Eboracum (York)
The Roman Capital of northern England
where Constantine was proclaimed Emperor
There is an
accompanying York chronology, with references
to source material.
The Eagle
of the Ninth
The Romans
came to Britain, to stay, from 43 CE. Initially the Romans didn’t venture north
of the Humber and Don, but traded with the Parisii and Brigantes.
The area of modern York was part of the lands of a Celtic tribal confederation,
the Brigantes.
Cartimandua
was the Brigantes’ queen. Her position was threatened
by an open revolt by her husband, Venutius. It may
have been this revolt that provided a purpose for Roman intervention.
In 71 CE the
new Roman Governor, Quintius
Petillius Ceralius
marched north from Lincoln to occupy Brigantes
and Parisii territory. The
Ninth Legion, known as Hispana, erected a
large camp at Delgovicia, near where Malton, to the northeast of
York, stands today.
Legionary
Tile, 70 to 120 CE (Yorkshire Museum)
The area of
modern York was an ideal site for a fort in a potentially neutral zone between
the Brigantes and the Parisii.
A larger military camp was therefore constructed by the Romans on an elevated
plateau beside the Ouse, and it became known as Eboracum, the ‘place of
the yews’. The River Ouse provided a navigable route
for supplies through the Humber Estuary. Other rivers such as the Foss and
Derwent were navigable by smaller vessels. The river systems also provided
natural lines of defence. The Romans initially built an earth and timber fort
on the north east side of the Ouse, which formed the
basis for York’s city centre today. Eboracum became the base of some
5,000 legionaries who made up the Ninth Legion.
The
Ninth Legion was at York from 71 CE to about 120 CE. It disappeared from
the records after about 120 CE and the legion was once thought to have been
wiped out in about 108 CE in northern Britian. The story was immortalised in
Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1954 novel, The Eagle of the Ninth.
However later evidence of the Ninth Legion from Nijmegen suggests that the
Legion had a later fate on continental Europe.
Soldiers
stationed in Eboracum came from across northern Europe, though only a
small number came from Italy and very few from Rome itself. The Ninth and later
their replacement the Sixth Legions had been previously stationed in Spain,
Africa, Germany and Pannonia.
The standard
bearer, Lucius Duccius Rufinus was a 28 year old soldier from Viennes
in France who died in Eboracum.
Lucius Duccius Rufinus, a 28 year old
standard bearer from Viennes, France (Yorkshire
Museum, found in Mickelgate, York)
The
imperial metropolis
As this
fortress grew in importance, a civilian settlement developed on the opposite
bank of the river. The civilian settlement provided
shops and craftsmen and other services.
Urban
settlements grew around the Roman fortifications at Eboracum, Malton and
Stamford.
Roman
coinage (The Yorkshire Museum)
The civilian
settlement was just across a bridge or reached by ferry. Soldiers from the
fortress could relax there and soldiers and officers sometimes lived in
residential properties or large private houses alongside the civilian
population. The early civilian settlement comprised camp followers and the
families of the legionaries. Civilian settlement south west
of the Ouse grew significantly in the mid second century CE. A forum emerged at
its centre and a public bath house. There were likely to have been multiple
temples where cults were celebrated including to the gods of the classical
pantheon as well as deceased emperors. There is evidence of worship of the cult
of the Egyptian goddess Isis, with ideals of rebirth after death. The cult of Mythras was popular in Britain, a Persian sun god, engaged
in a struggle between good and evil. In all Mythraic
temples the god displayed a similar pose slaying a bull from which the blood of
life flowed.
The cult
God Mythras (Yorkshire Museum, from Micklegate)
The
population of civilian Eboracum probably reached about 5,000.
The heart of
the Roman fortress was the principia, the Headquarters. A large
courtyard was surrounded by long buildings on three sides and the larger aisled
hall of the basilica on the fourth. The remains of the Roman Basilica
can be seen in the undercroft of York Minster, and
the remains of a bathhouse in the cellar of the Roman Bath pub. The Roman sewer
lies about 4 metres below Church Street and is of significant scale.
The
principal road
leading to York passed through Lindum (Lincoln) and Danum (Doncaster) to Calcaria (Tadcaster) before turning northeast to Eboracum.
The route then continued north to Isurium Brigantum
(Aldborough) and Cataractonium (Cattrick) and, in time, to the line of Hadrian’s Wall.
Other roads joined Eboracum to Delgovicias
(Malton) and to the coast at Bridlington. The roads provided a swift means for
movement of troops as well as supply routes, supported by the river network for
heavier traffic.
The Vale of
York was richly agricultural and provided cereals and bread to maintain the
army. Supplies were also imported and local craftsman
made pottery and other items in the city.
The Sixth
Legion Victrix
In about 120
CE, Hadrian replaced the Ninth Legion with the Sixth
Legion Victrix (“the Victorious Sixth Legion”), and both the fort and the
civilian settlement were rebuilt in stone.
