|
|
Pre
700 BC | View events in the Bronze Age and before | | c.650 BC | Iron was introduced to Britain in about 650 BC and as its use slowly spread, the use of bronze for tools declined but continued for bowls and ornaments etc.. Iron had been in evidence on the continent and in central Europe for at leasr 300 years already. In our area, the people were still living in settlements in the north west of Suffolk on the light, well drained soils of Breckland. It has been thought that raiders from Belgium left sword scabbards found at Lakenheath. Nowadays, such evidence is much less readily attributed to invaders and more readily linked to trade or cultural exchange, but iron objects have usually rusted away fairly quickly.
In Norfolk the earliest iron age phase is called after a site at West Harling, Micklemoor Hill. A circular bank and shallow ditch with two causeways have been identified. The round house is the typical building thought to mark out the iron age, although rectangular features have been noted at places like Rickinghall Inferior. |
| |
|
| 500 BC | The Iron Age had begun in Britain, but Bronze continued to be worked. It is thought that the few bronze arrowheads ever found date from this time. They were mostly made on the continent and only a very few tri-lobe bronze arrow heads have ever been found in Britain. | | c.400 BC | Celtic people enter Britain from the Low Countries and iron tools allow agriculture to spread to less light soils. The Celts were one of the many tribes living in Europe in the years before Christ. About 400 BC they began to leave Central Europe, possibly because of harassment from other tribes. The Celts from Northern France and the Netherlands crossed the Channel and settled in England. They were known as the Brythons (Britons). Later, about 350 BC, Celts from Southern France settled in Ireland. They spoke Goidelic (Gaelic). |
| |
|
| 200 BC | Gold staters from Gaul began to reach Britain. A stater is the name given to the standard Celtic gold coin.
By comparison, in Sicily in 212 BC, one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever known, called Archimedes, was killed when the Romans invaded the city of Syracuse. This city had been part of Greater Greece, a mighty Mediterranean Empire, renowned for its culture and learning. It would be eclipsed by the military might of the Romans, who would set up their own empire, based on their technological innovations in a whole range of activities, not least of which was military arms and tactics. | | c 150 BC | A succession of coins manufactured by the tribes of Northern France was imported into south-east England beginning around this time for at least a hundred years. This area of France has been called Belgica, and these coins are known to collectors as Gallo-Belgic A to F series. In the past this evidence was thought to indicate successive waves of Belgic invaders, but this is no longer widely believed. Although Caesar recorded Belgic raiders to England who may have settled there, it is now thought to indicate payments for military service, close cultural links and trading ties as well as gifts cementing political or social alliances across the Channel. | | 100 BC | Perhaps the oldest British made coins were not made of gold, but were a series of cast bronze or "potin" issues manufactured in Kent. These appear to be based on the bronze coinage of the Greek Colony in Marseilles (Massalia). A hoard of this bronze coinage was found in Thurrock in Essex, and samples have been found in East Anglia.
It is thought that there were two separate peoples in Suffolk at this period, with a boundary roughly from Newmarket to Stowmarket and Aldburgh. To the north were the Iceni, and in the south the Trinovantes. Their names are known from Roman writers.
The iron age Iceni tribal heartlands were in North West Suffolk around Ixworth and the Blackbourne Valley and Icklingham, West Stow and the Lark Valley. They extended into South West Norfolk and north and south along the Icknield Way. The Iceni were widespread in Norfolk and archaeological remains there confirm the Roman descriptions of them using wheeled chariots drawn by a pair of ponies in warfare. They had a major fort with earthworks which survive today at Thetford. Most of their remains in Suffolk are from Cavenham to Thetford. These people kept cattle and water had to be available within a mile of the herds, a requirement which held true up to the 20th century.
An Iceni iron age fort has been identified at Barnham surrounded by ditches and ramparts. Measuring 105 by 77 yards, it is rated as a small fort by iron age standards. The ditches were 23 feet wide and 10 feet deep.
In South Suffolk the people were known as Trinovantes and are also known as the Belgic or Belgae tribes and were supposedly later arrivals from the Continent. |
| |
|
In South Suffolk, an earthwork called Clare Camp seems to have been an iron age fort of this tribe. In Saxon times it was called Erbury, and Erbury Manor was located here. It was surveyed in 1993 and categorised as a probable iron-age bi-vallate enclosure. It is the largest earthwork in Suffolk, enclosing a square area of about seven acres. The two banks are still up to nine feet high, with double ditches on their outer sides. These people also had a settlement at Long Melford and this Stour Valley group looked to Camulodunum as their capital next to where Roman Colchester arose.
