| Guest speaker Graham Barker's great passion is the history of the Rebel Emperors of Britannia, which also happens to be the title of his book. He introduced with great enthusiasm the Emperors Carausius and Allectus (who reigned for ten years in England) to a very receptive audience at the lunchtime meeting on Monday November 17th. Carausius was a military commander of the Roman Empire who declared himself Emperor in Britain. He was in power from 286 - 293 AD. His seven years of reign ended when he was murdered and Allectus, his finance minister, took over. Interesting and quite surprising was that the discovery of their problems then weren't dissimilar to today's – high inflation being one them. Sickness like the plague and soldiers not being paid were other stumbling blocks. Carausius might have been responsible for a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel, one of which is the light house in Dover. |  He also minted coins with very high silver contents. Even the copper ones contained six percent silver. Many of them have been found in the west part of England. One thing they have in common is that the word Pax is imprinted on them – something we still wish for! |
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