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55 BC and Julius Caesar has just arrived
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on the southern coast of Britain he did
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this shortly after his conquest of Gaul
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which was here he likely did so because
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of the close ties between the
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inhabitants of Britain known then as
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Britannia and bows of Gaul many of the
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Gauls who resisted Caesar had alliances
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in kinship ties in Britain and some
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Gallic neither spread across the channel
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whilst others received military
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assistance Caesars first landing did not
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achieve much but he landed again next
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year and after some conflict he secured
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the surrender of some British tribes and
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was able to exact a yearly tribute as
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well the people who lived in Britain at
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this time often referred to as Celts
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this term isn't particularly useful
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since it implies a level of homogeneity
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which simply didn't exist the
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inhabitants of Britain certainly spoke a
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Celtic language but to say that they
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were thus all Celtic would be like
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calling English because Germans since
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English is the Germanic language these
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people were divided into tribes and
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small kingdoms such as the terrine of
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antes who lived here and were Roman
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puppets that said cattle Britons are
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commonly used terms after the sake of
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simplicity their use is warranted but
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just remember it's more complicated so
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after Caesar had left Britain some of
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the tribes had become part of the Roman
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world if only barely Romans were now
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much more aware of Britain since before
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Caesar he had been seen as a near
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mythical place which was an ocean away
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so over the next century a fair few
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changes underwent the Roman Republic
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first Caesar became dictator for life
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and was subsequently murdered thus
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bringing about the civil war which would
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see his adopted son Octavian become the
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first emperor of Rome the Emperor
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Augustus Augustus and his heirs had I
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had Britain for invasion of the
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following half-century but it was always
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sidelined due to more pressing concerns
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this didn't change until Cunha Bolinas
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the king of the cutter Bologna tribe had
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conquered the Treena vantes and expelled
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his son Cunha Bolinas his son fled to
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the Roman Emperor Gaius better known as
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Caligula and declared the submission of
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Britain Caligula prepared an invasion
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force but at the last minute called it
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off shortly before being murdered his
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uncle Claudius became Emperor and in
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order to cement his reputation with the
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people and often rebellious legions he
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decided to conquer Britain and achieved
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that which his predecessors could not in
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43 ad for Roman legions led by a certain
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Alice Claudius and their auxiliaries
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arrived in Britain about 40,000 men in
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total and began the process of
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conquering the South the British natives
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attempted to resist but in battle they
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lacked the heavy armor or the
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professionalism of the Roman legionaries
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that said the
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British resisted fiercely and after four
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years Roman control over this much of
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the island some such as Kaka dub nurse
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who ruled over this area and Prasutagus
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who ruled the ice any who lived here
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were allied to the Romans and helped
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them administer the population in return
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for prestige wealth and not having all
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of their stuff taken to the north of the
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Roman territory Saturn of the client
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state the Brigantes who were led by the
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Queen Katia Mantua and were responsible
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for protecting the Empire's northern
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border from Raiders the lands conquered
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by Rome were governed by two
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administrators the first was the
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governor who is in charge of military
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and judicial matters and the second was
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the procurator who is in charge of
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economic ones
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both reported directly to the Emperor
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and was supposed to acts checks on each
