By: Alan Belth
THE Romans under Julius Caesar first visited Britain in the year 55 B.C. The Roman conquest of Britain commenced under the Emperor Claudius A.D. 43 and the Romans remained masters of the larger part of the island during nearly the ensuing four centuries until 420 A.D. when the soldiers of Rome were finally withdrawn and the Britons left to themselves. Roman sovereignty in Britain lasted therefore during a period much longer than has elapsed from the time of the Protestant Reformation to the present day. During this lengthened term of dominion in our island the Romans constructed roads built cities and erected many public and private works military and otherwise the remains of which even at the present day attest their skill and power. A brief notice of some of those points in which the geography of Britain during the Roman period differed from its geography in the present day will not be without utility to the student of history and geography alike.
THE ROMAN CONQUEST Nothing could be more natural or in the ordinary course of events than that when the legions of Rome under Julius Caesar had overrun Gaul the shores of Britain should become the next object of attack on the part of their victorious commander There already existed commercial intercourse betwcen the maritime populations of Gaul and Britain for the most part of the same race and there were also political ties which to some extent linked the inhabitants of the two countries to one another In the summer of the year 55 B.C. the Roman general determined to cross the narrow sea which divides the coasts of Gaul from those of Britain rendered conspicuous from the opposite side of the channel in the case of each from the chalk cliffs by which they are respectively lined.
Caesar sailed on the occasion of his first descent on the British shores from a port in the country of the Morini a Gallic nation whence there was the shortest passage to Britain. In his second expedition he mentions Portus Itius as his place of departure because he had ascertained that port to afford the most convenient place of passage to the island. We may therefore assume that the same port of embarkation was used upon botli occasions Portus Itiua corresponds probably to the modern Witsand or Wissant, situated a few miles west of Calais and a short distance to the east of Cape Grisnez.
Caesar embarked his infantry belonging to the tenth and the seventh legions on board of eighty vessels leaving the cavalry to follow in eighteen other ships The Roman fleet reached the British coasts at the hour of ten in the forenoon and after a spirited resistance on the part of the natives who were drawn up on the shore to oppose them succeeded in effecting a landing.
The place of Caesar first landing in Britain was probably in the neighborhood of Deal or Sandwich at any rate on some part of the east coast of Kent. It is of course impossible to decide with any certainty en the precise spot. The Romans did not advance far into the interior on this occasion Stormy weather had delayed the sailing of their cavalry and the Roman ships drawn up on the shore had sustained some injury from a like cause. Anxious to return to Gaul before the setting in of the equinoctial gales, Caesar did not protract his stay in the territory of the brave and fierce islanders but taking with him hostages for their adherence to the submission they had been compelled to promise re-crossed the channel.
In the following year B.C. 54 Caesar visited Britain for the second time. He sailed from Portus Itius and landed on or near the same spot as before. On this occasion the Romans penetrated a considerable distance inland. They first crossed a river on the banks of which the Britons were posted probably the Stour. Subsequently following the retreating enemy whom they had defeated in an important engagement the Romans advanced to the banks of the Thames which they crossed and thence penetrated to the capital of Cassivelaunus the British chieftain who had been placed at the head of the confederate tribes in the south eastern portion of the island.
The place where Caesar to have been in the neighborhood of Chertsey, in Surrey, where the name of Coway Stakes is regarded as commemorative of the stakes which as Caesar tells us the Britons had driven into the bed of the river to prevent the Romans from effecting a passage across it, The capital of Cassive launus may perhaps have coincided with the site of the town of St Albans which under the name of Verulaminm was an important Roman station,
Caesar mentions besides the Cautii or people of Kent and the Trinobautes (the inhabitants of Middlesex and Essex) the following British tribes or nations the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the Bibroci, and the Cassi. It is not easy to identify these with the names of the nations given in Ptolemy's list We may assume that all of them lay in comparative proximity to the Trinobantes and the Cassi are supposed to have been the same as the Catycuchlani of Ptolemy.
After Caesar’s second visit to Britain the Romans left the island undisturbed for nearly a century The geographer Strabo who wrote about 15 A.D. and the historian Diodorus Siculus both supply some information respecting the condition of Britons at this early period.
These authors describe the island as being for the most part flat and woody having however many strong places on hills. The produce of Britain consisted of corn and cattle, gold, silver, and iron with Skins, slaves and dogs of a superior breed for the chase. The British dogs were widely celebrated and were so strong and fierce that the Gauls are said to have used them in war. The aboriginal Britons are described as being tall of stature and corpulent but not well made Although according to Strabo they used milk in great abundance yet they were not acquainted with the art of making cheese and were total strangers to gardening and agriculture Diodorus however describes them as practicing agriculture gathering the corn and storing it up in the stalk in thatched houses. Their dwellings were mere temporary erections formed in the forests by enclosing a space with felled trees, within which they made huts of reeds and logs and sheds for their cattle.
The tin which had from an early period been exported from Britain had helped to raise the social condition of the people of the south western peninsula above that of the islanders in general. We are told by Strabo that the inhabitants of Britain who live near the Belerian promontory the Lands End are peculiarly hospitable and from the great resort of foreigners more polished in manners. They prepare the tin and show much skill in working the earth which produces it. This being of a stony nature and having earthy veins in every direction they work their way into these veins and so by means of water separate the fragments. These they bruise into small pieces and convey them to an island which lies in front of Britain called Ictis for at the great ebb of the tide the channel becomes dry and they carry over the tin in large quantities on wagons. From Ictis the tin is purchased by native merchants and transported to Gaul Ivory bracelets necklaces vessels of glass and similar small wares were imported (Strabo tells us) into Britain from Gaul.
It is clear from these and other accounts that the people of Britain at this early period were not all in the same stage of social advance nor characterized by identity of usage and manner. The people of the south western and south eastern coasts at any rate perhaps the maritime tribes in general had made greater advance towards civilization than the tribes of the interior They had permanent habitations though of a rude kind while the people of the interior devoted chiefly to pastoral occupations wandered through the woods throwing up merely temporary abodes for the shelter of themselves and their cattle.
