The Later Celts

The north-west provinces, the ‘Celtic’ lands, developed an identity of their own and declared independence several times in the late Empire. During the third century, seaborne pirates from Saxony and from Ireland started to harass Britain and northern Gaul. Since the eastern Imperial frontier was already being attacked by the Goths, troops could seldom be spared to defend the northern provinces. Around the year 260, the Rhine commander Marcus Postumus declared Spain, Gaul, Britain and the Rhineland to be the Empire of the Gallic Provinces. This Empire lasted until 274, during which time the Alemanni, a confederation from east of the Rhine, invaded and devastated northern Gaul. The towns were unwalled and fifty to sixty of them were captured. British towns, meanwhile, expanded, perhaps taking refugees from the continent. Country villas in Britain also show signs of building, since the rich landowners would be the first to be able to retreat to the comparative safety of the island, and some superb mosaics, including the Orphic pavement at Littlecote House in Oxfordshire, date from this time. In Gaul, the years 284–286 saw another secession by the unemployed and homeless whom the Alemanni had dispossessed, and in 287 Britain seceded from the Empire under Carausius and then Allectus. ¹