There is also good evidence of a ditch and rampart Trinovanti fort around the churchyard at Burgh. It measured 300 yards by 225 yards. This was an organised society able to produce luxury goods such as the six famous gold torcs found at Ipswich in 1968 to 70, weighing 2lbs each.
Celtic names today only remain in isolated places. Most are found in Wales and Cornwall where the Celtic tongue held out, long after other areas accepted the language of the Anglo-Saxons. Very few names in Suffolk contain Celtic elements. Walsham (le Willows) means 'home' of the 'Welsh' ie the British. Walpole comes from Old English for The Britons' pool and Walton means The Britons' farmstead. Dunwich may derive from the Celtic words for Deep Water Port. | | c 70 BC | British made coinage was circulating by this time, much of it apparently copied from Roman designs. British coins started to be produced in gold and are sometimes called British A to P. At the same time there were also quarter staters, silver units and bronze units produced. | | 65 BC | A coin known as British G has also been called the Clacton type because a hoard was discovered at Clacton in 1898. Activities by metal-detectorists in the 1990's have since discovered more of them. The Clacton stater has crescent moons and laurel leaves on one side and a celtic horse design on the other. It should be noted that the Yarmouth stater was found at Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight, not in Norfolk. | | c.60 BC | By this time close relationships existed between Southern Britain and Northern Gaul. The part of Gaul called Armorica had trade links with Dorset and further north there were several cross channel routes. Caesar noted that in his wars in Gaul he was often faced with British contingents and that Gallic fugitives would often escape to Britain. This may have led him to consider a punitive expedition against the British.
Dating from around this time is a mysterious group of Iceni coins called the Bury type or Bury Diadem type because the first examples were discovered around Bury St Edmunds. They circulated widely in Norfolk and Suffolk and may be the earliest Iceni silver coins. They feature a well-styled female head with a complex crown on one side and a well modelled horse on the reverse.
In Norfolk, the coin known as 'British J' came about when the horse motif was replaced by a wolf by the Iceni moneyers. Today this coin type is often called "Norfolk Wolf". The Iceni were to become producers of a vigorous and inventive coinage somewhat isolated from the modernising Romanised tribes further south. | | 55 BC | Following a similar punitive raid across the Rhine into Germany, Julius Caesar (102 to 44BC) led 80 ships and 2 legions in a landing near Deal, on the Kentish coast. It was his first expedition to Britain. He was Proconsul to Transalpine Gaul. He defeated some defenders but the weather was against him, and he withdrew.
The Roman Empire began the conquest of Gaul. Julius Caesar wrote down his experiences in his book on the Gallic Wars, "De Bello Gallico". Many of his comments contribute to our knowledge of the time. He wrote that one of his opponents was King Diviciacus of the Suessiones in Belgic Gaul and that he previously had control over a large area of Britain. This supports the idea of close links between Britain and Belgica around this time.
From around 60 BC to 50 BC huge numbers of the coin known as Gallo-Belgic E were struck, with a stylised horse on one side and a blank obverse design. It has been estimated that about 5,000 kg of gold was needed to produce this coinage, almost certainly to pay troops to fight Caesar in Gaul. Large numbers of this coin have been found in Britain, spread from the south coast to the Humber, confirming Caesar's comment that Britain was a base for his enemies in Gaul. | | 54 BC | Julius Caesar led a second expedition to Britain and met fierce resistance from Cassivelaunus who had been elected by the British to lead their defence.
Eventually this resulted in the surrender of the British federation of tribes. Cassivelaunus was the powerful King of the Catuvellauni, who lived north of the Thames. To replace him, Caesar installed as King of the Trinovantes a British prince whose father had been killed by Cassivelaunus and Caesar expected an annual tribute in return. The Trinovantes were centred on Colchester and covered South Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.
Peace terms were settled and Caesar took tribute and hostages, but then left. Today's historians believe that tribute continued to be paid to Rome, and its influence was to grow over the next century. Britain did not just return to some state of isolation even though no further attempts at invasion took place for 100 years. Julius Caesar was later to write that the tribes he encountered in South and East England were very similar to the peoples of Gaul.
