The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England

by Marc Morris

Now it was the turn of the rest of the population to rise in rebellion. According to the Greek historian Zosimus, writing in the early sixth century, the barbarian attacks drove the Britons ‘to revolt from Roman rule and live on their own, no longer obedient to Roman laws’. It was an extraordinary step prompted by the dire condition to which events of recent decades had reduced them. The whole point of the Roman state was to guarantee peace for its citizens with a well-trained army. If that army was absent, or so inadequate that it could not prevent the violent incursions of seaborne raiders, what was the point of paying taxes, or obeying a law that forbade civilians from carrying weapons? Self-defence was synonymous with self-rule. The Britons, says Zosimus, ‘armed themselves, and ran many risks to ensure their own safety, and freed their cities from attacking barbarians … expelling the Roman magistrates and establishing the government they wanted’.