The Ancients - Carausius: The Pirate King

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

With ancient Rome often being viewed as a mighty, impenetrable empire - it seems unlikely that one man, let alone a pirate, could ever bring this empire to it's knees. Yet that's exactly what Carausius, posthumously dubbed the 'Pirate King', did. Striking when Rome was already weak and without it's Naval Fleet, Carausius took advantage of Britain's vulnerability and declared himself Emperor of Britain - but how long did this daring new venture last?In this episode, Simon Elliot returns to the podcast to delve into this fantastical history of the Pirate King. Looking at backstabbing best friends (quite literally), family dynasties, and fog covered frontiers - can we really call Carausius the Pirate King?For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program,

they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. it's the ancients on history hit i'm tristan hughes your host and in today's podcast well we're talking all about roman britain a particular i think it's fair to say also overlooked episode in the story of roman britain because we're not talking about Boudicca, not the 9th Legion, not the conquest, not the end of Roman Britain or Roman London or anything like that. Although Roman London does fit into this story, we're talking about the story of a Roman usurper who took control of Roman Britain and forged his own North Sea Empire in the late 3rd century AD.

North Sea Empire in the late 3rd century AD. His name was Corosius and he is an extraordinary figure for which we have archaeology and literature surviving. This man for a time was arguably the most powerful man in Northwest Europe and to tell the story of this Roman usurper, of this pirate king i was delighted to go and interview once again for the ancients my good friend dr simon elliott simon he is a machine there are a few repeating guests on the ancient so i think you will agree are literally forces of nature and simon is another one of those because the passion that he speaks with is encapsulating, it's enthralling. You can't help but be gripped by it. And the story too of Corosius is one that I know you're going to absolutely love. I really enjoyed recording this

podcast in person. Always wonderful having Simon on the show. And I think I'm allowed to say, I think you're going to absolutely love this one. So without further ado, to tell the story of Corosius, the pirate king, here's Simon. Simon, veteran of the podcast. Good to have you back on. Always fantastic to come back on The Ancients with you, Tristan.

I know, well, the best podcast of them all, right? You've done so many different podcasts, but this is the one that you look forward to the most. This is the most fun. This is the pièce de résistance. This is the culmination of anybody's ambition to go on any podcast, to go on The Ancients with you, Tristan. A hundred percent. Just want to get that straight away, that ego boost right away. As we delve into another great topic, you always seem to be the one with the big topics, but this is maybe not a big name, but an overlooked, incredible story of this figure called Corosius, who comes to the fore in, can we say, this quite overlooked period in Roman Britain's story too.

Absolutely, yeah. The Corosian revolt takes place with his North Sea Empire towards the end of the third century, after a long period when very little is written about Roman Britain in contemporary literature after Severus' campaigns in Scotland. There are two key themes in actual fact, which really begin with the crisis of the third century. So between Severus and Corusius, you have this event from the assassination of Alexander the Severus in 235 through to the advent of Diocletian becoming the emperor in 284, and that's the crisis of the third century, which is a devastating series of events in the Roman Empire. You have the Plague of Cyprian.

You have multiple incursions on the northern frontier of the Rhine and Danube by Germans and Goths. You have the emergence of suspended Persia as being the first proper symmetrical threat the Romans have ever faced, and this is on the eastern frontier. You have multiple usurpations and civil war. It's a terrible time. It causes an economic crash.

In the middle of it, you have the disappearance of something very important in terms of Roman Britain, which is the Classical Britannic of the Roman fleet, which to that point had kept the North Sea free from any predating Germanic raiding along the eastern and south coast of Britain. But suddenly in the middle of the crisis of the third century, it disappears. The crisis of the third century and this period which we're talking about now, sources. For the story of Corusius and this time in Roman history, what sorts of sources do we have available? Well, you have to be, as a historian here, you have to really, really work hard in actual fact, because you're past the period of the great Roman contemporary writers like Cassius Dio. He was very gossipy, but I do like Cassius Dio. He was there on a lot

of the things he was talking about. Herodian, a bit more dodgy, but still a good historian from a contemporary perspective. The anonymous Historia Augusta, etc. We're beyond that now. So we're now in the later third century into the period where we're relying on things like the Latin chroniclers who were writing later. We're missing the original sources they used. But also, we're very fortunate because we can start using a series of panegyrics, which is sort of hagiographic speeches made,

