"... [Gratian] aroused the hatred of the troops against himself when he neglected the army and preferred to the venerable Roman soldier a few from the Alans whom he had arrogated to himself by an immense payment of gold, and with the retinue of barbarians he had almost even begun to have friendship ..."

"Peeved because Theodosius was considered worthy of the throne while he himself had not been promoted even to an honorific office, Maximus further roused the soldiers to hatred against the Emperor. They for their part were quick to rebel and proclaim Maximus Emperor."

"Andragathius obtained possession of the imperial chariot, and sent word to the emperor that his consort was traveling towards his camp. Gratian, who was but recently married and youthful, as well as passionately attached to his wife, hastened incautiously across the river, and in his anxiety to meet her fell without forethought into the hands of Andragathius; he was seized, and, in a little while, put to death. He was in the twenty-fourth year of his age, and had reigned fifteen years."

"... Maximus maintained that he had not of his own accord assumed the sovereignty, but that he had simply defended by arms the necessary requirements of the empire, regard to which had been imposed upon him by the soldiers, according to the Divine appointment, and that the favour of God did not seem wanting to him who, by an event seemingly so incredible, had secured the victory, adding to that the statement that none of his adversaries had been slain except in the open field of battle ..."

"The pretext which he [Maximus] advanced for this measure was, that he desired to prevent the introduction of innovations in the ancient form of religion and of ecclesiastical order; but he was in reality actuated by the desire of dispelling any suspicion that might have been excited as to his aspirations after tyranny. He was watching and intriguing for the imperial rule in such a way that it might appear as if he had acquired the Roman government by law, and not by force."

"As the emperor marched against the usurper the intelligence of the formidable preparations made by him so alarmed the troops under Maximus, that instead of fighting for him, they delivered him bound to the emperor, who caused him to be put to death ..."

"... at Aquileia he [Theodosius] killed Maximus the tyrant ... and executed his son Victor, who had been made Augustus while still an infant."

"At length also, new races of tyrants sprang up, in terrific numbers, and the island, still bearing its Roman name, but casting off her institutes and laws, sent forth among the Gauls that bitter scion of her own planting Maximus, with a great number of followers, and the ensigns of royalty, which he bore without decency and without lawful right, but in a tyrannical manner, and amid the disturbances of the seditious soldiery. He, by cunning arts rather than by valour, attaching to his rule, by perjury and false hood, all the neighbouring towns and provinces, against the Roman state, extended one of his wings to Spain, the other to Italy, fixed the seat of his unholy government at Treves, and so furiously pushed his rebellion against his lawful emperors that he drove one of them out of Rome, and caused the other to terminate his holy life. Trusting to these successful attempts, he not long after lost his accursed head before the walls of Aquileia, whereas he had before cut off the crowned heads of almost all the world."

"Whatever in this my epistle I may write in my humble but well-meaning manner, rather by way of lamentation than for display, let no one suppose that it springs from contempt of others, or that I foolishly esteem myself as better than they; for, alas! the subject of my complaint is the general destruction of every thing that is good, and the general growth of evil throughout the land; but that I would condole with my country in her distress and rejoice to see her revive therefrom: for it is my present purpose to relate the deeds of an indolent and slothful race, rather than the exploits of those who have been valiant in the field."

"He [Maximus] withdrew from Britain with all his military force, slew Gratian, the king of the Romans, and obtained the sovereignty of all Europe. Unwilling to send back his warlike companions to their wives, children and possessions in Britain, he conferred upon them numerous districts from the lake on the summit of Mons Jovis, to the city called Cant Guic, and to the western Tumulus, that is, to Cruc Occident. These are the Armoric Britons, and they remain there to the present day..."

"After this, Britain is left deprived of all her soldiery and armed bands, of her cruel governors, and of the flower of her youth, who went with Maximus, but never again returned; and utterly ignorant as she was of the art of war, groaned in amazement for many years under the cruelty of two foreign nations-the Scots from the north-west, and the Picts from the north."

"We call these foreign nations, not on account of their being seated out of Britain, but because they were remote from that part of it which was possessed by the Britons; two inlets of the sea lying between them, one of which runs in far and broad into the land of Britain, from the Eastern Ocean, and the other from the Western, though they do not reach so as touch one another. The eastern has in the midst of it the city Giudi [Stirling]. The western has on it, that is, on the right hand thereof, the city Alcluith [Dumbarton], which in their language signifies the Rock Cluith, for it is close by the river of that name."

