Lecture 4. The Roman Invasion

The Romansfirst 'noticed' Britain due to her close relations with Gaul. Having conquered Gaul and made it part of the Roman Empire, Caesarcould not help hearing tales of pearls and corn in which the Isles were reputed to be rich.

Caesar's interest in the riches that Britain could offer was not his only reason for invading Britain. The island, of which so little was known at the time, was the home of Belgae, the Celtic people who had come from the Continent, and who interfered with Caesar's military success in Gaul by helping their fellow tribesmen there to fight against the Romans. So Caesar's expeditions to Britain combined punitive purposes with those of 'reconnaissance'. They were brief and from the Roman point of view successful:

He also invaded Britain, a hitherto unknown country, and defeated the natives, from whom he exacted a large sum of money as well as hostages for future good behaviour. (Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Julius Caesar)

Although in his first raid of 55 BC Caesar did not get far beyond Kentwhere he had landed, when he returned the next year, he marched with his legions as far as Hertfordshire and captured the principal fortress of the Celtic chieftain Cassivellaunus. The latter, after some unsuccessful guerrilla war against the Romans, was forced to promise that Britain would pay Romean annual tribute, but there is no evidence that the promise was ever fulfilled.

In 43 AD another Roman emperor, Claudius, led his army to Britain. That was the year when the real occupation of Britain by the Romans began. According to some sources, there was fierce resistance to the Roman legions(which had again landed in Kent). The Britons, led by Caractacus, gave them a great battle on the Medway River but were defeated. Caractacus escaped to Wales, but years later he was captured and with his family led in chains to Rome. After his defeat other British chieftains submitted to Roman power.

Within a few years of the invasion, the south-east lowlands of Britain were fully submitted to the Roman rule. The Romans built their encampments and fortresses on the sites of Celtic settlements, and thus the future English and Welsh towns appeared. Among them were Londinium(London), Verulamium (St Albans),Caerleon (Gwent),Eboracum (York),Camulodunum (Colchester),Glevum (Gloucester),Lindum (Lincoln),Corinium (Cirencester)and a number of others. Military camps and fortifications were accompanied by temples and basilicas, villas of Roman dignitaries, as well as amphitheatres, baths and workshops for craftsmen and artisans.

Some Roman settlementsbegan and developed as spas, the most famous of those is now called Bath, while the Romans called it Aquae Sulis(Sul's waters), after the god Sul worshipped by the Celts, who had first discovered the hot water springs on the site. Some thirty or forty years after the Romans' appearance in Britain, Aquae Sulis was already a thriving spa, with a hot water reservoir, a swimming pool, several baths, a sophisticated system of plumbing, drainage and heating, as well as a temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva, goddess of healing. Many of the Roman structures still survive and can be seen in the Roman Baths Museumunderneath the 18^th-century Pump Room(where the society gentlemen and ladies took the waters). The city's present name is also quite old and goes back to the 12^th century when the King's Bath was built over the original Roman reservoir and the main hot spring.

But the Romans had other, more important tasks to attend to in their new province besides building spas. They had to defend their frontiers against the unconquered 'barbarians' in the north and west of Britain, and therefore powerful garrisons were established in Eboracum, Caerleon and Deva (Chester)by 75 AD.

Somewhere between 122 and 135 AD, a solid stone wall was built by the orders of Emperor Hadrian(who had visited Britain in 121 AD) to protect the northern border from the Scots. It ran 73 miles long from Newcastle in the east to Carlisle in the west, and had 17 large forts along its length standing about 5 miles apart, with smaller forts in between, one Roman mile apart. Between each pair of these forts there were signal towers. The wall, known as Hardian's Wall, was constantly guarded by garrisons of infantry and cavalry until 197 AD. Then, after some time, it was rebuilt and re-garrisoned. It was finally abandoned in 383 AD, shortly before the final withdrawal of the Romans. Long stretches of Hardrian's Wall survive to this day, though its stonework suffered destruction in the 18^th century (when its stones were used to build a new road from Newcastle to Carlisle) and during World War II, when 300 yards of the Wall were pulled down and the stone put to military use.

To defend their new province and to keep it in submission, the Romanskept there a garrison of about 50,000 men altogether. For many of them Britain became a home, where they married, had children, built houses and so on.

The occupation lasted for nearly four centuries and led to a considerable Romanization of certain classes of Celtic population, especially in the south of Britain. Many Celtic chieftains, their families and their retinues were imitating the ways of Roman nobles and dignitaries.

The period of the Roman rule in Britain was the time when stone became widely used in building – not only private villas but many public buildings, both religious and secular, were constructed of stone. They contrasted sharply with the timber huts and houses of the Celts. It can be said that architecture, in the real sense of the word, now appeared in Britain for the first time. Although not many vestiges of Roman architecturesurvive in Britain (most of their buildings were destroyed or pulled down during the English conquestand later), they still give a clear idea of the high level of construction skills and of advanced engineering techniques. The remains of some 600 Roman villashave been excavated in England. They were all of different sizes, from very small and simple buildings to grand palace-like houses. Most of them must have belonged to Romanized Britons (‘Romano-British’ aristocracy). The largest and the most splendid villa so far discovered is at Fishbourne in Sussex. It is an enormous building of the late first century AD, which the archaeologists attribute to the Romanized Celtic King Cogidubnus.