probably four or five hour speeches made in front of various emperors, contemporary actually, and also later, which are written down. And there's a collection of 12 of them actually, 11 of them, which are relevant to the story of Corrosius. So the four specific panegyrics are one given to Maximian, the Western emperor, shortly after the Corrosian revolt. The second one one given to maximian the western emperor shortly after the coruscant revolt the

second one also given to maximian a little bit later after the coruscant revolt another one given to constantius chlorus who defeated the north sea empire coruscant electus a year after the defeat in 296 and finally one given to constantine the first where his father's success over coruscant electus is referenced and that's from the beginning of the 4th century. So those four in particular give us real insight, and they're very relevant to my book, because that's where we get the name, the pirate, as in the pirate king, because they don't name Corosius or Electus at all, they just call them pirates. And it's interesting, all of these sources are written from the perspective of the imperial centre, so they're very negative about Corosius

and Electus. And fascinatingly, from a Sorcerer's perspective, he only emerges as sort of a hero type figure much later in an antiquarian context, actually, where he's culturally appropriated in the context of British imperialism in the late 18th and 19th and early 20th century, when contemporary British writers are casting around to try and find somebody interesting in British history to write about a plucky individual, like a Robin Hood kind of figure, really, and they alight on Corrosius. Interesting. I had no idea you had that legacy, that afterlife. We'll definitely go into that as the podcast goes on. And alongside this literature, I'm guessing if he was that usurper, then we must have quite a plethora of archaeological

evidence surviving too. Certainly in terms of numismatics. So Corosius in particular, but also Electus, are extremely well represented amongst the coin finds in Roman Britain. Huge numbers of coins, hundreds, thousands of coins of specific types. Corosius in particular was a great exponent of PR. So he knew he was a usurper. He wanted to put himself on the same level as Maximilian and Diocletian. Diocletian should be the emperor in the East and the senior of the emperors. And therefore he was minting coins latterly in particular, where he was showing

his bust alongside those of Maximilian and Diocletian to show that he was on the same level. So he's using coins as a form of PR to show that he's a sort of a great worthy. And actually he's very clever with his coinage as well, particularly in Britain, because he styles himself as the sort of restitutor of Romanitas, the guy who's bringing the great days of Rome back. You know, on the coins, he's quoting Virgil and things like that. So he's almost saying, you've had this almost 80 years after Severus of Britain being a backwater in the Roman Empire. By the way, I think Britain was always a backwater in the Roman Empire. As I always say, as you know, Tristan, it's the Wild West of the Roman Empire.

Well, he's saying, I'm bringing the good days back. I'm the new guy now. I'm putting you front and centre of what's happening in the Roman world. I'm bringing the good days back. Interestingly, in terms of the archaeological record from the Corrosian and Electum period, nearly all of the archaeology are the coins,

apart from two other things. One, there is a single milestone, which is now in Carlisle Museum, found on Gallows Hill near Carlisle, which actually names his full name. It's the only time that we actually see his full name. And the Romans being the Romans later reused it, and they turned it upside down, stuck it in the ground and put Constantine I on it. And that's in Carlisle Museum today. You can go and see that. But also, as we'll touch on later, in terms of the built environment, I also think Corosius and Electus instituted the final major

public building program in Roman Britain. And there's evidence of that in London, which we can tease out. But also, I argue, again, we'll talk later, the Saxon shore forts on the south and east coast, the later ones, I now am convinced they're all Corosian or Electan. All right then, let's go through the story of Corosius chronologically, and then we'll talk about the archaeology that survives. First of all, his background. Do we know anything about where Corosius comes from, or where he's born about his early life? We do. So Corosius is Menapi, so he's from the Rhine Delta, so he's Belgian or Flemish, from the Menapi tribe, one of the tribes which Caesar famously references. Remember Caesar, when he talks about sort of Belgian tribes that he's fighting against

in his 57 BC campaign, he actually describes them as ferocious warriors. And in actual fact, you go along Hadrian's Wall, which I've done recently, and you can see nearly all the units stationed on the auxiliary units, they're Belgian. And they're really fierce warriors. And in actual fact, a lot of the cavalry units

are headhunters. So this is official Roman auxiliary cavalry as well. You can see on any of the tombstones you'll find anywhere in Roman Britain, we have an auxiliary cavalryman. He's probably Belgian and he's carrying a servant head of a native Briton. So these are ferocious warriors. His story arc is tied umbilically to Maximian. So we'll start with Maximian first.

