Roman Britain
Conquest and settlement
It is in the Roman era that identifiable, named individuals of recognizable importance in the story of
Britain first appear. Older textbooks conventionally started with the two expeditions led by Julius Caesar
(100–44 BC) in 55 and 54 BC, skimmed over the next hundred-odd years, and began their main account
with the Romans arriving as an occupying force in the invasion of the Emperor Claudius (10 BC–AD 54) in
AD 43. The ‘Roman occupation of Britain’ in this view of history ended with ‘the Romans leaving Britain’ in
410, a belief that has had a remarkable persistence in popular historical writing.
But it is now clear that at least from the beginning of the first century BC Britain was interacting with
Rome and being drawn ever more strongly into the orbit of expanding Roman political, cultural, and
economic
influence.
No less important has been an understanding of Britain's position within the Roman Empire, one arguably
unparalleled in its history. Because of its position on the fringe of the Roman world—and most of all
because it lay across the dreaded ‘Ocean’—successes in Britain were extremely prestigious. Indeed, it
retained a mythic quality even after centuries of incorporation within the Roman Empire. It is not,
therefore, surprising to find military interventions led in person from the top, beginning with Julius
Caesar. He was followed by emperors who, as well as Claudius (whose conquests in Britain led to, among
other things, the first known visual representation of Britannia, in a sculpture which shows her being
struck down by the victorious emperor), included Hadrian (AD 76–138), Septimius Severus (145/6–211),
and
Constantius
I
(250?–306).
Britain's perceived worth in imperial eyes was such that up to an eighth of the entire Roman army was
devoted to its garrison. The biography by the historian Tacitus (b. AD 56/7, d. in or after 113) of his
father-in-law Julius Agricola (AD 40–93) was made all the more powerful because his successful
campaigns as a provincial governor took place in Britain.
It was not just military victory in Britain that was prized as part of the personal image. The Emperor
Constantine I (Constantine the Great) (272/3–337) did not forget that he had been raised to the imperial
throne by his late father's troops at York. On the occasion of an event in the eastern Mediterranean, he
addressed the Christian church that he had transformed from persecuted sect to state religion with the
proud observation that he had personally carried the supreme benefit of his rule from farthest Britain
right
across
the
Roman
world.
The system of provincial government At first the empire depended heavily on local élites—some of whose
members had been granted Roman citizenship and all of whom enjoyed privileged positions—to an extent
that makes the notion of ‘Britons’ being ruled by ‘Romans’ quite misleading. By the third century the
proportion of Roman citizens within the British population had risen substantially, but it must still have
been an important change when in 212 the Emperor Caracalla (188–217) effectively granted full
citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire, so that henceforward all were Romans.
Decline and fall
By the beginning of the fifth century the population of Britain within the Roman frontiers had been wholly
Roman for a couple of centuries. They had no reason to imagine anything different. But though the
British leaders like Caratacus and Boudicca who fought against the Romans for independence had no
successors, there was instead a series of attempts to seize imperial authority by Romans whose power
was based on Britain. Hence, for instance, the late third-century ‘empire’ of Carausius (d. 293), which has
even been portrayed as a forerunner of British sea power. There is no evidence that any of these
attempts aimed at independence for Britain from Rome; all were aimed at the imperial throne itself, and
almost all were in the end unsuccessful. Clodius Albinus (d. 197), Allectus (d. 296), Magnus Maximus (d.
388), and Constantine III (d. 411) were all defeated in battle and Carausius was murdered in a palace
coup. Constantine I provides the single, supremely successful, exception that proves the rule. But all of
them illustrate a central fault, in Roman society at large, that proved in the end fatal to Roman Britain:
the deadly rivalry at the top that descended time and time again into civil war. The end of Roman Britain,
contrary to popular belief, seems to have had very little to do with withdrawal of Roman troops by the
central Roman government in Italy to face barbarian attacks.. The abrupt dissolution of the
administrative network consequently led swiftly and inexorably to the collapse of the infrastructure on
which
the
ordinary
everyday
life
of
Romano-British
society
had
long
rested.
The Christian church had started to become established in Britain long before the end of Roman rule,
though exactly when is uncertain. But pagan religious practices survived, and do not seem to have
succumbed immediately, even to being completely banned under savage penalties at the end of the
fourth century. There is some evidence, too, that (at least in upper-class circles) unorthodox versions of
the Christian faith circulated, including syncretism with pagan cults.
There is other evidence that, despite the undoubted disasters, the end of Roman rule in AD 409 or 410
did not mean that Britain entirely ceased to be part of the Roman world. In some parts of Britain, local
rulers may have retained elements of the social organization of the Roman provinces. Unfortunately, such
rulers also seem to have retained the Roman propensity for civil war: Vortigern (fl. 5th cent.), for
example, is accused of calling in Germanic forces under the perhaps mythical Hengist (d. 488?) and.
Against a background of conflict, the way of life recognizable to an inhabitant of the Roman provinces
before 410 may have largely disappeared by the middle of the fifth century. Even so, there are signs that
the idea of being Roman, or of relating in some way to the empire, remained for long of real political and
cultural importance, and influenced the mindset of Anglo-Saxon incomers as well as of those surviving
Romano-Britons who,