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Roman Time Line

Pre-Rome	The original British population was supplanted by the English conqueror, it may be taken for
	certain that the political and social history of England begins with the advent of the Low
	German tribes in the 5th century A.D.
44 B.C	Julius Caesar
55 - 54 B.C.	Caesar knew much about the Britain he intended to invade and the curios habit of the Celts
	dyeing their bodies blue with woad, and the aura that surrounded the land they called Isola Sacra ( Sacred Isle ) but it was not only the Celts who would oppose him, there would have been many who had fled to Britain from the earlier confrontation in Gaul .
49 B.C.	Caesar defeats Pompey
27 B.C. - 14 A.D.	Augustus
34 - 26	Expeditions of Augustus
14 - 37 A.D.	Tiberius
37 - 41	Caligula
c. 41-54	Claudius
43 A. D.	The Claudian conquest of south and east, the surrender took place in the late summer at
	Colchester with the Emperor ariving on an Elephant .
47 A.D.	The Fosse Way one of the principal Roman Roads it stetched from Licoln to Devon via Bath
	Cirencester and Leicestera part of a network of roads covering a distance of 7,500miles
c.50	Foundation of London
51	Welsh tribes defeated and capture of Caratacus
c.54 - 68	Nero
60 A.D.	The Druids were massacred by the Romans at Anglesey The Britons still struggled on in North
	Wales until Suetonius Paulinus drove them backwards into Mona (Anglesea), and in a great battle completely overthrew them. As the Druids had done their best to inflame the Britons against the invaders, they were all slaughtered, and their altars and sacred groves destroyed. The full fruits of this victory could not, however, be gathered, as during the absence of the legions a formidable revolt had broken out in the east.
61	Revolt of Queen Boudica of the Iceni in East Anglia
	Boadicea, the deposed queen of the Iceni, had been flogged; this roused the indignation of her former subjects, who having had their lands taken from them, and being made to pay heavy taxes, were only too glad of the chance of rising against their oppressors. Rebellion spread fast; Colchester, London, and St. Albans were sacked and burned; all the Roman officials were massacred; the ninth legion was cut to pieces. Suetonius Paulinus hurried back, only just in time. Once again the Roman discipline proved too strong for the Britons to contend against; the rebels were defeated, and Boadicea, seeing that all was lost, poisoned herself. She had, however, brought the Roman power in Britain to the very verge of ruin.
68 - 69	the Four Flavian Emperors
	Galba
69	Otho
	Vitellius
69 - 79	Vespasian - was at one time a general of Britain
74 A.D.	The Second Legion Adiutrix buid the fortress of earth and wood ( 60 acres in size ) at Chester
	Gnaius Julius Agricola .Julius Agricola as governor passed from the stage of conquest to the stage
	of settlement. Not that Agricola had not some stern fighting to do, once again they went to Anglesea, his light-armed men swimming the straits to reach the enemy. Haying struck down Wales, he marched north and over threw the Caledonians at the battle of the "Graupian Hill ", near the River Tay. But he was more than a mere soldier. The Roman historian Tacitus, his son-in-law, speaks of him as knowing that "Conquest can never be secure while it loads the vanquished with injury and oppression". To those who resisted he was ruthless, but he strove by kind treatment to win the love of those who yielded. He made the taxes less oppressive; he arranged that the forced service with the army should be as little burdensome as possible, and in a short time was rewarded with a willing stream of levies; he encouraged the Britons to set up courts of justice, and to build better houses; he did all he could to spread the use of the Roman tongue; he checked plundering raids by building a wall from the Clyde to the Forth, and b leaving strong garrisons on the Welsh border; in short, he did all that was possible to bring to the Britons the peace which was usual in a well-ordered Roman province. He conqured Wales the north and advanced into Scotland ( Picts ) building a legionary fortress at Inchtuithil but was recalled abandoning his Scottish fortress
