This they did in the second campaign of Agricola, about the year 79 A.D., and the Roman power was due to the divided factions and parties of the Britons, who, though they might have kings and all the outward show of sovereignty, were merely puppets in the hands of the conquerors. From this year to 400 the Romans steadily evolved a unity of their own in Britain. On their departure, history tells us how the British implored them to come back and protect them, so helpless had they become in the art of attack and defence.
As Evrauc belonged to the Brigantes, we may take it that it was the chief town of the British in the north when it passed into the hands of the Romans after the defeat of Caractacus. By them it was called Eboracum, and became the metropolitan of the north, the military capital and centre of the Romans in Britain.
The original Roman city was rectangular in form and of considerable dimensions. It is supposed to have been laid out in imitation of ancient Rome, on the east bank of the Ouse. A temple to Bellona was erected as well as a prætorium, in which the emperors sat, for Eboracum was honoured by the great heads of Rome. The first to reside here was Hadrian, in 120, whilst Severus died in the city in 211. This last had come over with his sons, Caracalla and Geta, and a large army, and the attendance of his whole court. His time was busily engaged in reducing the troublesome Britons to proper submission. The two sons nobly helped their aged father. Caracalla completed the erection of a strong wall of stone nearly eighty miles long, close to the rampart of earth raised by Hadrian, in accordance with the wish of Severus, to form a more effectual barrier against future incursions of the natives. During the residence of the court, Eboracum reached to the highest state of splendour. The constant visits of tributary kings and foreign ambassadors, who came to pay their allegiance to Rome, caused it to be unsurpassed among the cities of the world, so much so that it came to be called "Altera Rome." The remains of the Emperor Severus, though he died here in 212, were enclosed in an urn and sent to Rome.
The Emperor Constantius Chlorus died also in Eboracum in 307. His son, Constantius the Great, was present at his father's death, and by the army proclaimed emperor.