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BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: An Overview of Roman Britain

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An Overview of Roman Britain

By Dr Mike Ibeji
Last updated 2011-02-17
Did ordinary people suffer under a tyranny, when Rome seized power in Britain, or
were there advantages to foreign rule? Dr Mike Ibeji explores the realities of British life
at the time of the Romans.

Striving to be Roman
The Roman invasion of Britain was arguably the most significant event ever to happen to the British Isles. It
affected our language, our culture, our geography, our architecture and even the way we think. Our island has a
Roman name, its capital is a Roman city and for centuries (even after the Norman Conquest) the language of
our religion and administration was a Roman one.
In the wake of the Roman occupation, every "Briton" was aware of their "Britishness".
For 400 years, Rome brought a unity and order to Britain that it had never had before. Prior to the Romans,
Britain was a disparate set of peoples with no sense of national identity beyond that of their local tribe. In the
wake of the Roman occupation, every 'Briton' was aware of their 'Britishness'. This defined them as something
different from those people who came after them, colouring their national mythology, so that the Welsh could
see themselves as the true heirs of Britain, whilst the Scots and Irish were proud of the fact that they had never
been conquered by Rome.
Yet perhaps Rome's most important legacy was not its roads, nor its agriculture, nor its cities, nor even its
language, but the bald and simple fact that every generation of British inhabitant that followed them - be they
Saxon, Norman, Renaissance English or Victorian - were striving to be Roman. Each was trying to regain the
glory of that long-lost age when Britannia was part of a grand civilisation, which shaped the whole of Europe and
was one unified island.
The truth about Roman Britain is much more subtle and surprising...
I am usually asked five questions whenever people talk to me about Roman Britain, and they find the answers
profoundly surprising. People's view of Rome is of a grand, monolithic dictatorship which imposed its might upon
an unwilling people, dictating how they lived, how they spoke and how they worshipped. They see the Romans
as something akin to the Nazis (which is hardly surprising since the fascists tried to model themselves on
Rome). The truth about Roman Britain is much more subtle and surprising, and serves to show why on the one
hand their legacy has endured so long, and on the other, why their culture vanished so quickly once they
departed from these shores.

Roman invasion

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Rome invaded Britain because it suited the careers of two men. The
first of these was Julius Caesar. This great republican general had
conquered Gaul and was looking for an excuse to avoid returning to
Rome. Britain afforded him one, in 55 BC, when Commius, king of
the Atrebates, was ousted by Cunobelin, king of the Catuvellauni,
Roman soldiers
and fled to Gaul. Caesar seized the opportunity to mount an
expedition on behalf of Commius. He wanted to gain the glory of a victory beyond the Great Ocean, and believed
that Britain was full of silver and booty to be plundered.
His first expedition, however, was ill-conceived and too hastily organised. With just two legions, he failed to do
much more than force his way ashore at Deal and win a token victory that impressed the senate in Rome more
than it did the tribesmen of Britain. In 54 BC, he tried again, this time with five legions, and succeeded in reestablishing Commius on the Atrebatic throne. Yet he returned to Gaul disgruntled and empty-handed,
complaining in a letter to Cicero that there was no silver or booty to be found in Britain after all.
He needed the prestige of military conquest to consolidate his hold on power.
Caesar's military adventurism set the scene for the second exploitation of Britain - by the Emperor Claudius. He
was to use an identical excuse to Caesar for very similar reasons. Claudius had recently been made emperor in a
palace coup. He needed the prestige of military conquest to consolidate his hold on power. Into this situation
came Verica, successor to Commius, complaining that the new chief of the Catuvellauni, Caratacus, had
deprived him of his throne.
Like Caesar, Claudius seized his chance. In AD 43, he sent four legions across the sea to invade Britain. They
landed at Richborough and pushed towards the River Medway, where they met with stiff resistance. However,
the young general Vespasian forced the river with his legion supported by a band of 'Celtic' auxiliaries, and the
British were routed.
Vespasian marched west, to storm Maiden Castle and Hod Hill with such ruthless efficiency that the catapult
bolts used to subdue them can still be dug out of the ground today. Hod Hill contains a tiny Roman fort from this
time, tucked into one corner of its massive earthworks. Meanwhile, Claudius arrived in Britain to enter the
Catuvellaunian capital of Colchester in triumph. He founded a temple there, containing a fine bronze statue of
himself, and established a legionary fortress. He remained in Britain for only 16 days.
...Rome was prepared to defend her new acquisition to the death.
It took another 30 years to conquer the rest of the island (bar the Highlands). Once in, Rome was prepared to
defend her new acquisition to the death. Yet Britain was originally invaded not for its wealth, not for strategic
reasons, not even for ideology, but for the plain and simple reason that it furthered a politician's career. It has
been said that Rome conquered an empire in a fit of absent-mindedness. Britain is a case in point.

