MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNĚ PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA
Bakalářská práce Brno 2008 Lenka Schormová MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNĚ PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA
KATEDRA ANGLICKÉHO JAZYKA A LITERATURY Roman Culture and its Impact on British Society Bakalářská práce Brno 2008 Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Vypracovala: Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A. Lenka Schormová Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury. Souhlasím, aby má práce byla uložena na Masarykově univerzitě v Brně v knihovně Pedagogické fakulty a zpřístupněna ke studijním účelům. …...... podpis
I would like to thank to my supervisor Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A. for all his valuable comments and helpful suggestions throughout my work. Contents Introduction ...... 6 1. General Background ...... 8 1.1. Pre Roman Britain ...... 8 1. 1. 1. The Celtic Culture ...... 9 1. 1. 2. The Religion ...... 10 1. 1. 3. The Warfare ...... 11 1. 1. 4. The Language ...... 12 1. 2. Roman Background ...... 13 1. 2. 1. Roman Colonial Policy ...... 13 1. 2. 2. Cursus Romanum or the Political Career in Rome ...... 14 1. 2. 3. Roman Military Units ...... 16 2. Military and Civil Architecture of Roman Britain ...... 17 2. 1. Military Architecture ...... 18 2. 1. 1. Camps ...... 18 2. 1. 2. Forts ...... 19 2. 2. The Hadrian´s Wall ...... 20 2. 3. Civil Architecture ...... 22 2. 3. 1. The Hypocaust ...... 23 2. 3. 2. The Bath ...... 24 3. Roman Roads and Urbanization ...... 25 3. 1. The Road System ...... 25 3. 1. 1. The Construction of a Road ...... 26 3. 1. 2. Services around the Roads ...... 26 3. 1. 3. Key Routes ...... 27 3. 2. Urbanization of Britain ...... 28 3. 2. 1. Roman Towns ...... 28 4 3. 2. 2. The Countryside ...... 31 3. 2. 3. Londinium and Aquae Sulis ...... 32 4. The everyday life in Roman Britain ...... 33 4. 1. Religion ...... 33 4. 1. 1. The Early Beginnings of Christianity ...... 34 4. 2. Trade and Money ...... 35 4. 3. The Industry ...... 36 4. 4. Leisure Time ...... 38 4. 5. Fashion ...... 40 4. 6. The Art ...... 40 Conclusion ...... 42 Bibliography ...... 44 Internet Resources ...... 46 Summary ...... 47
5 Introduction “Yet we shall be looking at a period of some five centuries, as long a stretch of time as from the Wars of Roses to the present day. This is the age not only for which we first have contemporary or near contemporary written sources – in itself a matter of crucial historical relevance – but for the greater part of which Britain was absorbed into an empire based on the Mediterranean and subject to the direct ipact of classical culture.“ (Salway 1984: 3) The first century BC brought many changes to the Roman republic. Starting with the First triumvirate in 60BC the pact of Gaius Iulius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius affected the policy of the Roman state and implicitly caused the transformation of the Republic into the Empire. On the other hand, this pact enabled Caesar his campaign in Galia which brought him a fame of the conqueror of whole area and which also led to not very succesful attempts to foray into Britain. In the period between 70BC and 40AD the Roman empire enlarged its area almost three times and it was just a beginning of the expansion during which Rome ruled over almost a half of Europe, Asia Minor and the Northern Africa. We cannot consider Britain as an absolutely isolated part of Europe. The fact that British tribes supported Gauls fighting against Caesar, as well as the coinage evidence, approve the contact and the trade amongst the island and the continent. The culture of late Iron Age in Britain was on a quite high level and in some ways even Romans could have learnt from the British Celts. However, the Roman conquest brought to Britain many changes. The Roman culture affected the life of the Celts in every aspect, starting from the political and economical changes and continuing to new methods in building, introduction of new gods (later even Christianity) and at last but not least Latin language influenced English vocabulary a lot. My interest in this topic comes from my study of Latin at the grammar school. Roman erudition is one of the roots of European culture and it affected the development of modern Europe in many aspects. The Roman policy of colonies was a very clever instrument for ruling over such a great territory. By giving the power into the hands of local chiefs, who were often brought up in Rome, they managed, in the time of their greatest expansion, to hold the control over the the area of 5,000,000 km 2. Roman army, in that time the best organised and equipped one, seized the new territories by building 6 the systems of forts and towns and also by introducing the Roman standard of living to local people. In the beginning of the first century AD even the people out of Italy gained the status of Roman citizens and were theoretically given the power to influence the situation in Rome. It is very interesting to follow the changes in Europe and as the history lessons often more deal with the political changes than the culturals ones, I would like to explore the changes in the life of British Celts after the Roman conquest. Because it is important to compare the situaiton with the earlier period, the first part of the work is devoted to the brief description of the pre Roman era as well as to the explanation of the Roman colonial policy. The topic of the second part is the architecture and the innovations brought by Romans to Britain with the focus on the Hadrian´s wall where we can identify many of the typical Roman military buildings. The system of Roman roads also played very important role in the communication amongst the towns and camps as well as it provided quite comfortable trade routes. During the Roman rule over the Britain the first towns were built with the typical character of colonial settlement. The third part deals with the urban architecture of the towns and villas and with the importance of rebuilding of the Celtic fortified settlements into those typical for Romans. The last part maps the aspects of everyday life as the religion, leisure time or arts of the Celts in the context of Roman culture. The aim of my work is to provide a clear vision of the life in Britain during the four centuries of Roman dominion.
7 1. General Background The encounter of the Roman and Celtic civilisations created the bases for the birth of British culture as we know it today. Mixture of Latin and Celtic languages can be found in local names, many of present cities grew on the foundations of Roman towns, and probably not many people know, that old Roman roads are still used as the modern motorways. Folk music has its roots in the Celtic melodies and the Scottish tartan is probably a heritage of an old weawing technique. 1. 1. Pre Roman Britain “Who were the original inhabitants of Britain, whether they were indigenous or foreign, is, as usual among barbarians, little known. Their physical characteristics are various and from these conclusions may be drawn. The red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia point clearly to a German origin. The dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former date crossed over and occupied these parts. Those who are nearest to the Gauls are also like them, either from the permanent influence of original descent, or, because in countries which run out so far to meet each other, climate has produced similar physical qualities. (Tacitus: Agricola XI.) Britain in the first century BC was inhabited by Celtic tribes, who had come there about six centuries before. They were fierce warriors and they brought the knowledge of the ironwork to the island, which made them conquer the bronze age Britain more easily. We cannot consider the Celts one big nation, they were rather a group of tribes of the same origin 1, constantly warring, with a similar language, religion and culture. Romans usually described the Celts as barbarians, but that was a part of propaganda of bringing the civilisation to the undeveloped non Roman world. The truth is that in some aspects Celts outstepped their period, for example in the position of women in the society. The Celtic invasion to Britain started around the year 700BC and probably lasted almost to the times of Roman conquest. As they were always fighting each other, it is more probable that there was not one single invasion 2 which we know from the Romans, but
1 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and The English Settlements, p.80 2 McDowall: An Illustrated History of Britain, p. 7 8 the tribes were emigrating from the continent when forced out by the more powerful tribes. 1. 1. 1. The Celtic Culture In the first century BC we can talk about a very advanced culture of Celtic inhabitants. In contrast to the rest of the world the status of a woman in the society was equal to that of a man. Women could own property, choose their husband and even fight in the war. Boadicea 3 proved that not even the post of the war leader was denied to women. However, there existed some jobs typical for each sex, as spinning, weaving or dyeing for women, or blacksmith or druid for men. The Celts were primarily farmers. As the organization unit of the tribe was a clan (an extended family), it was usual that the farmstead was occupied by one family. The farms were rather isolated but there existed also bigger settlements and hill forts where usually the chief of the tribe dwelt with his warriors and nobles. On the farms the cattle was bred and the number of animals in the heard expressed the wealth of a family or an individual. With the iron technology the Celts also brought in the invention of an iron plough. The earlier ploughs were able to plough just the light soil of the uplands, but the iron plough enabled to cultivate the soil in the valleys and lowlands, which was richer. The typical Celtic field was not wide, but long, which was caused by the difficulty of turning the heavy plough pulled by six oxen. The typical crop was corn, which was par baked before the storage, to avoid mildew. The typical settlement consisted of few residential houses, storage pits, granaries, workhouses pens and fences for the cattle. The houses were built of wattle and daub in the lowlands or of stones in the highlands and the cone roofs of thatch. Around the settlement there was a fence or a wall built of timber and a ditch, to keep out wild animals and potential invaders. In the bigger settlements it was possible to find the shrines of local gods and also the cemeteries. The hillforts were large, strongly fortified settlements where the local chiefs dwelt and ruled over the country. They were self
3 Boadicea – queen of Iceni, leader of an uprising in 60AD, conquered Camulodunum (Colchested), the capital of the provincy, burnt out Verulamium (St. Albans), died during the uprising 9 sufficient in the production and for the winter they stored the corn, smoked meat as well as beer, wine and mead which were drunk in great amounts. Apart from the ironworking, the Celts mastered the bronz technology and were skilled goldsmithes, therefore we know many beautiful jewels like harness rings, gold torcs, bracelets or earrings which were worn by both sexes. The Celts generally cared for their appearance and unlike the Romans, they used soap and were proud of their long hair. 4 It was almost impossible to see anyone, however poor, in the dirty, ragged clothes. The men usually wore the short breeches and shirts, women long dress, both sexes used leather shoes. In winter the clothes were completed by a long cloak. The pottery was another art which the Celts mastered. This earthenware was used for cooking and for the storage of corn and liquids. With the use of an iron plough the Celts produced more corn than they were able to consume. Therefore the trade amongst the tribes and also with the continent and Ireland was on a high level and it provided an important political and social contact of the tribes. As the British Celts did not use the coins but the iron bars we can prove the movement of continental merchants from the coinage evidence. 1. 1. 2. The Religion The Celtic religion is strongly polytheistic. They worshipped many different gods and goddesses who dwelt in the forests, lakes and other natural places. There were about 400 of them, but new ones were coming with merchants and emigrants from the continent. In every house there was a small altar of the god whom the family worshipped and in the tribal capitals also many shrines were built to adore the gods. Likewise some places as the springs, trees or peaks of the hills were considered the holy places. The Celtic priests were called Druids and their duties were not only to keep the traditions and serve the gods, but they were respectable advisors, custodians of knowledge teachers as well as healers and poets. In the times of war they acted as parlamentarians and war council of the king. There were special universities for them
