement of Bath. The battle lasted three days and may well have been a siege of the town by Saxons. Arthur broke the stalemate by leading a cavalry charge against the Saxons, slaughtering many of them and stopping Saxon raids on the West Country for at least two decades.
The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in the late 6th century did not bring an end to the conflict, but fuelled a new one with the Saxons intent on crushing the Celtic church. At the battle of Chester, an army of Northumbrian Anglo-Saxons massacred 1,200 Celtic monks from a monastery in Bangor. Though they carry no arms,’ said the Saxon warlord, trying to justify the atrocity, ‘those monks by crying to their God still fight against us.’ Celtic pirates from Ireland called Scotti added to the chaos, assaulting both Saxons and Britons on the west coast from Wales to Scotland. In western Scotland, these Irish raiders established settlements and eventually displaced