A Bit of British History, Part II: The Romans

Roman campaigns in Britain

Roman Empire 54 A.D.

A Bit of British History, Part II:  The Romans

Rome was constantly expanding.  How many times in history class did you hear “The Far Flung Roman Empire?”  Yes, they did a lot of flinging.

As I told you in Part I, written British history began in 43 B.C. with the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, but Britain took its time in being conquered. Not only that, but good old Julius  tried to conquer Britain a few time earlier, in 50 and 54 B.C.

Julius Caesar

 

As I also told you, for more than a hundred years the Romans didn’t hold the ground.   Lots of attempts, but it wasn’t until 77 A.D. that the last of the northern tribes were defeated and all of Britain became Roman.  Roman rule lasted until 410 A.D.

Let me again make it clear, this very succinct thumbnail is only enough to let you conquer the conversation at a cocktail party.  Believe me, this short bit will do the job unless you get stuck at a cocktail party with history professors, then keep your mouth shut and nod your head in agreement.  Most of your inebriated friends, on the other hand?  No contest!

I’m not going to pretend to acquaint you with every Roman emperor, every general, and every battle.  Want that much thoroughness and a treatment for insomnia?  Grab the six volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, or more recent books on Roman civilization.  As for me, I’m a whimp and a thumbnail is all the time I can afford between now and happy hour.

A thumbnail:  Counting Julius Caesar’s first foray into Britain, the Roman influence lasted about 450 years, from 43 B.C. to 410 A.D., but there were upheavals along the way.

Here are some highlights:

43 B.C. –Julius Caesar invades for the third time.  This time it sticks

77A.D. – the Northern tribes of Britain are conquered and Romans establish a permanent presence.

383 A.D. – Magnus Maximus, the Roman ruler of Britain takes his army to Gaul (France) and the Emperor of Rome makes Maximus the Emperor of Britannia and Gaul.  By depleting his army, he effectively gave up control of western and northern Britain.  In 388 A.D. he got too big for his armored skirt and tried to become Emperor of all of Rome.  Died in the attempt and that was the final decline of comprehensive Roman rule over Britain, although it took awhile longer to see the end of all Roman troops.

Magnus Maximus

402 A.D. – The Roman emperor, needing more troops to defend Rome against the ‘barbarians’ stripped the Roman forces guarding Hadrian’s Wall (Northern Britain), essentially destroying any hope the Romans had of holding onto control.

410 A.D. – Romans gone from Britain.

What interests me more than names and dates is how the Romans controlled all of Britain and what life was like under the Romans.

How the Romans ruled:

Apparently, the Romans took a very smart and convenient approach to ruling.  Not just in Britain, but in other places, they left much of the governance or at least a consultant part, with the chiefs of the local tribes.  Based on the Roman rule lasting for some 400 years, the system worked pretty well.

By the mid 2^nd Century, there were about 16,000 Roman legionnaires in Britain, along with 40,000 auxiliary troops. The auxiliaries were native forces, usually not stationed in their home countries.  Many of the auxiliaries for Britain came from what is now France and Germany. 

At this time, the native population of Britain was about 4 million, with the largest city, London, having a population of about 35,000.

How the people lived:

Not much changed from today’s stratus of haves and have nots, except today all our strata definitely live better.  Rich Romans lived very well, with villas and servants.  Yes, there were slaves.  It was that way a long time, from the Celts before them to the Saxons after them.

A Village Hut

The native Britains (Celts) lived much as they had before.  Huts with thatched roofs, food that they grew or gathered or hunted.  45 years old was an old man.  Half of all children died before they were ten years old.  However, since Roman villas were elaborate, native towns tended to grow up around them, with shops and markets and such, but apparently, they were small, more like neighborhoods than villages.  The central place in a Roman town was the forum.

Typical Roman Villa

The particulars of life under the Romans is fascinating and more than there’s room to go into here.  But here’s more cocktail party fodder:

Baths were essential to the Roman way of life and had three sections, the Frigidarium (cold), the Tepidarium (warm) and Caldarium (hot).  They end their bath time with a dip in a cold war pool.  To clean themselves, Romans oiled their skin and scraped themselves with a tool called a strigil.

A Strigil

You know the symbol for Wales is a leek.  But, did you know leeks were first introduced to Britain by the Romans?  As were a number of fruits and vegetables, such as cultivated apples, shallots, onions, garlic, cabbage, peas, turnips, radishes, and asparagus, grapes, mulberries, and cherries.  You can do a lot in 400 years.

The Welsh symbol of a leek has nothing to do directly with the Romans, however.  Legend has it that the patron saint of Wales, Saint David, asked his soldiers to wear a leek on their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons.  The Saxons wore saxophones.  Ok, I made that last part up.

Evidence of the Romans in Britain:

The most famous remnant of the Roman years is Hadrian’s Wall, that cuts across the north part of England and was begun in 122 A.D., however it is not and never has been the Scottish-English border and in one case is about 68 miles from the border, while in another part, the border is only 4 miles away.   More than just a stone wall, it also housed turrets and forts, some of which are still evident.  There is another wall farther north, Antonine’s Wall, but was only used for about twenty years.

Roman fort along Hadrian's Wall

The city of Bath has a wonderful Roman bath that was still in use until circa 1970. It still contains water and visitors can walk around inside what’s left of the building.  Even better is a magnificent museum telling all about the bath itself and Roman construction.

Colchester, which was the second largest city in Roman Britain, has a host of Roman ruins.  Use this link to take a virtual tour:  http://www.camulos.com/virtual/romantrail.htm

Revolts against the Roman occupation:

There were many over 400 years, but the most notable and one that came close to succeeding was the one led by Queen Boudica, also spelled Boudiccea and Baudicea of the Iceni tribe.  Her husband was an ally of Rome and when he died, he left a will leaving his kingdom to his daughters and the Roman Emperor.  However, the Romans ignored this, annexing his kingdom and raping his daughters.  Around 60-61 A.D. the Queen led an army of Iceni and other tribes against Colchester and burned the city, then moved toward Londinium (London).  The Romans, fearing they were not strong enough, abandoned the city. Queen Boudica led an army of 100,000 and sacked the city as well as others nearby, killing between 70-80,000 Romans and Britains who opposed her.  This made Emperor Nero consider abandoning Britain altogether.  But, before that could happen, the Roman Governor Suetonious Paulinius reorganized his forces and though greatly outnumbered, decisively defeated Queen Boudica.  The historic chronicles are not clear, but she either killed herself or died of an illness.

A quick question:  Why didn’t the Roman’s Latin last and the native languages of Britain become another romance language?  Ans: Sorry, you’ll have to wait for the next installment of ‘A Bit of British History:  After the Romans, what???

Now for the quiz:

1.    Did Julius Caesar’s friends call him Julie?   Ans: One did, once.

2.    Why was Magnus Maximus called that? Ans: Just a nickname his girlfriend gave him.

3.    Why did Hadrian build his wall?  Ans:  Nobody knows, so it will never appear on a test.