Emperor
Hadrian (of Spanish origin) visited the settlement during his journey to build
his border wall. Men from York’s Sixth Legion began to build Hadrian’s Wall
from 122 CE. Twenty years later, from 142 CE, they were involved in the
building of the Antonine Wall. Whilst the focus of the Sixth Legion’s activity
was focused in construction of defences to the north
over many decades, by the end of the second century CE, they were back in Eboracum
and began a period of significant reconstruction of the fortress. This included
projecting towers which advanced military technology solutions by allowing
archers to fire along the line of the fortress walls.
Legio VI
was awarded the honorary title of Britannica by Commodus in 184 CE
following his own adoption of that title.
Skull of
a man in his fifties buried between York and Calcaria
(Tadcaster) (Yorkshire Museum).
Skeleton of a wealthy lady found close to the River Ouse, found
accompanied by unusual and expensive objects
(Yorkshire Museum).
Emperors
in Eboracum
During his
stay between 207 CE and 211 CE, the Emperor Septimius Severus (of Libyan
origin) proclaimed York capital of the province of Britannia Inferior,
and it is likely that it was he who granted York the privileges of a 'colonia'
or city. Severus was attended by a very large retinue of civil servants and
soldiers, including the Praetorian Guard. He also brought his wife, Julia
Domna, and their sons Caracalla and Geta. The Emperor Severus was at York while
he was conducting campaigns against the Caledonians. Accounts of his death make
some obscure references to York's topography and mention a temple of Bellona
and a domus palatina. It was at York that
Severus dated a rescript dated 5 May 210 headed Eboraci.
Severus died in York on 4 February 211 CE. He was probably cremated outside Eboracum, but was not buried there but taken to Rome.
Severus’s sons Geta and Caracalla returned to Rome and after a bloody
succession squabble Geta was murdered and Caracalla
became emperor.
Sandstone
statute of Mars 300 to 400 CE (Nunnery Lane, York, now at The Yorkshire
Museum)
Diocletian (284
to 305 CE) reasserted imperial authority and established a new governmental
system known as the Tetrarchy, by which four emperors would govern the western
and eastern empires, one senior (known as Augustus) and one junior (known as
Caesar). Britain had been the subject of a revolt by a Roman naval commander,
Carausius in 285 CE whose successor was defeated in 296 CE by Constantius I who
by then was Caesar in the west.
Constantius
I (Constantius Chlorus, of Serbian origin) became the second emperor to die
during his stay in Eboracum on 25 July 306 CE. He was accompanied by his
son Constantine who was proclaimed Emperor by the troops based in the fortress.
Constantine would have a profound impact on the city and on global politics.
Constantius
and Constantine (Yorkshire Museum)
The
veteran soldier Caereslus Augustinus had lost his
wife. Flavia Augustina and his two children. This stone carving (119 to 410 CE)
seems to depict his idea of how they might have grown up as a family, had they
lived. (Yorkshire Museum)
Tombstone
(200 to 300 CE) of Julia Velva. Her heir Aurelius Mercurialis
would gather at the tomb on the anniversary of her death and would have
believed she could take part. (Yorkshire Museum).
Constantine
returned to continental Europe and gradually asserted his authority over his
rivals, emerging as the supreme imperial ruler by 324 CE.
Constantine
I “the Great” supported Christianity, and in 313 CE issued an edict of
religious tolerance. Eboracum had its first bishop, Eborius,
appointed in 314 CE who attended the Council at Arles to represent Christians
from the province that year. By 391 CE Christianity had become so dominant that
Emperor Theodosius banned other religions.
The
increasing centralisation of Eboracum and its demand for supplies of
food was likely to have enriched landowners across the Vales of York and
Pickering. This stimulated the many villas from the area including at Hovingham and Beadlam. The
growth in commerce is evidenced by imported goods such as tableware from Gaul
and beakers and jars from the Rhinelands. The region was
able to export grain and agricultural products as well as jet from the Whitby area.
The Void
The Roman
Empire was under increasing pressure from the mid third century, but Britannia
seems to have avoided the worst of the unrest at first. However inflationary
pressures and disruption of trade must have been felt across the empire. Eboracum
nevertheless remained a provincial capital and military base throughout the
fourth century. However the size of the garrison
appears to have been reduced as the fourth century went on. Britannia was
probably still reasonably peaceful and prosperous until the last twenty years
of the fourth century. By the early fifth century, it was no longer a part of
the empire. This dramatic change must have been devastating to the indigenous
population, experiencing a protected and relatively prosperous lifestyle, which
turned to chaos and threat within a generation. At the turn of the fifth
century, Eboracum was deserted and much of the city abandoned. The
trauma experienced by our ancestors of that period can only be imagined.
While the
Roman colonia and fortress were on high ground, by 400 CE the town was
victim to occasional flooding from the Rivers Ouse and Foss. York declined in
the post-Roman era. The population shrank, trade declined, and buildings were
abandoned.
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