Chapter 2

Swords, Sandals, and Geometry: The Romans

In This Chapter

● Warring ancient Britons: Up to 55 BC

● Julius Caesar’s raids: 55 and 54 BC

● The Roman invasion: 43 AD

● Revolting Britons - Caratacus and Boudicca: 43-61 AD

● Defending the empire: 43-410 AD

The earliest warriors in Britain wouldn’t have been an army as we now recognise it. They didn’t fight for the ‘British army’ - they fought for their own tribes and chiefs - and they didn’t wear a recognised uniform as such (although being a fierce chap with a spear and a shield may have suggested to others exactly what his occupation was!). Fighting among themselves was one thing, but in the first century BC, a whole new way of war came to the British Isles - the Roman way of war.

The Roman army was the finest in the world in its time and experienced no real difficulty in conquering and holding down much of the British mainland. The Britons, however, were no slouches at fighting and made the Romans pay a high price for their success. Nevertheless, when the dust settled and Roman and Briton had learned to live together, for three centuries the island enjoyed a happy and comfortable lifestyle.

British armies fought the battles detailed in this chapter with the following troop types (for more on the Roman armies facing the British, see the later sidebar, ‘The Roman army’):

Nobles: The ultimate in barbaric chic, British nobles dressed well for battle. Many wore mail coats (capable of deflecting sword blows), sported helmets, and carried shields for protection. Some fought mounted, others in chariots, hurling spears and using skilful swordplay.

● Warriors: Armed with spears, shields, and swords, the bulk of British armies comprised warriors who charged fiercely towards their enemies, hoping to break their ranks at the first, violent clash.

● Skirmishers: A skirmisher’s job was to harry the enemy, rushing forward and throwing javelins, or hurling stones from a sling. The Britons did not seem fond of the bow at this time.

Fighting from the Start: The Ancient Britons

Ugg (as I call my ‘average’ ancient Briton) lived long, long ago in what people call the mists of time. Ugg and his chums were not just brilliant engineers, able to construct such immense structures as Stonehenge and Silbury Hill. They were also capable of advanced mathematical calculations and laid out stone circles (ovals actually) with such accuracy that they functioned as calendars. Many circles still exist today (see Sean Lang’s British History For Dummies for more information). However, Ugg’s contemporaries have left us no written records, so we have to guess much of what went on. As far as fighting was concerned, Ugg learned very quickly that the family unit produced better results than individuals, and that lots of families working together overcame a single family. In this way the tribe was born and its best fighters led it into battle. In due course, neighbouring tribes joined together to form local kingdoms.

As the centuries passed, stone weapons became bronze ones, and then iron (each progressively sharper or stronger than the last). Table 2-1 gives a breakdown of the broad dates of these eras (along with the Roman period). Excavations at royal grave sites have unearthed swords, spears, helmets, and shields crafted to an extremely high standard, but the ordinary folk had to make do with whatever they could get.

One uniquely British weapon system of the Iron Age, long discarded as obsolete in the Middle East, was the chariot, made from wicker and drawn by two horses. Chariots were the property of the nobility and, handled properly, could be remarkably effective (as the Romans were to find out - see ‘Caesar Seizes an Opportunity’). Nor were the psychological aspects of warfare forgotten. Warriors covered their faces and bodies with strange patterns made with a blue vegetable dye called woad. Even hardened professionals like the Romans found themselves taken aback by their appearance.

The one element of Iron Age warfare still visible today are the hill forts. These consist of a concentric series of ditches and banks, the latter surmounted by stout fences, enclosing the summit of a large hill. Sometimes, the entrance followed a winding route through the banks to expose an attacker to a constant rain of missiles. The largest such fort in Europe is Maiden Castle, near Dorchester in Dorset, which is still an impressive sight.

Caesar Seizes an Opportunity

Unlike the Britons, the Romans had a written history, and we know that Julius Caesar (in the first century BC) described the Britons as a wild, hairy lot. Those Britons living closest to the Continent were the most civilised, he felt, while the tribes living in the interior lived on milk and meat and still dressed in skins.

The first recorded mention of Britons in battle comes from Julius Caesar, who wrote of encountering Britons while trying to conquer Gaul (modern-day France). A priesthood known as the Druids, who exercised immense influence in Britain and Gaul, had sent these Britons. The Druids collected and stored severed heads in the same way modern people collect postage stamps. For a real treat they constructed huge wicker men, stuffing live criminals into the limbs and torso, then setting fire to them. The British population feared, respected, and honoured the Druids, who regularly adjudicated in tribal disputes.

