II. Romans in Britain

II. 1. The Army

After the 1st century, the army was for the most part stationed well away from civilian centers. London, however, had a fort manned by detachments from all three units stationed in Britain, providing a guard for the governor.

From the early third century, a line of forts was established along the South-Eastern coast of Britain to serve as protection against possible attacks from the sea.

Civilian areas of ancient Britain saw only a few soldiers seconded from the legions to serve, for instance, as policing officers for the Cursus Publicus (imperial communications system).

In addition, the army was a focus for Romanization, as the civilian settlements outside forts show. There is evidence that native Britons around such outposts adopted a Romanized life style and learnt how to speak Latin.

For most of the time, Roman soldiers were not fighting; they were simply keeping the Pax Romana (peace under Roman rule) in distant outposts and discouraging, with their presence, possible incursions. Their duties included observance of the Roman religious calendar of festivals and sacrifices, maintaining their own forts, establishing customs controls on the frontier, and even farming, although taxes were levied on the native inhabitants of these regions.

There were very few 'Romans' in Britain: Batavians, Thracians, Mauretanians, Sarmatians. They all were brought in through service in the army, and all granted citizenship and land after their 25 years' service. They settled all over Britain, mostly in or near the fort where they had served, staying close to their friends. These urban settlements outside the fort grew into townships. In certain cases, such as Colchester ('the Colonia by the camp'), the city was an official colony of veteran soldiers imposed upon the local population; but usually the evolution was more generic. Chester (or 'the camp') is one of them. Standing on the city walls, you can still see the remains of the amphitheatre that stood outside the military camp. In this way, the army acted as the natural force of assimilation and they become naturalised British citizens of the Roman Empire. They erected a great number of inscriptions which prove their assimilation and prosperity.

In the third century AD, soldiers were allowed to get married, and the vicus, where their women had always lived, was rebuilt in stone. They constructed a beautiful little bath-house where the soldiers could have a rest and relax, and a guest-house called a mansio, with six guest-rooms and its own private bath suite - for travellers on official business - along the wall. The vicus at Housesteads was rebuilt at the same time. By this time, all adults in the empire had been given citizenship and the 'Romans' in Britain had become fully assimilated with their British neighbours.

II. 2. The Government of Britannia

When the Roman emperor was away (as was Claudius in AD 43 and Hadrian in AD 122), the most important man in the Roman province during the first 150 years after the conquest was the governor. The main concern of the Roman administration, and increasingly of the leaders of the Britons themselves, was to keep up just and orderly government and to spread Roman civilization. In the early third century AD, Septimius Severus divided Britain into two provinces, under the control of two governors; in the 4^th century, it was further parted into four.

A governor's role was primarily military, but he was also responsible for maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. Besides, he travelled over the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops. However, the emperor, not wishing one man to have too much power, appointed a procurator to look after financial affairs and also to monitor the activities of the governor.

At a local level, in Southern Britain, the old Celtic tribes were organized into civitates (local communities), each civitas having a capital town. The citizens of coloniae (colonies), such as Colchester, Gloucester, Lincoln and York, were mostly retired legionaries. As for their status, we know that Verulamium, the capital of the Catuvellauni, which preceded St Albans, became a municipium (autonomous borough) within a short period after the conquest. This status gave the city certain legal rights, recognizable throughout the Roman Empire, including the automatic bestowal of Roman citizenship on its 100-strong town council, or ordo, which met here, a sin other towns, in a chamber at the back of the basilica. Verulamium was surely not the only "native" city in Britain with such rights, and it is fairly certain that Leicester, for example, was also a municipium.

Most civitas capitals developed into some of the most important English towns and cities in present-day Britain; among them are Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum), Winchester (Venta Belgarum), Leicester (RataeCorieltavorum), Cirencester (Corinium Dobunnorum), and Chichester (Noviomagus Regnorum).

The best way to understand how Rome controlled the provinces is to look at why that control broke down in AD 60. The Boudiccan rebel was caused not because the Iceni were opposed to Roman rule, but because they had embraced it too whole-heartedly.

Rome controlled its provinces by buying over the local elite. They were given power, wealth, post and status on condition that they kept the peace and adopted Roman ways. If you took a Roman name, spoke Latin and lived in a villa, you were assured of receiving priesthoods and positions of local power. The quid pro quo was that you were expected to spend your money and influence in providing Roman amenities for your people, newly civilised in the literal sense that Roman towns and cities were founded for them to live in. In Britain, physical evidence of this process can be seen in inscriptions at the colonia of Colchester and in the palace of the client king Cogidubnus at Fishbourne, with its spectacular mosaics.

After the death of the king of the Iceni Prasutagus, the emperor Nero didn’t want to share the land with the king’s wife Boudicca and moved to sequester the lot. Iceni rose up in revolt, supported by other East Anglian tribes. What remained of the Ninth Legion was slaughtered when it tried to stop the rebels, and Colchester, London and Verulamium were razed to the ground. With just 200 men to defend him, Decianus Catus escaped to Gaul.

Paullinus hurried back from Anglesey to deal with the revolt. The punitive expedition into Iceni territory was halted when it was feared that further reprisals would harm future imperial revenues. Catus was replaced by Classicianus, a Romanised Gaul from Trier, who had a softer approach. His tombstone can be found in London, which became the new provincial capital at this time.