meet this
new situation, and we find, accordingly, a new officer now added to
the Imperial muster,--the Count of the Saxon Shore. His jurisdiction
extended over the northern coast of Gaul and the southern and eastern
shores of Britain, the head-quarters of his fleet being at Boulogne.

A. 3.--The first man to be placed in this position was Carausius,[321]
a Frisian adventurer of low birth, but great military reputation,
to which unfortunately he proved unequal. When his command was not
followed by the looked-for putting-down of the pirate raiders, he was
suspected, probably with truth, of a secret understanding with them.
The Government accordingly sent down orders for his execution, to
which he replied (A.D. 286) by open rebellion, took the pirate fleets
into his pay, and having thus got the undisputed command of the sea,
succeeded in maintaining himself as Emperor in Britain for the rest of
his life.

A. 4.--His reign and that of his successor (and murderer) Allectus
are marked by the last and most extraordinary development of
Romano-British coinage. Since the time of Caracalla no coins which can
be definitely proved to deserve this name are found; but now, in less
than ten years, our mints struck no fewer than five hundred several
issues, all of different types. Nearly all are of bronze, with the
radiated head of the Emperor on the obverse, and on the reverse
devices of every imaginable kind. The British Lion once more figures,
as in the days of Cymbeline; and we have also the Roman Wolf, the
Sea-horse, the Cow (as a symbol of Prosperity), Plenty, Peace,
Victory, Prudence, Health, Safety, Might, Good Luck, Glory, all
symbolized in various ways. But the favourite type of all is the
British warship; for now Britannia, for the first time, ruled the
waves, and was, indeed, so entirely Mistress of the Sea that her fleet
appeared even in Mediterranean waters.[322] The vessels figured are
invariably not Saxon "keels," but classical galleys, with their rams
and outboard rowing galleries, and are always represented as cleared
for action (when the great mainsail and its yard were left on shore).

A. 5.--The usurpation of Carausius, "the pirate," as the Imperial
panegyrists called him,[323] brought Diocletian's great reform of
the Roman administration within the scope of practical politics in
Britain. The old system of Provinces, some Imperial, some Senatorial,
with each Pro-praetor or Pro-consul responsible only and immedia