The Druids, well aware that Rome did not tolerate an alternative power in any land it conquered, violently opposed Caesar. They arranged for British tribes to support the Gauls in every way possible, including the provision of fighting men. In so doing, they placed Britain on the military historian’s map for the first time, for during the summer of 55 BC Julius Caesar decided to cross the Channel and teach the Britons a lesson.

Caesar's first raid, 55 BC

Caesar took with him two Roman legions (see the sidebar ‘The Roman army’ for information about the strength of a legion). His first landfall across the English Channel was a narrow beach between two cliffs, from which the assembled Britons could hurl javelins and other missiles on to troops below, so Caesar moved the invasion fleet seven miles along the coast to an open shore. The enemy, led by their chariots and cavalry, followed him.

The Romans, shaken by the appearance of the wild, blue-painted Britons, attempted to disembark on a deeply shelving seabed and found themselves at an immediate disadvantage. Caesar ordered his war galleys to close in on the Britons’ right flank. Unused to the strange craft and subjected to the fire of Roman archers, slingers, and powerful bolt-firing catapults known as ballis-tae, the Britons withdrew a little way. Seeing this, the Eagle bearer of the Roman 10th Legion (the legion’s standard bearer) jumped down into the water, shouting for his comrades to follow if they didn’t want to be involved in the disgrace of losing their standard. Caesar ordered the warships’ boats to support them. Gradually more and more troops came ashore and formed a coherent line. As order had replaced confusion, the legions charged. When the Britons broke and fled, Caesar regretted that he was unable to mount a proper pursuit as his cavalry was still at sea.

Some days later, a gale seriously damaged many of the Roman ships and prevented the cavalry from landing. Shortly after, the 7th Legion left camp to cut corn and while its men were working in scattered parties, British cavalry and chariots attacked. The legion was barely holding its own when Caesar arrived with a relief force, enabling the legion to disengage and withdraw safely.

The Britons were well aware that Caesar had a limited number of troops at his disposal. The fact that he was nearing the end of his supplies and that his ships were still being repaired was also apparent. The Britons despatched messengers in every direction, expressing confidence that they could capture the Roman camp and organise booty galore for everyone. Some days later, having assembled a huge force of infantry and cavalry, they approached the camp. Caesar drew up both legions in battle formation and after a brief fight the Britons fled. The legionaries, lacking cavalry, conducted their pursuit on foot as far as they were able, killed a number of their opponents, and set fire to every building over a wide area.

Later in the day, the British leaders hurriedly asked for peace (they’d tried this earlier in the campaign, too, later going back on their word). Caesar demanded twice the number of hostages offered, to secure lasting peace. What he did not tell the Britons was that, worried by the prospect of further gales, he had already decided to re-embark his troops that very night. Setting sail shortly after midnight, the invasion fleet reached the continent without incident. End of round one.

Caesar made a number of very interesting observations regarding the Britons’ use of chariots, which had unsettled his soldiers. Manned by a warrior and a driver, they operated at speed over the steepest hillsides. They could halt suddenly, enabling the warrior to run along the pole, stand on the yoke, and hurl a spear at the enemy. Alternatively, several warriors jumped down from the chariot and fought on foot while the drivers waited close by to pick them up if things began to go wrong. In this way, Caesar commented, they combined the mobility of cavalry with the staying power of infantry. These are the virtues of mounted infantry, but it was the better part of two millennia before they became apparent again (see Chapter 7 for more information).

Caesar's second raid, 54 BC

For his next expedition to Britain, Caesar assembled no fewer than five legions and 2000 cavalrymen. Landing unopposed in the area of modern Sandwich in Kent, locals told him that the Britons had assembled to prevent him getting ashore, but had dispersed in alarm on seeing the size of his invasion fleet.

Unfortunately, Caesar’s account of subsequent operations is briefer than one would wish, given that he penetrated much deeper into Britain. He established a fortified camp and started marching inland. British horsemen and chariots emerged from the wooded countryside to harass the legions, but the Roman cavalry drove them off.