Romans in Britain
The Roman empire was based on two
things: lip service to the emperor,
and payment to the army. As long as
you acknowledged the imperial cult
and paid your taxes, Rome did not
really care how you lived your life.

The Roman fort and settlement of Vindolanda

In one respect, there were very few 'Romans' in Britain. There were Batavians, Thracians, Mauretanians,
Sarmatians: all brought in through service in the army, and all eventually granted citizenship and a packet of
land after their 25 years' service. They settled all over Britain, becoming naturalised British citizens of the
Roman Empire, erecting a wealth of inscriptions which attest to their assimilation and prosperity. Most of them
settled in or near the fort where they had served, staying close to their friends. Gradually, these urban
settlements outside the fort grew into townships, which were eventually granted municipal status. In certain
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cases, such as Colchester ('the Colonia by the camp'), the city was an official colony of veteran soldiers imposed
upon the local population; but usually the evolution was more generic. Chester (or 'the camp') is an example of
this. Standing on the city walls, you can still look down upon the remains of the amphitheatre that stood outside
the military camp. In this way, the army acted as the natural force of assimilation.
The evidence for what life was like in these places has largely been eradicated by the cities' urban sprawl, but in
more remote areas, like at Vindolanda up on Hadrian's Wall, you can still see just what the original Roman
settlement looked like. Vindolanda housed several units in its history, among them the Ninth Batavians - from
whom a large pile of correspondence was found written on thin wooden writing tablets, deposited in one of their
rubbish tips. There were over 200 of these writing tablets dating to AD 95-115. Mainly official documents and
letters written in ink, they are the oldest historical documents known from Britain.
...empty days, relative discomfort, boredom and loneliness.
Among them is a set of letters between Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of the camp commander, and her friend Claudia
Severa, wife of the commander at Housesteads, around ten miles up the road. They paint a picture of life on the
frontier very much like that of a British officer's wife on the north-west frontier: full of empty days, relative
discomfort, boredom and loneliness. Life for the ordinary people of the vicus or village seemed a little more
interesting than that of the upper classes, but it remained harsh and unforgiving. One soldier complains of being
beaten with rods; another refers disparagingly to the local British population as 'Brittunculi' (little Britons).
In the third century AD, marriage for soldiers was permitted, and the vicus, where their concubines had always
lived, was rebuilt in stone. They constructed a beautiful little bath-house where the soldiers could relax, and a
guest-house called a mansio, with six guest-rooms and its own private bath suite - for travellers on official
business - along the wall. The vicus at Housesteads was rebuilt at the same time (incidentally, an excavation of
one of its houses uncovered a murdered couple hidden under the floorboards). By this time, all adults in the
empire had been granted blanket citizenship and the 'Romans' in Britain had become fully assimilated with their
British neighbours.

Boudiccan rebellion
The best way to
understand how
Rome controlled
her provinces is
to look at why

A mosaic at the Roman villa of Fishbourne, first occupied in AD 43

that control
broke down in AD 60. The Boudiccan revolt was caused not because the Iceni were opposed to Roman rule, but
because they had embraced it too whole-heartedly.
Rome controlled its provinces by bribing the local elite.
Rome controlled its provinces by bribing the local elite. They were given power, wealth, office and status on
condition that they kept the peace and adopted Roman ways. If you took a Roman name, spoke Latin and lived
in a villa, you were assured of receiving priesthoods and positions of local power. The quid pro quo was that you
were expected to spend your money and influence in providing Roman amenities for your people, newly civilised
in the literal sense that Roman towns and cities were founded for them to live in. In Britain, physical evidence of
this process can be seen in inscriptions at the colonia of Colchester and in the palace of the client king
Cogidubnus at Fishbourne, with its spectacular mosaics.
However, new provinces brought with them new markets and unscrupulous speculators eager to fleece the
unwary. It was like the introduction of the free market to the post-communist world, and the worst sharks were
in the Imperial Household itself. Vast loans were granted at ruinous rates of interest to the British aristocracy,
by the likes of Seneca, the emperor Nero's tutor and adviser. At the same time, those who had been made
priests of the Imperial Cult at Colchester found it an expensive task.

