Carausius and Allectus: The British Usurpers [Hardcover]

Mr. P. J. Casey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 1995

Between A.D. 286 and 296, the Gallo-Roman military commander Carausius and his successor Allectus ruled Roman Britain, forming a renegade government there that threatened the stability of the Roman Empire. Constantius Chlorus eventually suppressed this separatist regime, and his success paved the way for his son Constantine to use Britain as the base for his own bid for imperial recognition. Using literary, archaeological, and numismatic evidence, P.J. Casey brilliantly pieces together this little-known but extraordinary episode in the history of Roman Britain. Casey sets out the Continental and British background to the revolt, which he closely dates and, contrary to current published wisdom, locates initially in Gaul. He finds that Britain's independence was based on naval power-the first time that insular sea power played a major part in British history. He describes how Carausius and Allectus controlled the sea-lanes of the English Channel and the North Sea, maintaining what was probably the most effective naval force in the Roman world after serious naval warfare ceased in the reign of Augustus. He reviews the marine technology of the period and outlines the strategies of Roman coastal protection. He concludes by considering how Carausius was depicted by writers from the medieval period onward, in particular assessing the use of Carausius and Allectus as historical icons in periods of national crisis in British history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Casey is one of the world's leading experts on Roman coinage, especially that of Britain and Asia Minor. An experienced excavator (he has just published, with J.L. Davies, a report on seven years' digging at Segontium in North Wales), he is Reader in Roman Archaeology at the University of Durham. He is the author of, among other works, Roman coinage in Britain and Understanding ancient coins> --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300060629
• ISBN-13: 978-0300060621
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,938,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Imperial Shadows, April 28, 2000

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E. T. Veal (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carausius and Allectus: The British Usurpers (Hardcover)

The political history of Roman Britain is not well-documented, and among its more shadowy reaches is the ten-year period (286-296 A.D.) during which the island formed an effectively independent realm under the "emperors" Carausius and Allectus. The literary evidence for these figures is windy and exiguous, but they left behind large numbers of coins of many different types. P. J. Casey, an archeologist and numismatist, believing that coinage, properly interpreted, can make significant contributions to the historical record, has taken up the challenge of reconstructing the skeleton, if not the torso, of the Carausian regime.

The greatest part of the book is not a true narrative (which would take up only a few pages) but rather an analysis of raw data from speeches, chronicles, coins and excavations. The presentation is admirably lucid, but readers who are easily bored by tables of the distribution of mint marks may lose the thread.

Casey's efforts produce a convincing outline, tracing events from the rebellion of Carausius (a naval commander, assigned to chase pirates on the Gallic coast, who was accused of snatching their booty for his own purse) through his establishment of control over Britain, his loss and recapture of possessions on the continent, his overthrow by his treasurer Allectus and the latter's defeat by the Caesar Constantius (father of Constantine the Great) or, to be precise, by one of the latter's subordinates, who of course received no official credit. Unfortunately, the outline cannot be fleshed out with much detail. Even major incidents, such as the failure of the Roman authorities' first attempt at reconquest, are known only by inference. Through a dim haze we glimpse the clash of armies and fleets in what must have been "interesting times", but we can barely see who is fighting and cannot at all say why.

Appended to the main body of the work are excurses on three more or less related topics: Roman naval warfare (about which not much can be said), the mysterious "Carausius" coinage that appeared in the 350's (which some historians, though not Casey, attribute to an otherwise unknown "Carausius II") and - the most entertaining portion of the book - the legends that grew up around Carausius' name in the Middle Ages. Perpetuated and elaborated well into the 1700's, this pseudo-history transformed the Roman rebel into an Irishman, a Welshman, a Dutchman, a peacemaker between Picts and Scots, a savage invader of Scotland, the ancestor of a noble Venetian family and a founding father of the English navy.

Obscure though its subject may be, this is a well-crafted work, worth the attention of any serious afficionado of Roman imperial history.