Roman state involvement in Britain in the later 4 century: an ebbing tide?

The study of the closing years of the Roman Diocese of the Britains and of what succeeded it has recently been revivified after a long period when archaeological attention had largely shifted to the ‘Romanization’ debate of the first two centuries AD. After a time of quiescence the study of the later Roman period is now recrudescent and in intellectual good health. ¹ One of the most hotly-contested topics is the form and chronology of the ‘end’ of Roman Britain, with some scholars favouring a ‘short’ chronology whereby the visible material culture of the diocese collapsed suddenly and catastrophically at the start of the 5^th century as a consequence of the lapse of Roman rule, ² whilst other scholars favour a ‘long’ chronology, a more drawn-out process as the relict Roman-derived populations and their elites adjusted to a changing world. ³ In this contribution I want to step back a bit from the chronology of what happened after 400, particularly after the traditional date for ‘the end of Roman Britain’ in 410/411. I want instead to look at some developments under way from the later 4^th century which tell us about changing imperial perceptions of the diocese; though they may also have fed through into the processes visible in the first half of the 5^th century.