The Romans

The Romans had invaded because the Celts of Britain were working with the Celts of Gaul against them. The British Celts were giving them food, and allowing them to hide in Britain. There was another reason. The Celts used cattle to pull their ploughs and this meant that richer, heavier land could be farmed. Under the Celts Britain had become an important food producer because of its mild climate. It now exported corn and animals, as well as hunting dogs and slaves, to the European mainland. The Romans could make use of British food for their own army fighting the Gauls.

The Romans brought the skills of reading and writing to Britain. The written word was important for spreading ideas and also for establishing power. As early as AD 80, as one Roman at the time noted, the governor Agricola " trained the sons of chiefs in the liberal arts... the result was that the people who used to reject Latin began to use it in speech and writing. Further the wearing of our national dress came to be valued and the toga [the Roman cloak] came into fashion." While the Celtic peasantry remained illiterate and only Celtic-speaking, a number of town dwellers spoke Latin and Greek with ease, and the richer landowners in the country almost certainly used Latin. But Latin completely disappeared both in its spoken and written forms when the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain in the fifth century ad. Britain was probably more literate under the Romans than it was to be again until the fifteenth century.

In the year 55 BC the great Roman general Julius Caesar sailed to Britain with about 12, 000 solders in eighty ships. When they were near the coast, they saw the Britons armed with spears and swords, ready to fight them. Still the Roman soldiers landed and fought with the Romans. They won the battle, but did not stay long and soon departed. In the following year Julius Caesar came to Britain again. This time, after fighting the Britons on the shore, the Romans marched north-west where London stands today. The British attacked them in chariots and on foot, but the Romans had better arms and armour, and were much better trained. The Britons could not stop them. Having stayed in Britain some time, the Romans left again and did not appear on the British shores for about a hundred years. Then, in the year 43AD, the Roman Emperor Claudius sent a general with 40, 000 men to conquer Britain all over again. The British fought bravely, but couldn’t hold back the trained Roman army. Soon the whole of the south of Britain was conquered.

The Romans were very practical people, and the first thing they did in Britain was to make and fortify the ports where they landed their soldiers and supplies. The Roman ports were very well built, with stone quays and warehouses. There were big cranes which lifted the cargo from the ships’ holds, and many carts transported goods along the great Roman roads which ran in long straight lines to different parts of the country.