"The Britons, impatient at the assaults of the Scots and Picts, their hostilities and dreadful oppressions, send ambassadors to Rome with letters, entreating in piteous terms the assistance of an armed band to protect them, and offering loyal and ready submission to the authority of Rome, if they only would expel their invading foes. A legion is immediately sent, forgetting their past rebellion, and provided sufficiently with arms. When they had crossed over the sea and landed, they came at once to close conflict with their cruel enemies, and slew great numbers of them. All of them were driven beyond the borders, and the humiliated natives rescued from the bloody slavery which awaited them. By the advice of their protectors, they now built a wall ..."

"With the Saxons subjugated the sea is now more peaceful, with the Picts broken Britain is secure."

"The Roman legion had no sooner returned home in joy and triumph, than their former foes, like hungry and ravening wolves, rushing with greedy jaws upon the fold which is left without a shepherd, and wafted both by the strength of oarsmen and the blowing wind, break through the boundaries, and spread slaughter on every side, and like mowers cutting down the ripe corn, they cut up, tread under foot, and overrun the whole country. And now again they send suppliant ambassadors, with their garments rent and their heads covered with ashes, imploring assistance from the Romans, and like timorous chickens, crowding under the protecting wings of their parents, that their wretched country might not altogether be destroyed, and that the Roman name, which now was but an empty sound to fill the ear, might not become a reproach even to distant nations. Upon this, the Romans, moved with compassion, as far as human nature can be, at the relations of such horrors, send forward, like eagles in their flight, their unexpected bands of cavalry by land and mariners by sea, and planting their terrible swords upon the shoulders of their enemies, they mow them down like leaves which fall at the destined period; and as a mountain-torrent swelled with numerous streams, and bursting its banks with roaring noise, with foaming crest and yeasty wave rising to the stars, by whose eddying currents our eyes are as it were dazzled, does with one of its billows overwhelm every obstacle in its way, so did our illustrious defenders vigorously drive our enemies' band beyond the sea, if any could so escape them; for it was beyond those same seas that they transported, year after year, the plunder which they had gained, no one daring to resist them."

"Next spoke Britannia, dressed in the skin of some Caledonian beast, her cheeks tattooed, her sea-blue mantle sweeping over her footsteps like the surge of Ocean: "I too, when on the point of death at the hands of neighbouring tribes, found in Stilicho protection, when the Scots roused all Ireland and the sea foamed beneath hostile oars. His care ensured I need not fear the missiles of the Scots, nor tremble at the Picts, nor watch on all my shores for Saxons to arrive with every shifting wind.""

"The Romans, therefore, left the country, giving notice that they could no longer be harassed by such labourious expeditions, nor suffer the Roman standards, with so large and brave an army, to be worn out by sea and land by fighting against these unwarlike, plundering vagabonds; but that the islanders, inuring themselves to warlike weapons, and bravely fighting, should valiantly protect their country, their property, wives and children, and, what is dearer than these, their liberty and lives; that they should not suffer their hands to be tied behind their backs by a nation which, unless they were enervated by idleness and sloth, was not more powerful than themselves, but that they should arm those hands with buckler, sword, and spear, ready for the field of battle; and, because they thought this also of advantage to the people they were about to leave, they, with the help of the miserable natives, built a wall different from the former ... They then give energetic counsel to the timorous native, and leave them patterns by which to manufacture arms Moreover, on the south coast where their vessels lay, as there was some apprehension lest the barbarians might land, they erected towers at stated intervals, commanding a prospect of the sea; and then left the island never to return."

"There also came the legion set to guard the furthest Britons, the legion that curbs the savage Scot and scans the lifeless patterns tattooed on dying Picts."

"... when the consuls were Arcadius for the sixth time and Probus[406], the Vandals had joined forces with the Suebi and the Alans, overrun the trans-Alpine regions and destroyed the peoples. Having wrought much slaughter, they became formidable even to the armies in Britain, which, being afraid they might march against Britain, they drove to the point of choosing tyrants ..."