4 McDowall: An Illustrated History of Britain, p. 8 10 where there was orally transmitted tribal law and history as well as different rites, which could contain also a human sacrifice 5. The typical feature of Celtic faith were belives in posthumous life, which caused the audacity in the battle. Celts believed that when brave and fearless in the war they would be rewarded with a posthumous life with other warriors and endless celebration with beautiful women and plentitude of wine and mead. The only thing which they were afraid of was that the sky could fall down on the Earth. The custom of cutting off the heads of dead enemies also comes from the Celtic belief that the human soul lives there. As in other religions, also the Celts had many ceremonies, such as the festivals of Beltain on 1 st May or Samhain in the beginning of November which was the precursor for today´s Halloween. Very important was also Lughnasadh in the beginning of the harvest season, which was popular amongst the lovers who could contract a handfasting, which was a type of “mock marriage” which lasted one year and a day and which can be denied during this time or confirmed with a proper marriage 6. 1. 1. 3. The Warfare It is difficult to speak about the Celtic warriors as about the army for they were never able to train a military unit. It is possible that if unified they would be able to defeat the Roman army in a rather short time. However, the Celts were usually fighting for their own glory and therefore it was impossible to establish a disciplined fight force. Into the battle the Celts went with the little or no armour or they painted their naked bodies blue. They frightened their enemies with screaming, which supported by their appearance, had a terrifying result. As the use of iron proliferated, they usually used iron swords and daggers which were highly decorated. Unlike the Romans they used the war chariot 7 a lot with a great skill. Part of their equipment were bows and arrows, but more appreciated was the encounter battle, so they used bows when defending their sieges. It was not unusual to see a
5 Williams, H.: Christianity in Early Britain, p. 43 47 6 according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_calendar and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugnasadh 7 Salway, P.: Roman Britain, p. 34 11 woman in the battle for there was no taboo in that. The women warriors mostly fought from the chariots and were appreciated for their skills. Also different amulets and lucky charms had the important role in the battle, as well as a prayer before the battle. The victory was celebrated by a big dinner for the whole village with plenty of mead and wine. When the British Celts first encountered Caesar, he was really surprised by the chariot riders. When he adapted to the Celtic way of fighting, he started to win because of his well trained army. After this experience the Celts started the guerrilla warfare 8 and again inflicted losses to the Roman army. During the period of Roman supremacy there were many other rebellions, the most famoust is probably that one lead by a woman, Boadicea of Iceni. 1. 1. 4. The Language The last but not least important feature is the matter of language. From the pre Celtic period there are probably no remains even in the local names. We distinguish two varietes of Celtic language, probably brought to the British Isles in the different invasion waves. These varietes basically differed in an existence of q and p sounds. The first wave introduced a variety today called Goidelic (Q Celtic), where the q sound was used in the places where the second one, Brythonic (P Celtic) used the p. To the languages later derived from the Goidelic we classify the Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx and to the Brythonic family belong British, Breton, Cornish, Cumbrish, Welsh and probably also the Pictish 9. “It is now held that the original language brought to Britain by Celtic invaders belonged to the P variety, and that the Q variety did not reach Ireland by the way of Britain at all. In confirmation to this view it is pointed out by students of place names that, troughout Great Britain, no trace can be found of Goidelic names, except where they can be explained as due to migration from Ireland at a time subsequent to the beginning of our era. ” (Collingwood and Myres 1963: 19)
8 Salway, P.: Roman Britain, p. 35 9 the division according to The Columbia Encyclopedia, http://www.bartleby.com/br/65.html 12 1. 2. Roman Background Although originally occupying just the region of Rome, the Empire in the first century AD ruled over the area of almost 5 million square kilometres. This would not be possible without a system of the political functions given to the Roman aristocracy and methods how to bring up the local people to the loyalty to Rome. Before the fall of the Republic the posts of the governors were usually given to the members of the senate for whom the colonies were the source of their wealth as the office of senator was usually not paid. In the later period the trend to leave the colony to the local ruler appeared and those were controlled by the army officers of Roman origin 10 . 1. 2. 1. Roman Colonial Policy The first provinces Rome gained during the First Punic war (264 241BC), which was the first step to the expansion which later reached three continents. During the Roman Republic the provinces were ruled by the Roman aristocracy, usually nominated to the office for one year. Some of the problematic provinces were governed by the active or former consuls who were expected to have enough experience to rule over the area. The other were given to praetors and propraetors. All governors were supported by the legions which were distributed depending on the expected problems. However, the most appreciated colonies were those where a threat of the conflict was, because that usually meant a war which was a great opportunity to gain some wealth or at least capture some slaves. The importance of the colonies dwelt in the agricultural production which supplied Rome as well as the taxes were collected there which more often ended in the pockets of the governors 11 . With the beginning of the Principate (27BC –3rd century AD), the situation changed. Much of the power of the senate passed to the hands of the Emperor. The provinces were divided into the imperial, over which the governors ruled directly named by the emperor, and senatorial which were governed by the former magistrates for one or two years as it was during the republic. During the years the difference between the two types almost disappeared because of the increasing power of the emperor. Equally the 10 This happened in Egypt, where the power was in the hands of Ptolemy family 11 Pečírka, J. a kol: Dějiny pravěku a starověku II, p. 735 13 magistratus in the provinces ceased to be a priviledge of the ruling class of the Roman citizens and the power passed into the hands of local chiefs loyal to Rome. Britannia was a consular province and therefore the governor had to become a consul before he could be appointed the ruler over this province. The power in Britannia never fully passed to the local chiefs because of perpetual rebellions against the Roman rule. All the high ranks in the province were held by the men appointed by the Roman government and the leaders of the tribes usually accounted for keeping the treaties with Romans and solved the problems in their tribe. In some of the treaties even the duty of regular gathering of a whole tribe at a given place was required, but this was valid more for the tribes living behind the Hadrian´s wall. To assure the supremacy, Romans usually demanded men hostages. These people, usually young aristocrats, were taken to Rome and brought up in the same way as Romans. After that they were returned to their colony where they introduced the Roman lifestyle to the rest of the tribe. This policy not even favoured the Romans as the tribe usually did not want to forfeit its members but it also enabled to educate new and loyal generation in Roman style. It was also one of the ways of spreading the Roman civilisation. 1. 2. 2. Cursus Honorum or the Political Career in Rome Cursus honorum (or literally race for offices) is a Latin term for Roman political career. Traditionally, the offices in Ancient Rome had a given order, in which they should be held. This system helped to educate enough competent leaders of the whole state and gave a chance for a high office to qualified men of non aristocratic origin. It combined military and administrative career and each post had a given age limit for the appointement to the office. Except for the aedil, the politicians had to hold all the minor offices before becoming a consul, the highest rank in the Roman state. Another given rule dictated the gap of two years between two magistrati and therefore it really took almost whole life to get to the highest post. 12
12 according to UNRV History http://www.unrv.com/government/offices.php 14 Vigintiviri (20 men) was a very first step in a political career. This magistratus can be held from the 20 years of the age, usually for one year. Four duties were divided amongst twenty officers – jurisdiction in capital matters (mainly slavery), overseeing the imperial mints, maintaining the roads in Rome and charge of prisons and capital punishments. After 13AD this office was compulsory just for the Equestrian class. Tribunus militum was a military office held for ten years. From the age of 24 young men were appointed to the cavalry of a legion and given duties of administration and command. Questor was the first step for the career of a senator or even higher ranks. These men were responsible for state and military finances, some of them were appointed to the army or to some province. The minimal age for a questor was 30 years, later lowered to 25. To this office they could be appointed directly by the senate or by the emperor, and from these men two personal attendants of the emperor were chosen. Tribunus plebis was a direct representative of Roman people and he had a special authority in the conflicts between the plebes and patricians. They could even veto a verdict of a patrician court when it sentenced a member of plebes. With the end of the Republic this power of office was weakened as the Emperor held the power over the legislation. Aediles were four men who supervised the condition of the city, cared for the security and also maintained the city supplies. They controlled the cleanliness of the streets, repairs of temples, roads, aquaducts and sewers as well as precautions against the fire. At their own expense they organised and supervised the public games. To the office of praetor the Roman was eligible at the age of 40. Amongst the duties of praetors the administration of civil law, military command, role of a judge and also rule over the colonies belonged. After the end of an annual term, they could hold the title of propraetor and become the governors of provinces.
