The Dorchester Belt

Introduction.

Shown opposite are the finds discovered at Dorchester-on-Thames by workmen in 1874. Sadly, it is believed they also threw some ironwork into the River Thames - possibly the remains of the original owner’s sword! Regardless, the surviving belt parts provide a perfect opportunity to recreate a known 4th/5th century AD artefact, as shown opposite. Why recreate a specific belt/ grave finds? The advantage of recreating a specific grave find is that it is difficult to go wrong as regards authenticity. You know that these items were worn by one man, in one place, in a defined time period. It also allows you to build a picture of the person who wore them by looking at what the area was like, what was happening and, building on the known facts to try and tell his story. It’s the story of one of the very last men who would see themselves as part of the Roman Army in Britain. This is my attempt to recreate his story.

Perhaps he was not a Christian or, at least, an “acceptable” Christian - the ‘Arian heresy’ was strong in the Germanic peoples, for example. Yet, despite the strong state sponsorship of Christianity at this period, there were no Christian symbols in Magnus’ burial. More likely is that, as in other towns, it was simply a case of racial segregation in death between Romans and Germans. Such segregation may reflect a general distaste by the Romans towards the ‘barbarian’ Germans. Sidonius Appolinaris in 5th century AD Gaul, for example, wrote that the invading Germanic barbarians were ‘quarrelsome, drunken and disgusting creatures’. He even described one as a seven foot tall, long-haired eater of onions, who smeared his locks with rancid butter.

What was 4th/ 5th century Dorchester like? Firstly, Dorchester was a small walled town, as evidenced by the size of its cemetery - some have estimated its population to be only about 600. Assuming a normal demographic spread, this would result in a maximum of 150-200 of males who could bear arms. A fulltime militia was likely to be small - perhaps only a few individuals - calling on local civilians to take up arms when needed. Despite this, it seems to have become a localised power centre, but perhaps being a vicus of about 14 acres rather than a civitas-type capital.

Dorchester was built in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, but the state of repair of its walls by the late 4th century is unknown. It occupied a strategically important location controlling the River Thames where it entered the old Catuvellaunian territory and where it crossed the Icknield Way as it led North to the Chilterns. To quote Laycock: “a perfect spot for the Catuvellauni to defend with some extra muscle hired from abroad”. Unlike elsewhere, Dorchester was remarkably successful in preserving its Roman heritage, with two storey timber buildings on stone foundations still being built in the late 4th and early 5th century AD and its lime kilns still operating. Moreover, based on radio carbon dating, the Roman cemetery was still being used until at least the 6th century AD. Hoards of late Roman period coins (e.g. Dating to the reign of Emperor Theodosius) have been found to a far greater degree than in other areas. Yet, some decay and the abandoning of buildings in the town are observable from AD 450 onwards while the cemetery continued to be used. So slow decline, perhaps, rather than sudden, violent fall.

The riddle at the heart of early Christianity was, on the one hand, how could a ‘redeeming sacrifice’ - if less than a god - ‘atone for all of humanity's sins?’ While on the other hand, if Jesus was really a god, could he then really have suffered and died on the cross?...For scholars such as Arius trained in Greek philosophy and rationality, it was quite reasonable to proceed from the concept of a single, universal creator god to the proposition that whatever else Christ may have been, he was less than the supreme god, a subordinate deity somewhere between man and the Almighty. Arius’ view was a simple theology, one that had rationality and also the merit that it could be readily understood.

Arian theology was opposed, however, by Athanasius, a fellow Alexandrian, who had devoted himself to memorising scripture and ‘the true science of the profound mysteries’. For Athanasius squaring monotheism with Christ’s ‘divinity’ required a peculiarly illogical (‘mysterious’?) formula, but theological speculation was not his strong suit. Rather, Athanasius stood by belief and experience of ‘Divine Mystery’, as interpreted in ‘the traditions of the Church’. He had no need for the logic of Greek philosophers and clung tenaciously to the doctrine that Jesus Christ was God.

Regardless, when Roman captives, gold or troops passed beyond the Empire’s northern frontier, Arian Christianity went with them. By the AD 370s, Arianism had been adopted by the Goths and spread from them to nearly all the German tribes. During the migrations and invasions of the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the kingdoms which rose on the fallen western Empire were almost all of Arian persuasion. Arianism served each in the same fashion it had served Constantinople under the Arian emperors: as a 'national' religion, in embryonic form potentially a 'department' of a 'national administration,' with bishops chosen by kings. The very notion was anathema to those of the 'universal', or catholic, persuasion whose grand design was for ecclesiastic not secular power, under the international authority of a papal monarch in Rome.

Catholicism ultimately triumphed. Sadly, Arianism's undoing was the same as paganism's before: it tolerated other religious beliefs.

Nearly two hundred years later, in AD 634, Catholic bishops were sent on missions to convert British ‘pagans’. St. Birinus, for instance, was given Dorchester as a bishopric, which on the face of it was an odd choice unless there remained a ready made congregation for him. Further evidence from place names, such as Wallingford to the South (the ford of the ‘Wealh’, i.e. Welsh), indicate that an indigenous British presence continued to exist. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle for AD 571 records that nearby Benson and Eynsham were still in (Romano-) British hands until eventually falling to the Saxons:

"Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda. tunas genom, Lygeanburg. ægelesburg. Benningtun Egonesham. þy ilcan geare he gefor"

‘AD 571. This year Cuthulf fought with the Britons at Bedford, and took four towns, Lenbury, Aylesbury, Benson, and Eynsham. And this same year he died.’

Elsewhere in the 6th century AD, Gildas describes the destruction in other towns:

‘So that all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds”.

So why did Dorchester survive when other settlements fell? We will probably never know the answer, but its strategically defensible position would be a good bet:

Defending the River Thames crossing for the Icknield Way made Dorchester important and worth re-enforcing.

Saxons sailing up the River Thames would have had to attack a walled town defended on all sides, perhaps pre-warned by a watcher on the hill fort, or sail on to find an easier target. Moreover, Dorchester was set back from the Thames on the old Roman road thus providing greater defence from river-borne attack.

If the old oppidum was given to the Germanic guards and their families in classic foederati fashion, perhaps led by our ‘Magnus’, then it is just possible that the leadership and organisation of Dorchester and its defences was simply better executed. Good leaders do make a difference, and the oppidum might even have served as a sanctuary had the main town been seriously under threat.

Time-line. The following time-line combines fact with conjecture in an attempt to bring ’Magnus’ and late Roman Dorchester to life: