Roman Britain

When considering topics for this week's blog it occurred to me that I have said very little about my course on Roman Britain. Some of you are aware that I specialize in 20th century United States History, so you are probably wondering why I am teaching a class on the Ancient world. I admit it's a bit of a stretch for me, academically. In graduate school I did a minor field in Medieval Europe and became particularly interested in the influence of Rome on the regions they had conquered. More recently, in 2007 I participated in Missouri Southern's Summer at Oxford program. While I was there, I took a seminar on Roman Britain that I really enjoyed. Since then I have moved a pile of books and papers I brought home from one corner of my office to the other, always saying to myself "I'm not going to get rid of this because someday I will follow up on it." Well, the Missouri London Program finally gave me that chance! Now that I have justified myself to you, let me tell you a little bit about Roman Britain.

First, for those of you who weren't aware that there was a Roman Britain, a very short introduction: In 55 and 54 BC Julius Caesar made two expeditions to what the Romans called Britannia, establishing it as a Roman outpost. Then in 43 AD, Emperor Claudius invaded, completing his conquest of southern and eastern Britain by 47. Eventually, Rome controlled the entire island with the exception of the far north, what is now Scotland. To make a long story short (I know, I'm already losing some of you) Rome then ruled Britain until 409, when its control over the island ended amidst the collapse of the western Roman Empire. So, Roman Britain lasted for about 464 years!

If you didn't know any of that, don't feel bad. While looking at Roman artifacts in the British Museum, I overheard a woman with an English accent say to her friend "I thought the Romans were only here for a couple of years!"

London, or Londinium, founded in about 50 AD, was the capital of Roman Britain.

Here's an artist's rendering of Londinium in the fourth century based on archeological evidence.

Here's the Roman city wall superimposed on a map of modern London. Notice that London Bridge is in roughly the same location as a bridge the Romans built  nearly 2000 years ago.

Unfortunately, most of London's Roman wall is now gone, but there are a few places where you can still see it.

Here are some of my students in front of a section of the Roman wall that once surrounded London.

Over the years, modern buildings were built against the Roman wall. Unfortunately, many of these buildings were destroyed by German bombs during World War II. In this section of the wall you can see the bricks from a warehouse that once adjoined it.

This section of wall was part of Cripplegate Fort on the northwest corner of Londinium. (You can see it on the map above.) 

One of the most compelling stories from Roman Britain is the story of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. When Boudicca's father died, he left half of his kingdom to his children and the other half to the Emperor. He thought this would protect his kingdom from his enemies. Instead, Roman soldiers came to claim the Emperor's inheritance. In 60 or 61 AD, Boudicca led a revolt that caught the Romans off guard. Her forces sacked Rome and did quite a bit of damage before being crushed.

A statue of Boudicca near the Westminster Bridge in London. (Almost all of the pictures I use are ones I took myself, but I have not yet taken one of this statue, so I found one online.)

As a 20th century historian, I am used to dealing with written documents. I'll never forget the first trip I made to the Eisenhower Presidential Library while writing my dissertation. The guide to the collections said that the library had 25 million pages of documents! I quickly realized that the biggest problem I faced was the impossibility of examining all the evidence. Historians of the ancient world have the opposite problem. The evidence is comparatively thin, and most of it consists of artifacts rather than documents. I used to joke with my friends who were studying Ancient history that they would have to write their dissertations based on a couple of pieces of broken pottery!

The written documents that do exist from Roman Britain are primarily in stone, gravestones and other monuments. That's what makes the one below so interesting. It is actual hand writing on a wooden surface. It is part of a collection discovered in 1973 in Vindolanda, which is in northern England. It is now in the British Museum. Most of the collection consists of "official" documents, ones related to the government, military, or trade. This one, however, is different. Here's what it says:

"Claudia Severa to her Lepidina, greetings. On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present. Give my greetings to your Cerialis [Lepidina's husband]. My Aelius [Claudia's husband] and my little son send him their greetings. I shall expect you sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper and hail."

It's a birthday party invitation! If you aren't a historian this might not seem like a big deal, but I can just imagine how excited they must have been when they found this.

A 1st century birthday party invitation. It is part of a collection of the oldest handwriting from Britain in existence. It may be the oldest handwriting by a woman in Latin.

Although I am partial to written documents, artifacts can tell us a lot (besides being more fun to look at). The ones below demonstrate the spread of Christianity in Britain. I took the first picture in Bath. It is a 1st century bronze head from a statue of Silus-Minerva. In Roman mythology, Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter. In Britain she was conflated with Silus, the local goddess of wisdom. I took the second picture in the British Museum. It is a 4th century mosaic tile floor from a villa in Dorset. The Greek letters chi and rho (X and P, corresponding to C and R) indicate that the figure depicts Christ.

1st century bronze head of Silas-Minerva.

4th century tile mosaic floor. One of the earliest existing depictions of Christ. 

I'll finish this week with an artifact that demonstrates what an amazing city London is for historians. They pulled this bronze head of Emperor Hadrian out of the Thames river in 1834. It's from a 2nd century statue that was probably put up to commemorate Hadrian's visit to Britain in 122. How would you like to snag that with your fishing line?!

The bronze head from a 2nd century statue of Emperor Hadrian. (Also not my photo. I've seen it at the Museum of London but it is behind glass, making it hard to photograph.)

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