15 Consul was the highest office in the Roman Republic. The necessary age to become a consul was 42 years and for the office there were elected two men, who administered the state and army. As well as the preaetors, after the end of the term of their office they could be appointed to govern a province as proconsuls . In case of a death of serving consul, the deputy consul should be elected to replace him. The term lasted one year, but it was possible to be elected more times so far as between these two magistrates passed off ten years. Censors decided who is morally fit to sit in the senate and supervised it. Usually they were former Consuls and this post was considered the crowning of the political career in Rome. With the status of Britannia as a proconsular province, we can imagine the extent of problems, that exigerated the governor of such a high rang. The offices were not paid as they were considered honorary, but the governors of provinces could raise taxes, which then became their personal wealth. Also the way of ruling the provinces was a matter of each governor and therefore it was necessary to deal with some rebellions, when the taxes were too high or another claims exagerated. 1. 2. 3. Roman Military Units Roman army went through a long development to reach the high level of professionality and organisation. In the times of Caesar (100 44BC) it was the most efficient army in the world generally known to the people of that period. The army consisted of 28 proffesional legions (about 168,000 men) and of the similar number of auxiliary troops usually formed of local people. The time of the military service was twenty years, but Augustus reformed the lenght of the service to the interval of six to twenty years from which 16 years were of full duties and last four just of easier service. The smallest unit of the army was a contubernium of 8 men and 10 contubernia made up a century (80men). The other units were composed of different number of centuries – maniple of 2, cohort of 6, and finally a legion was composed of both cavalry and infantry and completed by non soldiers. It contained 9 normal cohorts and one “First”
16 cohort of five maniples, 120 horsemen (altogether 5240 men) and non military members such as doctors, surgeons or priests. The soldiers were not only trained in fighting, but each soldier had the basic skills in civil and military engineering and had to be able to swim and cook. Some of the legionaries were educated in different specialized skills like boat building, catapult making or arrow making. This led to the self sufficiency of Roman army. These highly trained legionaries were well paid and also provided the best available medical care. The discipline of Roman army was the most important step in the conquest of Britain and the fact, that Rome was able to rule over this area for such a long time, in spite of many Celtic uprisings, shows, that in that main advantage really dwelt perfect organization and training of the Roman army. 2. Military and Civil Architecture of Roman Britain When talking about the first Roman constructions in Britain it is obvious that those were the military camps and forts. Roman army was systematically occupying the Celtic area by building a system of military bases. In Roman army there were not just soldiers but each military unit contained craftsmen with different types of skills such as the boat builders, catapult makers and even the specialists in civil engineering. Also every legionary had a basic knowledge of the last mentioned and each of them carried tools for building the camp defences which they were able to construct in a very short time. Every occupied area was garrisoned by the fort which provided the military standard of living with the praetorium where the command was quartered, headed by the general. The temporary camps usually did not contain the civil section, but forts were equiped with baths and there was sometimes associated civil camp where the unofficial families of the soldiers lived along with different merchants. Though the legionaries were forbidden to get married, their children had a right of a heir, but this right was not related to their women until the marriage. Therefore the civil homesteads grew around the bigger forts. 13
13 Breeze, J.: Hadrian´s wall, p. 13 17 2. 1. Military Architecture 2. 1. 1. Camps 14 Roman military architecture can be divided into the two major groups – the temporary field works like the camps and the permanent forts which served as the legionary centres and therefore they were strongly fortified. The first mentioned usually operated as night camps and winter quarters and there was rather small garrison guarding them. By reason that the temporary camps were often built just for one night during the campaign we do not have much archeological evidence. Most of the information comes from the Roman writers who described the castramentation in their works. The two most important are Polybius and Hyginus. These descriptions differ in some details but that is caused mainly by the time gap of three centuries during which the fortification system went through many radical changes. Polybius wrote his description in the second century BC and therefore it is quite possible that the first Roman camps were really similar to it. „Polybian“ camp was built it the form of the square and in the rampart there were probably 15 four ports, on each side of the camp one. In front of the rampart there was also a ditch as the first defensive arrangement. The position of the soldiers` tents was given by the position of the praetorium with the general`s tent, which was fixed. All the lines among the divisions, which were of the rectangular plot, were at right angle. This type of camp was designed for the army consisting of about two legions (approximately 1,600 men). Hyginus, who wrote his treatise De Munitionibus Castrorum in the second century of our era, presents the oblong camp with round corners. This type of camp is more similar to the remains of the Roman forts in Britain and therefore the Hyginus`s work is more appreciated by historians. The number of the soldiers in the camp increased almost twice and with it also the number of the officers, which was three times higher. The
14 According to Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain 15 The number of the gates is not described in the work of Polybius but we can gather the information given in the work of Livy and other historians of that period.. 18 camp was divided into three parts – retentura and praetentura between which the latera praetorii with the tents of the commanders was placed. Except these two types also other forms of the camps existed which differed in the shape and number of gates. These can be found mainly in the northern, less cultivated, areas of Britain and are really rare in the lowlands of England. 16 2. 1. 2. Forts 17 The image of Roman forts is provided by the excavations, which are more extensive than those of the camps. The forts were built of stone and many of them resemble the pattern of Hyginian camp. Ditches and ramparts were again part of the fortification, but not the only one now. Turrets were warding the corners of the fortification and also the gates were more strongly guarded. When looking at the excavations of forts, one can see that not all the buildings were within the walls. Because of the fire danger the bath houses were usually built out of the fortificated area and whole civil suburbs also laid out of the defences. To ease their work, Romans often took advantage of the terrain and therefore we can find forts built on cliffs, like Homesteads, and quite a big part of Hadrian´s wall was constructed on the ridges of the hills. The internal buildings all belonged to the army. As well as in the camps, the forum (or praetorium) was the most important building of the fort. There were the offices of the headquarters, a strong room and a shrine. Near the forum there were one or two buildings which served as the houses of commandants and chief members of the staff. All these buildings had the pattern of a typical Roman house with the courtyard. The praetentura and the retentura were the places where the soldiers were billeted, each century in its own barracks. The interior resembled the arrangement of the tents in the camp, where there were built eight of them for the men and two for the centurion and deputy officers. The barracks were sometimes divided into the rooms by the walls of timber.
