The Gallic Saxon Shore

Across the Channel, opposite the British Shore Forts, on the coast of northern Gaul there is a coastal defence system that the Notitia Dignitatum also terms the ‘Saxon Shore’. This has led to the assumption that the defences on both sides of the Channel were all under one command, the ‘comes littoris Saxonici’, and constructed in a similar style around the same time, to face the same enemy.

The Notitia Dignitatum
The Notitia Dignitatum (List of Offices) provides the only reference to the 'Saxon Shore'. The documents as a whole comprises a list of military and civilian commands in both eastern and western parts of the Roman empire. Thought to have been compiled from earlier documents around AD 395, having been corrected and updated for the next 25-30 years, the copy that has come down to us is dated to around AD 425. 

The Notitia Dignitatum associates the ‘Saxon Shore’ with two lines of defence, located along the south-eastern and southern coasts of Britain and the Channel and Atlantic coasts of Gaul respectively.1

The 28th Chapter of the western section (Occidentis) lists nine forts in south-east Britain under the command of the Count of the Saxon Shore (comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam):

• Othona (Bradwell?)
• Dubrae (Dover)
• Lemanis (Lympne)
• Branodunum (Brancaster)
• Garriannonum (Burgh Castle or Caister-on-Sea?)
• Regulbium (Reculver)
• Rutupiae (Richborough)
• Anderida (Pevensey)
• Portus Adurni (Walton Castle or Portchester?)

There are several coastal forts in Britain that could, or should, be added to this list: Claustenum (Bitterne), Burgh Castle or Caister-on-Sea (only one of the forts on the Great Estuary is listed as Garriannonum), Old Skegness (on the opposite side if the Wash to Brancaster), and then possibly Brough-on-Humber which was rebuilt in the style of the Saxon Shore forts. Accepting Portchester as Portus Adurni, then Walton would make a total of fourteen Shore forts. The argument that only the nine listed in the Notitia Dignatum were occupied at the time the document was compiled does not stand up to scrutiny as the fort at Lemanis (Lympne) had been abandoned for several decades by the time the Notitia Dignitatum was compiled. 

There are some significant omissions in the document for Britain, for example the Yorkshire signal stations, Scarborough, Filey, Goldsborough, Huntcliffe and Ravenscar have been omitted completely and do not appear listed under the command of the dux Britanniarum. The signal stations on the Yorkshire coast were constructed during the Theodosian reorganisations following the ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ of AD 367.  Although they had a relatively short occupancy, probably 20-30 years, they would have still been active in the late 4th century when the Notitia Dignitatum was complied.2

Naval forces are completely absent from any of the chapters referring to Britain; the Roman fleet operating in British waters, the Classis Britannica, is not recorded after the mid-3rd century. The former Pevensey fleet, the Classis Anderetianorum, is recorded but by the time of the compilation of the Notitia Dignitatum it had been transferred to Paris. The Welsh sections of the list are missing, or perhaps never compiled.

As we can see the Notitia Dignitatum is an unreliable document of limited accuracy; its value is, at best, debatable. We must therefore use the document with caution, however it does provide a useful snapshot of the unknown author’s knowledge of the Roman forces around the end of the 4th century. 

Around this time Magnus Maximus had depleted the British garrison in AD 383 to pursue his imperial ambitions, then Stilicho the supreme commander of the western Empire and caretaker of the boy Emperor Honorius pulled troops from Britain and the Rhine to counter the threat to Rome from Alaric in AD 401. When Constantine III was declared Emperor in AD 407 and established himself in Gaul he took what remained of the British garrison with him. Britain would not return to the Empire. Thus, by the time of the compilation of the Notitia Dignitatum many of the commands listed had ceased to exist well before AD 395. The view that it is a single, coherent document is not tenable.

However, the document provides the only reference to the command of the ‘Saxon Shore’, a listing which has puzzled historians for many years who have looked to the coastal defences in Gaul to enlighten their research into the British system.

The Coastal Defences of Northern Gaul
In addition to the chapter on the British forts under the command of the Count of the Saxon Shore the Notitia Dignitatum includes two further chapters that refer to the coastal defences of northern Gaul. These two chapters include ‘castra’ which are described as being on the 'Saxon Shore' (in litore saxonico). Here, on the opposite side of the Channel we find a comparable defensive system, said to be contemporaneous with the Shore forts in Britain, the late 3rd century.3

The Duke of the Armorican region and the Nervian Frontier is listed in Chapter 37 and covers the coastal forts and towns in five provinces equating to the modern regions of Normandy and Brittany, while Chapter 38 lists three sites under the command of the Duke of Belgica Secunda, the modern area of north eastern Gaul and Belgium almost to the mouth of the Rhine.

