Tag: Roman

Nov 17 2024

Book review: Roman Britain – A New History by Guy de la Bédoyère

Following on from my previous review of Echolands by Duncan MacKay on Boudica’s revolt against the Roman occupiers of Britain, this review is of Roman Britain: A New History by Guy de la Bédoyère. Roman Britain has a much wider scope than Echolands covering the whole period of Roman influence in Britain from Caesar’s abortive invasions in 55 and 54BC through to the period after the Roman’s left Britain in 410AD. This is a larger format book with illustrations and photographs on virtually every page.

The book starts with three chapters on the timeline of Roman Britain covering the pre-invasion period, the extended conquest and the later period. Eight chapters follow on different themes: governing Britain, military installations, towns in Roman Britain, industry, commerce and production, the countryside and villas, people and places of roman Britain, religion in Roman Britain and the aftermath.

Britain was know to the Greeks as far back as the 4th century BC, and there was trade in tin from Britain from that time. By the middle of the 2nd century BC ornate burials were being found in Britain containing imported goods, and coinage was starting to be found. Hengistbury Head, where my father lived in his retirement, was an important trade port in this period. This tells us that Britain was not unknown to the outside world when Caesar made his invasion attempts in 55BC and 54BC. These were unsuccessful in the immediate sense but over the intervening years to the invasion proper in 43AD there was a gradual Romanisation of the upper echelons of British society, and increased trade.

Both Caesar’s abortive invasion, and Claudius’s successful invasion in 43AD were driven by politics in Rome, military success were a credit to an Emperor. British politics may well have played a part: Cunobelinus, king of a large chunk of Britain, died in 43AD and the resulting uncertainty over succession was a good opportunity to invade. Claudius’s invasion succeeded because the Roman army were a very efficient, well-equipped military force and their opposition was divided with some on the British side likely supporting the Romans.

The Romans spread to a line linking Lincoln and Exeter by 47AD, and by the end of the 1st century they had reached the limits of Wales and the far North of Scotland. Over the next 50 years there was some consolidation but by 150AD the Roman’s had reached the geographic limit of their occupation of Britain. It seems that the South-East of Britain became fairly well Romanised with villas and towns in the Roman style. North and West of the 47AD frontier life seemed to continue more in the manner of the Iron Age but for the addition of Roman garrisons and forts with related trade and industries.

Most of what we know of Roman life in Britain is based on the inscriptions left by the military, on tombstones and dedications of building works. There are limited number of wooden writing tablets, discovered at Vindolanda by Hadrian’s Wall and in London, which provide a fascinating insight into daily life, trade and interpersonal relationships. The early period of the occupation is discussed in Tacitus’s writings, as well as some other fragments.

We get a very small sample of daily life from from archaeology, only about 0.01% of all deaths are represented in burials and, assuming villas had 40 occupants each, homes for only about 0.01% are known.

Much of the rest of our understanding seems to come from recognising that Britain was being run like any other Roman province and extrapolating across archaeological and historical writings from all over the empire. Roman’s had firm ideas about which people could hold which positions (qualified by property), and Roman towns had a specific set of amenities according to their official type. Britain was seen as a troublesome province and had quite senior governors who typically only had a short tenure – some went on to become Emperor.

The Roman’s seemed to have respected the British as traders, seeing them as taking on Roman ways in this regard. Agriculture was important, and there is a lot of evidence of lead production – unlike iron, lead tends to survive quite well. Coinage was only minted in Britain from the late third century – it would not be used so heavily until the 17th.

There is limited evidence for the health and ethnicity of the Roman Britons, they seem to have increased dental issues. There was certainly the idea of branded medications, particularly for eye conditions. It isn’t clear whether there was a patent system. It is certain that Roman soldiers came from around the Empire but identifying them is hard since typically they Romanised their names.

Most of the writing we find the Roman period relates to religion (shrines, tombstones, altars). For a large part of the Roman period people worshipped hybrid Gods – amalgams of Roman Gods with local pagan deities or even from elsewhere in the Roman empire. Later the Christian church became established – we have written evidence of a church hierarchy from 314AD.

From the beginning of the third century AD the Roman empire was beginning to split up. Rome finally withdrew support for the military occupation of Britain in 410AD. This had an immediate economic impact because there was no longer new coinage coming into the country, or military salaries to spend. Physically Roman buildings decayed over a period of 150 years or so with the now non-Roman occupants no longer having the will or skill to repair them. We can mark the complete end of practical Roman influence with the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in 577AD although we see the marks of the Roman occupation even now in our landscape and language.

Roman Britain finishes with a chronology and a guide to visiting Roman sites in Britain, I feel in this section insufficient attention is paid to my home town of Chester!

This is a beautiful book, and rather readable.