16 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 42 – 44 17 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 45 61 19 The fort also contained buildings of the granaries and when there was a cavalry, the stables, too. We do not know much about the space where the food was prepaired, but the water reservoirs, wells and ovens were identified amongst the smaller buildings, as well as the latrines. The streets were mostly made of gravel and sometimes paved with cobbles. 2. 2. The Hadrian´s Wall „The Wall itself was begun at the eastern end, and was originally planned to be in stone ten feet wide and about fifteen feet to the rampartwalk, as far as the Irthing, and from there onwards where good building stone is harder to come by, in turf twenty feet wide and about twelve to walk, perhaps as an interim measure. In front of the Wall was a ditch, of varying width and depth.“ (Salway 1984: 176) Even though the Hadrian´s wall is not the only wall built in Britain by the Romans and neither the furtherst placed one, it is the most important one. It was built probably between the years 122AD and 130AD to detach the Roman province from the northern tribes living in Scotland. It is almost 120km long (80 Roman miles) and it crosses the inland from Bowness on the river Solway to Wallsend on the Tyne. Nevertheless it was never garrisoned by the complete legion, the wall is an important evidence of the Roman military architecture because about 15 forts were attached to it. The excavations of the forts show us how the soldiers guarding the frontier, the most heavily fortified border in the whole Roman Empire, lived. As it was said, the wall marked the border of the Empire, but it was constructed mainly to provide a peaceful condition in Britannia. The wall was predominantly built of stone, but in the areas where it was not available, the turf was used. The wall itself was constructed as a very strong defensive system of a deep ditch with the entanglement and a curtain wall behind which ran the military road, which was built about fourty years later. About sixty yards apart there was a Vallum (a ditch on both sides with a mound). On every mile there was a mile castle built and also about fifteen full sized forts garrisoned the border. Apart from these there were also turrets built which enabled the communication amongst the garrisons, because of the distance between them, where each was in sight of the next one. As the remains of the wall are not so high we could
20 consider the full height of the wall not very tall. The fact is that it was almost three and a half metres high and to six metres wide. In the places where it was not possible to cross the river, also the bridges were built, one of them stood in Chesters. The wall was occupied by the military units until the Roman withdrawal from Britain, but for the time of the rule of Antoninus Pius (86 161AD) it was almost abandoned, for the reason that another wall was built more northward. However the Romans were not able to hold the concquered area and after Antoninus death Marcus Aurelius reoccupied the Hadrian´s wall. Only legions that supervised the wall were those three which built it. Afterwards the wall was guarded only by auxiliary units which consisted of the local men. The general strenght of the army was approximately 10,000 soldiers, composed of the infantry in the mile castles, supplied by the cavalry in the forts. For the wall had divided the area, it happened that some tribes or their parts were isolated behind the wall. As they were the citizens of the Roman Empire, the army provided them security, and also some gates were built to enable the trade across the wall. 18 During the periods of peace, the life on the border was quite easy. Even though the soldiers did not have any right for holiday, they were not in charge all the time. Apart from about fifty religious festivals during which they were out of duty, they could also apply at the officer for a leave. To keep the army fit, part of each day was devoted to the training which consisted of weapon exercise, physical training and sometimes they participated in military exercises. 19 For the rest of the time the soldiers usually had to help in the fort with everyday fatigues, patrol the wall or when free, they could visit the civil village attached to the military camp. Civil settlements were usually inhabited by the unofficial families of the soldiers, by different merchants and also by retired soldiers. In the villages there were also temples of different gods, some of them Roman, some brought by the soldiers from different parts of the Empire. The excavations uncovered remains of about fifteen forts in the proximity of the Hadrian´s wall. South Shields, Wallsend, Housesteads or Chesters can be the best 18 Breeze, J: Hadrian´s Wall, p: 15 19 Breeze, J: Hadrian´s Wall, p. 11 21 examples of the military architecture. In Chesters we can well distinguish the civil settlement from the fort. Also the excavations of the bathhouse show the structure of this necessary element of Roman settlement. 20 2. 3. Civil Architecture The civil architecture involves the houses, public buildings and bath as well as the religious architecture of different temples. It was introduced to the British people shortly after the conquest in 43AD. Providing comfort which was not known in Britain before it became very popular also amongst the local people, mainly amongst those who were better off. We can distingush two types of common houses, one which was frequent in the towns as well as in the countryside and one which is mostly found in the countryside, because of its size. 21 The type of the „corridor house“ was more common in the towns. Its name is derived from the fact, that all the rooms were enterable from the corridor. The walls in the ground floor were usually made of stone, but the first floor was made of wood and the roof was covered by tiles. The house was accesible from the street through the courtyard and the corridor created a roofed veranda around it. The Romans used an underfloor heating to heat some of the rooms in the house. As it was usual in Italy also the floors of British houses were paved by the mosaic. In Roman houses we can see the double rooms. The double room was a room divided by the removable wall or some curtains and when necessary it was possible to create one large room e.g. for dinners and feasts. This was the room where the hypocaust (or underfloor heating) was used. The walls were painted in warm colours and the floor was decorated by a mosaic. The houses were equipped by the kitchen and granary, sometimes also with a small garden, but the house of a not very rich family did not have its own bath. The baths were public, as well as in many towns the furnaces were public, too. This type of house was also used in the countryside, but as it was not limited by the space, the houses were usually much bigger and used as farms. They were surrounded 20 Johnson, J. S.: Chesters Roman Fort, 2001 21 Ward. J: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 73 22 by the wall and next to the house also the barns and stables were built. These farm houses were not usually occupied by Romans who lived in the towns, but by the local farmers who were able to earn enough money to run the house. A leftover of the harvest was sold to the army or it the market. This created a group of native farmers who made their wealth by the trade with the soldiers. We can also see some of these settlements around the Hadrian´s wall. The „basilical houses“ were not very common, or at least there are not many remains of them. From the first type they differ mainly in the lack of a courtyard. There are some doubts about the purpose of these houses as many of them seem to be used as barns 22 more than residential houses. In the excavations there were discoved the rooms with hypocausts, which documents the usage of a house as a residential building. 2. 3. 1. The Hypocaust This is a typically Roman invention which we can see in many houses. This quite simple technology enabled to stove the room without an open fire. Very quickly it replaced the open fire of Celtic houses where was a high probability of the blaze. The system basically consisted of a fumace, where was the fire kept in a brazier, the floor and hollow walls. The floor was built about sixty centimetres above the ground, on the pillars and created an underfloor chamber of the height that was proved to be an ideal for the circulation of the air. In each corner of the room the was a flue channel which led the hot air into the walls and then into the chimney. The last important detail were the holes in the bricks of which the walls were built and through which the hot air penetrated and directly heated the room. On the other hand, the fire needed someone to look after it, to feed it and to remove the ashes and therefore this invention was more popular amongst the rich people. 2. 3. 2. The Bath One could not be mistaken in the idea that bath was the most important place in the town. It served not only to clean one´s body, but already in Rome it was a place, where 22 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 87 23 people were meeting each other. 23 It was even such an important place that some contracts were arranged there. In the places where the bath laid near the river, the water was brought by the aquaduct, somewhere (e.g. Bath) the water of local warm springs was used and in the private baths it was usually brought in canistres. The bath was divided into four rooms – a sudatorium, caludarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath) and a frigidarium (cold bath). These differed in the temperature of the water and the intensity of heating. The caludarium was the hottest room of the bath. All the walls were heated by the hypocaust and the temperature of the water reached almost 50°C. The tepidarium usually had one wall shared with the caludarium and it was the only heated wall. The temperature of the water was about 30°. The frigidarium provided a bath with cold water. Usually this was the first place, where the man went and it served to freshen him. After that he went to the tepidarium and the caludarium, but there was no special ritual dictating the right order. The bath also provided a sudatorium (or laconicum) – an equivalent of nowadays sauna. Other rooms in the bath served as dressing rooms, in towns there was a massage room and many other services. The Romans did not know the soap, but they used oil, sponge and a strigil to clear their bodies. This procedure took place usually in one of the rooms with warm water, or sometimes there was a special room reserved. After the bath, the wealthy people had the massage and after it the perfumed oil was rubbed into the skin. Some baths also provided a space for some exercise or games, in the biggest ones we can find the remains of a swimming pool. The personal baths usually contained just the most important rooms. As an example of a typical public bath we consider the one in the city of Bath. During the years the architecture introduced to the Celts became popular amongst them and mainly the wealthy families started to rebuilt their settlements in Roman style. Also the army caused the changes of farmsteads which became important producers of the corn for the Roman forts. The soldiers also brought with them the money and as the Romans did not have any racial prejudices, many of the „marriages“ they contracted with local women. After they retired, the family was more similar to the Roman one,