Although Roman forces left British shores the next hundred years produced large changes in British society. The Belgic culture crossed the Channel into southern Britain along with growing Roman contacts. There was a flowering of celtic arts and an establishment of land division that has partly persisted up to today. Large settlements with earthworks were established. British Celtic coinage sometimes included Latin legends and classical designs, well before the final invasion in 43 AD. | | 40 BC | The Norfolk wolf coinage of the Iceni was replaced somewhere around this time by a group known as the Freckenham type (British N). Various wreaths and patterns with crescent moons occur on one side, with the celtic horse on the other. | | 35 BC | The first inscribed celtic coinage from North of the Thames was produced by Addedomarus who may have been leader of the Trinovantes at this time. | | 30 BC | In Norfolk and North Suffolk, the Iceni coinage now moved on and a stylised boar appeared on one side of silver coins, with a horse on the other. This coin is called the "Norfolk Boar" type. Some have been found inscribed CANM DURO or versions of this inscription. Other Iceni types thought to date from 30 BC to 10 BC are the Face/Horse type. The face has been called the "Norfolk God" type. A variant of this is the "Norfolk God - moustache type". | | 12 BC | The Emperor Augustus launched his armies against Holland and Germany and established a permanent force on the Rhine. Britain exported corn, hides, cattle and iron to the empire to support the Roman military effort and the administrations it set up across the Channel. Britain grew wealthy on this trade and its culture was changed profoundly by this close contact with the Empire.
Around this time the Catuvellauni were centred on Hertfordshire, with a mint at St Albans (Verulamium). They seem to have expanded their power and influence over the next 50 years. Early coins of Tasciovanus of the Catuvellauni were marked VER or VERL, but a few marked CAM exist. This could refer to Camulodunum or Colchester in the heart of Trinovante territory. However, his later coins dropped the CAM mark. Later, his coins were marked TASCIO RICON, the celtic equivalent of TASCIO REX or King Tasciovanus.
There would seem to have been some connection between the two tribes at this time, but it became closer a few years later. | | c.1 BC | The birth of Jesus Christ is dated at around this time. By the time of Bede, our modern system of dates "in the year of our lord" or anno domini, was being used. There is no year zero in this system so that 1 BC is followed by 1 AD. | | 1 AD | From about 1 AD to 43 AD, the Iceni continued to produce coins, but inscriptions often now occur. Crescent moons and corn ears or wreaths are on one side and a celtic horse on the other. Inscriptions include ANTEDI, thought to refer to Antedios. Another inscription is ECEN, which some people believe refers to the tribal name, ECENI or Iceni, but if so, this is extremely unusual for the time. | | c 10 AD | Tasciovanus of the Catuvellauni was succeeded by his son, Cunobelin or Cymbeline who ruled them until about 40 AD. Cunobelin is generally considered to have also later ruled the Trinovantes but whether he conquered them or had some legitimate claim which was recognised by that tribe, we do not know. | | c.25 AD | The Essex and South Suffolk Trinovantes were in some way taken over by the Catuvellaini from the west. Coins show that their new ruler was Cunobelinus or Cunobelin, supposedly later the basis for Shakespeare's Cymbeline. He took over Camulodunum and seems to have moved his main mint and capital from St Albans to Colchester. During his long and powerful rule he issued large numbers of gold, silver and bronze coins of increasingly Romanised designs. About one million of his gold "corn-ear" staters were produced. They have the letters CAMV with an ear of corn on one side and a horse design with CVN on the other.
Some historians say that the Iceni may have built the Black Ditches at Cavenham to hold the Belgae invasion, although another view is that these were built 400 years later to hold back the Anglo-Saxons. | | 33 AD | According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "Here Christ was hanged, five thousand two hundred and twenty six years from the beginning of the world." | | c 41 AD | Cunobelin died around this time. Over his 30 years reign, Cunobelin had built up the most powerful kingdom in celtic Britain, extending his influence south of the Thames and also westwards according to Dio Cassius in his "Roman History". Ruling from Colchester after uniting the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes, he was powerful enough to be referred to as Britannorum rex, or King of the Britons, by Suetonius in his "Lives of the Caesars". He had ruled a vastly greater area than the Catuvellauni had controlled in 55 BC when Julius Caesar first arrived.
This expansion and the death of the great Cunobelin may have led the emperor Claudius to consider an invasion. Claudius was only newly made Emperor and badly needed something like a military success to consolidate his position. | | 43 AD | The emperor Claudius began the conquest of Britain, which would remain part of the Roman Empire for the next 370 years.
Four legions and auxiliaries landed in Kent and fought their way to the Thames. They attacked the Catuvellauni, the most powerful of the tribes, and captured their fort at Camulodunum. Claudius set up a great temple nearby, dedicated to himself, and founded Colchester as capital of the new Roman province of Brittania.
To control Catuvellauni-Trinovante territory it is likely that the Romans also built forts at Long Melford and Coddenham. |
| |
|
The culture the Romans found in Britain had something like 1,500 to 2,000 years of development behind it, and the celtic society was much the same as the Romans found elsewhere in north-western Europe. It was a sophisticated and artistically developed society but it was to be radically changed by the advent of Roman law and the coming of widespread literacy. The population was two or three times greater at this time than it was in the reign of William the Conqueror.