It is often assumed that the Gallic coastal defences were under the command of the Count of the Saxon Shore as we would expect a Duke to report to a Count and that the Saxon Shore was one unified command on both sides of the Channel. However, the Notitia Dignitatum provides no evidence of such a hierarchy and lists the ‘comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam’ (Latin), translated as ‘The Count of the Saxon Shore for Britain’. The document does not list a ‘comes’ specifically for the Saxon Shore of Gaul.4

in Litore Saxonico
In Gaul, the Notitia Dignitatum allots thirteen forts to two duces. 

Chapter 37 of the Notitia Dignitatum lists ten forts under the command of the Dux Tractus Armoricani et Nervicani:

• Grannona, ‘in Litore Saxonico’ [on the Saxon Shore] (Guernsey?)
• Rotomago (Rouen)
• Constantia (Constances?)
• Abrincatis (Avranches)
• Aleto (Aleth)
• Osismis (Brest)
• Benetis (Vannes)
• Mannatias (Nantes)
• Blabia (Blaye)
• Grannono (Le Havre?)

It is uncertain if Grannono, the last fort in the list, is a duplictae of the first, Gannona, however it is usually treated as an individual site. The location of either has remained a puzzle for may years, notably of the ten forts listed under the Dux Tractus Armoricani et Nervicani only the first, Grannona, is specifically listed as ‘in Litore Saxonico’ (on the Saxon Shore). Suggested locations for the forts are alongside in brackets.5

The Notitia Dignitatum tells us that the command of the Duke spreads over five provinces of Gallia, which have been identified as the following:

• Aquitanica prima - centred on Bourges
• Aquitanica Secunda - the coastal area from Bordeaux tot he south bank of the Loire
• Lugdunensis Tertia - the area in Brittany from the Loire northwards and from Le Mans westward
• Lugdunensis Secunda - the whole coastal area of Normandy, from the Bay of St Michel eastwards to at least the mouth of the Seine and Rouen.
• Lugdunensis Senonia - an inland area like Aquitanica Prima, comprising the regions of Paris and Sens.6

The Dux Tractus Belgicae Secundae has three forts under his command; 

• Marcis, ‘in Litore Saxonico’ (on the Saxon Shore) (Marck, near Calais?)
• Portu Epatiaci (Boekhoute?)
• Classis Sambrica, in loco Quartensi sive Hornensi (Étaples?)

Although the locations of all of  these three commands are uncertain, suggestions are listed in brackets alongside7, it is claimed that us that they are on the coastline between the mouth of the Scheldt (modern Netherlands) and Dieppe in the Seine-Maritime region of Normandy, northern France.8

As with  the command of the Dux Tractus Armoricani et Nervicani, of the three forts listed under the Dux Tractus Belgicae Secundae only one, Marcis, is specifically listed as being on the Saxon Shore. It has been suggested that both the forts listed ‘in Litore Saxonico’, Grannona/Grannono and Marcis, should be found in one of the two places where there is some evidence for a Saxon presence.9 This requires acceptance that the term 'Saxon Shore' means the coastline occupied by Saxons, which is far from certain.

It is noted above the Notitia Dignitatum lists nine forts on the British Saxon Shore when there could have been possibly at least fourteen fortifications that at one time that made up the complete coastal defence system. There are also clear omissions from the Gallic commands, major sites such as Boulogne and Oudenberg are not listed. Far from providing answers to the meaning of the ‘Saxon Shore’ it appears at first glance that the Gallic coastal defences raise even more questions.

Notes & References
1. John F. Drinkwater, The ‘Saxon Shore’ Reconsidered, Britannia 54 (2023), pp.275–303.
2. Andrew Pearson,The Roman Shore Forts, The History Press 2002 (Reprint edition 2010).
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Drinkwater, op.cit.
6. Stephen Johnson, The Roman Forts of the Saxon Shore, BCA, 1979, p.77.
7. Drinkwater, op.cit.
8.  S Johnson: Late Roman defenses and the Limes, p. 65, CBA Research Report No 18, The Saxon Shore, ed. D E Johnston, 1977.
9. Ibid.

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