23 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English Settlements, p. 200 24 than to the Celtic. This system enabled Romans to colonize the country and impose the Roman lifestyle to the local population. 3. Roman Roads and Urbanization Roads and towns are the part of the Roman heritage which has been visible until today. Many of British motorways are built on the foundations of old Roman roads and the towns which were the centres of provincial administration continue to be important also in our age. 3. 1. The Road System Before the Roman conquest there were no roads specially built to facilitate either the travelling or the trade. With the arrival of Roman army the demand for comfortable and mainly quick transport appeared. Most of the roads were constructed during the first century AD, that means in the period of gradual occupation of the island. Primarily the roads were connecting the military camps and forts and providing fast movement for the soldiers, material and information. Later also the roads linking the towns were built and the network of Roman roads finally reached the total lenght of 13,000 km. Though other nations used for such hard work slaves, Roman roads were built predominantly by legionaries, who were qualified for this work. Due to this policy many Roman roads still remain in a good condition. What was typical for Roman roads is that they were almost direct, just following the best terrain for the construction, but when necessary, cutting through the hill or crossing the river. The roads were made of different materials for the Romans used mainly the local resources. In case that the road had to cross a marsh, the oak piles were usually used to build the stable bottom. For crossing the river either the ford was used or a bridge built. Today many roads are overgrown with grass, but still easy to identify. The cover of grain have protected the road until today and therefore we can study the pattern of its construction. 24 Some rules for building of the roads were given by law, such as the minimal widht of straight road and the curve, and even in the laws of the Twelve Tables
24 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 23 25 (cca 450BC, the first Roman code of law) there is ordered to take care of the good condition of the roads. 3. 1. 1. The Construction of a Road Roman roads differed from those of other nations mainly by the ground work, which guaranteed the long lasting functionality. The construction was started by a deep ditch which was later filled with bigger blocks of stone and when the terrain was water sick and marshy, primarily the oak piles were driven into the mud and supported with timber beams. 25 This bottom was covered with clay, sand, gravel and flint, which was bound by cement. The final layer consisted of gravel and sometimes was paved with slate. In fact the composition differed a lot depending on the local material, but a thick layer of gravel was always kept. On the both sides of a road the ditches were excavated, which had to permit the drainage of rainwater. The road was 5 to 10 m wide and usually about 1.5 m up the other terrain. The fords were built in the same way as the roads, only more strongly constructed to resist the stream of water. The best example was probably the one across the river Trent near Littleboroug, which remained there till 1820 when it was removed. It was paved with large squared stones and kept in place by two rows of piles. Romans also built the bridges, but it is difficult to find well preserved remains in Britain, because some of them were used by medieval builders as piers for new bridges. Some remains of a bridge and an aquaduct can be found at Chesters, about the others we often know just where they were situated. The distance on the chief roads were marked by the milestones (miliaria). These stones are important documents as there were often the inscriptions on them from which we can locate the positions of some towns or at least identify the Roman place names. 3. 1. 2. Services Around the Roads As the roads were used for transportation a lot, the way side stations grew around them. These were divided into the mutationes, which were placed after about 8 km, and
25 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 26 26 mansiones 26 , distant from each other by one day journey approximately 24 km. Mansiones were inns, usually used by merchants and travellers, on the other hand the mutationes were places where the dispatch rider could have changed his horse for a fresh one and then continue in a ride. The owners of these stations were usually local people who could have made a lot of money by providing these services. The system of mansiones and mutationes was also part of the Cursus publicus, the Roman postal service, another of Roman innovations introduced to Britain. It was not rare that around the mansiones the detachements of auxiliary troops were built. 3. 1. 3. Key Routes As the old proverb says: „All roads lead to Rome,“ this is also valid for Britain, where the centre of similar importance was Londinium. Londinium was an important road junction, connected with three important ports of English Channel – Dubris (Dover), Noviomagus (Chichester – the place of the first Caesar´s landing) and Portus Adurni (Portchester). From the most important roads we could name the Ermine street from Londinium to Eboracum (York), where the Dere Street started and continued up to the Antonine wall. Another important road led from Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) to Lindum (Lincoln) where it met the Ermine street. 27 Together with the possibility of fast travelling, the road system enabled the better communication amongst the British tribes. Probably it led to the appeasement of Britain and as the road system is probably the most useful Roman work, it also hastened the acceptance of Roman overrule. It had also a great impact on the development of trade and some of the roads served as the routs for transport of iron and other materials to the places of their fabrication. 3. 2. Urbanization of Britain „The Mediterranean world is a world of town dwellers. By her early tradition, Rome, like the cities of Greece, rested upon an economic foundation of landed property, and in the last resort implied the conception of the citizen as farmer; but politically and socially the 26 From this word English “mansion” and French “maison” are probably derived 27 Winbolt, S. E.: Britain under the Romans, p. 54 60 27 civilisation of the Mediterranean depended on the life of the town, and implied the conception of the farmer as citizen. And the citizenship was no metaphorical expression of legal fiction; it meant bodily presence in the city, personal attendance at assembly and law court,…“ (Collingwood and Myres, 186) As opposed to the Celtic, the Roman public life demanded the town. From the early history of Rome we know, that only the inhabitants of the town of Rome were considered the Roman citizens. The fact, that many political rights were admited only to those living within the walls of Rome until 212AD, shows the importance of living in the town as the expression of involvement in public life. Celtic towns were more or less groups of huts built together at one place and there was no political discrimination of those who lived in the countryside. When Romans came to Britain, they were trying to impose their lifestyle on the Celtic people, but probably the only thing they were not able to achive fully was to organize the local population within the towns. However, towns became important seats of local administration as well as trade centres, but after all, they never gained such an importance to attract the poor countrymen to live in a town. 3. 2. 1. Roman Towns The Celtic pre Roman towns were more or less the groups of huts28 built near each other and enclosed by the rampart. When compared to the Gaulish sieges, the Biritish ones were less populous and less fortified. The towns did not have any special position in Britain and therefore the Romans had many difficulties with creating the administrative system, which in all the rest of the Empire was based on the towns. During the first century some of the important Celtic towns were fully replaced by the Roman ones, as the hill fort of Maiden Castle, which was deserted and Durnovarium (today´s Dorchester) was built close by. The same happened also to Llanmelin near today´s Caerwent in Wales. 29 Other towns were rebuilt in a Roman fashion, like Silchester, Winchester or Canterbury. The earliest development was very quick, for it was the main aim of the Romans and also the Roman art easily replaced that of the
28 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p. 187 29 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p. 188 28 Celts. The fact is that Romans believed that the urban life was the best possibility how to live, and an expression of civilization. Already at the beginning of the second century AD we can find big social difference between the inhabitants of the towns and the countrymen. Countryside almost remained unaffected by the Roman lifestyle and this can be visible at the excavations of townhouses and country settlement. The inhabitants of the towns were more wealthy than the coutrymen, which was proved by the findings of different goods, too expensive and useless for the farmers, but common in the town. The towns were homes of craftsmen, but still without the peasants, they were not self sufficient. Therefore two classes were formed, the one in the town, where almost everyone, even the poorest people, was able to read and write, as well as to speak Latin, whereas the life of the second in the country was almost the same as before the conquest. If one compares the town of that period in Britain to one in Italy, he will find differences in the architecture. Houses more resembled those of military forts than the town buildings of Rome. This was mainly caused by the fact, that all the British towns were designed by the army experts in civil engineering. 30 However there were some typical features that all the Roman towns had in common. The most important of them is the centre of the town forum. This served as a market place, on three sides there were built shops of the artisans. (These served also for living, the shop was usually enterable from the street and the work room and private rooms faced the courtyard.) On the fourth side, there was a basilica built. This served as a town hall and also as a gathering place. It is interesting that the basilica, as well as the public bath, were built much larger than necessary, 31 usually they were able to hold twice as many people than lived in the town and with the growth of the population they were even rebuilt to the larger extent. The private houses usually did not have the bath and therefore the public bathhouse was widely used. The streets were paved, with drains and the side walks for pedestrians. In fact when in the town all the public buildings were constructed and the fortification finished, the Romans regarded it as succesfully completed plan.