79 - 81	Titus
83 A.D.	Second Legion Adiutrix withdraw from Castra Deva ( Chester ) to defend the Rhine
84 A.D.	The foundation of Bath know as Aquae Sulis it was close to the Fosse way and became a major healing centre.
81 - 96	Domitian
96 - 98	Nerva
98 - 117	Trajan
117 - 138	Hadrian
122	Hadrian begins the Wall that was to extend from coast to coast some 73 miles from Wallsend ( Segedunum ) on the River Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth
138 - 161	Antoninus Pius
140 - 43	Antonine advance into Scotland: by 143 the Antonine wall had begun
155	Verulamium ( St Albans ) is distroyed by fire for the second time
161 - 180	Marcus Aurelius
161 - 169	Lucius Verus AD. 179 we do not know exactly when, or by whom, Christianity was introduced
	into the island ; though we are told that one of the British sovereigns, called St. Lucius, who began to reign, was " the first Christian king of Britain, and in the world." was canonized.
	Hadrian rules, Roman Empire at its greatest .
177 - 192	Commodus
193 A.D.	Pertinax One time Governor of Britain.
195 - 197	Clodius Albinus
193 A.D.	Governor of Britain on the death of Pertinax, he was proclaimed emperor by the legions he
	commanded.
193 - 211	Septimius Severus died at York.
196 - 213	Britain becomes two provinces - In the reign of Severus, A.D. 197, Roman Britain was divided
	into two districts - Britannia Superior and Inferior each under a Praeses, with their respective capitals at Eboracum (York) and Londonium, afterwards Augusta (London). Under Diocletian the political divisions were Maxima Caesariensis Valentia, under Consulares; Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, and Flavia Caesariensis, under Praesides; the whole being under the Vicarius Britanniae, who resided at York, the political capital, though London was probably the chief commercial town.
	It is not certainly known to what parts of the country these provinces corresponded, except that Valentia was the district north of the wall of Hadrian and Severus which ran between the Tyne and Solway, and south of the wall of Agricola and Lollius, between the Forth and Clyde, a district held only intermittently by the Romans. The name was given after the expedition of Theodosius, A.D. 368. The coast from the Wash to the Isle of Wight was specially administered, from the 3rd century onward under the name of the Saxon Shore - Litus Saxonicum - as a military frontier against the barbarians coming by sea. The Count of the Saxon Shore had a similar district and rule on the opposite side of the Channel Under the Romans, probably in the century before Julius Caesar's invasion, and in the time from Edward the Confessor to John, the Channel was rather a connexion than a barrier between Britain and Gaul.
	Low German , or English attacks and settlements in Britain The Romans from this time onwards reduced Britain to the state of a Roman province, till the Emperor Honorius abandoned the island in A.D. 410.
208 - 211	Campaigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla in Scotland
198 - 217	Caracalla
209 - 212	Geta
217 - 218	Macrinus
218 - 222	Elagabalus
222 - 235	Severus Alexander
235 - 70	Imperial crisis: civil wars and invasions in East and West
251 - 253	Trebonianus Gallus
253 - 260	Valerian I
253 - 268	Gallienus
265 - 270	Victorinus
270 - 273	Tetricus I
235 - 238	Maximinus 1
238 - 244	Gordian III
244 - 249	Philip I
249 - 251	Trajan Decius
268 - 270	Claudius II
260 - 273	'Gallic Empire'
270 - 275	Aurelian
275 - 276	Tacitus
276 - 282	Probus
282 - 283	Carus
283 - 285	Carinus
287	Franks and Saxons are before this date infesting the Channel and attacking the shores of Britain
	and Gaul - Carausius rebelled and took control of Britain
283 - 284	Numerian
284 - 305	Diocletian
286-305	Maximianus Hercuiius
270	Renewed growth in Britain
287 - 293	Carausius Usurper in Britain and Gaul
293 - 296	Allectus Usurper in Britain
296	Britain recovered by Constantius
296	Britain becomes a civil diocese of four provinces House of Constantius
305 - 306	Constantius I, Chlorus
306	Campaign of Constantius I in Scotland; Constantine the Great proclaimed at York
307 - 324	Licinius I
308 - 337	Constantine I, the Great
324	Constantine sole emperor; foundation of Constantinople
337 - 340	Constantine II
340 - 69	Period of stress: internal troubles, harassment by barbarians
350 - 353	Magnentius proclaimed in Gaul
353	Constantius II sole emperor Purge by Paul the Chain
360 - 363	Julian H
364 - 375	Valentinian 1 House of Valentinian (364-92)
