Military Failure at the End of Romano-Britain

Author: Brown, P., (2010), “Military Failure at the End of Romano-Britain”, first published in The Imperial Courier, Volume 5, Issue 3, THE RMRS, pp. 7-8.

Introduction  At the British Museum conference “410 AD”, Rob Collins from the University of Newcastle spoke on “Limitanei and Comitatenses: Military Failure at the End of Roman Britain?” He concluded that even though the field army may have left, the Saxon Shore Forts were stripped to a skeleton force, and many of the Welsh forts abandoned, the northern forces under the Dux Brittanorum largely remained intact, and that the remaining individual units became warbands, with their Roman commanders becoming local war lords. Mr Collins’ paper is to be published, but no date given.

The Army was split between comitatenses (the larger mobile field units) and limitanei (smaller units policing the Frontier). Three quarters of the soldier’s pay was in kind not cash, and topped off by donatives. Soldiers were locally recruited, although most of the surviving accounts talk of draft dodgers rather than volunteers, sons following fathers, and so forth, with less than 25% being of barbarian stock. The important point was that there was no decline in their fighting quality.

According to the Notitia Dignitatum (the “List of Offices”) the Comes Britanniarum (Count of the Britons) [1] commanded the comitatenses, a mobile field army, of 9 units, six cavalry and three infantry units, totalling no more than 6,000 troops. This small force was charged with supporting the frontier troops (limitanei) [2] in fending off the increasing number of barbarian raids during the period. Some units seem to have been transferred from the commands of the Dux Brittanorum (Duke of Britain) or the Comes Litoris Saxonicum (Count of the Saxon Shore). The office of Comes Britanniarum presumably was extinguished with Rome’s eventual withdrawal from Britain.

The Comes Litoris Saxonicum (Count of the Saxon Shore) had 9 units of limitanei totalling between 1,200- 3,500 men. Tantalisingly, the Notitia Dignitatum for modern Wales seems to be missing, so a further Comes defending the western coastline may have existed. To add to the uncertainty, we have no list of Foederati [3], so the overall number of troops stationed in Romano-Britain may well be much greater.

In Northern Britain, the Notitia Dignitatum lists 14 units of limitanei under the command of the Dux Brittanorum (Duke of Britain). A total of 4-12,000 men were stationed in either modern Yorkshire, Cumbria or Northumberland. Infantry units were concentrated along Hadrian’s Wall. A Sarmatian unit of heavy cavalry (Cuneus Sarmatarum), was stationed near the crossroads at Ribchester. As their name suggests the Praefectus Numeri exploratorum were used for reconnaissance. The Equites Crispianorum was located at Doncaster, and a naval unit at the mouth of the Tyne. Collins estimates troop counts from a low of 7,000 to as much as 15,000, with the average approximating 12,500.

Although troops would retire, fall ill, or be killed, there were several reasons that might explain declining troop numbers in the Provinces of Britannia:

• In AD 383 Magnus Maximus was proclaimed Emperor by his troops and raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales. In pursuit of his imperial ambitions, he headed to Gaul taking a large number of British troops with him. During his continental exploits it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. Magnus Maximus‘ rule was ended in AD 388, but not all the British troops may have returned as the Empire's military resources were struggling in the aftermath of the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople in AD 378.

• Eugenius, the usurper in the Western Roman Empire (AD 392–394) against Emperor Theodosius I, was similarly aided by troops from Britannia.

• Later still, Stilicho, the de facto commander-in-chief of the Roman armies in the West, withdrew troops to defend Italy in AD 401/402 to assist in the war against Alaric I.

• A series of revolts in Britannia finally ended with the elevation of Constantine III early in AD 407. A common soldier, but one of some ability, Constantine moved quickly crossing the English Channel to the continent at Bononia. Historians have assumed he took with him all the mobile troops left in Britain, thus denuding the province of any first line military protection and explaining their disappearance in the early 5th-century.

• And from AD 409/410 no pay was received from the Continent, after the British rebellion. Despite cash only being a small amount of the troops pay their continued service is considered unlikely.