"... they proclaimed Marcus as tyrant. Afterwards, however, they slew Marcus, and proclaimed Gratian. Within four months subsequently they killed Gratian, and elected Constantine in his place, imagining that, on account of his name, he would be able to reduce the empire firmly under his authority ... Constantine passed over from Britain to Bononia [Boulogne], a maritime city of Gaul; and after inducing all the troops in Gaul and Aquitania to espouse his cause, he reduced to obedience the inhabitants of the regions extending to the mountains which divide Italy from Gaul, and which the Romans have named the Cottian Alps."

"Constantine now appointed Ediovinchus, a Frank, and Gerontius, a Briton, as his new generals, men for whose military experience and courage Sarus had respect... Constantine's generals ran out after him [Sarus] with all their might and main, and it was only with great difficulty that he escaped... Constantine was establishing garrisons in the Alpine regions, so that they [the legitimate Roman forces] might not have free access into Gaul. He also was setting safeguards along the Rhine, which had been neglected since the reign of the Emperor Julian... he despatched to Spain the elder of his two sons, Constans, having decked him out in the dress of a Caesar. For he wanted to bring all the Spanish nations under his sway so as both to extend his rule and to wipe out the dynasty of Honorius' kinsmen there. Indeed, he was growing fearful lest these latter might some day collect a force of soldiers there, cross the Pyrenees and attack him while the Emperor Honorius simultaneously might dispatch his armies from Italy, encircle him on all sides, and remove him from his tyranny."

"... returned to his father Constantine, bringing with him Verenianus and Didymus [relations of Honorius]. He had left behind the general Gerontius together with his Gallic soldiers to guard the road between France and Spain ..."

"... a report having been spread that he had conspired against the emperor, and had formed a scheme, in conjunction with those in power, to raise his son to the throne ... Stilicho himself was slain by the soldiers at Ravenna. He had attained almost absolute power; and all men, so to speak, whether Romans or barbarians, were under his control. Thus perished Stilicho, on a suspicion of having conspired against the emperors. Eucherius, his son, was also slain."

"... the usurper Constantine sent eunuchs to Honorius begging pardon for deigning to assume the rank of emperor. He alleged that he had not purposely chosen to do so, but that it was a result of the constraints brought to bear on him by the soldiers. Upon hearing this request and seeing that it was not easy for him to contemplate other wars, with Alaric's barbarians not far away and also his kinsmen being held by the usurper, Honorius gave in to the request and sent Constantine the imperial apparel. Honorius' concern for his kinsmen was in fact futile since they had been put to death prior to this embassy."

"Constans was again despatched to Spain by his father and took with him the general Justus. Gerontius became angry at this ..."

"... Constantine, who still thought that matters would go according to his purpose, caused his son to be proclaimed emperor instead of Caesar, and determined to possess himself of Italy. With this view, he crossed the Cottian Alps ... He was on the point of crossing the Po, when he was compelled to retrace his steps, upon being informed of the death of Alavicus. This Alavicus was the commander of the troops of Honorius, and being suspected of conspiring to place the entire Western government under the domination of Constantine, he was slain when returning from a procession, in which, according to custom, it was his office to march in advance of the emperor. Immediately after this occurrence, the emperor descended from horseback, and publicly returned thanks to God for having delivered him from one who had openly conspired against him. Constantine fled and seized Arles ... On the decline of the power of Constantine, the Vandals, Suebi, and Alans eagerly took the Pyrenees when they heard that it was a prosperous and most abundant region. And since those who had been entrusted by Constans with the guard of the passage had neglected their duty, the invaders passed by into Spain. Meanwhile Gerontius, from being the most efficient of the generals of Constantine, became his enemy; and believing that Maximus, his intimate friend, was well qualified for the tyranny, he invested him with the imperial robe ..."

"The barbarians above the Rhine, attacking in force, reduced the inhabitants of Britain and some parts of Gaul to such straits that they were obliged to throw off Roman rule, and live their own lives, no longer subject to Roman laws."

"Britain was devastated by an incursion of the Saxons. The Vandals and Alans wasted parts of Gaul ..."

