 Coins dated later than 383 have been excavated along the Wall, suggesting that troops were not stripped from it, as was once thought.In the "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae" written c. 540, Gildas says that Maximus left Britain not only with all of its Roman troops, but also with all of its armed bands, governors, and the flower of its youth, never to return.Having left with the troops and senior administrators, and planning to continue as the ruler of Britain, his practical course was to transfer local authority to local rulers.