Great Conspiracy

According to Ammianus, the following events occurred: In the winter of 367, the Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall rebelled and allowed Picts from Caledonia to enter Roman Britain. Simultaneously, Attacotti (of uncertain origin), Scoti from Hibernia, and Saxons from Germania landed in what might have been coordinated and pre-arranged waves on the island's mid-western and south-eastern borders. The war bands managed to overwhelm nearly all of the loyal Roman outposts and settlements. The entire western and northern areas of Britannia were overwhelmed; the cities sacked; and the civilian Romano-British murdered, raped, or enslaved. Franks and Saxons also landed in northern Gaul. Nectaridus, the ('count of the coastal region'), was killed, and a , Fullofaudes, was either besieged or captured. The locations of their defeats are often supposed to have been in Britain but may have been in Gaul. The remaining loyal army units stayed garrisoned inside southeastern cities. The , the local Roman agents who provided intelligence on barbarian movements, seem to have betrayed their paymasters for bribes which made the attacks completely unexpected. Deserting soldiers and escaped slaves roamed the countryside and turned to robbery to support themselves. Although the chaos was widespread and initially concerted, the rebels had aims simply of personal enrichment and worked as small bands rather than larger armies. ==Roman response==

Early attempts Emperor Valentinian I was campaigning against the Alamanni at the time and so was unable to respond personally. A series of commanders to act in his stead were chosen but swiftly recalled. The first was Severus, the emperor's , who was recalled and replaced by Jovinus, the . After discovering that the local had collaborated with the invaders, Theodosius removed them from their positions. By the end of the year, the barbarians had been driven back to their homelands; the mutineers had been executed; Hadrian's Wall had been retaken, and order had returned to the diocese. Under Civilis's rule, the last of the earlier invaders were temporarily driven out in 369, possibly using troops under his own personal command, and a program of civil restoration began. Theodosius also overcame and defeated the force of Valentinus, a Pannonian who had been exiled to Britain and joined the invaders. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. The poet Claudian suggests that naval activity took place in northern Britain. It is possible that Theodosius mounted punitive expeditions against the barbarians and imposed terms upon them. Certainly, the later records four units of Attacotti serving Rome on the continent. The were removed from duty and the frontiers refortified with co-operation from border tribes such as the Votadini, which marked the career of men such as Paternus. ==Political effects==

Theodosius returned to Rome a hero and was made senior military advisor to Valentinian to replace Jovinus. A decade later, his son became emperor. The Romans had ended much of the chaos, but raids by all of the peoples listed above continued. ==Fictional references==

Fictional accounts of the Great Conspiracy are featured in Wallace Breem's historical novel Eagle in the Snow, Peter Vansittart's historical novel Three Six Seven: Memoirs of a Very Important Man, Stephen R. Lawhead's fantasy novel Taliesin, M. J. Trow's Britannia series, Jack Whyte's fantasy-historical novel The Skystone, and Mark Chadbourn's novel Pendragon, written under the pen-name James Wilde. Francis Hagan uses the Great Conspiracy as the backdrop for his trilogy of books in the Sabinus Chronicles (The Unquiet Shore, The Reaping of the Sea, and The Vengeful Tide). In the novels, a former tribune, Sabinus, brings Roman and barbarian forces together to save Rome from itself. ==Notes==