The Roman Occupation of Britain

The Roman occupation of Britain led to enormous cultural changes.

Very soon straight paved roads criss-crossed the country.

Aquaducts and bridges were constructed.

Cities were built which followed the Roman grid pattern.

They built sanitation and sewage systems.

Education and learning flourished.

Soon native British were being used as auxiliaries in the Roman legions, and at their height, the Romans stationed around 100,000 troops at York, Chester, Colchester and Carlisle.

Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) or York (Eburacum), were founded by the Romans.

Now firmly entrenched in the lower part of Britain – the countries now known as England and Wales – the Romans began to turn their attention to the areas in the north, what is now modern Scotland.

In 78 AD the Roman governor Agricola successfully invaded northern Britain.

In 84 AD he defeated the Celtic Picts, but was then recalled to Rome, and the legions retreated to a more defensible line in southern Scotland along the Forth-Clyde isthmus.

The ferocity of the northern British Celts, the Picts, soon forced the Romans to retreat further to the south, into northern England.

When the Emperor Hadrian visited the province of Britannia around the year 120 AD, he ordered that a huge defensive wall be constructed across northern England, in line with his efforts to consolidate the Roman Empire.

This wall, still visible today, became known as Hadrian’s Wall.

(Above) Map showing the extent of the Roman penetration into northern Britain, what is modern Scotland.

During the reign of the Emperor Antonius Pius the frontier was once again extended back to the Forth-Clyde isthmus, and a new wall was established, called the Antonine Wall.

Faced with revolts, the Romans soon withdrew back to Hadrian’s Wall.

From this point onwards, the Roman grip on Britain gradually slackened.

In 212 AD, the Emperor Caracalla granted all free inhabitants of the Empire citizenship of the Roman state, effectively making all native British Roman citizens.

This act led to a number of mixed-marriages between the European Romans and the native British, which did not however have any effect on Britain’s homogeneity.

With the Roman Empire starting to crumble, hordes of Germanic tribes started rolling westwards threatening all of Roman Western Europe.

(Above) Illustration showing the small Roman city of Londinium, which was to gradually become the British capital city we know today as London.

In 312 AD the Roman Emperor Constantine officially converted to Christianity, a fledgling young religion then growing in popularity throughout the Roman Empire.

From that point onward Christianity spread to the province of Britannia, and was to remain the dominant religion until the arrival of the pagan Anglo-Saxons over a hundred years later.

During the last years of the Roman occupation of Britain, an English Christian missionary, called Patrick, travelled to Ireland with the intention of Christianising the Irish Celts, who were still pagans.

Patrick managed to turn Ireland into a Christian country and eventually became the patron saint of Ireland (St. Patrick).

During the 4th Century, Britain was subjected to an increased amount of raids and attacks from Germanic tribes based on the Continent, but the legions managed to hold on to the British Isles.

But by the year 410 AD, the Romans finally withdrew their legions from the province of Britannia.

The end of Roman rule in Britain left the whole British Isles vulnerable to the huge number of westward invasions and migrations of the Germanic tribes, such as the Saxons, Vikings, Jutes, and Angles.

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