Oct 05 2024

Book review: Echolands by Duncan MacKay

One book leads to another, after reading about prehistoric Britain I was interested in what came next – the Romans. Someone on social media suggested Echolands by Duncan MacKay subtitled A Journey in Search of Boudica. This is an apt description, the book is part travelogue, part history book. MacKay describes his journey following the path of Boudica to Colchester, London, Verulamium and to a final Great Battle with Paulinus, the Roman governor of Britain at the time. He travels variously by car, foot and bicycle. Initially I was sceptical of this style but it is rather compelling – the journey acts as a kind of mnemonic map for the historical facts conveyed.

Britain’s written history starts with Caesar’s expeditions in 54BC and 55BC. It was written not by the British but the Romans. Caesar did not conqueror any territory in Britain but extracted tribute from one king, and set up another as a client. This seems to have started a slow Romanisation of Britain with the local elites seeing the luxuries available in the Empire, and their sons going to Rome for a civilised upbringing (it isn’t quite clear if this export was voluntary). Britain already made some use of coinage which I find intriguing in a supposedly pre-literate society. There is scant archaeology from this period but a number of hordes of valuable items have been recovered.

The action then moves onto the Roman invasion in 43AD, over a 40 year period something like 250,000 Britons would lose their lives to the Romans, and it is likely 250,000 more were taken into slavery – this is from a population of around 2 million. The initial invasion force was around 40,000. The conquest was a slow process with some outright military victories and alliances or arrangements with the existing kingdoms as well as a lengthy and brutal campaign in Wales. The subjugation of Wales was to take until 51AD, veterans of this campaign retired to Camulodunum (Colchester) where they formed a colony. Relevant from this period is King Prasutagus of the Iceni tribe, whose wife was Boudica.

On his death Prasutagus in 59AD attempted to make his wife, Boudica, heir to his kingdom alongside Rome. Rome did not take kindly to this, Boudica was whipped and her two daughters raped. Subsequent events are recorded by Tacitus in The Annals (English version here, original latin here). There are also some references in Cassius Dio’s Roman History (English version here). These are relatively brief accounts and much of the understanding of events turns on a couple of sentences. Apparently Romans referred to us as Britunculi – “little Britons”!

In 60AD Boudica and her allies attacked the Camulodunum colony, killing effectively all of its inhabitants and burning it to the ground. The destruction can be seen in the archaeological record, and in fact burning has preserved more of the wattle and daub and other wooden structures than would normally be found. The final redoubt of the Roman colonists was the extravagant Temple of Claudius which was besieged for two days according to Tacitus.

On hearing news of the massacre the 9th Legion from set out towards Camulodunum via Cambridge. MacKay thinks they started from Longthorpe (outside Peterborough) whilst others suggested they started from their main garrison in Lincoln. This is where MacKay first takes to the road in earnest, travelling along the A14 to Cambridge, at the time this was the Via Devana (The Chester Road). MacKay is keen on his caligae (Roman hobnailed sandals) with which he walks some of the route. We lived in Cambridge for nearly 10 years and I know the A14 well, now we live in Chester. So this leg of the journey strikes a cord. The 9th legion were massacred somewhere outside Camulodunum, MacKay suggests the Colne Valley as a likely location for the ambush. This seems to be largely on the basis of where he supposed they were coming from and the local geography. There is no archaeological evidence for the battle.

In the meantime the Roman governor of Britain at the time, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, is invading Anglesey where the last Welsh resistance is holding out. Tacitus notes of the women in the opposing forces ranks:

In the style of Furies, in robes of deathly black and with dishevelled hair, they brandished their torches; while a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations, struck the troops with such an awe at the extraordinary spectacle that, as though their limbs were paralysed, they exposed their bodies to wounds without an attempt at movement. 

Despite this they are beaten easily by Paulinus’s legionnaires. MacKay travels to the vicinity of RAF Valley on Anglesey to start his retrace of Paulinus’s rapid trip south to face Boudica. We spent our summer holiday in Rhosneigr – a couple of miles away! The site is interesting because a number of artefacts were discovered in the lake there. One of them, a slave chain, was actually used by workers in the 1940s conducting a peat excavation operation and survived the experience remarkably well!

It is thought that Paulinus prepared his invasion boats (likely flat bottomed barges), in Chester and on his trip back to London – on news of Boudica’s rebellion – at least part of his force probably sailed back to Chester. Paulinus then takes his force south to London likely heading down towards Wroxeter (near Shrewsbury) along the now vanished start of the Watling Street Roman road before following it onwards to London along the still existing line of Watling Street. MacKay follows this route by car stopping on the outskirts of London to travel by rail and foot to the area of Monument, the centre of Roman London.