30 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English Settlements, p. 193 31 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English Settlements, p. 192 29 Apart from common jobs like blacksmiths, bronzeworkers, joiners or masons, the town usually had some specialized production, like dying in Silchester or ironworking in Wroxeter. These crafts were supplied with jobs of everyday importance, such as bakers or butchers. In the towns even the hotels existed, which usually provided also the private bath, because the strangers were not allowed to use the public one. The water was supplied by the aquaducts, but not these we know from Italy or Spain (high stoneworks), but by simply made covered channels ditched in the ground. The houses differed depending on the richess of a family. Most of them were of the types introduced in a previous chapter, but the houses of prominent citizens were big, with large rooms, tesseleted pavements and the walls were decorated with the frescoes. These houses had about twenty rooms, not only for the family, but also for their slaves and ressembled more to the Roman standard. They were really comfortable, usually with the garden, but nevertheless they belonged to the upper class, they did not often have a private bath. 32 All the houses had stone foundations and were built to have some place between each other and in comparison to the country farmsteads the were really luxurious. To have an idea about the acreage of Roman towns, we can mention Londinium, which, as the capital of the province of Britannia, was the biggest town on the island. It was spread on the area of about 330 acres, that is about 1.5 km 2 while Verulamium had some 200 acres, Colchester 108 acres, but some other towns, considered large, had only about 40 acres. In these towns the number of inhabitants was about 2,000 people, only Londinium had more than 15,000 inhabitants. Although Londinium was a seat of a provincial government, probably the majority of the inhabitants was British. 33 In the beginning of the third century the town life in Britain was in decay. Probably this was the fault of the Septimius Severus (145 –211 AD) policy, who, supported by the army, cared more about the life in the camps, and high taxes were imposed on the towns to support the imperial treasure. 34 Before, just small taxes were collected and the
32 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.200 33 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.197 34 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.203 30 expansion of the towns was partly financed by the donations of local aristocracy, partly of the taxes, and some money even the Empire reserved. With the decay of the towns was connected also the Constitutio Antoniniana, which was the edict granting the Roman citizenship to all the people of the Empire. In fact the only aim of the Constitutio was to enlarge the number of people who were bound to pay the taxes. 3. 2. 2. The Countryside While the towns decayed, the countryside was still in prosperity. The Roman culture did not almost influence the life there, however, the countrymen supplied the towns and the army. Almost three quarters of inhabitants of the countryside were agrarians, the last quarter worked at different industries (mining, pottery and others). The surplus of production of the countryside was usually collected as different taxes to support the Empire or local towns or sold at the trades. We can find two types of settlement– villages and villas in the British countryside. Villa was a house, usually economically autonomous farmstead, with no connections to another villas or the village. The building itself was of a Roman type, with hypocaust and its own bath, the rooms were decorated with paintings and the life there was affected by the Roman lifestyle. 35 As it was owned by the single family, the fields around the villas were not divided into smaller ones. On the other hand, the villages were almost of the same pattern as before the conquest – groups of round huts built close to each other, enclosed by a rampart and a ditch. Around the villages we can find typical Celtic narrow, long fields, where each belonged to one member of the village community. Although it is possible to find the Roman pottery in the excavations of the villages, the life was little affected by the Roman style. The villas were the second step of the romanization. As it is highly probable that the majority belonged to the wealthy local people, who were probably also able to have another house in the town, they represented the slow transformation of the British upper class to the romanized one. This is very similar to the early history of Rome, where also the citizens had their farms out of the town, to gain their living. The decay of 35 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.209 31 the towns did not affect the life in the villas at all. Their prosperity even increased and during the third and fourth centuries they represented the golden age of Roman Britain. This can be explained by the poverty of the town dwellers, exhausted by the taxation system, by which they were forced to start their own farms to gain their living. The villas were rather big, the one in Fishbourne in Sussex covered the area of the size of Buckingham palace and it is the best preserved villa in Britain. On such a large area the family did not work, but they employed servants and some work was done by the slaves. The main crop planted in Britain was wheat, the Celts before the conquest also grew the corn. From the third century there was also wine planted in Britain, as the excavations of Hertfordshire villa proved. In the villas the cattle was kept, as well as horses, pigs or sheep, which guaranteed the independence of the villa. Nevertheless there were some goods which the inhabitants of the villas had also to buy. Except for the metals, pottery or fabric which could have been exchanged with the British people, the glass was imported from Europe, for in Britain the glass production was not known. After all the villages remained the places where the majority of population lived. With the relative peace brought by the Romans the population of the villages increased. There was not such a visible increase as we can see at villas and the life in villages remained more or less the same. Though the villagers were for a long time supporting the towns, there was little made for them. During the last century of the Roman overrule, the difference between the poor and wealthy increased and the villages became oppressed, which caused many peasant revolts. 3. 2. 3. Londinium and Aquae Sulis 36 Londinium and Aquae Sulis had a special position amongst the towns of Britannia. Neither of them was connected with a single tribe, on the contrary, they were rather cosmopolitan.
36 Watney, J.: Roman Britain, p. 12 13 32 Londinium (London) became the centre of the provincial administration of Britannia after the Camulodunum (Colchester) was destroyed by the Iceni during the Boudicca´s rebellion. After the Claudian conquest in 43AD, there was a military fort built and later the town started to grow around it. It became the political and financial centre of the province, as well as an important port. As it laid on important roads conntecting the coast of English Channel with the inland, it was also a commercial centre. With the acreadge of 330 ac, it was the fourth largest city north of the Alps. After the great palace of Julius Agricola (40 – 93AD) was built there, it became practically the capital of Britannia. Aquae Sulis (Bath) was built on the thermal spring sacred to Celtic Goddess Sulis. After the bath and the temple of Sulis – Minerva (Roman Goddes of healing) was built there, it became an important spa. It had also a special status within Britain, as it was a place where people from the Empire travelled to, with the belief in recovery from their illnesses. Today, it is still a well preserved complex, which offers the view of Roman bath with everything, that belonged to it, such as swimming pool, excercise hall, bath rooms and a temple, which as the only one in Britannia was allowed to interprete omens or prepare sacrificial victims. The sculptures, which remained in the complex are an evidence of Roman art brought to Britain. 4. The Everyday Life in Roman Britain Although the architecture is probably the most visible remain of Roman culture, with the conquest also the everyday life of Celtic population changed. These changes were more significant in the towns, but for example the religion introduced by Romans affected also the countryside. 4. 1. The Religion 37 Both Celtic and Roman religions were polytheistic, which enabled their quick fusion. In fact with the expansion of the Empire, the Roman religion met many other cults and therefore it was not brought to Britain as the original one, but something influenced by 37 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.261 270 33 the other nations. Within the legions, as they were composed of the soldiers of different nationalities, there were many different Gods worshipped too. As a consequence of this, we can find in Britain remains of the shrines of Asian or African cults, as well as Celtic deities or Roman traditional pantheon. The Romans had already met the Celtic religion in Gaul where they had to face the problem of Druidism. The Druids were considered the initiators of the Gallic resistance and originators of many rebellions against the Roman rule. This caused the abolition of this organization in Gaul by Claudius, and also later its destruction during the conquest of Britain. On the other hand, this was the only demand and the British religion was left almost untouched. The Romano British religion was in fact a mixture of those two dominant cults and of the cults brought to Britain from different parts of the world, but still the original Celtic belief prevailed. The Roman gods were brought by the army. The most important of them, and also the chief god of the Roman pantheon was Iuppiter. He was considered a patron deity of Roman state and ruled over the law and social order. He was also the official military god, but his cult did not affect soldiers´ life a lot. However, most of the inscriptions found in Britain are dedicated to Iuppiter. Much more worshipped by the legionaries was Mars, the god of war. He was identified with Celtic Belatucadrus or Camulus, or in some dedications his name can be found with the Celtic epithet Rigisamus, the most royal. Mars represented an important link between Roman and Celtic elements of religion. In the same way also other Roman gods were identified with those of Celts. We can also find the shrines of eastern gods, such as Mithras shrine at Hadrian´s wall, or the altars of Egyptian Isis and Serapis. These deities were worshipped mainly by the soldiers, less then by the most Romanizated part of population. The religion of countrymen, mainly remaining untouched by the Roman one, was composed of small centralized cults worshipping about 40 gods. Some of the cults were rather local, about ten of them were known in the whole Celtic world and thus probably brought during the Celtic colonization, and about almost a half of the cults we do not know a lot. In highlands we can find many shrines to Brigantia, Celtic Maponus („young“ or „hero“) was identified with Apollo and Sulis, goddess of hot springs of
