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ROMAN BRITAIN: THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY

 

The Romans decided to conquer Britain for two reasons. First, the British Celts were aiding the Celts of Gaul against the Romans; the British Celts gave the Celts of Gaul food and also a place to hide from Roman attacks. The second reason Rome was attracted by Britain was because Britain was, especially in the southeast, a very productive island. At the time there were still important deposits of gold and other valuable metals. Britain's mild climate, due to the Gulf Stream, together with the advanced ploughs of the Celts, permitted the Celts to export grain as well as slaves and hunting dogs to the Continent.

With the invasions of Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BC, Britain enters history for the first time. Julius Caesar's accounts of the peoples he met are the first written descriptions in British history. But even with his descriptions it is not until after the Saxon settlements of fifth century AD that we can speak of a real written history of Britain. Throughout the Roman presence in Britain, there are many written sources but most of what we know still comes from archaeological digs.

The people that Caesar met were probably Belgic tribes, those peoples that had fled from Gaul under pressure from the Germans and the Romans. They already had a fairly advanced culture: they minted coins, used potter's wheels and had ploughs that enabled them to farm the heavy soils of the river valleys. Some of these tribes had a nobility that did not have to work the land. There were also slaves. The tribes also appear to have had a priestly class, the Druids. Caesar says that these Druids had their shrines in groves of oak where they performed various rites. They had a lunar calendar and their time unit, the fortnight (two weeks) still exists. But not all of the tribes that Caesar encountered were so civilized. He believed that some of the tribes of the interior lived on meat and milk and wore skins. Their great ferocity in battle made a great impression on Caesar.

In any case, Julius Caesar left without conquering and it was not until almost 100 years later, in AD 43 under the emperor Claudius, that the Romans came to Britain with four legions (a legion was made up of7,000 men) to conquer the country. The native Britons were no match for the organized Roman legions and, at least in the southern part of Britain, Rome ruled. In AD 61 Boudicca the queen of the Iceni, one of the Celtic tribes, led one of the last great rebellions against the Romans. She managed to defeat a Roman legion and destroy the Roman towns of Colchester, St. Albans and London before being defeated.

After conquering southern England, the Romans went on to conquer Wales, Chester in the north and Caerleon-on-Usk in the south. They also conquered what is now Scotland but did not have enough men to hold it; so they built a wall across the island to keep the Scots from coming south. This wall, known as Hadrian's wall, is 73 miles long and stretches from Newcastle to Solway Firth. It was built between AD 122 and AD 128. Long stretches of it are still in existence today.



Once the Romans had conquered what they could, they immediately began to civilize the people they considered barbarians. The southeastern Belgic tribes, who were mostly farmers living in settlements, accepted Roman civilization, while the hill dwellers led an unsettled pastoral life and never were willing to give up their freedom to become civilized Romans.

Britain became a Roman province with privileged municipalities that were self-governing. Each municipality had jurisdiction over an area about as large as a present-day county. There were five of these governing municipalities or cities: York, Gloucester, Lincoln, Colchester and Verulamium. The rest of Britain was divided into cantons that corresponded to Ce.ltic tribal areas. This was part of the Roman policy that tried to bring the Celtic people into the empire by maintaining tribal territories and by giving power to Celtic chiefs.

The presence of Rome revolutionized life in Britain, at least in part. The presence of the Roman army created a large demand for many goods such as leather and grain. It is estimated that the 60,000 Roman soldiers required at least 100,000 acres of cultivated land. The improved farming technology of the Romans made it possible to meet the new demand.

Another of the civilizing instruments of ancient Rome was the road. The Roman roads, many of which are still in existence to this day, were built to transport Roman legions quickly from one part of the island to another, but they also made it easy to transport goods and information. The most famous of these roads is now known as Watling Street, and it ran from what is now known as Dover to Chester and through the settlements that were to become Canterbury and London.

The Romans also founded many towns, among which was London. These towns were modelled after the Roman towns of Italy with its forum in the center, its public baths and amphitheatres. All together about 20 large towns of about 5,000 inhabitants and nearly 100 smaller towns were established by the Romans. Many of these towns were originally 'castra', that is, army camps, and those modern towns with names ending in 'caster', 'chester', or 'cester' (from 'castra') such as Lancaster, Gloucester, Winchester etc. were, in fact, originally Roman army camps.

In the end, even though the Romans were to rule in Britain for almost400years, they left few lasting marks on the country. They had occupied the south and east while the north and west remained almost completely outside of their control. Since the south and east were the easiest areas to conquer for the Romans, they also proved to be the easiest areas for future invaders to conquer. The result was that the areas that were Celtic during the Roman period remained Celtic when the Anglo-Saxons came, and the Roman areas became Anglo-Saxon.


Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1054


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