Many Britons retired into a hill fort on rising ground near Canterbury, Kent (see ‘Fighting from the Start: The Ancient Britons’, earlier in this chapter, for more on hill forts). The veteran Roman 7th Legion formed a testudo (meaning ‘tortoise’) by locking shields to provide protection, and beneath this built up a ramp of timber, earth, and brushwood against the fort’s defences. Simultaneously, a barrage of ballista (catapult) bolts, arrows, and sling shots forced the defenders to keep their heads down. Once the ramp was high enough, the legion rushed the defences and stormed the fort.

Caesar learned that one of the most powerful British kings, Cassivelaunus, had taken charge of the forces opposing him. Cassivelaunus, unwilling to engage in a pitched battle, retreated steadily but ambushed the Roman columns on every possible occasion, causing some loss. Caesar recognised that he would have to follow the Briton into his own territory, which lay north of the river Thames. We do not know the precise site where the legions forded the river. Wherever it was, the legionaries must have crossed at low tide, and even then the water came up to their necks. Cassivelaunus asked the Kentish tribes to launch an attack on Caesar’s base camp. Some did, but the Romans beat them off without difficulty.

The Roman army

The backbone of the Roman army was its legions. A legion had a nominal strength of 6000 men, although 4,800 was nearer to the real strength of most legions. Each legion had its own number, name, badge, and traditions, just like a modern regiment, and possessed a strong esprit de corps. A legion was under the command of six tribunes, who were often young sprigs of the nobility required to perform a period of military service before entering politics. The legion's internal organisation consisted of 60 centuries, each of 80 men commanded by a centurion. Two centuries made up a maniple and three maniples made up a cohort. The six centuries of the first cohort contained the legion's administrative and specialist personnel, so possessed more men than the other cohorts. The centurion commanding the 1st century of No 1 cohort was the legion's senior soldier, and generals and military tribunes regularly sought the opinions of senior centurions and were wise to respect them. On duty centurions carried a short club, serving as a badge of office and a means of enforcing discipline.

The legionary was a long-service regular soldier. He wore a reddish, knee-length tunic and a matching cloak or blanket. His leather-mounted strip armour buckled on above the tunic, around the body, and across the shoulders. Each legion wore its own type of helmet. The legionary protected his legs with greaves (rather like soccer shinpads) and carried an oblong, convex shield. His weapons included the pilum (a throwing spear that bent when it stuck in an opponent's shield, making it impossible to remove effectively), and a short, two-edged stabbing sword slung on the right of the body, called a gladius. Nothing pleased a legionary more than a barbarian enemy who slashed with his weapons, for as he raised his right arm he left his side unprotected against a very rapid Roman stab that was more often fatal than not. In peacetime the legionary trained constantly with weapons twice the weight of those he fought with, and on route marches he carried twice the weight he carried on campaign. He was, in short, the ideal professional soldier - highly trained, fit, hard, disciplined, and proud of his legion.

Other elements within the legion included a mounted detachment about 40 strong, and a ballista detachment. The mounted men were despatch riders, escorts, and prisoner guards rather than cavalry in the true sense. The ballista was a light catapult that fired bolts over a distance and provided what we now call fire support when attacking an enemy position. It was powered by twisted rope and carried in a cart.

The Roman army also contained a large number of auxiliary cohorts and cavalry units, recruited from the non-Roman peoples of the Roman Empire for their particular skills. For example, Cretan archers and slingers were recruited from the Balearic Islands. Other men were recruited among strong swimmers from Batavia, present-day Holland.

By now, the legions had reached Cassivelaunus’s stronghold, a hill fort near present-day Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, and they stormed the fort from two directions. This was too much for Cassivelaunus, who asked for peace terms. He had to hand over hostages, agree to pay an annual tribute to the Roman government, and promise not to harass other British tribes who were on good terms with Rome. Satisfied with subduing the Britons, Caesar marched his troops back to the coast and embarked for the continent.

The Roman Invasion, AD 43

It was 97 years after Caesar’s second raid that the Roman army returned to Britain. By this time, the middle of the first century AD, a number of reasons existed for wanting to add Britain to the Roman Empire. These included:

● The British Isles carried potential wealth, including valuable deposits of tin, copper, and lead.

● The southeastern corner of the island, closest to the continent, had become the powerful kingdom of the Cantiaci - and a powerful kingdom so close to the empire wasn’t a threat to ignore.

