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Roman life






The most obvious characteristic of Roman Britain was its towns, which were the basis of Roman administration and civilisation. Many grew out of Celtic settlements, military camps or market centres. Broadly, there were three different kinds of town in Roman Britain, two of which were towns established by Roman charter. These werethe coloniae, towns peopled by Roman settlers, and the municipia, large cities in which the whole population was given Roman citizenship. The third kind, the civitas, included the old Celtic tribal capitals, through which the Romans administered Celtic population in the countryside. At first these towns had no walls. Then, probably from the end of the second century to the end of the third century AD, almost every town was given walls. At first many of these were no more than earthworks, but by ad 300 all towns had thick stone walls.

The Romans left about twenty large towns of about 5, 000 inhabitants, and almost one hundred smaller ones. Many of these towns were at first army camps, and the Latin word for camp, castra, has remained part of many town names to this day (with the ending Chester, caster or cester): Gloucester, Leicester, Doncaster, Winchester, Chester, Lancaster and many others besides. These towns were built with stone as well as wood, and had planned streets, markets and shops. Some buildings had central heating. They were connected by roads which were so well built that they survived when later roads broke up. These roads continued to be used long after the Romans left, and became the main roads of modern Britain. Six of these Roman roads met in London, a capital city of about 20, 000 people. London was twice the size of Paris, and possibly the most important trading centre of northern Europe, because southeast Britain produced so much corn for export.

Outside the towns, the biggest change during the Roman occupation was the growth of large farms, called " villas". These belonged to the richer Britons who were, like the townspeople, more Roman than Celt in their manners. Each villa had many workers. The villas were usually close to towns so that the crops could be sold easily. There was a growing difference between the rich and those who did the actual work on the land. These, and most people, still livedin the same kind of round huts and villages which the Celts had been living in four hundred years earlier, when the Romans arrived.

In some ways life in Roman Britain seems very civilized, but it was also hard for all except the richest. The bodies buried in a Roman graveyard at York show that life expectancy was low. Half the entire population died between the ages of twenty and forty, while 15 per cent died before reaching the age of twenty.

It is very difficult to be sure how many people were living in Britain when the Romans left. Probably it was as many as five million, partly because of the peace and the increased economic life which the Romans had brought to the country. The new wave of invaders changed all that.

 

 

Hadrian’s Wall

In the year 122 the Roman Emperor Hadrian, came to Britain. Hadrian was a great traveler and wherever he went in the Roman Empire, he strengthened its frontiers.

Some years before there had been a serious rebellion in the north of Britain. Tribes of the Picts, the people who lived to the north and south of the Scottish border, had risen in revolt and killed the whole of the 9th Roman legion which was stationed at York. Not a man was left.

The rebellion was crushed, but Hadrian decided that in future it should be made much more difficult for the Picts to cross the border into peaceful Britain. So he chose three legions of Roman soldiers, about 20, 000 men, sat them the task of building a great wall running right across the country from Newcastle on the eastern shore to Carlisle on the western shore. In seven years the building of the wall was finished. Parts of this wall can still be seen.

Hadrian's Wall was seventy-three miles long, seven to ten feet thick, and sixteen to twenty feet high. It was built of stone and it had a row of forts situated about four miles from each other. At every mile there was a strong tower which held a hundred men, and at every third of a mile there was a signal turret.

Hadrian's Wall was the strongest of all the Roman frontier fortifications.

 


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