368.	Saxons harass Britain.
368.	Theodosius delivers Britain from the Barbarians.
367 - 383	Gratian
379 - 395	Theodosius I
367 - 79	Barbarian Conspiracy', recovery and restoration of Britain by the elder Theodosius House of
	Theodosius ( Theodosius the Great ) a barbarian attack of Picts , Scots and Attacotti invaded Britain ; Franks and Saxons attacked the coast of Gaul Once in Britain , the barbarians ranged unchecked in small bands , looting , destroying , taking prisoners .
	The response of Valentinian was to dispatch a small but powerful task force of Elite troops under a comes rei militaris, Theodosius his conduct of the campaign and reconstruction of Britain seems to have been both brilliant and thorough Garrison troops were reassembled, deserters pardoned and an effective army recreated . The barbarian war party was picked off one by one, with the Saxons defeated at sea .An extensive remodelling of town defences took place on the middle of the fourth century, attributed to Theodosius the addition of prominent towers, to the wide circuits of the walls. The cost and responsibility of the local councillors it offers strong evidence that these towns were now significantly for military and civic use .
387.	Maximus withdraws many soldiers from Britain to Gaul, who never return.
396.	Stilicho the Roman general gives temporary help to Britain
398 - 400	Victories over Picts, Scots, Saxons
383 - 388	Magnus Maximus (Commander of the legions in Britain Usurper )a victory over the Picts
	by a general named Magnus Maximus ( Macsen Wledig in Welsh ) created a reputation and proclamation for him of emperor and ruler, of Britain , Gaul and Spain for five years ,. Forts in the Pennines and Wales were abandoned, the Twentieth legion was withdrawn from Chester .
	Emperor Theodosius the Great defeated Maximus but was eventually to loose control of the westrern empire . During the later fourth and early fith centuries Britain was further subdivided into Kingdoms founded on late Roman political arrangements , direct government ceased in the early part of the fifth century . In this period , with the breakdown of communications and the almost complete collapse of the international economy , large - scale manufacturing industry may have ceased in Britain .
383	Magnus Maximus proclaimed in Britain; victory over Picts
393 - 423	Honorius
400 - 402	Stilicho possibly withdraws the troops
402 - 403	Western imperial court withdrawn from Milan to Ravenna
406	Britain revolts from Honorius: two emperors proclaimed - 406. The Vandals, Suevi and Alani,
	"become formidable even to the armies in Britain" (Zosimus), who appoint emperors of their own.
	409. The Britons defend themselves from the Barbarians.
410	The end of Roman rule, Emperor Honorius severs connection - He bids the Britons to look to
	their own defence in future.
418	The Hallelujah Victory over the Picts and Scots -
	The Roman Officials and upper classes finally abandon Britain.
425	A federal monarchy established under Vortigern, or Gwerthegen, an ambitious and
	unscrupulous prince, in the south of Britain ; but another federation was formed under Ambrosius, who is said to have been the son of a Roman consul ; war continued.
429	Two bishops Germanus Bishop of Auxerre and Lupus Bishop of Troyes visit St Albans to
	preach and teach the Britons of the Romano-British Church . St. Germanus , a prominent Gallo - Roman bishop who moved in Roman circles , visited Britain to combat heresy , debating with British magnates at Verulamium , he re visited again 446 though apparently in deteriorating circumstances , so at least until then something survived of Roman life and influence .
430	St Patrick made a bishop for the Irish
446	The Groans of the Britons -
	to the great " Patrician," or peer of the first rank, Aetius, who was then at the head of the Roman forces in Gaul. The tenour of this epistle was in conformity to its superscription "The barbarians," say the unhappy writers, "on the one hand chase us into the sea ; the sea, on the other, throws us back upon the barbarians ; and we have only the hard choice left us, of perishing by the sword or by the waves." Aetitis was desirous of assisting them but all the legionaries were required to meet Attila, the "Scourge of God," who, at the head of his hordes of barbarous huns, was then desolating the western Roman provinces.
	Continues