Diocletian becomes the emperor in 284 at the point of a sword, begins to drag the Roman Empire kicking and screaming out of the destitution of the crisis of the third century. And then within a year realises that actually the task too big for him, very clever Diocletian, one of my favourite Roman emperors as you know, and he therefore appoints Maximian, a fellow senior, very successful soldier in general. By the way, I always thought Maximian was a bit of an idiot because of what happened in the Coruscant revolt, but actually when you research him, he's actually a very successful general and later ruler. So Maximian gets the west, 285, and Diocletians in the east.

Maximian immediately has to tackle a major instance of Bagudae, a sort of a peasant rebellion in Gaul, and then at the same time, Frankish invasions over the Rhine, and he appoints one of his military leaders, Corrosius, to actually be the leader on the ground, and he's very successful. Go through to 286, and in the context of there being no British fleet now, suddenly there's an emergence, for whatever reason, of a huge amount of predating raiding over Britain from Germanic pirates. Now hold on there, before we go on to that, so you mentioned the fleet there. What is this fleet, and why is this fleet non-existent at this time? So the fleet's the Classus Britannica, which is the Roman fleet built initially for the

Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43, later named by Tacitus in the context of the Batavian Revolt, last mentioned at all anywhere in history in 249 on the tombstone of Saturninus and Avarka's captain of the British fleet from North Africa, who is buried in Arden, south of France. That is the last time the fleet's mentioned. If you have no standing fleet, you can't control the open ocean. With no control of the open ocean, the North Sea is open to North Germanic raiding. So that's what's happening. So the Romans are reaping the reward of not investing in an open ocean fleet. Very important lesson in history then, and even more importantly in the modern world. And because of this raiding, the province of Britain, which is an island, is in danger of

being separated from the rest of the empire. So Maximian's next task, having dealt with the Bagudae and having dealt with the Franks, is to deal with the North Sea raiding. And he appoints his go-to tough guy, who is Corosius. So Corosius is appointed to become the new admiral and build a new fleet and he does and he bases himself back in the old Classis Britannica headquarters which is Boulogne-sur-Mer and he's incredibly successful and he's so successful Tristan that Maximian either gets jealous or has people whispering in his ear remember this is like 30 35 40 days for information you go between boulogne and milan people whispering his ear you know maybe this carousius maybe he's so successful because he's actually in cahoots with the pirates maybe he's pocketing all the

loot so he's waiting till they're going back having nicked all the stuff from the coastal villas and towns and he's actually then capturing them nudge nudge wink wink i'll keep half of that so maybe he's a bad guy. And it's bizarre, but it did happen. For whatever reason, Maximian buys it. It's one of two or three missteps he makes in an otherwise very successful career. With regard to Corrosius, he buys it and he orders Corrosius, his go-to guy, his most successful general, to be executed.

And word reaches Corrosius before Maximian's henchmen arrive to do the job. And so Corosius in 286, he usurps and creates his North Sea Empire, which initially is Britain and Northern Gaul, including Boulogne-sur-Mer, which is his headquarters, and Rouen. How interesting. Do we have any idea? I'm presuming it's not in the sources at all, and we won't know for sure, whether the information that did come to him that Corusius was potentially taking some of this money, that there was any potential legitimate truth behind the claim, behind the accusation? Nothing at all. Absolutely nothing at all. Two or three throwaway lines in the post-contemporary histories of the Latin chroniclers and in the panegyrics, effectively making the accusation

on behalf of the emperor. We've got no idea if there's anything else behind it. My feeling is actually Corosius was an outsider in terms of the court, he's from the Manapi, from the northern frontier, getting too big for his boots as a successful general. Maxim has only just become the emperor in the west, he's got his own cabal of generals in court around him, probably whispering his ear, you know, you've around him probably whispering his ear you know you've only just become the emperor you might want to be careful about this guy you know this guy's maybe too big for his boots and actually the whole thing massively backfires of course because he gets exactly what he didn't want he didn't want Corosius to be the big guy and suddenly Corosius

takes matters into his own hand and becomes the big guy and he's very popular he's been a successful general on land he's been a very successful admiral at sea. And the information we have is that when he makes his initial usurpation, he gets huge support, certainly from Britain, which has got three legions, equivalent number of auxilia,

so that's 30,000 to 40,000 troops. I reckon Roman Britain had 12% of the Roman military establishment in what was only 4% of the geographic area because the north never conquered.

So that's a lot of troops. And he's got his new fleet he's built, and then he's probably got another legion, we think, which is one of the Rhine legions, which supports him, maybe one of the ones based at Mainz. And he's got the auxiliaries,

which are with him in Boulogne and Rouen. And of course, the first thing he does is he starts minting coins. So he's got territory either side of what is the English Channel today. Yeah. But he's got a precedent for this usurping, carved out Roman separatist state in this area of the world from recent history too.

