Ten Minute English and British History #01 - Early Roman Britain and Boudicca's Rebellion

55 BC and Julius Caesar has just arrived on the southern coast of Britain. He did this shortly after his conquest of Gaul, which was here. He likely did so because of the close ties between the inhabitants of Britain, known then as Britannia, and those of Gaul. Many of the Gauls who resisted Caesar had alliances and kinship ties in Britain, and some Gallic leaders fled across the Channel whilst others received military assistance. Caesar's first landing did not achieve much, but he landed again next year and after some The people who lived in Britain at this time are often referred to as Celts. This term isn't particularly useful, since it implies a level of homogeneity which simply didn't exist. The inhabitants of Britain certainly spoke a Celtic language, but to say that they were thus all Celtic would be like calling English-speakers Germans, since English is a Germanic language. These people were divided into tribes and small kingdoms, such as the Trinovantes, who lived here and were Roman puppets. That said, Celt or Britons are commonly used terms that for the sake of simplicity their use is warranted, but just remember it's more complicated. So, after Caesar had left Britain, some of the tribes had become part of the Roman world, if only barely. Romans were now much more aware of Britain, since before Caesar it had been seen as a near-mythical place which was an ocean away. So, over the next century a fair few changes underwent the Roman Republic. First, Caesar became dictator for life and was subsequently murdered, thus bringing about the civil war which would see his adopted son Octavian become the first emperor of Rome, the Emperor Augustus. Augustus and his heirs had eyed Britain for invasion over the following half-century, but it was always sidelined due to more pressing concerns. This didn't change until Cunabalinus, the king of the Catavallone tribe, had conquered the Trinovantes and expelled his son. Cunabalinus' son fled to the Roman Emperor Gaius, better known as Caligula, and declared the submission of Britain. Caligula prepared an invasion force, but at the last minute called it off shortly before being murdered. His uncle Claudius became emperor, and in order to cement his reputation with the people and often rebellious legions, he decided to conquer Britain and achieve that which his predecessors could not. In 43 AD, four Roman legions, led by a certain Aulus Plautius and their auxiliaries arrived in Britain, about 40,000 men in total, and began the process of conquering the south. The British natives attempted to resist, but in battle they lacked the heavy armour or the professionalism of the Roman legionaries. That said, the native British resisted fiercely, and after four years, Rome had control over this much of the island. Some, such as Cogedubnus, who ruled over this area, and Placutagus, who ruled the Iceni who lived here, were allied to the Romans and helped them administer the population in return for prestige, wealth, and not having all of their stuff taken. To the north of the Roman territory sat another client state, the Brigantes, who were led by the Queen Cartimandua and were responsible for protecting the empire's northern border from raiders. The lands conquered by Rome were governed by two administrators. The first was the governor, who was in charge of military and judicial matters, and the second was the procurator, who was in charge of economic ones. Both reported directly to the emperor and were supposed to act as checks on each other's ambitions and power. The province was run from Camulodunum, now called Colchester, and was permanently garrisoned by a legion. Rome slowly but surely consolidated its hold upon southern Britain, but still had to contend with the raids from the west and the north. In response to raiding in the year 47, the Roman government made sure to disarm all of their British subjects, which was in fact the law of the entire empire. In response, the Iceni revolted, but were quickly crushed. Importantly around this time was the founding of Londinium, later London. The next decade saw large-scale urbanization and the beginning of a coin-based economy, as opposed to the barter economy that had preceded it. Camulodunum ballooned in population as well as becoming a very important Roman cultural center. The natives who lived under Roman rule were subject to taxation and conscription, as well as discrimination. These issues eventually led to revolt in the year 60. The main catalyst for the revolt was the death of Prasutagus, who in his will gave half of his kingdom to the new emperor Nero and the other half to his two daughters. The Romans ignored this and took everything. The wife of Prasutagus, Boudica, protested this and in return she was flogged and her daughters were raped. After this Boudica raised the Icenian revolt and was soon after joined by the Trinovantes. They subsequently roamed southern Britannia burning settlements such as Camulodunum, Londinium and Berulanium, now called St. Albans. Eventually Boudica clashed with the governor of Britannia, Suetonius Paulinus at what is known as the Battle for Watling Street. The Romans of the 14th Legion were heavily outnumbered, but their better organization, tactics and equipment gave them victory. Having lost, Boudica committed suicide, and after his victory, Suetonius went on a spree of punitive expedition to destroy any remnant of resistance to Roman rule. The new procurator, Classicianus, believed that this policy of murdering everyone would cause more revolt, and so the emperor Nero recalled Suetonius to Rome and replaced him with a more tactful governor. The scars of the revolt began to heal over the next decade, with Londinium and Camulodunum being rebuilt. This process was cut short in the year 68 when crisis struck the Roman Empire. Nero, being largely useless, was declared an enemy of Rome and subsequently offed himself. The next year, known as the Year of the Four Emperors, because shockingly there were four emperors in the space of a year, plunged the empire into chaos. Whilst the empire fell into said crisis, the Breganci's