34 Bath, was early compared to the Roman goddess of healing, Minerva. Even some of the Roman soldiers worshipped some of Celtic deities to learn the domestic religions. 4. 1. 1. The Early Beginnings of Christianity At the beginning of the third century the Christianity reached Britain, not just as a new cult, but by that time it was spread over the country. In the fourth century AD, the Christianty was more visible amongst the population and we even know the names of three martyrs from the persecutions of Diocletianus. God, therefore, who wishes all men to be saved, and who calls sinners no less than those who think themselves righteous, magnified his mercy towards us, and, as we know, during the above named persecution, that Britain might not totally be enveloped in the dark shades of night, he, of his own free gift, kindled up among us bright luminaries of holy martyrs, whose places of burial and of martyrdom, had they not for our manifold crimes been interfered with and destroyed by the barbarians, would have still kindled in the minds of the beholders no small fire of divine charity. Such were St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Julius, citizens of Carlisle, and the rest, of both sexes, who in different places stood their ground in the Christian contest. (Gildas, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, ch.10)
Gildas (c.516 – c.570), in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae also mentioned the demolitions of churches and their later restoration. In the context of other religions, the Christianity was regarded as of the same value, and the opinion of its worshippers was valued at the councils, even if it was a minority religion. 38 4. 2. Trade and Money Although there were found some coins in the excavations of pre Roman settlements, it is generally considered that these were of no value, for the Celts did not use money before the conquest. The Celtic trade was based on exchange of goods and the Celts were not used to produce more than necessary for their life. The first demand for the surplus of production came with the Roman army, 39 as well as the need of coinage to pay the soldiers. In the first century AD there was relatively small number of coins and they were in majority of large denominations, which supports the theory of slowly 38 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.272 39 Salway, P.: Roman Britain, p. 618 619 35 developing monetary system. The army was fully dependant on the local production, as the supplies were not imported from the continent. The inquiry for food iniciated the higher production of the farms and as the army was not able to pay back in goods, the money became important in British economy. During the second century the quantity of coins in Britain reached the equal number of them in other western provinces. They were an usual mean of exchange and enabled Britain join the imperial trade. Again, the money was of higher importance in the cities as a demand for imported goods was high. The third century brought an inflation to the whole Empire and in the first half of the fifth century, the coinage lost its importance in Britain. 40 4. 3. The Industry The Roman conquest caused a rapid development of British industry. 41 The demand for the goods in Roman style was enormous. The British craftsmen, who were not at the beginning able to compete with the rest of the Empire, quickly found their field where they mastered. The production of little metalworks in bronze became the first article to be exported from Britain. At the beginning of the second century AD, the import of foreign products declined as the British could have measured up to the rest of the Empire. Except agriculture, the most important source of wealth in Britain was its mineral deposits. There was copper, iron, lead and coal mined, as well as gold and silver. Though the mining could have been a source of money for Britain, in reality all of it went to the Empire for all the mineral resources were a state property. The most important mineral mined in Britain was lead, which was demanded by Romans, who used it for water pipes, but also it was an important source of silver,
40 Salway, P.: Roman Britain, p. 661 41 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.226 36 which was extracted by cupellation. 42 The most important lead mines were in the Derbyshire and Mendips. Coal was used for metallurgy and domestic heating and therefore it was of a high value. It was mined on many places in Britain, such as the sourthern Yorkshire, Anglesey or Comberland. It is also said that the sacred fire in the temple of Sulis Minerva in Bath was stoked with coal. Iron ore was known before the Roman conquest. The Celtic ironwork was of a high quality and Romans even increased the production. Iron was worked in two steps, the first involved bowl furnace, where the only aim was to create the blooms of impure iron, which were later purified by heating and hammering. 43 This caused the limitation of the quantity, as the size of the bloom was limited by the weight of hammer. When the metal liquefied, it was considered useless and thrown away. The iron goods were made all over the country, in every type of settlement, civil or military one, there was a blacksmith. The bronzeworking was more used for the production of different brooches and jewellery, as for the tools the iron was more convenient. However, the most common industry was pottery, as it had a wide everyday usage. As in the art, in pottery prevailed the Roman style as well. The most used method of manufacture was the wheel, but we know also hand made pottery. 44 There were found many different types of pottery, from different pots and cups to jugs and bowls. Very popular was Samian pottery, imported from Rhineland, which was characterized by the red glaze. Again most of the pottery was decorated, either by engraving or moulded decoration, usually in Roman style.
42 „Cupellation is a process used to separate noble metals such as gold or silver from base metals such as lead. It is often used to assay gold in order to test its purity. Sometimes cupellation is called "fire assaying." It was formerly the usual process for extracting silver from lead .” (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupellation)
43 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.233 44 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p. 155 37 The textile industry remained on a rather low level, as the primitive forms of weaving prevailed. The spindle whirls were used for spinning and the most common way of weaving was on a loom weight. However, the textiles were an important import article, for the upper class preferred the clothes of higher quality. 45 Many things were imported to Britain, some of them British people were not able to replace by their own production. The red glazed Samian pottery was imported from the Rhineland and the sausepans, jugs and lamps from Italy were of a high value. From the food the wine and oil were imported until vine was brought to Britain during the third century AD. The export goods were mainly the raw materials, but the British hunting dogs were popular, too. Another comodity, not so much used in Britain, but very popular in Rome were oysters. About other export there are not much information. 4. 4. Leisure Time The most common place where Romans spent their leisure time were baths and this habit also affected Britain. Public bath was a place providing different services, from the basic hygiene to those we can compare with present day sport centres. The bath was a daily ritual, which took place before the dinner. The process there began with some exercises, the weight lifting was very popular, as well as many different types of wrestling. Those who were not interested in sports could have a chat with friends or spent some time gambling. In some baths also the swimming pools were available. After this the process of the bath commenced. Starting from the coldest pool, the bath continued with warm room after which the oil was rubbed into the skin. In the hottest room the dirt mixed with oil was removed by the strigil. Usually the process was finished again with the cold bath to close the pores. After the bath itself, it was possible to have a massage during which the aromatic oil was rubbed into the skin. Usually there were not different rooms fot men and women, although we can find two suits of rooms for example in Wroxeter bath. After the bath the family had dinner at home. 45 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.239 38 Another type of amusement was theatre. The remains of amphitheatres we can find almost in all Roman cities, although the type of construction differed. Some of them took advantage of the terrain. On the other hand, the Caerleon amphitheatre is an evidence of stonework. The policy of panem and circenses (bread and fun) was generally used within the empire to satisfy its inhabitants. In Rome this was even a duty of an emperor, later criticized by Juvenal (50 127 AD) as a mark of the decay of Roman society. Although gladiatorial combats were rather expensive, they took place at least during the religious and military festivals and it was possible to see the combats of prisoners of war or criminals. More common was bear baiting, mock hunting and in this time also the cock fighting appeared to become very popular until today. 46 Classical theatre was rather rare, but the performations of dancers and singers took place there. Amongst the soldiers the gambling was popular, mainly dice. Chariot racing provided the possibility of betting, too. From the other social games we know those similar to chess or draughts. Music instruments were also popular, amongst them mostly the lyre, the cithera and the flute were known. We know restaurants, wine shops and brasseries from towns and some time was also spent by eating, as the long dinners were popular, mainly amongst the upper class. For all the classes the hunting represented the only activity during which civilians were allowed to carry a weapon. The most favourite was hunting for boars or deer, sometimes also the bears were chased. The birds were hunted with bows and as well as today, fishing was an activity, which for majority of people, was more living than a game. The Romans introduced different types of fruit to Britain, such as grapes, pomegranates or figs. The main course was eaten in the evening and it was composed of meat, fruit and vegetables. The fish were popular as well as different seafood, often in some spicy sauce. Wheat and corn served as basic diet for poor people, as well as for soldiers, whose alimentation, however, was really various. 47 46 Salway, P.: Roman Briain, p. 579 47 Watney, J.: Roman Britain, p. 10 11 39 4. 