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other's ambitions and power the province
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was wrong from camallo Dunham's now
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called Colchester and was permanently
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garrisoned by a Legion Rome slowly but
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surely consolidated its hold upon
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southern Britain but still had to
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contend with the raids from the west and
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the north in response to raiding in the
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year 47 the Roman government made sure
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to disarm all of their British subjects
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which was in fact the law of the entire
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empire in response the ice any revolted
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but were quickly crushed importantly
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around this time with the founding of
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Londinium later London the next decade
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saw a large-scale urbanization and the
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beginning of a coin based economy as
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opposed to the barter economy that had
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preceded it camallo Dunham ballooned in
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population as well as becoming a very
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important Roman cultural center the
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natives who lived under Roman rule was
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subject to taxation of conscription as
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well as discrimination these issues
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eventually led to revolt in the year 60
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the main catalyst for the revolt with
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the death of Prasutagus who in his will
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gave half of his kingdom to the new
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emperor Nero and the other half to his
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two daughters the Romans ignored this
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and took everything the wife of
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Prasutagus Boadicea protested this an in
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return she was flogged and her daughters
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were raped after this Boudicca raised
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the Ionian revolt and was soon after
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joined by the Treena vantes they
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subsequently roamed southern Britannia
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burning settlements such as camallo
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Dunham's Londinium and Beryl our neom
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now called st. Albans eventually
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Boudicca clash with the governor of
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Britannia Suetonius Paulinus at what is
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known as the battle for Watling Street
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the Romans of the 14th Legion were
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heavily outnumbered but their better
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organization tactics and equipment gave
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them victory having lost Boudicca
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committed suicide and after his
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victories who Tonys went on a spree of
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punitive expedition to destroy any
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remnant of resistance to Roman rule the
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new procurator krasiki Anna's believed
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that this policy of murdering every
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would cause more revolt and so the
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Emperor Nero record suit oh nice aroma
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and replaced him with a more tactful
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governor the scars of the revolt began
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to heal over the next decade with
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Londinium and Camila Dunham being
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rebuilt this process was cut short in
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the Year 68 when crisis struck the Roman
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Empire
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Nero being largely useless was declared
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an enemy of Rome and subsequently offed
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himself
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the next year known as the year of the
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Four Emperors because shockingly there
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were four Emperor's in the space of a
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year plunged the Empire into chaos
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whilst the Empire fell into said crisis
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the Brigantes territory collapsed in
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roman britain's northern border was
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subject to intense raiding the chaos was
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put to an end when Vespasian won the
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Civil War and reunited the Empire and
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was the first emperor of Rome second
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major dynasty the Flavians
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the return of stability meant the Rome
00:05:09
could now respond to the rage from the
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north as well as consolidating their
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hold over Britain in the late 70s Rome
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was able to expand its control over the
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island in part due to a man called
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Agricola who would appointed governor of
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Britannia in 77
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he led several expeditions the first was
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to crush the Brigantes and after that he
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even advanced well into Caledonia
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winning a major victory over the
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Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Grau
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pious thus most of Britain was under
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Roman control but after Agricola was
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recalled to Rome in 85 Caledonia swiftly
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broke away from Roman influence so the
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corporation of Britannia was achieved
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via urbanization and the desire of