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...Boudicca was flogged and her daughters were raped.

It was at this point that Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, died. In his will, he left half of his kingdom to the emperor
Nero, hoping in this way to secure the other half for his wife, Boudicca. However, the imperial procurator,
Decianus Catus, was aware that Nero viewed a half-share of an estate as a personal snub, and moved to
sequester the lot. At the same time, he sent in the bailiffs to act on the loans outstanding and allowed the local
centurions to requisition provisions for the army. When the royal family resisted these moves, Boudicca was
flogged and her daughters were raped.
...the Ninth Legion was massacred when it tried to stop the rebels...
There could be only one consequence. The humiliated Iceni rose up in revolt, joined by other East Anglian tribes
who had similar grievances. They could not have picked a better time. The governor, Suetonius Paullinus, was in
Anglesey, subduing the druids, with most of the army of the province. What remained of the Ninth Legion was
massacred when it tried to stop the rebels, and Colchester, London and Verulamium were razed to the ground.
The black earth of the destruction layer and mutilated tombstones attest to the ferocity of the British assault.
With just 200 men to defend him, Decianus Catus fled to Gaul at their approach.
Paullinus rushed back from Anglesey to deal with the revolt. The site of the final battle
is still disputed, but the form it took is well described (Tacitus provides a graphic
depiction of the whole revolt). Boudicca was defeated and committed suicide shortly
afterwards. The punitive expedition into Iceni territory was halted when it was feared
that further reprisals would harm future imperial revenues. Meanwhile Catus was
replaced by Classicianus, a Romanised Gaul from Trier, who took a softer approach. His
tombstone can be found in London, which became the new provincial capital at this time.

Religion of the Romano-Britons

Both Rome and Britain had polytheistic religions, in which a multiplicity of gods could be propitiated at many
levels. At one end of the spectrum were the official cults of the emperor and the Capitoline Triad: Jupiter, Juno
and Minerva, linked to other Olympian gods like Mars. At the other end, every spring, every river, every crossroads, lake or wood had its own local spirit with its own local shrine. The Romans had no problem in combining
these with their own gods, simply associating them with the god(s) or goddess(es) who most resembled them.
At Bath, the famous temple bath complex
was founded on the site of a local shrine to
the water goddess Sul of the hot springs.
She was linked to Minerva, for her healing
qualities, but images of other gods and
goddesses were also set up in the temple,
most especially Diana the Huntress, to
whom an altar was dedicated.

Coins found at the Roman baths at Bath

Over 6,000 coins were cast as offerings into the waters of Bath, along with vast quantities of lead or bronze
curse tablets, asking Sulis-Minerva to intercede on behalf of the worshipper. These were also nailed up on poles
within the temple precinct and provide an interesting glimpse into the everyday (and not so everyday) lives of
the people who visited the shrine. This did not just happen in Bath: two hundred curse tablets were recovered
from the temple to Mercury at Uley - approximately one third of all such tablets known in the empire - and
others were found elsewhere:
'May he who has stolen VILBIA from me become as liquid as water... who has stolen it or her. Velvinna,
Exsupereus, Verianus, Severinus, A(u)gustalis, Comitianus, Minianus, Catus, Germanilla, Jovina.' (Bath)
'To Minerva the goddess of Sulis I have given the thief who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether slave or free,
whether man or woman. He is not to buy back this gift unless with his own blood.' (Bath)

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'Uricalus, Docilosa his wife, Docilis his son and Docilina, Decentinus his brother, Alogiosa: the names of those
who have sworn at the spring of the goddess Sulis on the 12th of April. Whosoever has perjured himself there
you are to make him to pay for it to the goddess Sulis in his own blood' (Bath)
'I curse him who has stolen, who has robbed Deomiorix from his house. Whoever stole his property, the god is
to find him. Let him buy it back with his blood or his own life.' (Bath)
At the windswept hill-fort site of Lydney, where a temple was erected to the god Mars-Nodens in the fourth
century, another curse tablet was found, which reads:
To the god Nodens: Silvianus has lost his ring and promises half its value to Nodens. Among those named
Senecianus, let none enjoy health until he brings it back to the temple of Nodens. - curse renewed.
It seems likely that both Silvianus and Senecianus had gone to Lydney for its healing properties. Both no doubt
stayed in the adjacent mansio (much like the well-preserved guesthouse at Vindolanda), from which no doubt
the latter walked off with Silvianus's ring. A further wrinkle is added by the find of a beautiful hexagonal ring
bearing an image of Venus in the nearby Christian church at Silchester, on which was inscribed: 'Senecianus,
may you live in God.' Is it too much to surmise that seeking protection against the curse upon him, Senecianus
turned to the new religious power which the Emperor had recently adopted as the new state religion? Since the
curse was renewed, the ring obviously stayed lost.

