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Roman Britain Roman BRitain Two writers, Julius Caesar and Tacitus, give full descriptions of Britain. JULIUS CAESAR came here in 55/54BC and wrote about what he encountered then. TACITUS did not come to these shores, but his father-in-law, the general Agricola, spent seven years here commanding the army as Governor of Britannia, and of course by that point Britannia was part of the Roman Empire. Tacitus wrote about Agricola in about the year AD 98. week task instructions done? • Add as much detail as possible – what do the writers say can be found Your first task is to read the accounts of Britain by these here? two authors, and to draw a map of what each man • It would be a good idea to sketch the outline of the island of Britain thought Britain looked like. You will find their accounts first so you can get each coast roughly the right length and facing the as Source 1 and Source 2 below. Forget any map that right direction. 1 you have seen of Britain! These writers would not have • Put on distances, and labels, wherever you can. had accurate maps but instead were working from • Adding colour and using pictures to show what is found (create your personal experience or others’ accounts! own emoji for things!) would be great. • Now type up your response to the task. It’s important to choose a Your second task is to compare the maps of Caesar and good font, and your might also want to use highlighting and borders to Tacitus. How had the Roman understanding of Britain make your writing pleasing to the eye! 2 changed in the approximately fifty years between the two writers? • If you prefer to hand write, by all means do so, and then upload a photo of what you have written. • Investigate these later maps by following these two links. • The first link is to a map created in about the middle of the 2nd century Your third task is to compare the maps you have created AD: with the later Roman maps of Britain, and with a https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APrima_Europe_tabula.jpg modern map of Britain. Try to answer these two • The second link is to the so-called Peutinger Table, which is thought to 3 questions: How much did Roman knowledge of Britain be a medieval copy of a 4th or 5th century Roman original: improve over time, and what had still to be discovered? http://www.hs- augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost03/Tabula/tab_pe01.html • Investigate ancient maps by follow these three links. • The first link is to a site called Digital Maps of the Ancient World: https://digitalmapsoftheancientworld.com/ • The second link is to a site with more information about the Peutinger Your fourth task is to find out more about Roman maps Table: and ancient maps in general, and write up your findings. 4 https://www.euratlas.net/cartogra/peutinger/ Make sure you choose some really interesting • The third link is to a very interesting and interactive reconstruction information. of the Peutinger Table/Map into the form of a modern road atlas: https://www.omnesviae.org/ Your fifth task is to look again at the Peutinger Table. • Here is the link again: http://www.hs- 5 Can you find London, Colchester and Dover on this map augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost03/Tabula/tab_pe01.html (Londinium, Camulodunum and Dubris)? The lines on the map are roads. Does it matter that Britain is not the shape we know it to be? SOURCE 1: JULIUS CAESAR WRITING ABOUT BRITAIN. Caesar's description of Britain had two main sources. Firstly it was partly based on what he actually saw when he was in this part of the world. Secondly it was probably partly derived from the records of Pytheas of Massilia (Marseilles), a Greek traveller who circumnavigated Britain at the end of the 4th century B.C. Here is what he says about the geography of the Island; “5.13 The natural shape of the island is triangular, and one side lies opposite to Gaul. Of this side one angle, which is in Kent (where almost all the ships from Gaul come in to land), faces the east, the lower angle faces south. This side stretches about five hundred miles, The second side bears towards Spain and the west, in which direction lies Ireland, which, it is thought, is as half as big as Britain; the sea-passage is of equal length to that from Gaul to Britain. Here in mid-channel is an island called Man; in addition, several smaller islands are supposed to lie close to the land; some have written that in midwinter night lasts there for thirty whole days. We could discover nothing about this by inquiries; but, by exact water measurements, we observed that the nights were shorter than on the Continent. The length of this side, according to the belief of the natives, is seven hundred miles. The third side bears northwards, and has no land confronting it; the angle, however of that side faces on the whole towards Germany. The side is supposed to be eight hundred miles long. Thus the whole island is two thousand miles in circumference.” Caesar got much right about the Britons and Britain itself. Sometimes he received false information and passed that on too. Here he is writing about the customs of the Britons: “5.12 The inland part of Britain is inhabited by tribes declared in their own tradition to be indigenous to the island, the maritime part by tribes that migrated at an earlier time from Belgium to seek booty by invasion. Nearly all of these latter are called after the names of the states from which they sprang when they went to Britain; and after the invasion they stayed there and began to till the fields. The population is innumerable; the farm-buildings are found very close together, being very like those of the Gauls; and there is a great store of cattle. They use either bronze or gold coins, or instead of coinage tallies of iron, of a certain standard of weight. In the midland districts of Britain tin is produced, in the maritime iron, but of that there is only a small supply; the bronze they use is imported. There is timber of every kind, as in Gaul, save beech and pine. They think it wrong to eat hare, fowl and goose; but they keep these for pastime or pleasure. The climate is more temperate than in Gaul, the cold seasons more moderate.” As for the Britons themselves he has following to say: “5.13 Of all the Britons the inhabitants of Kent, an entirely maritime district, are by far the most civilised, differing little from the Gallic way of life. Of the islanders most do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh and clothe themselves in skins. All the Britons dye themselves with woad, which produces a blue colour, and makes their appearance in battle more terrible. They have long hair, and shave every part of the body except the head and the upper lip. Groups of ten or twelve men have wives together in common, and particularly brothers along with brothers, and fathers with sons; but the children born of the unions are reckoned to belong to the particular house to which the maiden was first conducted.” SOURCE 2: TACITUS WRITING ABOUT BRITAIN. While writing about the exploits of his father-in-law, Agricola, Tacitus tells his readership about the island where some of his greatest moments occurred. The first extract is: Agr. 10. “Britain is the largest island known to the Romans and is of such a size and so situated as to run parallel to the coast of Germany on the east and to that of Spain on the west, while to the south it actually lies within sight of Gaul. Its northern shores, with no land facing them, are beaten by a wild and open sea. The general shape of Britain has been compared by Livy and by Fabius Rusticus - the finest of ancient and modern writers respectively - to an elongated diamond or a double-headed axe. Such indeed is its shape south of Caledonia, and so the same shape has been attributed to the whole. But when you go farther north you find a huge and shapeless tract of country, jutting out to form what is actually the most distinct coastline and finally tapering into a kind of wedge. These remotest shores were now circumnavigated, for the first time, by a Roman fleet, which thus established the fact that Britain was an island. At the same time it discovered and subjugated the Orkney Islands, hitherto unknown. Thule, too, was sighted, but no more; their orders took them no farther, and winter was close at hand.” The second extract is: Agr. 11 “Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, is open to question: one must remember we are dealing with barbarians...it seems likely that Gauls settled in the island lying so close to their shores. In both countries you find the same ritual and religious beliefs. There is no great difference in language, and there is the same hardiness in challenging danger, the same cowardice in shirking it when it comes close.” The third extract is: Agr. 12 “The climate is wretched, with its frequent rains and mists, but there is no extreme cold. Their day is longer than in our part of the world. The nights are light, and in the extreme north so short that evening and morning twilight are scarcely distinguishable.
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