"Accordingly the Britons took up arms and, with no consideration of the danger to themselves, freed their own cities from barbarian threat; likewise all of Armorica and other Gallic provinces followed the Britons' lead: they freed themselves, ejected the Roman magistrates, and set up home rule at their own discretion... the defection of Britain and Gaul occurred during Constantine's tyranny because the barbarians took advantage of his careless government."

"... Alaric attacked all the cities of Aemilia that had refused to accept promptly Attalus' rule. He brought over with no trouble at all every one of them except Bononia [Bologna], which he besieged for several days but could not capture as it held firm. He then proceeded to the Ligurians and compelled them to recognise Attalus as Emperor. Honorius, however, wrote letters to the cities of Britain, urging them to fend for themselves."

"As soon as Constantine heard of the usurpation of Maximus, he sent one of his generals, named Ediovinchus, beyond the Rhine, to levy an army of Franks and Alamanni; and he sent his son Constans to guard Vienne and the neighbouring towns."

"... and took care to put Constans, the son of Constantine, to death at Vienne... Gerontius then advanced upon Arles and laid siege to it ..."

"... when the army of Honorius had come to hand against the tyrant ... Gerontius retreated precipitately with a few soldiers; for the greater number of his troops deserted to the army of Constantius. The Spanish soldiery conceived an utter contempt for Gerontius, on account of his retreat, and took counsel how to slay him. They, gathered in close ranks and attacked his house at night; but he, with one Alanus, his friend, and a few servants, ascended to the top of the house, and did such execution with their arrows that no less than three hundred of the soldiers fell. When the stock of arrows was exhausted, the servants made their escape by letting themselves down secretly from the building; and Gerontius, although he might have been saved in a similar fashion, did not choose to do so, because he was restrained by his affection for Nonnichia, his wife. At daybreak of the next day, the soldiers cast fire into the house; when he saw that there was no hope of safety left, he cut off the head of his companion, Alanus, in compliance with his wish. After this, his own wife was lamenting, and with tears was pressing herself with the sword, pleading to die by the hand of her husband before she should be subjected to others, and was supplicating for this last gift from him. And this woman by her courage showed herself worthy of her religion, for she was a Christian, and she died thus mercifully; she handed down to time a record of herself, too strong for oblivion. Gerontius then struck himself thrice with his sword; but perceiving that he had not received a mortal wound, he drew forth his poniard, which he wore at his side, and plunged it into his heart."

"When Constantine heard of the death of Ediovinchus he cast aside his purple robe and imperial ornaments, and repaired to the church, where he caused himself to be ordained as presbyter. Those within the walls, having first received oaths, opened the gates, and their lives were spared. From that period the whole province returned to its allegiance to Honorius, and has since been obedient to the rulers of his appointment. Constantine, with his son Julian, was sent into Italy, but he was waylaid and killed... Not long afterwards ... Maximus ... and many others who had conspired against Honorius, were unexpectedly slain... After Constantius, who was a brave and able general, had destroyed the tyrant Constantine, the emperor rewarded him by giving him his sister in marriage; he also bestowed upon him the ermine and purple, and admitted him to a share in the government."

"No sooner were they [the Romans] gone, than the Picts and Scots, like worms which in the heat of mid-day come forth from their holes, hastily land again from their canoes, in which they had been carried beyond the tithicam vallem, differing one from another in manners, but inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all more eager to shroud their villainous faces in bushy hair than to cover with decent clothing those parts of their body which required it. Moreover, having heard of the departure of our friends, and their resolution never to return, they seized with greater boldness than before on all the country towards the extreme north as far as the wall. To oppose them there was placed on the heights a garrison equally slow to fight and ill adapted to run away, a useless and panic-struck company, who clambered away days and nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were dragged from the wall and dashed against the ground. Such premature death, however, painful as it was, saved them from seeing the miserable sufferings of their brothers and children. But why should I say more? they left their cities, abandoned the protection of the wall and dispersed themselves in flight more desperately than before. The enemy, on the other hand, pursued them with more unrelenting cruelty than before, and butchered our countrymen like sheep, so that their habitations were like those of savage beasts; for they turned their arms upon each other, and for the sake of a little sustenance, imbrued their hands in the blood of their fellow countrymen. Thus foreign calamities were augmented by domestic feuds; so that the whole country was entirely destitute of provisions, save such as could be procured in the chase."