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native British elites to become Roman
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the public baths the Romans built meant
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that those who used them could
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distinguish themselves from the unwashed
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barbarians from outside the Empire the
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newly introduced Roman and Greek
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literary classics could be read to show
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off one's intelligence the new luxury
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goods imported from the rest of the
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Empire were a means of showing off
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wealth as well it was through this
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cultural pool factor the Rome was able
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to incorporate the defeated elites into
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the empire whom they often made
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administrators this did not mean that
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romanized natives were somehow seen as
00:06:09
equals by Romans and one such attitude
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is displayed by the writer Tacitus who
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was Agricola's son-in-law and is one of
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the major sources for early Roman
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Britain he says that within the British
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a liking sprang up for our style of
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dress and the toga became fashionable
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all this in their ignorance they called
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civilization when it was but a part of
00:06:26
their servitude one way of measuring
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just how Roman the British natives have
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become is by looking at religious belief
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the Romans had a policy of incorporating
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native gods into their own Pantheon for
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example the goddess Sulis who was
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worshipped at a place called Aquae Sulis
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now called bath was
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by the Romans to be the equivalent of
00:06:42
their goddess Minerva the goddess of
00:06:44
wisdom it is important to remember that
00:06:45
the building of towns and all of the
00:06:47
traditionally Roman things in them such
00:06:49
as baths and temples were almost always
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paid for by the local elites not the
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Emperor or the central Roman government
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as far as these settlements go there
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were four main types the first were the
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Kolani I such as Linden Colonia
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modern-day Lincoln which were the high
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status wealthy centers which were where
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military veterans and Roman citizens
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were settled another type of Roman
00:07:07
settlement were the meanest appear the
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only known one in Britain being very
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Larned most of those that lived in
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municipal were not Roman citizens though
00:07:14
the next with Sibbett our teas such as
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corinne IAM now called cirencester which
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were large romanized settlements of
00:07:19
conquered people finally were the wiki
00:07:21
which were small settlements that often
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sprang up around Roman Garrison's to
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benefit from trade with the army it
00:07:26
should be noted that most people living
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in Roman Britain did not live in urban
00:07:29
centres between 80 and 90 percent of
00:07:31
people lived in rural areas with most
00:07:33
being peasant farmers these people did
00:07:35
not become romanized and life for them
00:07:37
changed little except for the fact that
00:07:38
they had large urban markets to sell
00:07:40
their excess crops to the amount of
00:07:42
effort put into Roman izing an
00:07:43
urbanizing Britain vary greatly over the
00:07:45
decades but one emperor who puts a great
00:07:47
deal of effort into promoting
00:07:48
development was Hadrian who actually
00:07:49
visited Britain in the year 122 Hadrian
00:07:53
paid for development in Londinium and an
00:07:55
attempt was made to drain part the fens
00:07:56
an area of swampland here in order to
00:07:58
increase arable land of course what
00:08:00
Hadrian is most famous for in Roman
00:08:02
Britain is Hadrian's Wall which started
00:08:04
construction in 122 and was completed in
00:08:06
128 there are a couple of misconceptions
00:08:09
about this wall one it does not mark the
00:08:11
border between modern-day England and
00:08:12
Scotland and in fact all of it is in
00:08:14
England and two it was not designed to
00:08:16
keep everyone out but was a series of
00:08:18
border checkpoints through which traders
00:08:19
could travel providing they paid attacks
00:08:21
20 years later another wall was built to
00:08:23
the north of Hadrian's Wall the Antonine
00:08:25
wall which was mostly made of earth
00:08:26
shockingly the Antonine wall was built
00:08:29
during the reign of Antoninus pious
00:08:30
Hadrian successor the war was mainly for
00:08:32
publicity back in Rome was abandoned
00:08:34
shortly after its construction by
00:08:36
Antoninus his successor Marcus Aurelius
00:08:37
this was probably due to the fact that
00:08:40
the land between the Hadrian and
00:08:41
Antonine walls was barren and needed
00:08:43
expensive development in order to supply
00:08:45
the garrison there furthermore there was
00:08:47
also a major revolt south of Hadrian's
00:08:48
Wall in 158 which had to be suppressed
00:08:50
the fact that throughout the Roman
00:08:52
period Britain was never home to less
00:08:54
than
00:08:54
three legions roughly 15,000 men and
00:08:56
their auxiliaries is proof that rome
00:08:58
never managed to fully pacify
00:08:59
protagonist population after Marcus
00:09:01
Aurelius is death in 180 rule of the
00:09:03
Empire was left to his son Commodus who
00:09:05
was terrible not much happened in
00:09:07
Britain during his reign except for a
00:09:08
few legionary revolts and the
00:09:10
appointment of a man could pertain axe
00:09:11
to the governorship of Britain
00:09:13
so Commodus was assassinated in 192 was
00:09:15
succeeded by person axe who at the first
00:09:17
emperor in what is known as the year of
00:09:19
the five emperors because at this point
00:09:20
why not
00:09:21
the civil wars that took place during
00:09:23
this period saw the legions in britain
00:09:24
declare a man could Clodius happiness
00:09:26
emperor but ultimately he failed the
00:09:28
winner of this conflict was a man called
00:09:29
septimus severus who founded the severn
00:09:32
dynasty and is considered by some to be
00:09:33
the divide between the early roman
00:09:35
empire and the late which we'll get to
00:09:37
next week
00:09:38
I hope you enjoyed this episode and
00:09:40
thank you for watching there are some
00:09:41
recommended books in the description
00:09:43
below and if you have any questions feel
00:09:44
free to ask
00:09:52
you
