Professor Rob Collins

And so if we think of that too,

why would they leave their base of power to have an adventure in some foreign land?

You know, Brigham Aglos is a, you know, maybe Brigham Aglos' family has been running Vindolanda for decades, if not centuries already.

Yeah, I think that's what I would say.

You're absolutely right that certainly Roman Britain is coming to an end.

It's no longer part of the Roman Empire after the early fifth century.

Even if people still think of themselves as Roman and part of that imperial world, we don't have the direct political connection.

But the cultural change, the cultural shift takes much longer.

So Hadrian's Wall seems to still retain that sort of notion of a military space well into the fifth century.

But it's when the politics change that those soldiers are drawn elsewhere.

And yeah, we are left with smaller communities, you know, farmers, that sort of thing.

It's exactly that.

It's a fascinating period.

What's not to love about the Dark Ages?

We haven't even talked about King Arthur and the Wall.

Wow.

I mean, there are little hints and connections.

One of the things that is really interesting with Icadothan, for example, and some of that Northern vernacular Welsh poetry is a lot of the figures that come up in Arthurian romance in the Middle Ages

Those names are being plucked out, potentially being plucked out of these sources.

So Uriane of Rechid, for example, is one of those.