5. Fashion Amongst the villagers the most common clothes were made of home spun wool. It consisted of trousers and shirt, women wore a dress of the same material. Amongst the upper class a tunic, combined with toga for special occassions, was used. The woman´s tunic was covered with a toga type drapery. The shoes were mostly made of leather and we know many types of them, some more similar to the sandals, another close fitting and covering whole foot, which were worn with toga. With the clothes a lot of jewellery was worn. There were many different types of brooches and pins used as well as the necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings. The amount of different jewellery was an expression of wealth of the family. Many different materials were used, as iron, bronze or silver of metals, and bone, ivory or glass from other materials. The Romans knew the mirror, some of them were found in Colchester. Combs were made of bone and wood, those of wealthy people were well decorated. The upper class cared about their appearance a lot and women of this class wore elaborate hairstyles, the use of a wig was not unusual. 48 4. 6. The Art „Before the Roman conquest the Briton were a race of gifted and brilliant artists: The conquest, forcing them into the mould of Roman life with its vulgar efficiency and lack of taste, destroyed that gift and reduced their arts to the level of mere manufactures .“ (Collingwood and Myres, 247) On the field of art the Roman culture quickly dominated over the Celtic. This, before the Roman conquest, was of La Tène style, and we can find many decorative motives common both on the island and the continent. On the other hand, British Celts created specific motives, which can be found only in Britain, and combined them to complicated abstract linear patterns. The domination of abstract design, practically made of one single line, is rather unusual in the history of art as the most commom the natural motives were anywhere else. 49 As there was no big distinction between art and manufacture, most of the Celtic art can be found on the objects of everyday use, such as knives, pottery or jewellery. 48 Ward, J.: The Roman Era in Britain, p 241 274 49 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p. 248 249 40 Romans brought to Britain the classical art in the period of its decay. The mass production of the Empire replaced the individual desing common in Britain and within 50 years the original Celtic art completely disappeared. Of course we know some fine works, like floor mosaics, but these were mechanical imitations of the Roman model. It is true, that Roman art was fashionable, but it totally destroyed the British originality. Interesting was the comeback of original Celtic style after the Roman withdrawal. Some four centuries later the patterns of curved lines appeared again almost in the same form as before. This rebirth of Celtic culture is explained by the delicacy of process itself. The artisans needed an isolation to develop their patterns and because of its character the art was not able to survive contact with Roman culture, based on naturalistic tradition of Mediterranean world. Although the Roman and British arts schools did not meet, there is an example of Romano British achievement. The sculpture of the Gorgon´s head in Aquae Sulis remaines as a representant of a promissing beginning of Romano British sculpture, which, however, was never developed. This relief meant a challenge for the Celtic sculptor as he found something, which he knew from his own culture, that was a face to scare away the evil, which was an usual motive of pre Roman art. With the comparison to original Celtic art, the Romano British fusion was more or less the step backwards, which did not survive the period of Roman dominancy. 50 50 Collingwood and Myres: Roman Britain and the English settlements, p.255 41 Conclusion „The Roman hold upon the country once established, the great works which had in view the development of its natural wealth were immediately put in hand, and chief of these was a magnificent system of durable roads and posting stations. Under the security of the imperial rule the rural population rapidly increased, and the zenith of prosperity was reached in the Constantine period. “ (Ward 1920: 9) Romans brought to Britain many changes, some of them overlived the period, the others were forgotten with the Roman withdrawal. The main influence on the expansion of the Roman culture had a difference between the towns and country, which enabled almost perfect romanization of the town inhabitants, but allowed the country to maintain its own lifestyle. The Roman conquest primarily brought a relative peace to Celtic tribes, which was the first step of romanization. The aim of Romans was to create a civilized province and impose their culture upon the population, over which it would be able to rule succesfully, as they managed in other imperial provinces. With the system of military camps they also buildt the road system, the most important innovation brought to Britain, which enabled the development of trade and industry of the colony and provided also the quick movement through the country. Romans brought the administrative system and for the first time they almost united Britain. The romanization was very successful in towns, where it was possible to supervise the transformation of Celtic settlements into the Roman towns. The life in towns was on a higher level than in the countryside and generally the towns were more wealthy, which could be visible on the architecture and objects of everyday use, which were often imported from the continent. The upper class of local people lived in a great luxury, on the other hand, the villages remained almost unaffected by the Roman rule and rather poor. The villas became important economical centres of countryside, usually owned by the upper class as well, which were able to produce enough food to supply towns and the army. As well as villas, the baths became characteristical for Romano British culture and they gained the popularity amongst the population. On the field of religion the Roman overrule was not very significant and it is possible to say, that the original Celtic religion remained of higher importance for the whole period. The Christianity was brought to Britain as one of minor cults and in the late 4 th century
42 it was on the increase. On the other hand the Romans absolutely dominated over the art, which during this period went through a long stagnation. The aim of my thesis was to describe the life in Britain during the period of Roman domination and the impact of the Roman lifestyle on Celtic inhabitants. The first part of my thesis describes British people before the Roman conquest and gives a brief information about Roman Empire and its policy. The second and third part deal with the civil and military architecture brought by Romans and with an extent of adaptation of local people to this culture, contrasting the life in towns to one in the countryside. The last part is devoted to the everyday life and provides information about trade, industry and art, as well as about the Romano British religion and shows how the leisure time was spent in that period. The romanization brought to Britain many changes, on the one hand it almost destroyed the original Celtic culture, on the other hand, it enabled the trade with other colonies. The growth of the system of military forts caused the development of British agriculture and enabled the use of coinage, which was not much used amongst the Celts. Roman architecture affected the tranformation of Celtic forts into the Roman towns with much higher standard of living. The crisis of the Roman Empire in the third century also affected Britain, where the towns lost their importance and the trade with Europe decreased. This as well caused the gradual reduction of the Roman authority and finished with the Roman withdrawal in 410AD when the new epoch of Britain commanced.
43 Bibliography BREEZE, David J. Hadrian´s wall: A souvenir guide to the Roman Wall . 3 rd edition. London: English Heritage, 2001. 52 p. COLLINGWOOD, R. G. and MYRES, J. N. L. Roman Britain and the English Settlements . 2 nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963. 515 p. JOHNSON, J. S. Chesters Roman Fort . 1 st edition. London: English Heritage, 2001. 44 p. MCDOWALL, David. An Illustrated History of Britai n. 1 st edition. Hong Kong: Longman, 1992. 188 p. MORGAN, Kenneth O. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain . 2 nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 646 p. PEČÍRKA, Jan a kol. Dějiny pravěku a starověku II . Vyd 3. Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1989. 581 1056 s. SALWAY, Peter. Roman Britain . 1 st edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. 824 p. WARD, John. The Roman Era in Britain . 2 nd edition. London: The Antiquary Books, 1920. 289 p. WATNEY, John. Roman Britain. 1st edition. Great Britain: Pitkin Unichrome Ltd, 2000. 29 p. WILLIAMS, Hugh. Christianity in Early Britain . 1 st edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912. 484 p.
44 WINBOLT, Samuel Edward. Britain under the Romans . 1 st edition. Suffolk: Pelican Books, 1945. 144 p.
45 Internet Resources TACITUS. The Li fe of Cnæus Julius Agricola (eds. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb) From CRANE, Gregory. The Perseus Digital Library [online] c1995 [cit. 2008 04 11]
46 Summary This thesis deals with the topic of Roman rule over Britain in the context of culture and society. It describes the Roman lifestyle introduced to British population and the difference in its impact on the town citizens and the countrymen and it provides an image of Romano British society. The first part is devoted to the description of Celtic culture before the Roman conquest and also it provides information about the Roman colonial policy. The second part deals with the difference in civil and military architecture and describes inventions brought to Britain and typical for Roman buildings the bath and the hypocaust. The road system built by the Romans is introduced in the third part as well as the extent of urbanisation of Britain. Last part describes the aspects of everyday life such as religion, trade and industry along with the art of that period. Resumé Tato práce se věnuje tématu kultury a společnosti v období římské nadvlády nad Británií. Popisuje rozdíly v přijímání římského životního stylu britským obyvatelstvem ve městech a na venkově a tímto umožňuje si udělat představu o společnosti, která vznikla propojením britské a římské kultury. První část popisuje keltskou kulturu v období před příchodem Římanů a zabývá se také římskou koloniální politikou. Druhá část práce se věnuje rozdílu mezi civilní a vojenskou architekturou a popisuje lázně a podlahové vytápění – dva vynálezy přinesené do Británie, které jsou typické pro římskou architekturu. Tématem třetí části je silniční infrastruktura vystavěná Římany a také míra urbanizace Británie. Poslední část popisuje oblasti každodenního života – náboženství, obchod, průmysl a umění tohoto období britské historie.
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