There were also a number of reasons to support continuity of troop presence:

• As the 4th-century progressed there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Irish in the west. Despite the preparation of coastal defences, when a general assault of Saxons, Irish and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, Britannia was left prostrate in AD 367. This crisis, sometimes called the “Barbarian Conspiracy” or the “Great Conspiracy”, was settled by Count Theodosius with a string of military and civil reforms.

• During his short reign, Magnus Maximus controlled much of the western Empire. Despite campaigning extensively on the continent, his British troops fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around AD 384.

• Around AD 396 there were increasing barbarian incursions into Britain, and an expedition in AD 398/400 - possibly led by Stilicho - seems to have restored peace by AD 399.

Not all soldiers were necessarily taken to the continent in this period of upheaval and ambition. Recruits for imperial usurpers could be drawn from barbarian settlements, and as the threat to the frontiers did not disappear, complete withdrawal from Britannia is unlikely with both Dux and Comes continuing to have a role to play. The mobile field army of the Comes Brittanorum, for example, would campaign as needed in the spring and summer and disperse into towns for the winter. Moreover, troops developed very strong connections with their locality, including and there are literary examples of units being reluctant to move.

Turning to the archaeological evidence, over half the Saxon Shore forts (Lympne, Reculver, Caister, and Burgh) were vacated by AD 400. Yet, several others (Brancaster, Porchester, Bradwell, Dover and Richborough) showed activity after this time, though often less well organised than previously. The volume of finds at Richborough indicate that it remained a very significant port of entry in Britannia. In Wales and the southwest, Caerleon and Chester were occupied up to AD 410, while in comparison Wroxeter (Viriconium) continued to be occupied and even flourished in the later period. Generally, little activity can be attested in Roman forts in the 5th-century as hill forts became the power bases for the elite. In the book Britannia Prima, the case is made for this province's survival as a separate entity until the early medieval period. In the North, virtually all Roman forts endure throughout the 4th-century, with evidence for 5th-century occupation. The type of occupation changes, however. For example, in the Principia at York (once a sacred place) there is archaeological evidence for metalworking and upmarket butchery trades (although the butchery seems to have been focussed on suckling pigs and feasting). In Birdoswald Roman Fort on the Wall, one of the granary stores was converted into a great hall - in itself implying that a storage depot (for supplying multiple forts) was no longer needed. Or perhaps with grain supplies no longer being imported, the soldiers in Birdoswald increasingly found themselves operating in isolation obtaining grain from local farmers (possibly as tax) while their commanders becoming warlords (as in Egypt).

To summarise, the British based units of the Field Army led by the Comes Britanniarum eventually left, being evidenced on the Continent, and thereby effectively “hollowed out” the Province. The Saxon Shore was stripped of its garrisons and left with skeleton staff. The Northern frontier units were left largely untouched, as were tribal militia and foederati. The Northern garrisons remained in place with their units and Roman commanders to become the core of the warbands in the 5th-century [4].  So, was there a military failure in Britannia? We can probably conclude that in the South the answer was “yes” as military units here were closest to the continent and thus most likely to re-deployed. In Wales and the West, the answer is “maybe”, but in the North there was no military failure at the end of Romano-Britain. Rather the surviving military forces are absorbed into the so-called “Dark Ages” of British history.

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Endnotes:

1.  The Comes Britanniarum (Latin for “Count of the Britains”) was a military post in Roman Britain with command over the mobile field army from the mid-4th-century onwards. It is listed in the List of Offices as being one of the three commands in Britain, along with the Duke of the Britains and the Count of the Saxon Shore. His troops were the main field army (comitatenses) in Britain and not the frontier guards (limitanei) commanded by the other two. ▲

2.  The līmitāneī (Latin, also called rīpēnsēs), meaning respectively “the soldiers in frontier districts” (from the Latin phrase līmēs, meaning a military district of a frontier province) or “the soldiers on the riverbank” (from the Rhine and Danube). ▲

3.  The term foederati had its usage and meaning extended by the Romans' practice of subsidising entire barbarian tribes, such as the Franks, Vandals, Alans, Huns and the Visigoths, in exchange for providing warriors to fight in the Roman armies. ▲

4.  Commentary by Zosimus, or the Gallic Chronicle, probably written in Marseilles (certainly from Gaul), would not be able to “see” these Northern units when stating: “The Provinces of Britain were laid waste by an invasion of Saxons.” ▲