The Great Conspiracy was a year-long state of war and disorder that occurred near the end of Roman Britain. Fourth-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus describes it as a barbarica conspiratio ('barbarian conspiracy') which took advantage of a depleted military force in the province; many soldiers had marched with Magnentius in his unsuccessful bid to become emperor. Few returned, and supply, pay, and discipline in the following years may have been deficient.
The precise chronology of events remains unclear. Ammianus, although being the author of the most comprehensive and widely-cited surviving sources on the Conspiracy, was living in Antioch during the time that it took place. His account is thus likely to be derived from other sources and exhibits inconsistencies with other known documentation.
Conspiracy
According to Ammianus, the following events occurred: In the winter of 367, the Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall rebelled and allowed
Picts from
Caledonia to enter
Roman Britain. Simultaneously,
Attacotti (of uncertain origin),
Scoti from
Hibernia, and
Saxons from
Germania landed in what might have been coordinated and pre-arranged waves on the island's mid-western and south-eastern borders. The war bands managed to overwhelm nearly all of the loyal Roman outposts and settlements. The entire western and northern areas of Britannia were overwhelmed; the cities sacked; and the civilian
Romano-British murdered, raped, or enslaved.
Franks and Saxons also landed in northern
Gaul.
Nectaridus, the comes maritime tractus ('count of the coastal region'), was killed, and a dux, Fullofaudes, was either besieged or captured. The locations of their defeats are often supposed to have been in Britain but may have been in Gaul. The remaining loyal army units stayed garrisoned inside southeastern cities.[ Based largely on a specific print edition: The original title of Ammianus's work is Res Gestae.]
The Areani]], the local Roman agents who provided intelligence on barbarian movements, seem to have betrayed their paymasters for bribes which made the attacks completely unexpected. Deserting soldiers and escaped slaves roamed the countryside and turned to robbery to support themselves. Although the chaos was widespread and initially concerted, the rebels had aims simply of personal enrichment and worked as small bands rather than larger armies.
Roman response
Early attempts
Emperor
Valentinian I was campaigning against the
Alamanni at the time and so was unable to respond personally. A series of commanders to act in his stead were chosen but swiftly recalled. The first was Severus, the emperor's comes domesticorum, who was recalled and replaced by Jovinus, the
magister equitum.
Jovinus then wrote back to Valentinian requesting reinforcements. The emperor recalled Jovinus, probably to take part in a campaign along the
Rhine, which was a higher priority, and then sent out
Count Theodosius. It has been supposed that Severus and Jovinus travelled to Britain to make their findings and back to the emperor to report, but Ammianus does not state this, and the known chronology of Valentinian's movements at the time (recorded by edicts in the Codex Theodosianus) would make it difficult for them to do so before the summer was over. They may only have traveled to areas that barbarians had attacked in northern Gaul.
Arrival of Theodosius
In the spring of 368, a relief force commanded by Theodosius gathered at Bononia (
Boulogne-sur-Mer). It included four units, Batavi, Heruli, Iovii, and Victores, as well as his son, the later Emperor
Theodosius I, and probably the later
Roman usurper Magnus Maximus, his nephew. Theodosius took advantage of a break in the winter weather to cross the
English Channel to Richborough, which left the rest of his troops at Bononia to await better weather. That enabled Theodosius to gather vital intelligence. He discovered that the Roman troops had been overwhelmed, refused to fight, or deserted, and many may not have been paid. Once the troops had landed, Theodosius marched with them to
Londinium, which he made his base. There he began to deal with the invaders:
An amnesty was promised to deserters, which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis granted vicarius status to head a new civilian administration.
Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. The poet Claudian suggests that naval activity took place in northern Britain. It is possible that Theodosius mounted punitive expeditions against the barbarians and imposed terms upon them. Certainly, the Notitia Dignitatum later records four units of Attacotti serving Rome on the continent. The areani were removed from duty and the frontiers refortified with co-operation from border tribes such as the Votadini, which marked the career of men such as Padarn Beisrudd.
Political effects
Theodosius returned to Rome a hero and was made senior military advisor to Valentinian to replace Jovinus. A decade later, his son became emperor.
The Romans had ended much of the chaos, but raids by all of the peoples listed above continued.
Fictional references
Fictional accounts of the Great Conspiracy are featured in
Wallace Breem's historical novel
Eagle in the Snow,
Peter Vansittart's historical novel
Three Six Seven: Memoirs of a Very Important Man, Stephen R. Lawhead's fantasy novel
Taliesin, M. J. Trow's
Britannia series, Jack Whyte's fantasy-historical novel
The Skystone, and
Mark Chadbourn's novel
Pendragon, written under the pen-name James Wilde. Francis Hagan uses the Great Conspiracy as the backdrop for his trilogy of books in the Sabinus Chronicles (
The Unquiet Shore,
The Reaping of the Sea, and
The Vengeful Tide). In the novels, a former tribune, Sabinus, brings Roman and barbarian forces together to save Rome from itself.
Notes
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