5. Cultural Changes

The Romans were big on the benefits of the civilization they were bringing to the people they had conquered. They saw themselves as on a mission to expand the Empire and bring the Roman way of life to all the poor souls bereft of its benefits. Curiously, this is the same attitude later employed by those who would build the British Empire.

So the Romans established a Romano-British culture across the southern half of Britain, from the River Humber to the River Severn. This part of Britain was inside the empire. Beyond there were the upland areas, under Roman control but not developed. These areas were watched from the towns of York, Chester and Caerleon in the western peninsula of Britain that later became known as Wales. Each of these towns was held by a Roman legion of about 7,000 men. The total Roman army in Britain was about 40,000 men for all the history of the period. That was a large number of soldiers garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor stationed a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a side-effect of this, a number of future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.

5.1 Social Changes

Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate but those like Britain that required permanent garrisons of troops were placed under the Emperor's control. On the ground however imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were former senators who had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility such as 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. When not campaigning he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.

To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus iuridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and in time of war probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commanders carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.

Apart from applying taxation system the Romans had no intention to change considerably the society and the lifestyle of the people they had conquered. Most of the local population continued to live the same life they used to before the Romans came. Any non-material cultural changes were relevant for the chieftains of the tribes, upper layers of the society, merchants and other Celts who became townspeople and had a lot of contact with the Romans who were mainly soldiers.

Among those changes were 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.

The writing was made in ink on small slivers of wood. There are enough of examples, written in Roman cursive script that is very difficult to read, unless one is very experienced in it. The content however may look very modern:

Octavius to Candidus: "I need money. I have bought 5,000 bushels of grain, and unless you send me some money, I shall lose my deposit and be embarrassed. The hides which you write about are still at Catterick. I would have already collected them apart from the fact that the roads are so bad that I did not care to injure the animals". (This is the first contemporary reference to a Roman road, and it complains how bad it is!)  

But Latin completely disappeared both in its spoken and written forms when the Anglo-Saxons invaded. In the 5th century ad Britain was probably more literate under the Romans than it was to be again until the fifteenth century.

By the standards of their time the Romans could be tolerant of the religions of the peoples they conquered. However, the Druids represented not just a religious hierarchy, but real political and administrative authority among the Celts. Apart from that the Romans seem to have been genuinely horrified by what they considered the grisly and uncivilized practices of the Druids. The Druids were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 we find them vainly defending their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). However, under the Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.

The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain northern European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record but the differences in the votive offerings made at Bath before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the emperor himself is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica.

By the time of the Roman occupation, Britain's tin exports to the Mediterranean had been largely eclipsed by the more convenient supply from Iberia. Gold, iron, lead, silver, jet, marble and pearls however were all exploited by the Romans in Britain along with more everyday commodities such as hunting dogs, animal skins, timber, wool, corn and slaves. Foreign investment created a vigorous domestic market and imports were often of exotic Continental items such as fine pottery, olive oil, lavastone querns, glassware, and fruit.

Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine, the Wealden ironworking zone and the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Although mining had long been practised in Britain, the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionize the industry. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.

Although Roman designs were most popular, rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Most native pottery was unsophisticated however and intended only for local markets.

By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well-established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north. The design of Hadrian's Wall especially catered to the need for customs inspections of merchants' goods.