lleribus_, and _Constantio Caesari_, 11 _tanto laeta munere
pastionum_. Traces of dyeing works have been discovered at Silchester
(_Archaeologia_, liv. 460, &c.) and of fulling in rural dwellings at
Chedworth in Gloucestershire, Darenth in Kent, and Titsey in Surrey
(Fox, _Archaeologia_, lix. 207).]

No golden age lasts long. Before 350, probably in 343, Constans had to
cross the Channel and repel the Picts and other assailants.[1] After 368
such aid was more often and more urgently required. Significantly
enough, the lists of coins found in some country-houses close about
350-60, while others remained occupied till about 385 or even later. The
rural districts, it is plain, began then to be no longer safe; some
houses were burnt by marauding bands, and some abandoned by their
owners.[2] Therewith came necessarily, as in many other provinces, a
decline of Roman influences and a rise of barbarism. Men took the lead
who were not polished and civilized Romans of Italy or of the provinces,
but warriors and captains of warrior bands. The Menapian Carausius,
whatever his birthplace,[3] was the forerunner of a numerous class.
Finally, the great raid of 406-7 and its sequel severed Britain from
Rome. A wedge of barbarism was driven in between the two, and the
central government, itself in bitter need, ceased to send officers to
rule the province and to command its troops. Britain was left to itself.
Yet even now it did not seek separation from Rome. All that we know
supports the view of Mommsen. It was not Britain which broke loose from
the Empire, but the Empire which gave up Britain.[4]

[Footnote 1: Ammianus, xx. 1. The expedition was important enough to be
recorded--unless I am mistaken--on coins such as those which show
victorious Constans on a galley, recrossing the Channel after his
success (Cohen, 9-13, &c.). On the history of the whole period for
Britain see _Cambridge Medieval History_, i. 378, 379.]

[Footnote 2: See, for example, the coin-finds of the country-houses at
Thruxton, Abbots Ann, Clanville, Holbury, Carisbrooke, &c., in Hampshire
(_Victoria Hist. of Hants_, i. 294 foll.). The Croydon hoard deposited
about A.D. 351 (_Numismatic Chronicle_, 1905, p. 37) may be assigned to
the same cause.]

[Footnote 3: It is hard to believe him an Irishman, though Professor
Rhys supports the idea (_Cambrian Archaeol. Assoc., Kerry Meeting_,
1891). The one ancient authority, Aurelius Victor (xxxix. 20), describes
him simp