太田述正コラム#15260（2025.10.19）
＜Morris, Marc『The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England』を読む（その３）＞（2026.1.13公開）

　「・・・For the previous century, the western empire had been governed from the city of Trier, now in Germany, then in the Roman province of Gaul. But in 381 the emperor Gratian, probably because of the ongoing crisis in the Balkans, abandoned Trier for Italy, and removed his court to Milan. This was bad news for Gaul, because the presence of the emperor was a source of patronage for the local elite, and an important prop to the regional economy. It was also bad news for Britain, for the island was equally enmeshed in the empire’s political and economic systems.
　Several Roman writers noted that grain was shipped from Britain to feed imperial troops on the Rhine, and we can therefore reasonably assume that other British commodities were also being exported to Trier＜（注2）＞.

　（注2）アウグスタ・トレウェロールム（Augusta Treverorum）（現在のトリーア）。
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%88%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%A2
　The historical record describes the Roman Empire subduing the Treveri in the 1st century BC and establishing Augusta Treverorum about 16 BC.[13] The name distinguished it from the empire’s many other cities honoring the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The city later became the capital of the province of Belgic Gaul; after the Diocletian Reforms, it became the capital of the prefecture of the Gauls, overseeing much of the Western Roman Empire. From 293 to 395, Trier was one of the residences of the Western Roman Emperor. In the 4th century, Trier was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire with a population around 75,000 and perhaps as much as 100,000. The Porta Nigra (“Black Gate”) dates from this era. A residence of the Western Roman emperor, Roman Trier was the birthplace of Saint Ambrose. Sometime between 395 and 418, probably in 407 the Roman administration moved the staff of the Praetorian Prefecture from Trier to Arles. The city continued to be inhabited but was not as prosperous as before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trier

⇒英語ウィキペディアと違って、モリスは、トリーアが一時西ローマ帝国の首都であったと断定していますし、このトリーアと違ってロンドニウムこそが、ローマ帝国時代のアルプス以北の最大都市だったと示唆しているので、少々割り引いて受け止めなければなりませんが、ブリタニアからこのトリーアやライン川沿いに穀物を輸出していたというのですから、やはり、ブリタニアの豊かさが窺えるというものです。
　それにしても、首都が、トリーアからミラノに移り、ローマに戻らなかった理由が気になります。（太田）

　When the court was removed, therefore, it is likely that Britain was hit hard. Just two years later, in 383, the army in Britain revolted, and proclaimed its leader, Magnus Maximus＜（注3）＞, as the new emperor of the west. He promptly invaded Gaul, defeated and killed Gratian, and restored the imperial court to Trier.

　（注3）マグヌス・マクシムス（？～388年）。（イタリア等を除く、ブリタニアとガリアの）西ローマ帝国皇帝：383～388年。Born in Gallaecia＜（ヒスパニア）＞, he served as an officer in Britain under Theodosius the Elder during the Great Conspiracy. In 383, he was proclaimed emperor in Britannia, and in Gaul the next year, while Gratian’s brother Valentinian II retained Italy, Pannonia, Hispania, and Africa. In 387, Maximus’s ambitions led him to invade Italy, resulting in his defeat by Theodosius I at the Battle of Poetovio in 388.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Maximus
　Great Conspiracy＜（直訳すると「大陰謀」）：＞According to Ammianus, the following events occurred: In the winter of 367, the Roman garrison on Hadrian’s Wall rebelled and allowed Picts from Caledonia to enter Roman Britain. Simultaneously, Attacotti (of uncertain origin), Scoti from Hibernia, and Saxons from Germania landed in what might have been coordinated and pre-arranged waves on the island’s mid-western and south-eastern borders. The war bands managed to overwhelm nearly all of the loyal Roman outposts and settlements. The entire western and northern areas of Britannia were overwhelmed; the cities sacked; and the civilian Romano-British murdered, raped, or enslaved. Franks and Saxons also landed in northern Gaul.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Conspiracy

⇒マクシムスの「反乱」は結構知られているものの、サクソン人もからんでいるというのに、その直前に起きたGreat Conspiracyについては、その定訳が存在しないほど、イギリスの話が大好きの日本の識者達がこれまでこの「大事件」に関心を寄せてこなかったのは不思議でなりません。（太田）

　This attempt to reverse the direction of travel, however, was short-lived. Five years later Maximus was himself defeated and killed in battle by the new eastern emperor, Theodosius, and the western court was once again removed to Italy. The blow to Britain was compounded by the fact that, in order to effect his usurpation, Maximus had removed troops from the province, and they had either perished with him, or else stayed on the European mainland. A contemporary survey known as the Notitia Dignitatum (List of Dignities) suggests that by the 390s soldiers who had earlier been stationed in north Wales at Caernarfon were serving in the Balkans, while the legion formerly at Caerleon in south Wales had been relocated to Richborough, a fort less than a tenth of the size of their previous barracks. Archaeological evidence at such sites also suggests the military presence in Britain was rapidly diminishing.」（18）

⇒日本列島とブリタニアのどちらにも、その歴史の大きな転機が４世紀末～５世紀初に訪れたことは興味深いものがあります。（太田）

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