In 60AD London was a thriving trading centre but does not appear to have been an important town to the Romans from an administrative point of view, furthermore it did not have significant defences at the time so on his arrival Paulinus decided to abandon London to Boudica’s forces who were heading down from Colchester. He departed with those able and willing to follow, some may have taken refuge from Boudica on boats in the Thames. In any case London was comprehensively burnt by Boudica’s forces. Paulinus then headed up toward Veralumium (near modern day St Albans) which Boudica also destroyed.

That was the limit of Boudica’s rebellion, MacKay spends some time visiting potential locations for the final Great Battle of which Tacitus just says “…a position approached by a narrow defile and secured in the rear by a wood…“. This location has been the subject of much discussion with locations up into Warwickshire finding favour. MacKay appears to have decided on Windridge Farm close to Veralumium on the basis of the geography of the area, the proximity to a know location for Boudica and the discovery of clusters of Roman slingshot . Wherever it was Tacitus claims 80,000 of Boudica’s forces were killed in a single engagement, for comparison the first day of the Battle of the Somme saw 20,0000 British troops died. This ended Boudica’s rebellion and Tacitus says she died by her own hand afterwards.

The Roman’s lost a similar number of soldiers and civilians during the rebellion. What surprised me is despite these huge battles in the Colne Valley, on Anglesey and close to St Albans there is minimal archaeological evidence from these sites. Part of the problem is no doubt the uncertainty of their location, but also 80,000 dead on the ground surface would likely disappear over a period of a few years. Armour and weapons were valuable and would have been cleared from the battle field. MacKay references reports from other Roman battles, the Indian Rebellion and a battle between the British and Zulus, as to how such locations appeared after a few months or years.

The Romans were brutal occupiers, as evidenced by their own historians, and the carved columns they raised in honour of victorious generals. Boudica’s forces were brutal too. It would have taken the Romans a number of years to recover from the rebellion, furthermore the local population struggled through famine in the aftermath of the rebellion (Tacitus puts the blame for this squarely on the British).

I enjoyed this book, I thought the combination of travelogue and history worked really well and by chance I was familiar with a number of the locations MacKay visits.

Dec 24 2016

Book review: Roman Chester by David J.P. Mason

roman_chesterI recently realised that I live in a city with rather remarkable Roman roots. Having read Mary Beard’s book, SPQR, about the Roman’s in Rome, I turn now to Roman Chester: Fortress at the Edge of the World by David J.P. Mason.

The book starts with a chapter on the origins of the study of the Roman origins of Chester, and some background on Roman activities in Britain. The study of the Roman history of Chester begin back in the 18th century, with the hypocaust under the old Feathers Inn on Bridge Street a feature promoted by its owner. The Spud-u-like on the site now similarly boasts of its Roman remains. The original Roman east gate was still standing in the 18th century, and there exist several drawings of it from that period. The Victorians were keen excavators of the Roman archaeology, and formed the Chester Archaeological Society in 1849, and built the Grosvenor Museum in 1883.

A recurring theme of the book is the rather wilful destruction of substantial remains in the 1960s to build a couple of shopping centres. The Roman remains on the current Forum Shopping Centre site were destroyed after the rather fine Old Market Hall had been knocked down.

The core Roman activity in Chester was the fortress, established in 75AD under the reign of Vespasian. The fort is somewhat larger than other similar forts in England and the author suggests this was because it was, at one time, intended as the provincial governors base. Vespasian died shortly after the building of the Chester fortress started and the work paused. At the time of its Roman occupation Chester had a very fine harbour, the local sandstone was suitable for building, a brickworks was setup at Holt, further up the River Dee, and there was metal mining in North Wales and there was salt sourced from Northwich – all very important resource at the time.

Standing on the river Dee meant Chester could serve as a base for the further conquest of Britain and Ireland – although these plans did not come to fruition.  The evidence for this is some unusual buildings in the centre of the old fortress, and the rather more impressive nature of the original walls than the average Roman fort, and the discovery of rather classier than usual lead piping.

The book continues with a detailed examination of the various parts of the Roman fortress and the buildings it contained: the public baths, granaries and barracks. This is followed by a discussion of the surrounding canabae legionis, including the amphitheatre, the supporting Roman settlement and the more detached vicus. This includes the settlement at Heronbridge which was excavated relatively recently.

The third part of the book travels through time, looking at the periods c90-c120 in which the fortress was rebuilt, c120-c210 when the legion stationed at Chester was sent elsewhere to fight leaving the fortress to decline significantly. c210-c260 when the original impressive buildings at the heart of the fortress, not initially completed, were finally built. c260-c350 when the fortress fell and rose again. To finish in the period c350-c650 when Britain became detached from Rome, and fell into decline. The Roman fortress was robbed to provide building stone for the medieval walls and other structures including the cathedral.