That is so important, right? From a historiography point of view in particular, Tristan, because we, even as professional historians, look at history chronologically, right? We see events and people. That's how we traditionally see it. But when you're living through it, it's not like that at all. We can look at what's happening in the world around us today, for example. We see events happening in terms of foreign policy. We're experiencing them in real time, not chronologically, and they won't fit together chronologically probably for another 10 years when people can talk about them with a

degree of distance. Well, that's exactly the case here. For a Roman noble living in Britain, you're living through a period of great turbulence because you've had the crisis of the third century in Britain. One of the manifestations of that being the Gallic Empire of Posthumus. So the Gallic Empire of Posthumus, AD 260 to AD 274, when it's defeated by the mighty Roman warrior emperor Aurelian, Britain was a core part of Posthumus' Gallic Empire. A lot of the coin hoards in Britain are from some of the later Gallic emperors like Tetricus I and II. And so it's only in 274 that the Gallic Empire finishes. And then you're only 12 years later and you've got another usurpation. What's going on, you know?

And you've got to remember as well, if you're a noble or a military leader in a territory usurping, Britain as an example, it's a long way from Rome, you're going to have to make a decision, aren't you? You know, I'm the new emperor, I'm posthumous, or I'm carousius. Who are you going to support? And you're going to support the guy who's nearest your throat with a sword, which is either posthumous or carousius. So already the nobility in Britain have had to make a tough call who to support with the Gallic Empire. They're now doing it again. So this is a period of great turbulence. Maybe this is why carousius actually doubles down

on saying, actually, you know, although I'm usurping again, I'm going to bring you peace. I'm the restitutor of Romanitas in Britain. So he's got Rouen, Boulogne, London, Britain, and this northern part of France, both sides of the English Channel today. And you said very quickly, he starts minting his own coinage, does he? Interestingly, he builds a temporary mint in Rouen, starts minting his own coins, and then later mints coins in London, which is Roman London's first ever mint. So any coin minted in Britain before the early 290s, when Corrosius and then Alexis minted coins in London, they're all forgeries. Contemporary forgeries, but forgeries. The first proper mint in Britain was Corrosius. We'll go back to Rouen,

we're still in 286. There are three phases of the campaign against the North Sea Empire. So phase one is Maximilien's land campaign, 286-287, when he quickly uses the imperial troops in Gaul to push Corrosius out of Rouen. So he gets pushed back to the coast, but he's still got Boulogne. And at this point, he decides to relocate himself to his bastion of safety, Britain, and locates himself in London. That becomes his headquarters for the rest of the crossing revolt. Then Maximian makes his next misstep. So in 289-290, Maximian announces, and we know this because a panegyric references it,

a panegyric says, the great emperor Maximian is dealing with a pirate. He's going to build a big fleet. What happens to the big fleet? It disappears from history. So at some stage between 289 and the early 290s, probably 290 itself, Maximian tries to invade Britain. He gives a Gordian knot solution. Instead of gradually grinding away at the North Sea Empire, dealing with France first,

decides to do a massive amphibious invasion of Britain. Completely fails. There's no evidence it took place. So I say the fleet either was defeated at sea by Corotius, highly unlikely. It was destroyed in some kind of storm event in the North Sea because it would have been built in the Rhine Delta. Maybe, or maybe the canny Corosius, who later recruits Franks into his army as foederates, bribes the Franks in the Rhine and Delta to do the job for him. And that busts Maximian. He's got no money left. They're very expensive fleets.

That's why there's no new Classical Britannica permanent fleet. It's not just building the ships. You have to maintain the ships. It's very expensive. Train sailors, very expensive. So Maximian then is a busted flush. Can't do anything about it for three or four years now because he's got no money. Corrosius turns Balloon Sir Mare into a really serious fortress and Maximian and Diocletian have to find some kind of accommodation with Corosius, and they do. So for three or four years, it's a golden era of the Corosian revolt, when actually he is recognized even through gritted teeth as being the sort of emperor of the northwest of Europe. But Diocletian, again, is equally canny. By this time, he's realized that it's too difficult to control his vast empire with even two emperors. So now it goes for four, his tetrarchy. So he

