‘Post-Roman Britain’ Exploring Arthurian Britain, 2

Exploring Arthurian Britain
What was Britain like in the fifth and sixth centuries? Documentary sources are fragmentary and hard to authenticate. Fertile ground for myth and legend. Most potent are the stories that have grown around King Arthur.

‘Post-Roman Britain’ Exploring Arthurian Britain, 2
There is substantial evidence that any social and cultural collapse following the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain was less complete than was once believed. A biography, of St Germanus, a former Roman military commander who became Bishop of Auxerre, and who visited Britain in 429 on a papal mission, describes magistrates officiating and remarks on ‘splendidly apparelled’ citizens. There is evidence of urban continuity in post-Roman St Albans, Dorchester, Cirencester, Chester and elsewhere, and recent archaeology at Whitley Grange villa near Shrewsbury revealed heated rooms still in use possibly as late as 520. At the National Trust’s Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire, a fine mosaic excavated between 2017 and 2023 in room 28, has been securely dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) analysis of soil samples taken from beneath the mosaic, to the late-fifth century, most probably sometime between 475 and 495.

‘End.of.Roman.rule.in.Britain.383.410.jpg’ is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons [[File:End.of.Roman.rule.in.Britain.383.410.jpg|End.of.Roman.rule.in.Britain.383.410]]

‘St. Germanus (Haaren) 40.jpg’ by Thomas Hummel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons [[File:St. Germanus (Haaren) 40.jpg|St._Germanus_(Haaren)_40]]

‘File:Roman.Britain.roads.jpg’ is licensed under CC-BY SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons my work - Based on Jones & Mattingly's Atlas of Roman Britain (ISBN 978-1-84217-06700, 1990, reprinted 2007), pp. 23–28; Frere's Britannia (Third edition, 1987, revised); Codrington's Roman Roads in Britain; Reynold's Iter Britanniarum; and other minor sources — the sources are cited in the image legend The topographical map is from a sub-region of File:Uk topo en.jpg, with the copyright notice {{Bild-GFDL-GMT|migration=relicense}} and original date of 7 July 2006, copy made in 2008, with the annotations removed by myself.

‘Wroxeter Roman City, Viroconium - geograph.org.uk - 5881388.jpg’ by Chris Gunns is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons [[File:Wroxeter Roman City, Viroconium - geograph.org.uk - 5881388.jpg|Wroxeter_Roman_City,_Viroconium_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5881388]]

‘Chedworth Roman Villa - geograph.org.uk - 5512351.jpg’ by Philip Halling is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons [[File:Chedworth Roman Villa - geograph.org.uk - 5512351.jpg|Chedworth_Roman_Villa_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5512351]]

‘File:Ireland's crown of thorns and roses; or, The best of her history by the best of her writers, a series of historical narratives that read as entertainingly as a novel (1904) (14754489376).jpg’ is public domain via Wikimedia Commons

‘Parish Church of St Tudclud, Penmachno, Gwynedd, Wales; Eglwys Sant Tudclud, Penmachno 51.jpg’ by Llewelyn2000 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons [[File:Parish Church of St Tudclud, Penmachno, Gwynedd, Wales; Eglwys Sant Tudclud, Penmachno 51.jpg|Parish_Church_of_St_Tudclud,_Penmachno,_Gwynedd,_Wales;_Eglwys_Sant_Tudclud,_Penmachno_51]]

‘File:Latin inscription - geograph.org.uk - 376760.jpg’ by Dewi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

‘Vitalianus Stone Nevern, Ogham and Latin inscription - Vitalianus-Stein Nevern, Ogham- u. Lateininschrift.gif’ is public domain via Wikimedia Commons [[File:Vitalianus Stone Nevern, Ogham and Latin inscription - Vitalianus-Stein Nevern, Ogham- u. Lateininschrift.gif|Vitalianus_Stone_Nevern,_Ogham_and_Latin_inscription_-_Vitalianus-Stein_Nevern,_Ogham-_u._Lateininschrift]]

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