406-408 Anno Domini:
With the crossing of the Rhine by a mixed bag of what were termed in Rome as 'Barbarians' includign within their ranks Suebi, Vandals and Alans the entirety of Roman holdings in the West were threatened. The many years of civil warfare and bickering had left the Roman presence in Gaul somewhat weakened, this problem was only increased with Stilcho being forced to pull a huge majority of the Roman troops south into Italy to aid him in his stand against Alaric and his Visigoths. As such the various tribesmen met little to no resistance, ranging at will throughout the Gallic provinces with the mint at Mainz as well as many of the other rich Roman cities in the area being razed and their people put to the sword.
The continued ranging of these tribal agressors unchecked throughout Gaul led to a mass exodus of people towards the West, however due to the threat of Alaric to the south many of these people moved to the North West of Gaul assuming perhaps that the raiders would soon tire or that Gaul would be relieved by troops from Spain or Italy. This was no to be however and by the coming of Autumn in 407 Gaul had felt a devastation not felt since the time of the war between Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix.
Meanwhile, the provinces of Britannia seeing what seemed to them to be almost the final fall of the Empire quickly fell to near panic quickly elevating and then tearing down two elected Emperors before on what many modern historians, mainly those of British origin wistfully identify as the Ides of March, a soldier who had risen to the post of Primus Pilus (First Spear) within one of the remaining Roman Auxiliary cohorts was acclaimed as Emperor. Mindful of the end of his predecessors the new Emperor Constantine III quickly organised his former cohort the 1st Frisians and their sister the 2nd Frisians into his personel bodyguard, taking the standard of the Praetorian Guard.
Following this act he quickly rotates those cohorts available to him to allow for the proper defence of the Wall in the north while he calls for a meeting of all of the senior staff in the city of Silchester. In this meeting Constantine calls for the declaration of loyalty of all of the Senior Tribunes within Britain and grants the families and children of his new vassals positions within his new court. Having ensured the loyalty of his military commanders through this act Constantine is left at the close of the summer of 407 with the rapid influx of civilian and some military forces into his southern ports in the hopes of escaping the ravaging of Gaul.
The new Emperor moves quickly conscripting those vessels which dock in his ports into his fledging naval forces he creates two main fleets known as the velox magnus and the velox minor, the velox magnus containing roughly two thirds of those ships available to him are given the responsibility of protecting the Channel as well as the eastern shore from barbarian raids. The second fleet that of the velox minor sails to a small port north of Chester to aid in the defence of the west against the raids and settlement of Western Britannia by various Irish chiefs and kings.
With the continuing ravaging of Gaul the new Emperor recieves several petitions from cities on the northern coast of Gaul to move south and protect them where the Emperor in Italy cannot. However, upon consultation with his leading generals Iustinianus and the Nebiogastes the Emperor decided that before any endevour upon the continent the securing of Britannia must take priority. To this aim he dispatched Iustianus north to York with the authority to raise there the standard of two new legions, the Second Augusta and the Ninth Hispana to aid in this he was given the authority to consolidate the 6 cohorts of the north into these new legions and bring them up to the full manpower of 3840 men in total. Nebiogastes was sent to Londinium and then on to the the other cities of the east to bring in the total numbers of the men who were responsible for protecting the coasts known as the 'sea guards' after this he was made responsible for the creation of a head of operations to allow for a more coordinated defence of the coasts against the raiders and thus settled upon fortifications at Porchester to be the base of operations.
By the end of 408 Britainnia was existing in a state of some calm, with an 'Emperor' present within the province and making several decisions to protect the island the populace was generally happy. Alongside this the influx of merchants, ships and other civilians from Gaul was allowing for the rapid re-colonisation of that land in the North and West which had fallen to fallow following raiding and as such the province was able to feed itself with a fair surplus.