appoints in the east Galerius to be his junior emperor, the Caesar. He becomes the Augustus. In the West, Maximian becomes the Augustus and Diocletian appoints Constantius Chlorus, another very successful general, to be the Caesar. And Constantius Chlorus is told by Diocletian, sort that idiot out in Britain. I want that done. I want that over. Whatever it takes, get it done. And Constantius Chlorus is on his A game. So you then get the second phase of campaign against the Northern Empire in 293, when Constantius Chlorus leads the Gallic armies against Boulogne-sur-Mer, buying off the Franks on the Rhine, so his rear and flanks are secure, and quickly captures Boulogne-sur-Mer very cleverly by building a mole across the estuary

to isolate the fleet there. So Corosius loses about a third of his troops who then go and join Constantius Chlorus. The king is dead, long live the king, and also loses

about a third of his fleet. And we have a good source for the siege therefore, do we, about how it... Absolutely. The archaeology is very good in Berlin-Sormer. We actually know

where the mole was. We can find it out through the archaeology. And there is a late building phase of fortification in Boulogne-sur-Mer, which is Corrosian, which was the final stage just before Constantius Chlorus' attack. So that's locked in. That's good archaeology.

So Corrosius has lost his last... It's almost like the English in the Hundred Years' War losing Calais, you know. And this has a huge impact, actually, on Corrosius' reputation. So suddenly he's not actually the restitutor of Romanitas, he's now the idiot. And he gets killed. He gets assassinated in 293 on the back of losing Boulogne-sur-Mer by one of his leading officials called Electus.

Now Electus is an interesting guy. The way that the antiquarian restitution of Corozius portrays Electus is that he's the bad guy, right? So the antiquarian British imperialist history, appropriation of Croesus as being this great figure, the Robin Hood figure of British history. Well, Electus is the bad guy. He's all ladginess. He's always portrayed as being sort of like, you know, thin, spindly, thinning hair and everything. No one's got an idea what he looked like. Even more importantly, no one's got an idea who he was. We know little about Croesus,

really. We know nothing about Electus apart from his name. And that he was a senior official. He's often called his treasurer. The name's genuinely interesting because it never occurs anywhere else in Roman history, but Electus is very similar to Adlectus. And there are a number of people called Adlectus. And what does Adlection mean in the Roman Empire? Adlection means having your career bumped up out of sequence to join the Roman Senate. So for example, Pertinax was adlected to join the Senate when he was in his 40s or 50s, when most senatorial class individuals had gone to their cursus honorum in their teens or early 20s. So to be adlected means to be plucked out of obscurity to join the senatorial class. Now, maybe electus is actually a form of adlectus.

So this is the guy that Cor carosius adlected from somewhere to become a senior official but we do know he assassinates carosius some people there's no evidence for this whatsoever have said this must come from some kind of antiquarian popular history that while carosius was having a bath electus stabbed him through the eye with a with a stylus but there's no evidence of that whatsoever but car Corozzi is assassinated. So from 293 to the end of the Corozzian revolt, the Nazi Empire, 296, we now have Electus running the show, which leads to the fourth Roman invasion of Britain. Hi there. I'm Don Wildman, host of the new podcast, American History Hit. Twice a week, I'll be exploring stories from America's past to help us understand the United States of today. Join me as I head back in time to witness Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence,

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Hit, a podcast by History Hit. We've now kind of covered Corzius' story, but I want to keep on Corzius a bit longer before he gets this fourth invasion, which is such a great title in itself, Simon. But let's look at the architecture. Let's talk Roman Britain. Let's talk London. Maybe not Boulogne-sur-Lemaire,

but let's focus on London. Is it still a trading hub at this time? Roman London was always an emporium, always throughout its entire history, sort of a mercantile place. And no one actually knows its official title. I mean, in the Roman world, there are various kinds of town which has tax implications, and one of them is a municipium, which is a mercantile town. So it's only my opinion, but I probably think that Roman London was probably a municipium

for most of its time. But it was certainly a place of doing business all the way through. Now, there are two key manifestations in the stone built environments in London from the Corrosian period and Electum period. One is they inherited the land wall built by Severus, but it wasn't a defensive structure at that time, given there was no river wall. So it wasn't a complete circuit. The river wall, I argue, was built by Corosius and Electus to close the circuit. So suddenly Roman London is now fortified. And also, I argue that they built the bastions along the outside of the land wall, the Severan land wall. So it's the final phase of fortification of Roman London, the river wall and