Importance of Britain
People are always tempted to view Britain under the Romans as
a backwater province of Rome - of little importance to the empire
and offering even less profit. Yet throughout its history, Roman
Britain acted as a proving ground for aspiring politicians and a
powerbase for usurping emperors. Set aside arguments over
whether Britain was 'profitable' or not (it certainly was when
Julian used it to supply Germany in the 360s!), for such

The Colosseum at Rome

calculations never mattered to the empire. Britain was a frontier province, which contained three legions for
most of its chequered history. As such, it was important.
Britain was invaded because it could further a Roman's career. It was conquered for similar reasons. The
Boudiccan Revolt was only possible because the governor, Paullinus, was pursuing military glory against the
druids. His distinguished subordinate and eventual successor Agricola founded a very respectable career,
including a consulship in Rome, on subduing the rest of Britain.
According to Tacitus, he was only prevented from conquering Scotland by the envy of the emperor Domitian and
the half-finished legionary fortress at Inchtuthil tends to corroborate reports of a hurried withdrawal on imperial
orders (though Domitian did have a German war on his hands for which he needed troops). Domitian's father,
Vespasian, had begun an illustrious senatorial career with command of the legion that won the Battle of Medway
and took Maiden Castle. He had ended it as emperor.
Scotland remained a holy grail for the Romans...
Scotland remained a holy grail for the Romans, and once the emperor Hadrian had marked out the boundaries
with a prestige project of his own, it became a legitimate target for conquest. Hadrian's immediate successor
Antoninus Pius had a go, as did Septimius Severus and the father of the emperor Constantine, Constantius
Chlorus.
...Britain was an excellent base from which to mount a rebellion.
Constantine proved what many Roman generals before him had realised - that Britain was an excellent base
from which to mount a rebellion. When his father died at York in AD 301, the troops immediately acclaimed him
as emperor, and he used the British army as the core of the force with which he finally conquered the empire.
At the Milvian Bridge in AD 312, he scrawled the Chi-Rho symbol of Christianity onto his soldiers' shields, and
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won a miraculous victory. In gratitude, he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and at the
Council of Nicea established the Nicene Creed of the Catholic Church. In one respect, you could say that Britain
was the birthplace of Roman Catholicism.
Its loss was the first ominous death knell of Rome.
In AD 410, the civitates of Britain sent a letter to the emperor Honorius, asking him to come to their aid against
the Saxon invaders. He wrote back telling them to 'look to their own defences', and Roman influence in Britain
was officially ended. The very fact that the citizens of Britain appealed to the Roman emperor for help says much
about their self-perception as citizens of the empire, and the fact that the emperor could not oblige says much
about the pressure he was under. Britain had already 'looked to her own defences' in AD 259 under the Gallic
Empire and AD 284 under Carausius, and both times she had been brought back into the fold. Britain had been
conquered to satisfy the need of an individual Roman emperor. Once taken, the imperial image required that it
should be held onto tenaciously. Its loss was the first ominous death knell of Rome.

Find out more

Books
Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier by Alan K Bowman (British Museum Press, 1998)
Roman Britain by Peter Salway (Oxford Paperbacks, 2000)

Places to visit
Museum of London Roman Londinium exhibition Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN. Tel:
020 7600 3699
Roman Vindolanda Chesterholm Museum, Bardon Mill, Hexham, Northumberland, NE47 7JN. Tel: 01434
344277
Housesteads Roman Fort Haydon Bridge, Hexham, Northumberland, NE4 76NN. Tel: 01434 344 363
Fishbourne Roman Palace and Gardens Salthill Road, Fishbourne, Chichester, Sussex, PO19 3QR. Tel:
01243 785859
The Roman Baths Stall Street, Bath, BA1 1LZ. Tel: 01225 477785

About the author

Dr Mike Ibeji is a Roman military historian who was an associate producer on Simon Schama's A History of
Britain.

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