In Norfolk and North Suffolk, the Iceni decided not to fight the Romans, and signed a peace treaty. In return, their king, Prasutagus was allowed to rule as a 'client' king. Perhaps Prasutagus felt more secure as a Roman client-king than he had with the Catuvellauni expansion on his southern flank.
This strategy seems to have worked for the next 17 years. At about this time the tribal centre of the Iceni seems to have moved from North West Norfolk to Thetford. A major ceremonial centre was constructed from thousands of timbers in the form of an artificial "oak grove", not far from Thetford's major fort.
Roman empire coinage circulated widely and profusely in Britain after this date. Much of it was now brass or bronze. Local celtic coins were also still produced. The Iceni uniquely had their tribal name on their coins as ECE (NI) by the first century AD. | | 47 AD | Ostorius Scapula became the Roman Governor of Britain until 52 AD, and in 47 AD he enforced the Roman law of Lex Julia de armis, which prohibited celtic warriors from carrying their weapons. This law was enforced upon the Iceni as well, despite their nominal independence. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, some of the Iceni rebelled and retreated into fortified earthworks, possibly Stonea Camp in the fens or Holkham camp in the North Norfolk salt marsh. At any event they were decisively defeated, and apparently, that was the end of the matter. Although some of the Iceni had joined a revolt it did not result in Prasutagus losing his position. | | c 50 AD | Under King Prasutagus, the Iceni coinage became romanised. The horse became more realistic and less stylised, the face became a bust rather than a mask. The inscription has been said to read SVB RI PRASTO ESICO FECIT or "under King Prasto, Esico made me". This inscription has recently been called into question. | | c.59 AD | In the Winter of 59 AD, Prasutagus died and the Romans began to revoke his grants and bequests. The king's widow Boudicca was whipped and his daughters raped. The Iceni were goaded into revolt, and were joined by the Trinovante-Catuvellauni alliance. |
| |
|
| 60 AD | Boudicca of the Iceni now allied with the Essex and East Suffolk Trinovantes to attack the Romans. Following a two day siege they took Colchester, smashed the temple of Claudius and destroyed the garrison. The IXth Legion marched south from near Peterborough to quell the revolt but was ambushed in the wooded Stour valley near Haverhill. The Roman Commander of the IXth Legion from Longthorpe was Petilius Cerialis who barely escaped with his life and a few cavalry men. The location of this battle is not known, but there is a local tradition that it took place in Blood Field at Great Wratting. The Romans lost 1000 men, and no doubt, flushed with success, the uprising turned south and west.
The rebels then reduced London and Verulamium (St Albans) to a layer of ashes. Tacitus reported that when Boudica sacked London, "all those left behind were butchered. The British took no prisoners nor did they consider they money they could get from selling slaves. It was the sword, gibbet, fire and cross". Dio Cassius described atrocities committed by the Iceni who worshipped Andraste, their invincible war goddess.
By now Cerialis had sent word to Paulinus who was campaigning in Wales. Most of the Roman army was with him in Anglesey, destroying the last major celtic strong hold. Paulinus hurried back along Watling Street, the modern A5.
Eventually Boudica faced the Roman Commander, Suetonius Paulinus in battle in the vicinity of Bath. Tacitus recorded in his Annals that "it was a glorious victory equal to those of the good old days: some estimate as many as 80,000 British dead. Boudicca ended her life with poison". |
| |
|
The rebellion of Boudica against the Romans brought reprisals and the firm establishment of Roman rule. Roman reprisals were at first extreme. It is significant that the IroQn Age settlement at West Stow ended about this time; but it is not known just what happened. The Iceni religious wooden timbered henge at Thetford was also demolished around this time. Iceni coinage production also ceased or was suppressed at this time. The Iceni were eventually allowed to survive ruled from Venta Icenorum (Caistor St Edmund), near Norwich.
A new seven acre Roman fort was established at Pakenham on the Peddars Way to control the ford across the River Blackbourne and maintain control over the locals. Peddars Way was built from Chelmsford through Long Melford, Pakenham and Ixworth and Knettishall towards the Wash at Holme-next-the-Sea. The old A45 (now A14) from Kentford to Bury was probably a link road from the prehistoric Icknield Way at Icklingham to the Romanised Peddars Way linking via Fornham and Great Barton.
Another road probably already ran from Cambridge to Haverhill and Clare and on to Long Melford on the northern side of the River Stour. It would become less important as a frontier road once the Iceni came under Roman military occupation.
