Roman Britain
Rome ran Britain for almost 400 years, yet the island's most famous Roman road builders left behind a province that was never fully conquered and a capital that was never Rome's idea.
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Quick Facts
- What happened
- Rome conquered much of Britain from AD 43 and governed it as the province of Britannia until the early 400s.
- Invasion
- Emperor Claudius sent about 40,000 troops in AD 43, with the elephants reportedly following for his own victory display.
- First capital
- Camulodunum, now Colchester, was the first provincial centre; Londinium later became the main city.
- Northern limit
- Hadrian's Wall, begun around AD 122, ran about 73 miles (117 km) from coast to coast.
- Great revolt
- Boudica's uprising of AD 60 or 61 destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans.
- Spa town
- Aquae Sulis, modern Bath, grew around a hot spring dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva.
- End of rule
- Around AD 410, Emperor Honorius told British communities to look to their own defence.
- Lasting legacy
- Roads, towns, and place names ending in -chester, -caster or -cester, from Latin castra, a fort.
The invasion that began with a mutiny scare
In AD 43 Rome landed an army in Britain and stayed for roughly four centuries. That is the one-sentence version. The story is messier. Julius Caesar had raided the island in 55 and 54 BC but left without holding anything. It was Emperor Claudius, who needed military glory to shore up his shaky reputation, who sent four legions under Aulus Plautius. Ancient writers say the soldiers were reluctant to cross the Ocean, which they thought lay beyond the known world. Claudius himself arrived later for a short, carefully staged stay. He took the surrender of British leaders at Camulodunum, and returned to Rome for a triumph. Within a few years, southern England was under Roman control.
The queen who burned three cities
Boudica was queen of the Iceni of East Anglia. After her husband Prasutagus died, Roman officials ignored his will, and according to the Roman historian Tacitus she was flogged and her daughters were assaulted. She led a revolt in AD 60 or 61. Her forces destroyed Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium. Archaeologists still find a layer of burnt red debris under modern London, dating to this period. The governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus defeated her army, and Boudica died soon afterwards. The revolt shook Rome, but it did not drive the legions out. Londinium was rebuilt and grew into the province's commercial hub.
Walls, forts and a frontier that kept moving
Rome never conquered all of Britain. Governor Agricola pushed deep into Scotland in the AD 80s, but the army later withdrew southwards. Emperor Hadrian visited around AD 122 and ordered a great wall. It was built of stone and turf, with milecastles, turrets and forts such as Housesteads. Some years later, the Antonine Wall was built further north across central Scotland, but it was abandoned within a generation or so. Vindolanda was a separate fort just south of the Wall, first established around AD 85, decades before the Wall was begun. Its writing tablets, thin slivers of wood, bring the frontier to life. They include a birthday party invitation and a note about socks and underpants sent to a soldier.
Myths versus reality
Myth: the Romans made Britain from scratch. Reality: they met a country of farming communities, powerful tribes and hillforts, and many of these people adapted rather than vanished. Villas often stood on the sites of earlier estates. Myth: the legions marched out and the lights went off overnight. Reality: Rome's grip faded in the early 400s. Around AD 410 Emperor Honorius sent a letter telling the British cities to see to their own defence. Towns and trade declined over the following decades rather than in a single moment. Myth: Roman roads were all straight. Mostly they were, between surveyed points, but they bent where terrain demanded it. Watling Street and Ermine Street still shape the routes of modern roads.
Baths, mosaics and the Roman way of living
For some Britons, Roman rule brought glass windows, underfloor heating, wine, olive oil and public baths. The hot spring at Bath became a temple complex and spa, with the great bath fed by water that still flows at the same temperature. Grand villas such as Fishbourne in Sussex, which has the largest collection of in situ mosaics in Britain, show how wealthy people lived. At Chedworth in Gloucestershire, the villa sits in a wooded valley. Latin gave the English language words such as street, wall and wine. Place names ending in -chester, -cester or -caster come from castra, the Latin for a fort.
What you can still see today
Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best place to walk the frontier. Housesteads shows a fort sitting dramatically on a ridge. In Bath, the Roman Baths sit beside the abbey. At Chester, parts of the amphitheatre survive. In London, the remains of the Roman amphitheatre lie beneath the Guildhall, and stretches of the old city wall still stand near Tower Hill. Colchester keeps a stretch of Roman wall and the Balkerne Gate, while Lincoln has Newport Arch, a gate still used by traffic. At Caerleon in south Wales, the legionary fortress of Isca includes an amphitheatre and barracks.
Notable people
- Claudius
- Aulus Plautius
- Boudica
- Gaius Suetonius Paulinus
- Agricola
- Hadrian
- Honorius
- Julius Caesar
- Tacitus
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