Maxima Caesariensis (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "The

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caes ...

ian province of Maximus"), also known as Britannia Maxima, was one of the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

of the

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of " the Britains" created during the

Diocletian Reforms Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

at the end of the 3rd century. It was probably created after the defeat of the usurper

Allectus Allectus (died 296) was a Britannic Empire, Roman-Britannic Roman usurper, usurper-Roman emperors, emperor in Roman Britain, Britain and northern Gaul from 293 to 296. History Allectus was treasurer to Carausius, a Menapii, Menapian officer in the ...

Constantius Chlorus Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus" ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as caesar from 293 t ...

in AD 296 and was mentioned in the

Verona List The ''Laterculus Veronensis'' or Verona List is a list of Roman provinces and barbarian peoples from the time of the emperors Diocletian and Constantine I, most likely from AD 314. The list is transmitted only in a 7th-century manuscript preserve ...

of the Roman provinces. Its position and capital remain uncertain, although it was probably adjacent to Flavia Caesariensis. On the basis of its

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

's eventual

consular A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

rank, it is now usually considered to have consisted of Augusta or Londinium (

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) and southeastern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. __NOTOC__ Roman Britain 410

History

Following the

Roman conquest of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Staneg ...

, Britain was administered as a single province from

Camulodunum Camulodunum (; la, ), the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "strapline" in the 1960s identifying it as the "oldest re ...

(

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

) and then

Londinium Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. It was originally a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 47–50. It sat at a key cross ...

(

) until the

Severan Reforms Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succe ...

following the revolt of its

Clodius Albinus Decimus Clodius Albinus ( 150 – 19 February 197) was a Roman imperial pretender between 193 and 197. He was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) after the murder ...

. These divided the territory into Upper and

Lower Britain Britannia Inferior (Latin for "Lower Britain") was a new province carved out of Roman Britain probably around AD 197 during the reforms of Septimius Severus although the division may have occurred later, between 211 and 220, under Caracall ...

(''Britannia Superior'' and ''Inferior''), whose respective capitals were at Londinium and

Eboracum Eboracum () was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimate ...

(

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

). During the first phases of the

, Britain was under the control of the

's Britannic Empire as part of the Carausian Revolt. At some point after the territory was retaken by

in AD 296, the

Diocese of the Britains Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

(with its

vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

at Londinium) was formed and made a part of

Prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

. The Britains were divided among three, four, or five provinces, which seem to have borne the names Prima, Secunda, Maxima Caesariensis, and (possibly) Flavia Caesariensis and Valentia. The placement and capitals of these late British provinces are uncertain, although the ''

Notitia Dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...

'' lists the governor of Maxima (originally an

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...

'') as having been elevated to

rank. Scholars usually associate this with the administration at

, which was also the capital of the diocesan vicar. Describing the

metropolitan sees A metropolis religious jurisdiction, or a metropolitan archdiocese, is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces. ...

of the early British church established by SS

Fagan Fagan or Phagan is also a Norman-Irish surname, derived from the Latin word 'paganus' meaning ‘rural’ or ‘rustic’. Variants of the name Fagan include Fegan and Fagen. It was brought to Ireland during the Anglo-Norman invasion in the twelfth ...

and " Duvian",

Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...

placed "Maximia" in

(

) and

in Flavia,Giraldus Cambriensis erald of Walesbr>''De Inuectionibus'' [On Invectives], Vol. II, Ch. I, in ''Y Cymmrodor: The Magazine of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion'', Vol. XXX, pp. 130–1.
George Simpson & Co. (Devizes), 1920.

. Translated by W.S. Davies a
''The Book of Invectives of Giraldus Cambrensis'' in ''Y Cymmrodor: The Magazine of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion'', Vol. XXX, p. 16.
George Simpson & Co. (Devizes), 1920. saying the former was named for the emperor

Maximus Maximus (Hellenised as Maximos) is the Latin term for "greatest" or "largest". In this connection it may refer to: * Circus Maximus (disambiguation) * Pontifex maximus, the highest priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome People Roman h ...

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Annal ...

followed him and this placement was generally accepted after the appearance of

Charles Bertram Charles Julius Bertram (1723–1765) was an English expatriate in Denmark who "discovered"—and presumably wrote—'' The Description of Britain'' ( la, De Situ Britanniae), an 18th-century literary forgery purporting to be a mediaeval work on ...

's highly-influential 1740s

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

The Description of Britain ''The Description of Britain'', also known by its Latin name ' ("On the Situation of Britain"), was a literary forgery perpetrated by Charles Bertram on the historians of England. It purported to be a 15th-century manuscript by the English monk Ri ...

'', which gave Maxima borders from the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

and

Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

;Hughes, William
''The Geography of British History: A Geographical Description of the British Islands at Successive Periods from the Earliest Times to the Present Day: With a Sketch of the Commencement of Colonisation on the Part of the English Nation'', p. 87.
Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green (London), 1863. this work was debunked over the course of the mid-19th century. Modern scholars are uncertain whether the province was named for the western senior emperor Valerius Maximian or the eastern junior emperor

Galerius Maximian Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sasanian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across th ...

. Birley has argued that Maxima and Flavia originally consisted of a single province, which received the name ''Britannia Caesariensis'' as a mark of favour for support against the rebel

in 296. Although Flavia is usually thought to have been formed from the old province of

, Birley proposes that

Upper Britain Britannia Superior (Latin for "Upper Britain") was a province of Roman Britain created after the civil war between Septimius Severus and Claudius Albinus. Although Herodian credits Severus with dividing Roman Britain into the Northern territory ...

was divided in two (between Prima and Caesariensis) and then three (Prima, Maxima, and Flavia). This repeats Camden's earlier theory (relying on

Sextus Rufus Festus (), whose name also appears in the manuscripts of his work as Rufus Festus, Ruffus Festus, Sextus Festus, Sextus Rufus, and Sextus, was a Late Roman historian and proconsul of Asia whose epitome ''Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani'' ...

) that Maxima was formed first and Flavia followed sometime after. Stillingfleet, Edward
''Origines Britannicæ: or, the Antiquities of the British Churches with a Preface, concerning Some Pretended Antiquities Relating to Britain, in Vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph'', New Ed., pp. 77 ff.
Wm. Straker (London), 1840.

References

{{Late Roman Provinces, state=collapsed Late Roman provinces Roman Britain States and territories established in the 3rd century States and territories established in the 4th century 410 disestablishments