Roman remains are visible throughout modern Chester. The north and east parts of the modern city walls follow the line of the walls of the Roman fortress. Some pillars are on display in front of the library, the hypocaust found under the Grosvenor shopping centre can now be found in the Roman Gardens, the amphitheatre is half exposed, parts of the walls particularly near Northgate and parallel to Frodsham street are contain Roman elements, the mysterious “quay wall” can be found down by the racecourse.

The book finishes with some comments on the general character of the investigations of Roman remains in Chester, and suggestions for further investigations and how to better exploit Chester’s Roman history. On the whole Chester has done moderately well in its treatment of the past, study started relatively early but much material has not been published. These days archaeology is mandated for new developments in the city but these tend to be rapid, keyhole operations with little coherent design.

Roman Chester is a rather a dry read, it is written much I would expect an article in a specialist archaeology journal to be written. The book could have done with a full double page map of modern, central Chester with the archaeological sites marked on it. As it was I was flicking between text descriptions and Google Maps to work out where everything was. Perhaps a project for the Christmas holiday!

If you are a resident of Chester then the book is absolutely fascinating.

Update

I’ve started making a map of Roman Chester on Google Maps.

Oct 23 2014

Book review: Pompeii by Mary Beard

For a change I have been reading about Roman history, in the form of Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town by Mary Beard.

Mary Beard is a Cambridge classicist. I think it helps having seen her on TV, jabbing her figure at a piece of Roman graffiti, explaining what it meant and why it was important with obvious enthusiasm. For me it gave the book a personality.

I imagine I am not unusual in gaining my knowledge of Roman culture via some poorly remembered caricature presented in pre-16 history classes at school and films including the Life of Brian, Gladiator and Up Pompeii.

Pompeii is an ancient Italian town which was covered in a 4-6 metre blanket of ash by an eruption of nearby Vesuvius in 79 AD. Beneath the ash the town was relatively undamaged. It was rediscovered in 1599 but excavations only started in the mid 18th century. These revealed a very well-preserved town including much structure, artwork and the remains of the residents. The bodies of the fallen left voids in the ash which were reconstructed by filling them with plaster.

The book starts with a salutatory reminder that Pompeii wasn’t a town frozen in normal times but one in extremis as it succumbed to a volcanic eruption. We can’t assume that the groups of bodies found or the placement of artefacts represent how they might have been found in normal daily life.

There are chapters on the history of the city, the streets, homes, painting, occupations, administration, various bodily pleasures (food, wine, sex and bathing), entertainment (theatre and gladiators) and temples.

I’ve tended to think of the Roman’s as a homogeneous blob who occupied a chunk of time and space. But this isn’t the case, the pre-Roman history of the town features writing in the Oscan language. The Greek writer Strabo, working in the first century BC wrote about a sequence of inhabitants: Oscans, Etruscans, Pelasgians and then Samnites – who also spoke Oscan.

Much of what we know of Pompeii seems to stem from the graffiti found all about the remains. It would be nice to learn a bit more about this evidence since it seems important, and clearly something different is going on from what we find in modern homes and cities. If I look around homes I know today then none feature graffiti, granted there is much writing on paper but not on the walls.

From the depths of my memory I recall the naming of various rooms in the Roman bath house but it turns out these names may not have been in common usage amongst the Romans. Furthermore, the regimented progression from hottest to coldest bath may also be somewhat fanciful. Something I also didn’t appreciate was that the meanings of some words in ancient Latin are not known, or are uncertain. It’s obvious in retrospect that this might be the case but caveats on such things are rarely heard.

Beard emphasises that there has been a degree of “over-assumption” in the characterisation of the various buildings in Pompeii. For instance on some reckonings there are huge numbers of bars and brothels. So for instance, anything with a counter and some storage jars gets labelled a bar. Anything with phallic imagery gets labelled a brothel, the Pompeiian’s were very fond of phallic imagery. A more conservative treatment brings these numbers down enormously.

I am still mystified by the garum, the fermented fish sauce apparently loved by many, it features moderately in the book since the house of a local manufacturer is one of the better preserved ones, and one which features very explicit links to his trade. It sounds absolutely repulsive.

The degree of preservation in Pompeii is impressive, the scene that struck me most vividly was in The House of Painters at Work. In this case the modern label for the house describes exactly what was going on, other houses are labelled with the names of dignitaries present when a house was uncovered, or after key objects found in the house. It is not known what the inhabitants called the houses, or even the streets. Deliveries seemed to go by proximity to prominent buildings.

I enjoyed Pompeii, the style is readable and it goes to some trouble to explain the uncertainty and subtlety in interpreting ancient remains.

Once again I regret buying a non-fiction book in ebook form, the book has many illustrations including a set of colour plates and I still find it clumsy looking at them in more detail or flicking backwards and forwards in an ereader.