Saxon Shore

13 languages
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 Edit
 View history

Tools















From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Roman fortification system. For other uses, see Saxon Shore
(disambiguation).

The fortifications and military commands

of the Saxon Shore system extended on both sides of the Channel.
The Saxon Shore (Latin: litus Saxonicum) was a military command of the Late
Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It
was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the "Count of the Saxon
Shore". In the late 4th century, his functions were limited to Britain, while the
fortifications in Gaul were established as separate commands. Several well-
preserved Saxon Shore forts survive in east and south-east England.
Background[edit]

Burgh Castle in Norfolk, seen from the

air.
During the latter half of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire faced a grave crisis.
Internally, it was weakened by civil wars, the violent succession of brief emperors,
and secession in the provinces, while externally it faced a new wave of attacks by
barbarian tribes. Most of Britain had been part of the empire since the mid-1st
century. It was protected from raids in the north by the Hadrianic and Antonine Walls,
while a fleet of some size was also available.

However, as the frontiers came under increasing external pressure, fortifications

were built throughout the Empire in order to protect cities and guard strategically
important locations. It is in this context that the forts of the Saxon Shore were
constructed. Already in the 230s, under Severus Alexander, several units had been
withdrawn from the northern frontier and garrisoned at locations in the south, and
had built new forts at Brancaster and Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk and Reculver in
Kent. Dover was already fortified in the early 2nd century, and the other forts in this
group were constructed in the period between the 270s and 290s.

Meaning of the term and role[edit]

Roman masonry, with its distinctive bands

of Roman tiles, in the walls of the Saxon Shore fort of Anderitum, which was later re-
fortified as Pevensey Castle in East Sussex.
The only contemporary reference we possess that mentions the name "Saxon
Shore" comes in the late 4th century Notitia Dignitatum, which lists its commander,
the Comes Litoris Saxonici per Britanniam ("Count of the Saxon Shore in Britain"),
and gives the names of the sites under his command and their respective
complements of military personnel.[1][non-primary source needed] However, due to the absence of
further evidence, theories have varied among scholars as to the exact meaning of
the name, and also the nature and purpose of the chain of forts it refers to.

Two interpretations were put forward as to the meaning of the adjective "Saxon":
either a shore attacked by Saxons, or a shore settled by Saxons. Some argue that
the latter hypothesis is supported by Eutropius, who states that during the 280s the
sea along the coasts of Belgica and Armorica was "infested with Franks and
Saxons", and that this was why Carausius was first put in charge of the fleet
there.[2][non-primary source needed] However, Eutropius refers to Franks and Saxons as seaborne
invaders. It also receives at least partial support from archaeological finds, as
artefacts of a Germanic style have been found in burials, while there is evidence of
the presence of Saxons (mostly laeti Roman army recruits though) in some numbers
in SE England and the northern coasts of Gaul around Boulogne-sur-
Mer and Bayeux from the middle of the 5th century onwards.[3] This, in turn, mirrors a
well documented practice of deliberately settling Germanic tribes (Franks
became foederati in 358 AD under Emperor Julian) to strengthen Roman defences.
Nevertheless, the earliest evidence for widespread Saxon settlement in Britain
typically dates to the 5th century, significantly later than the channel defenses of the
late 3rd and 4th century associated with the Saxon Shore.[citation needed]

The other interpretation, supported by Stephen Johnson,[citation needed] holds that the forts
fulfilled a coastal defence role against seaborne invaders, mostly Saxons and
Franks,[4] and acted as bases for the naval units operating against them. This view is
reinforced by the parallel chain of fortifications across the Channel on the northern
coasts of Gaul, which complemented the British forts, suggesting a unified defensive
system.[5]

Other scholars like John Cotterill however consider the threat posed by Germanic
raiders, at least in the 3rd and early 4th centuries, to be exaggerated. They interpret
the construction of the forts at Brancaster, Caister-on-Sea and Reculver in the early
3rd century and their location at the estuaries of navigable rivers as pointing to a
different role: fortified points for transport and supply between Britain and Gaul,
without any relation (at least at that time) to countering seaborne piracy. [6] This view
is supported by contemporary references to the supplying of the army of Julian the
Apostate by Caesar with grain from Britain during his campaign in Gaul in 359, [7] and
their use as secure landing places by Count Theodosius during the suppression of
the Great Conspiracy a few years later.[8][non-primary source needed]

Another theory, proposed by D.A. White, was that the extended system of large
stone forts was disproportionate to any threat by seaborne Germanic raiders, and
that it was actually conceived and constructed during the secession
of Carausius and Allectus (the Carausian Revolt) in 289-296, and with an entirely
different enemy in mind: they were to guard against an attempt at reconquest by the
Empire. This view, although widely disputed, has found recent support from
archaeological evidence at Pevensey, which dates the fort's construction to the early
290s.[9]

Whatever their original purpose, it is virtually certain that in the late 4th century the
forts and their garrisons were employed in operations against Frankish and Saxon
pirates. Britain was abandoned by Rome in 410, with Armorica following soon after.
The forts on both sides continued to be inhabited in the following centuries, and in
Britain in particular several continued in use well into the Anglo-Saxon period.[citation needed]