● Malcontents from the Empire found refuge in Britain and used it as a base for their own activities.

● The glory of the Emperor.

Enough was enough, the Romans decided to act.

Harvesting a landing

A general named Aulus Plautius was tasked with the invasion of AD 43. His invasion force numbered four legions with 25,000 men, plus an equal number serving in auxiliary units. They crossed the Channel in three divisions, landing at Richborough, Dover, and Lympne. The Britons did not oppose the landing, because while they had anticipated the Romans’ arrival and actually assembled to meet them, the invasion was so long delayed that the Britons dispersed to bring in the harvest. When the Romans did eventually land, the British leaders, two princes named Tugodumnus and Caratacus, sons of the late King Cunobelinus (Shakespeare’s Cymbeline), had to get everyone together again.

The three Roman divisions joined together and marched west. They found the Britons drawn up in strength on the far bank of the river Medway, close to the site of modern Rochester, in Kent. During the night, Plautius sent his Batavian swimmers (see sidebar ‘The Roman army’, earlier in this chapter) across the river, downstream of the enemy. At dawn, the startled Britons streamed out of their camp to attack, led by their chariots. A hail of javelins and arrows met them, aimed not at the men but at their horses. The attack broke down in such confusion that the campaign’s Roman historian commented, ‘not even the charioteers could save themselves’. For the rest of the day the Britons contented themselves with containing the bridgehead. That night, the 2nd Legion under the command of Flavius Vespasian (a future Emperor) crossed the river upstream, using boats and locally built rafts. When the bridgehead was secure, the legionary engineers constructed a bridge. By dawn, two legions and some auxiliary units were in the bridgehead and had formed a line of battle facing downstream, while a third was crossing the bridge, and the fourth was marching towards it. Realising that the Romans had tricked them, the Britons launched a furious attack. For a while the issue hung in the balance, but the Batavians in their rear unsettled the Britons and finally they broke. The battle had offered the Britons their best chance of defeating the invaders and that opportunity was never repeated. In addition, Tugodumnus sustained mortal wounds.

Bring on the elephants!

The Romans established a camp and in due course the Emperor Claudius joined them, bringing with him part of the 8th Legion as reinforcements and a personal escort provided by his own bodyguard, the Praetorian Guard. If all this did not impress the Britons, they must have marvelled at the elephants the emperor brought with him, probably the first ever to set foot on British soil. Claudius remained in Britain for just 16 days. Having inspected his new domain and shown its inhabitants who would be running things from then on, he departed, and the process of conquest resumed.

The legions fanned out to the west and north. Vespasian’s 2nd Legion stormed Maiden Castle near Dorchester, and in Essex other Roman troops stormed Camulodunum (Colchester). Like a rising tide, the area under Roman rule spread steadily. By AD 49 it extended as far north as Lincoln and Chester.

Caratacus, the first British hero

Caratacus (King Cunobelinus’s son) survived the defeat on the Medway and the subsequent fighting north of the Thames, but the Romans drove him from his lands. We know very little about him save that he was an implacable enemy of Rome and possessed a charismatic personality, attracting followers and enabling him to wage a sustained guerrilla war for years, mainly from the mountains of Wales. Finally, in AD 50, he made the mistake of fighting a pitched battle against the Romans rather than sticking to his successful guerrilla tactics. The site of this is uncertain, but it may have taken place somewhere on the Welsh border in Shropshire.

The Romans, now under the command of Ostorius Scapula, won a decisive victory, forcing Caratacus to seek protection with Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes, the large tribe inhabiting most of northern England. The presence of Caratacus, however, meant big trouble with the Romans that Cartimandua just didn’t need, and she handed him over. He and his family went to Rome in chains, but his dignity and courage in adversity won sincere respect. The Emperor Claudius granted Caratacus his life and freedom, although he had to spend the rest of his days in Rome. Tales of his deeds live on in Wales, as does the Welsh version of his name, Caradoc.

Setting London Ablaze: The Boudiccan Rebellion

The Druids were still active throughout Britain and were a constant source of trouble (see the earlier section ‘Caesar Seizes an Opportunity’ for why they were so troublesome). Their power base was the island of Anglesey, off the coast of North Wales, and in AD 61 the Governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus, decided to eliminate them once and for all. He marched across North Wales with the 14th and 20th Legions and auxiliary units. Lining the shore of the island was a dense armed mass, including black-robed women with dishevelled hair and flaming torches, screaming their heads off while the Druids raised their hands to heaven and called down all manner of unpleasant curses. They rained missiles on the legionaries, who found the prospect of fighting women unsettling. The centurions urged them on, shields locked, and the legions waded ashore.