It is important to realise that the description 'Roman' really equates with Romanised Britons. So 'Roman' settlements flourished in the river valleys and light soils but continued the iron age penetration of the heavy clay soils as well. Roman kilns have been found at Wattisfield, West Stow and Icklingham etc, where the local clay was suitable. The Romano-British landscape was ordered much like the medieval one with open market centres in an agricultural landscape. In our area such centres were Icklingham, Pakenham, Wixoe and Long Melford. Coddenham was a major centre to the east. Sicklesmere was a smaller settlement. | | AD 61 | During the uprising led by Boudica and in the following Roman suppression, many of the Iceni deposited hoards of coins in the ground for safe-keeping. Over ten hoards have been discovered in Norfolk from this period, and half of them contain mixed Iceni silver units and Roman denarii. The most recent hoard was found at Forncett in Norfolk in 1996 with 381 silver coins of which 336 were Iceni, and 45 were Roman. The Roman coins from the Forncett hoard date from 128 BC through to AD 36 and no doubt the Celtic Iceni coins also span a similar period.
These hoards of the Boudican period are clustered in south east Norfolk and the north of Suffolk. There are clusters around Norwich and around Thetford, spreading eastwards along the River Waveney.
Around this time fifty gold coins supposedly bearing the head of Prasutagus (Boadicea's husband) were buried on the Chalkstone Hills and were to be discovered by labourers in 1787. It would be interesting to examine these coins in the light of modern knowledge, as this is not in an area usually associated with the Iceni. | | c.100 AD | By the second century brick and stone was used in building. A villa has been identified at Rougham together with pottery and glass finds from burial sites in nearby tumuli. Villas have also been found at Ixworth, Pakenham, Mildenhall, Stanton, Lidgate and so on. |
|
Cremation urns from Rougham
|
The settlement at Rougham probably survived for at least a century, as a series of cremations have been found in four mounds or barrows. The Roman Britains were still pagan at this time and used cremation, rather than burial, and the burnt remains were interred in pots, together with grave goods. Eastlow Hill is the remaining mound at Rougham today, but four such barrows existed there in 1843-44, when they were excavated. One mound contained a lead coffin, and shows that the cemetery was in use at least until the late 3rd century.
Remains of a substantial Roman building have recently been unearthed on the outskirts of Haverhill, dating probably from the second century AD. This, together with other finds and the close proximity of a Roman road running along the high ground to the north, point to a long occupation during the days of the Roman Empire. A Roman burial ground was found in Castle Walk, and a Roman settlement was excavated on the Coupals Way estate. At Coupals Way occupation extended from the iron age to the 4th century.
The Bartlow Hills are probably the best preserved burial mounds from this Roman period. They tend to survive as larger mounds than the pre-historic examples.
In the next three centuries, Roman villas and other settlements flourished at Castle Camps, Haverhill, Ridgewell and Wixoe, and a Roman cemetery was discovered at Withersfield in the eighteenth century. The River Stour was probably navigable as far as Wixoe, and Wixoe may well have been the most important of these settlements. The main road through Cambridge, the Via Devana which originated in Chester, has been traced as far as Withersfield, and may have gone on through Haverhill to Long Melford and Colchester. | | c.122 AD | Hadrians Wall was built from Wallsend to the Solway Firth. It took only six years. | | 200 AD | Britain largely escaped the crises befalling the empire on the continent in the 3rd Century, enabling an increase in prosperity. However, Saxon visitors first appeared along the East Coast early in the 3rd Century and by the end of the Century, were raiding as far as the Bay of Biscay. | | 205 | Between 205 and 208 AD, Severus re-built Hadrians Wall to keep out the Picts. | | 210 AD | All free born men in the Provinces, including Britain, were declared full Roman citizens, rather than subject peoples.
Around this time the 'Antonine Itinerary' was drawn up which named locations in Britain and their distances apart. This is the main evidence for suggesting that Icklingham was known as Camboritum and Coddenham was called Combretovium. The location of the Villa Faustini remains uncertain but Scole is the most favoured possibility today.
In the past there was a long running feeling locally that Bury was the Villa Faustini, and it featured in the pageant of 1906. However by that date, local historians had largely accepted that there were no Roman remains at Bury. So it was also supposed that perhaps the Villa was at Sicklesmere, where there were some Roman artefacts. Twentieth century archaeological discoveries at Scole have provided new evidence, that now shifts the likely site to that vicinity. | | 250 | Coins made in Britain were allowed again, having been stopped in AD 61. | | 260's AD | The continental frontiers of the Roman Empire were suddenly breached when the Barbarian Goths and Persians, Nubians and Moors overran the provinces they bordered. A terrible invasion by the Germans across the Rhine resulted in the destruction of the unwalled cities of Gaul. Only Italy and Britain escaped prolonged devastation. The raiders withdrew and the frontiers were restored but Gaul was devastated, and could no longer support the armies of the Rhine.
