Tokushin English History Lesson: Romans in Britain: 55BC

Celtic Britain was a land of small farms. People belonged to various tribes which were spread all over Britain. Some were peaceful and some were not. Trade with Europe was an important part of the economy. Metal from Britain was of very high quality and was easy to export since much of it came from coastal areas that were closest to France. This high quality metal attracted the attention of the Roman Empire which had spread across Europe and the northern parts of Africa.

The Romans decided that Britain would be an easy conquest. In 55BC, the Roman army invaded.

The famous Roman general, Julius Caesar, made two attempts to invade Britain, first in 55 B.C. and then again in 54 B.C. Ceasar was shocked at the aggressive Celtic attacks on his invading army.

The Celtic army used large chariots pulled by two horses. The Romans army had never seen this type of fighting before and they didn't know how to react to thousands of Celtic warriors charging at them in their chariots.

Ceasar, realizing that he could not defeat the Britons, decided to remove his small army back to France. Britain was left alone for about 100 years but the Romans had not forgotten them. The Romans wanted revenge! In A.D. 43 the Emperor Claudius sent another army to invade Britain. The Roman army even brought elephants!

This time the Romans were successful. The Roman occupation of Britain had begun!

Roman Occupation
The Romans were very clever. They used a policy of divide and rule. Some Celtic leaders were paid a lot of money to accept Roman rule. Celtic leaders who refused Roman rule were attacked by the strong Roman army and their leaders were captured and killed. The Roman occupation still faced many problems with the Celts. One famous female Celtic leader, Boudicea, led a large revolt against the Romans in AD60.

Her army burnt London, Colchester and St. Albans killing an estimated 80,000 Romans and Romanized Celts. She also very nearly destroyed the Roman army. However, in the end, the Roman military recovered from its defeats and destroyed Boudicea's army, effectively ending Celtic resistance to Roman rule.
Eventually, the Celts decided to accept Roman rule even though they were not happy about it.

Roman London
One of the first things the Romans did after conquering a country was to build new cities, roads, bridges, aqueducts, and amplitheaters. This was to show not just the power of the Romans but also to demonstrate to the local population the advantages of Roman rule. In 47AD, the Romans decided to build a new city in a place that would have good access not only to the sea but also to other parts of Britain. This new city was called Londinium. At first Londinium was fairly small and occupied by the Roman army who built several forts, a wall and a bridge. Here is the city around 150AD:

The city prospered and many bureaucrats and merchants from the rest of the Roman Empire began to settle there:

Notice the large brick wall the Romans built around the city in the first picture. It can still be seen in many parts of the city. This section is near the Tower of London:

The wall had six gates. The names of these gates are still used for different parts of London. Remember, the "City of London" is actually just the area that once enclosed by the Roman wall. Here is a map of Roman Londinium and a map of modern London combined:

Life in Roman Britain
After the Romans had built their forts and defensive walls around their important cities like Londinium and Colchester, they began to build roads paved with smooth stones to all parts of Britain. This enabled the Roman army to travel quickly to any part of Britain quickly if there was trouble. They established many military camps. The word "chester" comes the Latin word for military camp. Thus, modern British cities like Chester, Colchester, Rochester, Chichester and Manchester were all once Roman military camps.
In the north of England, the Romans were forced to build a large defensive wall across the entire country. Hadrian's Wall, (named after the Emperor Hadrian who had it built), was designed to keep out the very warlike and aggressive people of Scotland. These ancient people were knowns as the Picts and they caused many problems for the Romans who had to keeps many soldiers guarding the forts along Hadrian's Wall. You can still see the wall today near the border with Scotland.

The Romans military believed that a happy soldier was a good soldier. Their military camps had buildings made of bricks with a central heating system known as a hypocaust.

They also build large heated baths. Some were very fancy like this example found in Bath, England:

Soldiers could also get letters and packages from their families in distant parts of the Roman Empire. Archaeologist have recovered many Roman letters and documents which suggest that a package could travel from one part of the Empire to the other half in about six weeks. Here is an interesting collection of original Roman documents from Vindolanda. The letters have been translated so that you can read them. Please explore the Vindolanda site to find out more about the Romans in Britain.

The Roman Decline
By the 2nd century A.D. Roman Britain had become quite wealthy. This wealth attracted lots of trouble for the Romans. The army was in constant demand to protect Roman citizens not only in Britain but also in other parts of the Roman Empire.

In the 5th century A.D. Emperor Honorius was worried by these attacks, so he decided that the Roman Legions in Britain were needed to defend France and Italy. He sent a letter to the people of Britain telling them why all the soldiers had to leave. He also gave ordinary people permission to learn how to fight the Saxons, who were invading Britain.