The Britons put up frenzied resistance but were no match for disciplined infantry. The Romans showed no mercy to the Druids or their womenfolk. They hacked down the island’s sacred groves of trees and overturned the sacrificial altars. This broke the power of the Druids for good - but at the very moment of victory a mud-splattered messenger arrived with dreadful news. The Iceni tribe of East Anglia had risen in revolt. They were killing every Roman they found and burning every Roman settlement they came across. Unless Suetonius acted quickly, the rebellion would spread to the rest of Britain. The legions promptly recrossed the Straits and set out for East Anglia.

Boudicca led the Iceni revolt. Her problems began when her husband, the king of the Iceni, died; the Romans flogged her for protesting at their highhanded methods of government. To ram home the message that she was no longer in charge, they also raped her daughters and deprived local chiefs of their hereditary lands. Boudicca, a tall woman of fierce expression and hair that flowed to her waist, became the immediate focus of a violent rebellion.

The rebels (Boudicca’s Iceni tribe and the neighbouring Trinovantes) marched south towards the prosperous settlement of Colchester, which was virtually defenceless. A 2000-strong detachment from the 9th Legion, based at Lincoln, tried to deal with the situation, but the Iceni ambushed them and wiped them out. The rebels burned Colchester to the ground and slaughtered its inhabitants. The newly established port and business centre, London, suffered the same fate, as did the smaller settlement of Verulamium (St Albans). It began to look as though Boudicca was unstoppable.

In the meantime, Suetonius had been marching rapidly south along the line of the present A5 trunk road. He picked up such reinforcements as he could along the way and was kept informed as to Boudicca’s whereabouts and movements. By now, she was moving northwest and the two armies met somewhere in the Midlands. Just where, no one is quite sure, although the Roman historian Tacitus tells us that Suetonius chose a position in a defile with a wood behind him. Defile could mean the space between two rivers or two hills, but it was probably the former as this would prevent Boudicca’s much larger army working round the Roman flanks.

When the Britons swarmed to the attack, the legions adopted wedge formations, compressing the Britons so tightly that their superior numbers were wasted and many were unable to use their weapons. A fearful slaughter ensued. One source claims that as many as 80,000 Britons were killed, but this is almost certainly a wild exaggeration. Roman losses included 400 killed and twice that number wounded. Rather than suffer further humiliation or capture, Boudicca and her daughters took poison. The Romans had decisively crushed the rebellion, but the British had their first heroine and the Romans had learned a painful lesson.

Policing Roman Britain

The Romans had come to stay. They covered Britain with a network of paved roads that ran straight for mile after mile, up hill and down dale. Most can be traced to this day and some form the foundation of modern trunk roads. The Romans dotted the countryside with small forts and built great legionary fortresses such as Lincoln, Caerleon, Chester, and York that are still important towns and cities. Indeed, any modern place name that includes the element -Chester, -caster, or -cester indicates the site of a Roman camp or fortification. This network helped to keep the Britons peaceful.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Romans; in total, the conquest of Britain took 41 years:

● In AD 74-77 Petilius Cerealis, one of Emperor Vespasian’s ablest generals, conquered the troublesome Silures in South Wales and the Brigantes in northern England.

● In AD 77 Gnaeus Julius Agricola succeeded Cerealis and during a series of campaigns, some of which the Roman fleet supported, advanced north into Scotland (then known as Caledonia). The decisive battle was in AD 83 at Mons Graupius, probably some miles northwest of Aberdeen, which resulted in a shattering defeat for an alliance of Caledonian tribes.

The most enduring reminder of the Roman presence in Britain is Hadrian’s Wall, stretching coast to coast for 73 miles from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend-on-Tyne. Work on the wall commenced under Emperor Hadrian in AD 122. Its construction took advantage of every cliff, crag, and steep hill on its course, but where necessary a ditch fronted it. A milecastle, providing accommodation for 30 men, was situated every Roman mile along the wall’s length, and equally spaced between the milecastles were two turrets. These posts provided a complete signals system. Large fortified camps such as Housesteads and Chesters were later established close behind the wall. The wall was originally intended as a police and customs line, but it was capable of acting as a springboard for vigorous counter-offensives to the north. It was overwhelmed by the northern tribes in AD 197, 296, and 367, and extensive repairs were required after each re-occupation. The Wall was finally abandoned when the Romans left Britain but its most dramatic sections, including much of the fort at Housesteads, still exist.

