History of Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia. Prior to the Roman invasion, Iron Age Britain already had cultural and economic links with Continental Europe, but the invaders introduced new developments in agriculture, urbanization, industry and architecture, leaving a legacy that is still apparent today.

Historical records beyond the initial invasion are sparse, although many Roman historians mention the province in passing. Most of the knowledge of the period stems from archaeological investigations and especially epigraphic evidence.

Caesar's invasions of Britain

Britain was not unknown to the Classical world. As early as the 4th century BC the Greeks and Carthaginians traded for British tin: the Greeks refer to the Cassiterides or "tin islands" and describe them as being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 5th century BC, and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. But it was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers even refusing to believe it existed.

The first direct Roman contact came when the Roman general and future dictator, Julius Caesar, made two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BC as an offshoot of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons had been helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition, more a reconnaissance than a full invasion, gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but, undermined by storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry, was unable to advance further. The expedition was a military failure, but was at least a political success: the Roman Senate declared a 20-day public holiday in Rome in honour of this unprecedented achievement.

In his second invasion Caesar took with him a substantially larger force and proceeded to coerce or invite many of the native celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether the tribute agreed was paid by the Britons after Caesar's return to Gaul with his forces.

Caesar had conquered no territory and had left behind no troops, but had established clients on the island and had brought Britain into Rome's sphere of political influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claims that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Likewise, archaeology shows an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus' own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in AD 16, they were sent back by local rulers, telling tall tales of monsters.

Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius This policy was followed until AD 39 or 40, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and staged an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it had even left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, this time Verica of the Atrebates.

Roman conquest of Britain

The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius It is not known how many Roman legions were sent; only one legion, the II Augusta, commanded by the future emperor Vespasian, is directly attested to have taken part. The IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are attested in 60/61 during the Bodicean Revolt, and are likely to have been there since the initial invasion. However, the Roman Army was flexible, with units being used and moved whenever necessary, so this is not certain. Only the Legio IX Hispana is certain to have stayed there, until its eventual annihillation by the Scots.

The invasion was delayed by a mutiny of the troops, who were eventually persuaded by an imperial freedman to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent, although some suggest that at least part of the invasion force landed on the south coast, in the Fishbourne area of West Sussex.

The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni and their allies in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, in a battle on the river Medway, the second on the Thames. One of the Catuvellaunian leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother King Caractacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). The future emperor Vespasian subdued the southwest Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories and treaties were made with tribes outside the area under direct Roman control.

Romano British

After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by King Caractacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51 AD, Ostorius lured Caractacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. However, the Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caractacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.

In 60-61 AD, while Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning in Wales, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under Queen Bodicea, widow of the recently-deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus, provoked by the seizure of the tribe's lands and the brutal treatment of the queen and her daughters. Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the rest would be left untouched. He was wrong. The Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth legion that was sent to relieve it. Suetonius Paulinus rode to London, the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Suetonius regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Bodicea died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. The revolt had almost persuaded Nero to withdraw from Britain altogether.

There was further turmoil in 69 AD, the "year of four emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively. Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.

In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78 AD. With theXXth Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 AD at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in what is today northern Scotland. This marked the high tide mark of Roman territory in Britain; shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans retired to a more defensible line along the Forth-Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.

For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a side-effect of this, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.

Occupation and retreat from southern Scotland:

There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth-Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged, although others appear to have been abandoned. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in what are now the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100 AD, indicating growing Romanisation. One of the most important sources of this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to AD 90-110. These tablets provide vivid evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.

Around 105 AD, however, a serious setback appears to have happened at the hands of the tribes of the Picts of Albu; several Roman forts were destroyed by fire with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in southeastern-most Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site. There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war from the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune on Cyrene. However, Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway-Tyne isthmus around this time.

A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign (117 AD), a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120 AD, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the VIth Victrix legion with him from Lower Germany. This replaced the famous IXth Hispana legion, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the second century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.

In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth-Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 AD following the military re-occupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus. This northward extension of the empire was probably the result of attacks, maybe by the Selgovae of southeast Scotland, on the Roman buffer state of the Votadini who lived north of the Hadrianic frontier.

The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155-157 AD, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Cnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was reoccupied, but by 163 or 164 AD it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antonius' undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time, however; the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180 AD.

During the twenty year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danube provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver found in Scotland suggests more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.

In 175 AD a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180 AD Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Dio Cassius described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 AD he had won a new peace only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus' strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian Prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.

The future emperor Pertinax was sent to Britannia to quel the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control. However, a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192 AD.

Third century:

The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the throne emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus' support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised however, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia—though it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.

Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195 AD, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196 AD, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Although Albinus came close to victory, Severus' reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus' sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment.

Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions; but these provided an ambitious man, one who's loyalty to the emperor was weak, with a powerful base for rebellion. Deploying those legions elsewhere, however, would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native celtic tribes or against invasion by the Picts and Scots.

The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus' absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed is suggestive that enemies of Rome were providing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 AD describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating