The tyrants of Britain: the usurpation of Constantine III

Abstract

This article examines the period of usurpation of Constantine III. The author comes to conclusion that a series of usurpations at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century is an inevitable consequence of the crisis of the legitimacy of the imperial power, the inability of representatives of the legitimate government to ensure security in large areas of the Western Roman Empire. The wide scale of the uprising that swept Britain, Gaul, and Spain was due to a number of domestic and foreign political factors, which include the invasion of the Goths, the weakening of the borders and garrisons, separating the «Roman world» from the world of the «barbarians», as well as the weak political power of Emperor Honorius. The war with the Goths forced Stilicho to withdraw part of the troops from the border of the Rhine, which allowed the barbarian tribes to begin an invasion of Gaul. The government in Ravenna was unable to provide military assistance to the provinces due to the Gothic threat, which led to the emergence of usurpers. The threat posed by the usurpers was much more important to Honorius than the invasion of the barbarians, so he was forced to make concessions to the barbarians in order to be able to suppress the uprisings.