The archaeological finds from the site of this and other villas confirm that their owners led a very luxurious life, patterned on the life of Roman patricians. Romanized Britons dressed in togas and leather sandals; their rooms were richly decorated with friezes, reliefs and sculpture; they had beautiful furniture and elegant tableware made of amber or silver. The rooms in their beautiful stone villas had marble or mosaic floors that were heated in winter; in bedrooms there were mirrors and elaborate toiletries that ladies used.

Among other objects unearthed at different times are ink-pots and pens, wine jugs and various kitchenware, etc. Many of such objects going back to Roman Britaincan be seen in the British Museumand in smaller but also interesting local museums. One of the best known of these is the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, which first opened in 1856.

The Romans built a network of paved roads connecting their cities and forts with one another and with London, which became the administrative centre of Roman Britain. The roads were extremely straight and wide enough to provide for the movement of troops and chariots. Some of the present-day country roads in England follow the tracks of the Roman roadsof nearly two thousand years ago. They are quite easy to distinguish by their characteristic straightness.

Roman Britainfell into two parts: the civil districts (the south and south-east) and the military ones (Walesand the north of England). The native population in the military districts was very little affected by the occupation. Apart from the Roman military presence(forts and garrisons), there was little interference of the Romans into local routine. In the southern parts, as has already been said, the Romanization of life – economical, political, social and cultural – was considerable. Rome looked upon its British province as a producer of grain, tin, lead and pearls, as well as a source of slaves. Agriculture was gradually modelled on the Roman pattern, and the same applied to other spheres of life.

The Romans also introduced Christianityinto Britain and although it did not become a universally or widely accepted religion until the turn of the 6^th century (see Lecture 4) it remained the religion of those parts of Britain which escaped the English conquest of the 5^th century and also penetrated into Ireland, where it played a great part long before St Augustine's missionof 597.

Five British towns during the Roman rule received the status of municipia– self-governed towns with the right of Roman citizenship for its free-born population. They were Verulamium (St Albans),Camulodunum (Colchester),Eboracum (York),Glevum (Gloucester)and Lindum (Lincoln).As has been mentioned in Chapter 1, Londiniumfor some obscure reason was never granted that status.

The most dramatic event that took place during the Roman occupationof Britain was the revolt of the Iceniof East Anglialed by their Queen Boudicca, or Boadicea, in 61 AD. Boadicea was the widow of King Prasutagas,whose last will was disregarded by the Romans. He had named his two daughters heiresses of his property jointly with the Roman Empire, and Boadicea was to remain Queen of the Iceni upon his death. The Romans refused to recognise her authority as Queen, and when she insisted on her rights, they physically abused her and her daughters. The Iceni were not going to let that insult to their Queen go unrevenged and rebelled.

Supported by a neighbouring tribe they attacked the important Roman town of Colchester, massacred its population and defeated the legion that was sent from Lincolnto defend it. After that Boadicealed them southwards, and in a few days their vast army arrived at Londinium. It was before the massive stone wall was built around it, and the settlement was almost utterly unprotected. It was therefore an easy task for the Britonsto destroy it and set it on fire.

But the rebels' triumph could certainly not last long. The news of the revolt reached the governor Paulinus, who was fighting in Waleswhen it started, and he returned with his legions to meet Boadicea's army in battle. After some fierce fighting with a heavy loss of life on both sides it became clear that the Iceni were facing defeat. To avoid capture and humiliation in Rome, Boadicea took poison.

The Roman Empireeventually fell, and its decline had a direct impact on Britain, for around 407 AD, legion after legion, the Romans departed from the British Isles and, although the departure apparently was not planned as permanent, they never came back. The regular arrival of Roman governors and officials ceased, marking both the end of Roman Britainand the approaching end of the Roman Empire itself.

After that Britain was in many respects thrown back a few centuries. The orderly, civilised life of Romanized Britonsof the southern parts was brought to an abrupt end; centralised administration disappeared, the economical structure collapsed, and anarchy, chaos and destruction replaced the law and order that had been maintained by the Romans for nearly four centuries. Raids of the bellicose and savage Scottish tribesand marauders from Ireland, the fierce strife among Celtic chieftainscompeting for land and power – all these calamities had been tearing Britain apart and weakening it even before the Saxon invadersfrom the Continent first landed on its shores.

Much of the cultural legacy of the Roman rulewas destroyed at that time, for many villas and public buildings were pulled down and the stone was used for other, non-artistic purposes. The fields were laid waste by the fighting bands and the population thinned. All this explains why the four hundred years of the Roman civilisation left so little trace in Britain and why the English Conquestwas so complete.

One of the few lasting effects of the Roman rule in Britain was the penetration of many Latin wordsinto the local languages and later into the language of the new invaders – the Germanic tribes. The latter had also absorbed a great number of Latin words into their languages during the time of their own close contacts with the Romans on the Continent. During the Roman rule in Britain Latin was the official language, and the Romanized Celts of the southern parts spoke Latin not only to Roman officials but very often also to each other (very much in the way Saxon lordswould speak French after the Norman Conquestof 1066). So Celtic remained the language of the poor, but even so it incorporated many Latin words which later entered the English language.

Among the earliest Latin borrowings in English were the words referring to trade, warfare and domestic life, for example:

This list does not exhaust the early Latin borrowingsin English, but many more Latin words were absorbed by English during later periods, both directly and indirectly (through French, Italian and even Spanish)

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1960