This is an in-depth re-assessment of the life of Magnus Maximus, Roman
Emperor ruling in the west from 383 to 388, drawn from Classical sources
and archaeology, which provides a very different impression of his life
to the one created by the post-Roman and medieval British insular
sources. While most historians tend to dismiss Maximus as an ephemeral
usurper, his time in the sun shows every sign of having been a success.
He cast a long shadow in Britain, where he was originally proclaimed.
Yet early non-Roman sources, notably Gildas, condemn him for leaving the
island bereft of defences due to his usurpation. In contrast, subsequent
writers cast him as the progenitor of several British dynasties on the
frontiers, while the medieval Mabinogion story 'The Dream of Maxen
Wledig' presents him as an all-conquering figure of Romance who allied
himself with a powerful British dynasty and facilitated the settlement
of Brittany by the British. Following an introductory account of Roman
Britain, its troubles and imperial adventures from Clodius Albinus in
193 to the end of the so-called 'barbarian conspiracy' in 368, Maxwell
Craven examines all the sources to show how important the ardent
Christian Maximus was to the settlement of the British frontiers. It was
his work that kept the British tribes from being overwhelmed by Germanic
invaders during the following centuries. Because of Maximus, the last
remnant of the Roman west ‒ Wales ‒ remained unconquered until 1282,
nine hundred years after Maximus was proclaimed.