the bastions. I think that's deliberately done by Corosius and Electus to turn London into a fortified place. And also within the stone-built environment, you get a suite of public offices, often called an Electus Palace, built on the western side of Roman London in the area between St Paul's Cathedral going down to the River Thames. And that is a really interesting statement because most people believe the governor's palace in Roman London, or the most significant suite of public officers, is beneath where Cannon Street railway station is. Well, Corozas and Electus are moving their suite of officers

further down, in fact, as far away as possible from where anyone's going to come in from the east. So that's basically the final major building phase you get in Roman London London, Corrosion and Electum. And outside of London also, do we have any potential suggestions of architecture, archaeology that relates to Corrosius in particular? Firstly, people are now beginning to think there's a series of signal stations built which are Corrosion and Electum. So for example, there's one that's thought to be near the lighthouse to the north of Dover. Also, on one of the sites I'm looking at at the moment, which is above Romney Marsh, when you're on the high ground there, not even on a clear day,

on a day when you've got rain squalls going across the English Channel, you can still see France and you can see Boulogne-sur-Mer. You can't see Boulogne-sur-Mer from Dover. You can see Calais, but not Boulogne. But you can see Boulogne, the headquarters of the British fleet, from the high ground above Romney Marsh. So I would imagine you're going to get signal stations above Romney Marsh as well. I've got this phenomenological sort of feeling every time I go and stand there. I'm looking across towards Boulogne-sur-Mer. I can imagine the

Pharos built by Caligula there. And I can imagine every day either Corosius or Electus or one of their messengers standing there waiting for the beacon to go out because Constantius Chlorus has captured Boulogne. So firstly, you get a series of signal stations. But also now I completely believe that all of the later Saxon shore forts in the south and east coast are Chorosis or Electum because they were there not to keep the Barbaricum out, but to keep the Imperial Centre out. And the ones I think are Chorosis or Electum are Richborough, my favourite place actually in Roman Britain, Dover, where an early Classical Britannica fort is replaced by the Saxon Shore Fort, Limb on Romney Marsh, where a Classical Britannica fort

is replaced by a later Saxon Shore Fort, Pebbinsey and then Porchester. Porchester is probably the finest Roman fortification in Britain actually. The one at Limb is the worst because it actually was built in such a bad way, it just fell down the slope. All of those I think are Corozin or Electum. And this is the last major public building phase in Roman Britain. Can you imagine? I really feel for Corozin, actually, probably from 289 when Maximian's fleet disappears through to 293 when he suddenly realizes Constantius Chlorus is about to take Boulogne. He thought he made it. He actually was

being treated reasonably well by Maximian and by Diocletian because there were other things to deal with. And, you know, he was rebuilding Roman London and then latterly, you know, just to cover all bases or build these forts as well and everything. He thought he made it. He thought he made it,

but Constantius Chlorus turns up, takes Boulogne, Electus, as we've already talked about, gets Chorusius out of the way, and you've already hinted it already, the lighting of the beacons of Roman Britain following the fall of Boulogne, the removal of Corusius,

Electus is there, and the invasion that follows. Talk us through this fourth invasion of Roman Britain. So let's contextualise. First Roman invasion of Britain and second, season one and two, 5554 BC. Third Roman invasion of Britain, Claudius AD 43.

The fourth one is Constantius Chlorus AD 296. So Boulogne-sur-Mer has fallen. Chorosis is assassinated by Electus. And now Constantius Chlorus knows he's done the hard work on the continent. He's now got to invade Britain because he can't get any sense that Electus is going to surrender. So he builds another fleet. It's interesting here, by the way, isn't it, that the Romans didn't replace the Classical Britannica in the mid, let's say, 250s because they couldn't afford it. And yet we have here three fleets being built. Corosius' first fleet, Maximian's failed fleet, and now another one being built by Constantius Chlorus. So actually, when they need to find the money for a fleet, funnily enough, they can. And so here you have

another general from antiquity absolutely on his A-game. I think that Constantius Chlorus is the real deal, actually. One of the greatest Roman generals, actually, throughout the entirety of the Roman Empire. And he comes up with this amazing plan. It's like sort of the Normandy invasions, where he divides his fleet into two, and he puts his Praetorian prefect in charge of actually the one that's going to do the hard work. Two-thirds of the fleet, two-thirds of his army. He himself takes one-third of the fleet, one-third of the army, and he mounts

a feint. So it's like the Allies feinting towards Calais with all their sort of intelligence things in the Second World War, the Normandy evasion. Well here, he actually sends his fleet straight down the Thames estuary with him, a third of the fleet, a third of the army, parks himself within sight of London and stays there. and that fixes the defences of London including Electus initially in place and Electus isn't thick he does realise the south coast is at risk so allegedly he actually parks his own fleet off the Isle of Wight but Constantius Chlorus's Praetorian prefect is clever enough to realise that that might ambush him so he waits until it's foggy and very early one morning in 296, he sails into

the Solent using the fog to bypass the Norse Empire's fleet. And he lands two thirds of the force and that draws Electus down towards him with probably a ragtag army, some of his foederates, but also maybe any auxiliary. There's no evidence any legionaries joined him. And the battle takes place probably near Silchester, given the Roman roads going from the south coast through to London. And Electus is defeated and he's killed. So that means the North Sea Empire is over. There's one twist though, Tristan. The twist is what happens to London. And it's really, really important, this is actually one of the, oh, hairs on the back of your sort of neck go moments for me in British history. I just adore this story where Constantius Chlorus is standing

on the prow of his imperial galley, and he's got London before him. A word reaches him that the Frankish mercenaries who had been left in London have heard that Alexis is dead, and they're going to loot the place and leg it. So London's about to be sacked. So he arrives, saves London, kills the Franks, and the Londoners are all over him. So there's a great rescuer of Roman London. This is, of course, the incident recorded on the Arras Medallion,

where you have Constantius Chlorus on his charger, and a supplicant Londoner saying thank you and in the background this image of a war town with towers and turrets which is the first contemporary image of London and that's it the North Sea Empire is over so Constantius Chlorus spends about six months sorting everything out also it seems the northern frontier has been depleted of troops by Corrosius and Electus obviously because they're looking to the south coast and the threat from the imperial center so it reinstitutes the northern frontier has been depleted of troops by Corosius and Electus, obviously, because they're looking to the south coast and the threat from the imperial centre. So he reinstitutes the northern frontier again, where there are inscriptions showing units doing it, and then he goes back to the coast. And then in 297, he has this panegyric declared in his favour in the Basilica of Constantine in Trier, one of the most fantastic pieces of

classical architecture you'll ever see. Amazing. And this will have lasted for hours, where hagiographically a speech is made in his favour, and every two minutes everyone's having to applaud, hooray, hooray, for hours and hours and hours. And no one can leave, no one can go to the loo, because of course it's in favour of the emperor. But because he's done a good thing from the imperial centre's point of view, he's defeated the North Sea Empire. Absolutely astonishing, but also quite a short period in Roman Britain's history, isn't it? So why is this whole story with Corusius, with Alexis, with Constantius Chorus, why, in your opinion, is it so significant in ancient Britain's

story? I believe, right, I think it's a very important part of British history. And I love uncovering stories of history, as you know, where they're not in the popular conscience, but actually they ought to be because they're so powerfully important. This one really is. I think the Corals in Revolt actually bought another 100 years of the Romans being in Britain. Because Britain disappears from Roman history

after the Severan campaigns for about decades, just completely disappears for decades. It's peripheral anyway. It's a while west of the Roman Empire anyway. It's a long way from Rome, always has problems with the military there, always has usurpation problems later in the empire simply because it's got such a big military presence. You've got to maintain that maritime umbilical with the continent, etc., which without a fleet you can never guarantee. It could easily have dropped out of the Roman Empire as part of the Diocletianic Reformation,

I think. What Diocletian realises he's got to really do some drastically different things, I mean, he reinvents the Roman Empire, turns himself into a sort of an Eastern potentate, new kind of emperor, you know. I think he could have easily just said, oh God, just let Britain go, let it go its own way, you know, it's too difficult. But the Corrosion Revolt puts Britain back on the Roman map because although Diocletian or Maximian could have, you know, let Britain go its own way and fade from imperial control if it wasn't in the headlines the Corrosion Revolt immediately at the point when Diocletian becomes the emperor immediately the point when Maximian is appointed the emperor in

the east and then shortly afterwards immediately when you have the Tetrarchy created throughout all of those things suddenly headline news Guardian. Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, BBC website, First Story, every day of the updates, not what's going off in terms of foreign policy in the world today. It's this usurper, Corosius, minting his coins on the same as Diocletian and Maximian. It's there every day. So Britain is front page news for the entirety of the Corosian revolt.

