One afternoon earlier this summer, in a Somerset meadow, David Crisp stumbled upon 52,000 Romano-British coins, the second-largest such hoard of its kind ever unearthed - and presently on exhibit in the British Museum. Almost 800 of these were minted during the reign of Carausius, which lasted from around AD286 until AD293, the first ruler since the conquest in AD43 to govern Britain without the authority of Rome - and a much-overlooked historical figure. As Roger Bland, the museum's head of portable antiquities, says, "This find presents us with the opportunity to put Carausius on the map. Schoolchildren across the country have been studying Roman Britain for decades, but have never been taught about Carausius - our lost emperor." For nigh on 10 years prior to its recapture, Britain enjoyed the best of both worlds as a unified and isolationist nation-state that could still claim affinity with the greater dominion of Rome across the Straits of Dover. Indeed, some of the coins that activated Crisp's metal detector are embossed with the motif "AUGGG" (the three 'g's denoting three augusti, or Roman emperors), stressing that Carausius was on equal terms with the other two emperors - one in Constantinople, one in Rome itself - of an increasingly more fragmented federation, riven with incessant warfare.
One afternoon earlier this summer, in a Somerset meadow, David Crisp stumbled upon 52,000 Romano-British coins, the second-largest such hoard of its kind ever unearthed - and presently on exhibit in the British Museum. Almost 800 of these were minted during the reign of Carausius, which lasted from around AD286 until AD293, the first ruler since the conquest in AD43 to govern Britain without the authority of Rome - and a much-overlooked historical figure. As Roger Bland, the museum's head of portable antiquities, says, "This find presents us with the opportunity to put Carausius on the map. Schoolchildren across the country have been studying Roman Britain for decades, but have never been taught about Carausius - our lost emperor."
For nigh on 10 years prior to its recapture, Britain enjoyed the best of both worlds as a unified and isolationist nation-state that could still claim affinity with the greater dominion of Rome across the Straits of Dover. Indeed, some of the coins that activated Crisp's metal detector are embossed with the motif "AUGGG" (the three 'g's denoting three augusti, or Roman emperors), stressing that Carausius was on equal terms with the other two emperors - one in Constantinople, one in Rome itself - of an increasingly more fragmented federation, riven with incessant warfare.
prior to its recapture, Britain enjoyed the best of both worlds as a unified and isolationist nation-state that could still claim affinity with the greater dominion of Rome across the Straits of Dover
Sounds familiar...
By the way, I remind you that civilisation was brought to Great Britain by a man from Lyon... "Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
They also seemed to have learned a valuable lesson; when Severus went north of Hadrians wall on a punitive mission they declined to meet him in open battle. Instead they attacked his foraging crews and supply trains, eventually starving him back south. A tactic that appears to work just as well nowadays. keep to the Fen Causeway
Carausius - Wikipedia
Coinage is the main source of information about the rogue emperor; his issues were initially crude but soon became more elaborate and were issued from mints in Londinium, Rotomagus and a third site, possibly Colonia Claudia Victricensis.
Rotomagus is today's Rouen, France.
I also note that just a few decades prior, 260-274, there was another three-way split, during which time Britain was part of the Gallic Empire... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