British agriculture expanded to supply these new demands and an export-led boom produced a new-found prosperity in Britain. |
| |
|
| 270 AD | The Roman response to Saxon raids was to build a series of forts (the Saxon Shore forts) along both sides of the English Channel (270-285), which housed naval vessels and 'regional response units' to cope with the threat. In Suffolk, Burgh Castle (now in Norfolk), and Walton Castle near Felixstowe (and possibly Dunwich) were part of the chain from Lincolnshire to the South coast. The forts in order from the Wash to the Isle of Wight were Brancaster (Branodunum), Burgh Castle (Gariannonum), Walton Castle, now destroyed by the sea, Bradwell (Othona), Reculver (Rutupiae), Dover (Dubris), Lympne (Lemanis), Pevensey (Anderida), and Portchester (Portus Adurni). They were commanded by the Count of the Saxon Shore.
According to the Handbook of the Empire, the Notitia Dignitatum, Burgh Castle had a garrison of cavalry, called the Equites Stablesiani Garrianonenses. These forts were successful in repelling raiders until they were over-run in 367AD. Burgh itself was occupied until at least 395AD, and would become important once again in Saxon times when St Fursa set up a monastery here in about 630.
The remains of Burgh Castle are a remarkable monument to Roman engineering. The east wall is 640 feet long, and the surviving north and south walls are 300 feet long. They are 8 feet thick, and are 15 feet high. They are built of a rubble concrete, faced by squared flints. Concrete was a notable Roman invention.
The widespread use of low value bronze coins resulted in frequent losses at sites from the late 3rd and throughout the 4th centuries. Some large Roman burial mounds have been identified in Suffolk, including four at Eastlow Hill, Rougham associated with a nearby villa. | | 300 AD | The previously fairly solid farmhouses became replaced in the most prosperous areas by great country mansions, normally enclosing 3 sides of a square, some 150 feet to 200 feet long, with from 30 to 70 rooms. These were commonest in the Cotswolds. Aerial photography has revealed a corridor villa at Lidgate with two side wings. It had about 20 rooms and nearby a large buttressed barn would store the owner's grain.
In Suffolk real exploitation of the woodland on the clay areas in the centre of the county began for the first time, doubtless helped by the network of Roman roads which were begun in the 1st Century. Field walking has revealed a much more widespread number of Romano-British settlements than had been thought previously. There were no walled towns in the county as there were at Caister-by-Norwich, Cambridge and Colchester, but the whole area was served by a series of open market towns which also served as administrative centres. The great treasures found at Mildenhall, Thetford and Hoxne demonstrates that a wealthy upper class existed here, even if the villas and townships so far excavated were less spectacular than in some areas of southern Britain. | | 303 | From 303 t0 305 AD, the Emperor Diocletion launched a widespread persecution of the Christian religion. | | 312 AD | Civil war made Constantine emperor in the west and Christianity became the official religion. He was a devout Christian and Christians were suddenly promoted to important positions of state. However, Christianity was actually stronger in the eastern empire than in the west.
The Roman currency unit of solidus was introduced as one-seventy second of a pound. It was to become the 's' of £.s.d. The denarius was later to become the 'd' of the £.s.d. | | 314 AD | By the 4th Century Britain was becoming Christian with an organised church with bishops; three went to the Council of Arles in 314. A Christian church has been found at Icklingham with a baptistry and cemetery. Four lead tanks, possibly fonts, were found with Christian symbols of chi-rho, alpha and omega. | | 324 AD | Constantine mastered the eastern provinces and decided to deal with the heretical teachings of Arius, a priest of Alexandria, that God the Father was not the same substance as God the Son, and by implication, Superior. | | 325 AD | In an attempt to unite the Empire under a common version of Christian belief, Constantine convened the Council of Nicea, the first world conference of Christianity. This was held at Nicea, near Constantinople and it condemned Arius and Arianism and formulated the Nicean Creed. | | 337 AD | Constantius became Emperor in the east and decided to champion the Arian cause. His brother Constans supported the orthodox view and it prevailed until his death. | | c.340 AD | The rise of big estates throughout the empire tended to make the rich get richer and the poor, poorer. Once wealth had been acquired by the few, they did not readily pay their tax dues and the burden of tax and rents fell on the poor. In Armorica (Brittany) peasant discontent became a sustained revolt called the Bacauda. This does not seem to have happened in Britain, although revolts also occurred in Gaul and Spain. | | 350 AD | Britain had been Roman for 300 years and was part of an economy common to the whole empire. Public events were determined by imperial politics and administration was controlled by men appointed in Italy. The lasting peace of Pax Romana meant that wars were confined to the borders and coastal raids.