territory collapsed and Roman Britain's northern border was subject to intense raiding. The chaos was put to an end when Vespasian won the civil war and reunited the empire, and was the first emperor of Rome's second major dynasty, the Flavians. The return of stability meant that Rome could now respond to the rage from the north, as well as consolidating their hold over Britain. In the late 70s, Rome was able to expand its control over the island, in part due to a man called Agricola, who was appointed governor of Britannia in 77. He led several expeditions, the first was to crush the Bregantes, and after that he even advanced well into Caledonia, winning a major victory over the Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Thus, most of Britain was under Roman control, but after Agricola was recalled to Rome in 85, Caledonia swiftly broke away from Roman influence. So, the incorporation of Britannia was achieved via urbanization and the desire of native British elites to become Roman. The public baths the Romans built meant that those who used them could distinguish themselves from the unwashed barbarians from outside the empire. The newly introduced Roman and Greek literary classics could be read to show off one's intelligence. The new luxury goods imported from the rest of the empire were a means of showing off wealth as well. It was through this cultural pull factor that Rome was able to incorporate the defeated elites into the empire, whom they often made administrators. This did not mean that Romanised natives were somehow seen as equals by Romans, and one such attitude is displayed by the writer Tacitus, who was Agricola's son-in-law, and is one of the major sources for early Roman Britain. He says that within the British a liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the toga became fashionable. All this in their ignorance they called civilization, when it was but a part of their servitude. One way of measuring just how Roman the British natives had become is by looking at religious belief. The Romans had a policy of incorporating native gods into their own pantheon. For example, the goddess Sulis, who was worshipped at a place called Aquae Sulis, now called Bath, was considered by the Romans to be the equivalent of their goddess Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. It is important to remember that the building of towns, and all of the traditionally Roman things in them, such as baths and temples, were almost always paid for by the local elites, not the emperor or the central Roman government. As far as these settlements go, there were four main types. The first were the coloniae, such as Lindum Colonia, modern day Lincoln, which were the high-status, wealthy centres which were where military veterans and Roman citizens were settled. Another type of Roman settlement were the municipia, the only known one in Britain being Verulanium. Most of those that lived in municipia were not Roman citizens though. The next were civitates, such as Carinium, now called Cyrencester, which were large Romanised settlements of conquered people. Finally were the wicci, which were small settlements that often sprang up around Roman garrisons to benefit from trade with the army. It should be noted that most people living in Roman Britain did not live in urban centres. Between 80 and 90% of people lived in rural areas, with most being peasant farmers. These people did not become Romanised, and life for them changed little except for the fact that they had large urban markets to sell their excess crops to. The amount of effort put into Romanising and urbanising Britain varied greatly over the decades, but one emperor who put a great deal of effort into promoting development was Hadrian, who actually visited Britain in the year 122. Hadrian paid for development in Londinium, and an attempt was made to drain part of the fens, an area of swampland here, in order to increase arable land. Of course what Hadrian is most famous for in Roman Britain is Hadrian's Wall, which started construction in 122 and was completed in 128. There are a couple of misconceptions about this wall. One, it does not mark the border between modern day England and Scotland, and in fact all of it is in England. And two, it was not designed to keep everyone out, but was a series of border checkpoints through which traders could travel, providing they pay the tax. 20 years later, another wall was built to the north of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall, which was mostly made of earth. Shockingly, the Antonine Wall was built during the reign of Antoninus Pius, Hadrian's successor. The wall was mainly for publicity back in Rome, and was abandoned shortly after its construction by Antoninus' successor Marcus Aurelius. This was probably due to the fact that the land between the Hadrian and Antonine Walls was barren and needed expensive development in order to supply the garrison there. Furthermore, there was also a major revolt south of Hadrian's Wall in 158 which had to be suppressed. The fact that throughout the Roman period, Britain was never home to less than three legions, roughly 15,000 men and their auxiliaries, is proof that Rome never managed to fully pacify Britannia's population. After Marcus Aurelius' death in 180, rule of the empire was left to his son Commodus, who was terrible. Not much happened in Britain during his reign except for a few legionary revolts and the appointment of a man called Pertinax to the governorship of Britain. So Commodus was assassinated in 192 and was succeeded by Pertinax, who was the first emperor in what is known as the year of the five emperors, because at this point, why not? The civil wars that took place during this period saw the legions in Britain declare a man called Clodius Albinus emperor, but ultimately he failed. The winner of this conflict was a man called Septimius Severus, who founded the Severan dynasty and is considered by some to be the divide between the early Roman Empire and the late, which we'll get to next week. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching. There are some recommended books in the description below and if you have any questions feel free to ask.