The mystery of Legio IX Hispana

In AD 117 the 9th Legion marched north from its base at York to deal with a tribal uprising in Caledonia. After that date it vanishes altogether from the Roman army's records. Some 1,800 years later, archaeologists digging at the Roman city of Silchester in Berkshire discovered its Eagle, with its wings stripped off. Was the legion massacred somewhere in Scotland? And, if so, how was its Eagle saved and carried into southern England? If the Legion was destroyed, why have later tiles bearing its stamp turned up in Nijmegen? And what about later funerary altars erected in memory of members of the Legion? Do these fragments prove its continued existence after AD 117?

Rosemary Sutcliff provides one answer in her fiction book The Eagle of the Ninth. In her story the Legion has become badly disciplined and is massacred. On learning that its Eagle is now housed in a barbarian temple, the hero sets out to recover it, which he succeeds in doing after many adventures.

What is certain is that the 6th Legion was shipped over from the continent to garrison York. This happened shortly after the 9th marched north and suggests that some sort of disaster occurred for the 6th to be drafted in. Some of the 9th may have survived whatever took place, as someone took steps to preserve the Eagle - the very symbol of the Legion's honour - in its final resting place in Silchester. Alternatives to massacre are mutiny provoked by bad leadership and flight in the face of the enemy. The punishment for mutiny and cowardice was decimation of the Legion, disbandment, dispersion, removal from the army's list, and withdrawal of the Eagle. In this case the stripping of the Eagle's wings looks like an intentional slight, similar to the ceremonial breaking of a disgraced officer's sword.

If this happened, the 9th's survivors were dispersed to other units. Those sent to Nijmegen, probably from the Legion's rear party in York, may have defiantly continued to use the tile stamp to emphasise their own innocence in the affair. That's the best solution I can come up with, and if you can think of a better one I'd like to hear it!

By advancing further into Scotland, the Romans established a shorter frontier than Hadrian’s Wall (requiring fewer troops to man it) between the Firths of Clyde and Forth. They started this in AD 139, and also constructed a comparable but less durable defence line known as the Antonine Wall. The area between the two walls was known as the province of Valentia. The problem was that not only were the inhabitants far from friendly, the uplands produced less revenue than required to administer the province, and the garrison of the new wall was difficult to supply. In AD 158 Hadrian’s Wall became the frontier again, and the Antonine Wall was abandoned.

The Legions Depart

Following the disappearance of the 9th Legion (see the sidebar, ‘The mystery of Legio IX Hispana’) the permanent garrison of Britain was set at three legions at Caerleon, York, and Chester, plus a large number of auxiliary units, making it the largest in the Roman Empire. The only other province to boast three legions was Judea, a noted trouble spot. We can be sure that if Britain had not paid its way, the Romans would have abandoned it. In fact, the military governorship of the province was regarded as one of the Roman army’s plum jobs.

As the generations passed and the benefits of living within the empire became apparent, the Roman army was seen less as an army of occupation, and simply as an army. Eventually, Britons were permitted to enlist, and some British auxiliary units went to serve in other parts of the Empire.

Latterly, the Roman Empire outgrew its ability to defend itself, as empires do. In Britain, pressure from sea-borne raiders from across the North Sea added to pressure from the Caledonian tribes (there’s more on those pesky North Sea raiders in Chapter 3). An officer entitled the Count of Saxon Shore became responsible for the defence of the east coast and built a chain of forts and signal stations for the purpose (a fine example of a Roman coastal fort exists at Portchester on the south coast, incorporating a medieval castle that was subsequently built within the defences).

Towards the end of the Roman period, mobility to counter raiders became important, and cavalry replaced infantry as the most important part of the Roman army.

In the end barbarian pressure on the empire’s European frontiers became too much to withstand. In AD 407, Emperor Constantine III began withdrawing troops from Britain. Within a couple of years, the last of them had gone and Roman Britain was no more.