The British were now all Romans and considered themselves the same as the Roman Gaul or the Roman Italian. Their enemies were the Picts, North of the Forth and Clyde, the Scots in Ireland, the Franks and Saxons of the Low Counties.
The 4th century historian Ammianus wrote that German settlers known as Feoderati were settled in Eastern England as allied defence forces. This occurred after 350 AD and coastal forts are the most likely homes for such people usually in close proximity to Romano-British settlements.
However, by the 4th Century the Empire was ruled in two parts. Constantius ruled the East from Constantinople and the poorer western provinces were under his brother Constans in Rome. Constans was generally seen as weak and silly.
A military conspiracy in Gaul proclaimed Magnentius emperor supported by Britain and most of the western empire, and he was welcomed in Rome and Constans was killed. Constantius went on the counter-offensive and instigated the Germans of the Rhineland to attack Magnentius. This resulted in several years of destruction in Gaul. Magnentius, in turn, enlisted help from the Franks and Saxons but the Franks took Cologne for themselves, and even Lyons was attacked by the Barbarians. | | 353 AD | Constantius finally recovered Gaul and defeated Magnentius but about a tenth of the Roman army was destroyed in the process.
Constantius now sought vengeance on Britain for supporting the Magnentius conspiracy. Parts of the British aristocracy were arrested and executed, and property was confiscated and passed to foreign landlords. In such circumstances families might try to bury their wealth to be collected later.
Constantius now tried to convert the west to the teachings of Arius. | | 359 AD | The western bishops were summoned to Rimini by Constantius, and 400 attended. After 7 months of browbeating, all but 15 bishops accepted Arianism. One of the 15 who stood against state pressure was Augurius, Bishop of London. | | 360 AD | Constantius died and his nephew Julian became Emperor. He attempted a pagan revival.
In 360 a senior General was sent to Britain with a strong force for some months to repel the Picts and Scots. | | 363 AD | Julian was killed and the pagan revival ended. | | 364 AD | Valentinian let religion alone and concentrated upon defence in the west. His brother Valens ruled in the east.
In 364 another expedition had to be sent to Britain with 4 crack regiments to defend the frontiers. | | 366 AD | Damasus became Bishop of Rome after bloody election riots and then induced emperor Gratian to make him Pontifex Maximus. This title had previously been held by Julius Caesar and all emperors after him and was really the pagan chief priesthood. By this means Damasus became the first Bishop to whom the term Pope can be applied. He turned the church into a powerful and wealthy institution. | | 367 AD | Another serious incursion took place on the frontiers of Britain when Nectaridus, Count of the Saxon Shore, was killed. The Saxon shore forts had failed for the first time in keeping out intruders. The Picts plundered at will into the north and west, as did the Attacotti and the Irish. The Franks and their Saxon neighbours raided the Gallic coast. Count Theodosius was sent with a scratch force and, later reinforced by four regiments, marched from Richborough to London, then called Augusta. He rounded up bands of enemy plunderers. | | 368 AD | In the Spring, Theodosius continued his mopping up operations. The archaeological evidence does not seem to support any great or widespread devastation from these Saxon raids in lowland Britain. However, the Mildenhall Treasure was possibly buried some time in the late 4th century and such incursions could produce this response. It may not have been buried until the early 5th century when things really became difficult.
Meanwhile the Irish and Picts attacked the north and west and it was here that more serious inroads occurred. The Irish set up colonies in Wales and the South West. | | 369 AD | Theodosius found that he had to strengthen the North so he established four dynasties north of Hadrian's Wall to rule on Rome's behalf. The dynasty of Clemens of the Clyde endured until 1066. | | 375 AD | Valentinian led an expedition to the Danube where he died, to be succeeded by Gratian. The Huns had crossed the Volga and the empire of the eastern Goths was over-run and they sought refuge on the Roman side of the Danube. | | 378 AD | The Goths' treatment under Roman "protection" was so bad that they rebelled and destroyed the army and the Emperor of the East, Valens. He was replaced by Theodosius, son of the rescuer of Britain back in 367. Theodosius used the Goths themselves to restore order, and even the Emperor adopted a barbarian bodyguard. | | 383 AD | Parts of the Empire hated the use of the mercenaries and Gratian was felt to be more pious than was good for the state so Britain proclaimed Magnus Maximus emperor after he repelled another Pict and Irish invasion. Gaul also accepted Magnus as did other parts of the Empire. | | 388 AD | Theodosius defeated and killed Magnus in the Balkans. Some of his British units were said to have settled in Armorica (Brittany).
The Franks again plundered Cologne and extended their settlements. | | 392 AD | The Rhine armies deposed Valentinian and Theodosius again had to conquer the west. Both sides engaged Barbarian mercenaries and Theodosius only won by buying out some of his opponents' German allies. | | 395 AD | Theodosius died and was the last sole ruler of the Roman world. General Stilicho became the power behind Emperor Honorius and tried to take over in the east as well.
