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Those naughty Picts in Scotland were still causing trouble and had been for the last 30 years or so. A new emperor, Septimus Severus, led an army up north to try to suppress the opposition, signed a peace treaty, but as soon as he went back south, it all started again.

It was therefore decided to split Britannia in two. This was an idea Severus had in 197AD but he had spent so long thinking about it that when he returned south from Scotland to spend the winter in York, his brain was really tired. Soon his body felt the same way and he died. However his son Caracalla (John where are you?) went ahead with the plan.

Severus was a very interesting character. He had been born in North Africa and had dark skin. The Roman Empire was a very diverse place with people of many different origins.

The Province of Britannia Superior was the title of the southern province with its capital still in London. Most people in this province had already adopted Roman ways. The other province was known as the Province of Britannia Inferior and covered the north of the country that had been slower to change from their old Celtic ways.

It seems, with the superior and inferior naming, that the north and south of the country were viewed as at two different levels even in those days.

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