"... it now seems that Roman culture was disintegrating in Britain from the early 200s and had almost completely gone by the end of the 4th century. This gradual but inexorable collapse affected towns, villas and villages. Nothing was exempt. The imperial project, the bringing of civilised life to barbarian lands, started with enthusiasm but ended - and ended early - amid piles of refuse and squalor, with abandoned farms and villages, country houses turned into barns and workshops, and towns heavily fortified by an embattled class of state officials desperate to cling on to power."

"... ranging from Wroxeter to Canterbury and from Exeter to Lincoln. A clear pattern emerged. Most civic buildings were erected in about AD75-150, most private town-houses in about AD150-225, and urban occupation (measured by rooms in use) reached peak levels in the early 3rd century. Civic construction work then collapsed as resources were diverted into building town walls in the mid to late 3rd century. There was a partial recovery in the early 4th - the so-called 'Constantian renaissance' - but it was a temporary blip, and, from around AD325, Romano-British towns faced terminal decline. Few new buildings were erected, many old ones were abandoned, and by about AD400 there was little left in most places but a wasteland of ruins and rubbish... What the archaeology as a whole shows is near-total collapse of the Roman settlement pattern - not just the disappearance of towns, but of villas too, and indeed many native villages and farmsteads. Two further recent surveys add weight to this view - one by Jack Newman of 78 villas randomly selected from published reports, another by Katie Meheux from the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) of 162 possible villa sites in the Severn Valley/Welsh Marches region... One favoured explanation for urban decline is that the Romano-British gentry 'retreated to the countryside' to escape the burdens of public service in towns, and there, from the late 3rd century onwards, invested heavily in the embellishment of their country seats... In fact, the boom in the villa economy seems to have ended early in that century. Newman's survey showed that between AD300 (the peak) and AD350 the amount of new building-work undertaken on villas fell by almost two thirds. Both his survey and that of Meheux revealed that a majority of villas had been abandoned by about AD375 and virtually all by about AD400. The odd exception - like Whitley Grange in Shropshire - cannot alter the general picture. Much more typical were sites like Gorhambury in Hertfordshire, where the grand house was a ruin and had been incorporated into the farmyard by the mid-4th century, and Thurnham in Kent, where one of the central rooms was being used as an iron smithy at an even earlier date. Native villages and farmsteads fared somewhat better, but many were still deserted or contracted sharply in the 4th century. Katie Meheux surveyed 317 native rural sites in the Severn Valley/Welsh Marches region and discovered a fall of 27 per cent in the number occupied between AD100-150 and AD350-400. My own more modest survey of 177 rural sites excavated in 1969-96 (as listed in the Roman archaeology journal Britannia) showed a fall of 35 per cent for the same period."

"Without doubt, the fate of Roman Britain was tied to events and processes elsewhere in the Roman Empire. However, concentration on archaeological evidence, the economy, and the wider imperial context does not explain satisfactorily why the ending of Roman rule and culture in Britain was so early, so rapid, so complete - and so unlike the experience of the rest of the western empire. Careful attention must also be paid to distinctively Romano-British factors. Archaeological evidence alone can never answer a number of vital questions - the attitudes of the Britons toward Roman rule, for example."

"Successful Romanisation would have created an identification with Rome, so that British provincials did not think consciously of 'we' and 'you'. Romanisation is often thought to have spread in a lower key beyond the élite into the lower classes. However, a more novel reading of the Late Roman and early medieval literary evidence suggests that Romanisation in Britain had in fact failed in several vital respects. Although the Romans are generally thought to have been largely free of regional and ethnic prejudice, a distinctly and consistently hostile attitude toward the Britons is detectable in Late Roman literature... Britain was regarded as a spawning ground for usurpers... In a crucial passage written at the beginning of the 6th century, the historian Zosimus described the final revolt and recorded that the Britons had thrown off Roman rule, expelled their Roman governors, and set up their own administration. Thereafter, the Britons lived independently 'without submission to Roman laws'. Zosimus is not the most reliable of Roman historians, and the implications of his account are much debated. In an important sense, however, Roman Britain ended when the Britons no longer regarded themselves as Romans. According to Zosimus, this had happened by the close of the first decade of the 5th century."