Eboracum (Classical Latin: [ÉbÉĖraĖkÅ©Ė]) was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britannia and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimately developed into the present-day city of York, in North Yorkshire, England.
Two Roman emperors died in Eboracum: Septimius Severus in 211Ā AD, and Constantius Chlorus in 306Ā AD.
Flavius Valerius Constantius (c.ā250 ā 25 July 306), also called ConstantiusĀ I, was a 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 to 305 and then ruling as augustus until his death. Constantius was also father of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome. The nickname "Chlorus" (Ancient Greek: Ī§Ī»ĻĻĻĻ, lit.ā'the Pale') was first popularized by Byzantine-era historians and not used during the emperor's lifetime.
As an Illyrian soldier of humble origin, Constantius had a distinguished military career and rose to the top ranks of the army. Around 289, he set aside Helena, Constantine's mother, to marry a daughter of Emperor Maximian, and in 293 was added to the imperial college by Maximian's colleague Diocletian. Assigned to rule Gaul, Constantius defeated the usurper Carausius there and his successor Allectus in Britain, and campaigned extensively along the Rhine frontier, defeating the Alamanni and Franks. When the Diocletianic Persecution was announced in 303, Constantius ordered the demolition of churches but did not actively hunt down Christians in his domain. Upon becoming senior emperor in May 305, Constantius launched a successful punitive campaign against the Picts beyond the Antonine Wall. He died suddenly at Eboracum (York) in July the following year.
Constantine I (27 February 272Ā ā 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, or known mononymously as Constantine, was Roman emperor from ADĀ 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christianity in Rome, the Edict of Milan decriminalising Christian practice and ceasing Christian persecution. This was a turning point in the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. He founded the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and made it the capital of the Empire, which it remained for over a millennium.
Born in Naissus, a city located in the province of Moesia Superior (now NiÅ”, Serbia), Constantine was the son of Flavius Constantius, a Roman army officer from Moesia Superior, who would become one of the four emperors of the Tetrarchy. His mother, Helena, was a woman of low birth, probably from Bithynia. Later canonised as a saint, she is credited for the conversion of her son in some traditions, though others believe that Constantine converted her. He served with distinction under emperors Diocletian and Galerius. He began his career by campaigning in the eastern provinces against the Persians, before being recalled to the west in ADĀ 305 to fight with his father in the province of Britannia. After his father's death in 306, Constantine was proclaimed as augustus (emperor) by his army at Eboracum (York, England). He eventually emerged victorious in Civil wars of the Tetrarchy against the emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire by 324.
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a minster, castle and city walls, all of which are Grade I listed. It is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of the wider City of York district. It is located 27 miles (43Ā km) north-east of Leeds, 90 miles (140Ā km) south of Newcastle upon Tyne and 207 miles (333Ā km) north of London. York's built-up area had a recorded population of 141,685 at the 2021 census.
The city was founded under the name of Eboracum in ADĀ 71. It then became the capital of Britannia Inferior, a province of the Roman Empire, and was later the capital of the kingdoms of Deira, Northumbria and Scandinavian York. In the Middle Ages it became the northern England ecclesiastical province's centre, and grew as a wool-trading centre. In the 19th century it became a major railway network hub and confectionery-manufacturing centre. In the Second World War York was bombed in the Baedeker Blitz. Although York was less targeted during the war than other, more industrialised northern cities, several historic buildings were gutted and restoration took place up until the 1960s.
Britannia Inferior (Latin for "Lower Britain") was a new province carved out of Roman Britain probably around ADĀ 197 during the reforms of Septimius Severus although the division may have occurred later, between 211 and 220, under Caracalla. The removal of the governors in Londinium from control over the legions guarding Hadrian's Wall was aimed at reducing their power, given Clodius Albinus's recent bid to become emperor. The province was probably formalised around 214 by Severus's son Caracalla.
Including most of modern northern England and the Midlands, the region was governed from the city of Eboracum (modern York) by a praetorian legate in command of a single legion stationed in the city. This subdivision of Britannia lasted throughout the Severan dynasty until the reorganisation of the empire under Diocletian in 296.
The second city of the United Kingdom is typically held to be either Manchester or Birmingham, between which the title is disputed. The title is unofficial and cultural and is often debated in the popular press between Birmingham, Manchester, and other candidates.
The United Kingdom has a primate city structure where London significantly surpasses other cities in size and importance and all other cities have much more in common with one another than with the capital, but various cities have held some claim to the title of second city through history. Eboracum (York), the northern capital of Britannia Inferior, would have been considered the second city by virtue of its prominence in Roman times. In medieval England, the second-largest city was Norwich. It was surpassed by Bristol in the seventeenth century.