From 395 to 400 AD, Stilicho won a victory over Gildo, an African border prince who tried to starve Rome of corn, and then he also went to Britain to repel another concerted attack by Picts, Irish and Saxons. The Empire seemed to be fighting back yet again. | | 400 AD | However, in the next ten years, western Rome was to disintegrate beyond repair. A Gothic general seized Constantinople and in its recovery the Goths were massacred, and the Visigoths turned instead on Italy.
By 400 AD, Christianity was accepted by virtually everybody throughout the Roman Empire compared to thirty years earlier when it was still a minority religion. |
|
Roman pots from Icklingham
|
A sprawling half mile long Romano-British settlement possibly known as Camborito had been long established at Icklingham, and a Roman villa has also been identified there. Finds have been made here over many years and four lead water tanks have now been discovered in Icklingham bearing Christian symbols. In 1974 an apparently Christian cemetery was found with a possible Christian chapel. Shortly after this time it appears that the Anglo-Saxon village Stowa was first established just the other side of the Icknield Way from Camborito. Exactly how they interacted and how relations changed over the next 50 years we do not know. The Romano-British were Christian at this time and the Anglo-Saxons were pagans.
| | 403 AD | By 403 Stilicho had fought the Goths twice and had to seek reinforcements. He took units from Bavaria, a legion from Britain where they were used to hold back the Picts and Irish, and regiments from the lower Rhine where they held back the Franks. The British Legion was probably the 20th from Chester.
Mints of the western empire issued very little small change after 403, and hardly any of it reached Britain.
In 403 through to 406 AD a vast host of Vandals, Suebi and Alans crossed the now ill-defended Rhine. They were escaping from the central European dominion of the Huns and fanned out across the interior provinces, threatening to invade Britain.
Britain proclaimed a native emperor, Constantine III. He crossed to Gaul and expelled the invaders but took the Roman army with him from Britain.
Some invaders withdrew into Spain and descendants of the Suebi still inhabit north-western Spain. The Vandals passed on to Andalusia and then into Roman Africa.
No regular Roman troops were ever again stationed in Britain after 406. | | 407 AD | The Rhine froze over and again gave the Vandals access to the Empire. | | 408 AD | Stilicho was executed for failing to deal with these disasters. The Government of Honorius was insecure in Rome and Civil war broke out. | | 409 AD | Britain suffered a particularly heavy Saxon assault and continuing Irish assaults. Since the army had left with Constantine III, the British had to defend themselves, and seem to have done a good job.
Some time early in the 5th century a massive hoard of 15,000 coins was buried in a wooden box at Hoxne. Much tableware, 78 spoons and 29 pieces of gold jewellery, some of it displaying Christian inscriptions was included. This treasure was discovered by a metal detectorist in 1992. | | 410 AD | The emperor Honorius issued an edict to the cities in Britain instructing them to take responsibility for their own defences.
On 24 August the gates of Rome were opened to Alaric the Goth. He withdrew in a week with a waggon train of loot and prisoners.
Britain became effectively an independent part of the empire when Honorius declined to send men or money to defend the island. There was thus no imperial governor appointed by Rome. The succession of power was broken, and for the next 200 years Britain lacked any central, stable government that everyone could accept. However, Roman civilisation lasted another 30 years, towns, villas, agriculture and trade carrying on, but the written record ceased, hitherto produced by Roman historians.
The end of Roman Britain is still a complex tangle of facts and fictions. The Roman occupation of Britain had lasted for some 400 years, long enough for the original 'British' inhabitants to have come to think of themselves as 'Roman'. The Province had been governed by Roman laws and administration, organised with a monetary economy supporting a civil service, specialist artisans and a sizeable standing army. There were great estates (villas), towns and a complex road system in touch with an empire extending to the Holy Land, North Africa and to the boundaries in central Europe based on the Rhine and the Danube.
In Roman times Britain had as many people as at its peak in the Middle Ages.
Although the Romans occupied Britain for 400 years, only about 300 place names are left behind, suggesting that they tended to use existing Celtic names. Latin elements can include castra, a Roman town or fort, surviving as -chester or -caster and strata, a Roman road surviving as Strat- or -street. In Suffolk, Newmarket derives from Novum Forum, a Latin form recorded in 1200. However there is little else identified in our county. | 410
on | For the next 100 years it is almost impossible to 'date' any event in Britain with any accuracy because of the absence of reliable written records. This is the reason for calling this time the Dark Ages.
Follow our history into the Dark Ages |
|
|