And then it takes Constantius Chlorus on his A-game to get it back. Constantius Chlorus, of course, then later comes back and campaigns in the early fourth century as well in Britain, and later dies in York. And who's with him when he dies in York in 306? His son, Constantine I, who leads you six victorics, declare the emperor in York in 306. By 324, Constantine I, the only usurper in Britain who worked, he's the emperor of the entire Roman Empire. But it began for him in Britain. So from the point of the Corrosion Revolt,

Britain is back as front page news, and it remains part of the Roman world all the way through to the beginning of the 5th century. Do you think, in some ways, Corrosius' revolt, his able to create Britain as his own hub, his own centre, and Boulogne, but largely the Roman province of Britain, is he in turn a precedent for other usurpers that will eventually follow him in that century? I'm thinking names such as, is Maxentius the right name or so you've got magnentius and you've got magnus maximus who the two key ones then a 406 you've got the three sequential little emperors magnus maximus nearly worked magnentius nearly worked all of them by the way overplay their hands carosius is clever this is the thing about carosius which separates him from the other ones actually it's a great point your matrix and actually brilliant it's because he was content to stay where he was he stayed in britain tried to keep Northern Gaul, but stayed

in Britain. He didn't want to get the continent, didn't want to invade Italy. What? Pulls the rug from under Magnentius, Magnus Maximus, Constantine III, they try and invade Italy. They try and go for the whole lot. Well, Carozzi actually was perfectly happy with his coin minted with the other two emperors on it. And he was probably unlucky in that he actually ended up facing one of the best Roman generals ever in Constantius Chlorus, who had to prove himself because he'd just been made the Caesar. But certainly for that 10 year period, his success there would have been something which Magnentius and which Magnus Maximus and which Constantine III would have looked at and thought, you know what, well, if he nearly did it, maybe I can do

it. But what they didn't do is learn from the reason behind his success that he wasn't greedy. It's so interesting, isn't it? And I found that one of the facts you said right at the beginning of this podcast as we wrap up now simon the legacy of this figure corosius how you do have antiquarians bringing his story to the fore once again and then putting kind of a positive spin around it you mentioned that robin hood kind of yeah comparison that that is so interesting so striking of all figures that it's Corrosius. I think it's absolutely fascinating. You know, we see everything through the prism of the age in which we live.

And I love doing reinterpretations. And that means putting yourself in the past, looking at things through the eyes of people in the past. If you're a contemporary of Corrosius and you weren't in Britain or Northern Gaul, he's a hate figure, right? He's the bad guy, which is fascinating. And the one thing that you do get as a historian, I'm an archaeologist as you know, but I'm also a historian. Historians, we rely on historiography. So I always try and look at this historiography. And one of the threads you quite

rightly have pulled out is one I pulled out in the book, is this cultural reappropriation of Corrosius through late 18th, 19th and early 20th British imperialism. Where suddenly, as you say, he goes from being, as viewed by the Romans, the ultimate bad guy, 20th British imperialism, where suddenly, as you say, he goes from being, as viewed by the Romans, the ultimate bad guy, the bogeyman, to being the Robin Hood figure, who is a role model for plucky Britain. And you could argue, in the world in which we live today, in the context of our relationship with other parts of the world, for example, the European Union, you could argue, you know, this plucky Britain figure might be reappropriated yet again in the age in which we live. Well, there you go, Simon. As long as you're not leading the charge on that too strongly.

Certainly not, mate. I'm perfectly happy to put my data out there in my book, which is Roman Britain's Pirate King, which is the story of Corosius and Alexis and Constantius Chlorus. It's all out there. All the data's there. And as always with my books, although I give an opinion in my conclusion,

I always love giving the data set out so that all my readers or pod listeners can evaluate the data set out so that all my readers or pod listeners can evaluate the data and come up with their interpretation. Brilliant, my friend. Well, I was going to ask about your book, but your book you've just mentioned there. So, of course, it's The Pirate King. It's already out. It's a great read. And it just goes for me to say, you know what I'm going to say, always a pleasure to have you on the podcast, buddy. And no doubt we'll talk again soon. Thank you so much for having me on. I love talking to you, Tristan. I love all the positive

feedback I get from your listeners as well. And I really look forward to chatting to you again. Well, there you go. There was Dr. Simon Elliott, good friend of the podcast, returning to tell the incredible story of Corrosius, this Roman usurper of Britain, the pirate king. I hope you enjoyed this episode i certainly loved recording it now last thing from me if you want to help out the ancients podcast if you're enjoying the ancients and you want to help out well you know what you can do it's very easy you can leave us a lovely rating on apple podcast on spotify wherever you get your podcast from and we the whole team would greatly appreciate it as we continue our mission to share these incredible

stories from our distant past with you and as many people as possible. But that's enough from me, and I'll see you in the next episode.