The Roman Occupation

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Im doing a project at 6th form college at the moment, about the Roman occupation of Britain. My question is:
'To what extent was technological improvements (i.e. improved water system etc) the most significant impact on England during the Roman Occupation'
Im not trying to cheat but i wondered what other people think on the subject.
Apart from tech improvements i think that the Romans also had an influence over culture, systems of government and trade.
If anyone has any thoughts on other influences the Romans had on England specifically, and to what extent it led to change, i would be very grateful! thanks!

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It is difficult to substantiate a claim of the Romans having left behind much more than place names. Roman Britain gave the empire the Emperor Constantine, who accepted christianity. It found its way back to Britain eventually, and worked profound change. But the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Danes and Norse overran Britain between about 400 and 1000 CE, leaving no significant influence of the Romans intact--despite what your history texts might tell you.

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Thanks for imput, but its not so much what they left behind, but what impact their arrival had at the time.

Did u like my Shakespeare post? heehee, i think that this roman occupation post is the only serious one i have posted.. oh well... ya gotta laugh or u'll cry.....

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There are vestiges of Roman plumbing at Bath, the Aquae Sulis.

from http://www.theplumber.com/eng.html

Quote:

The Romans controlled the site for about 500 years, but their influence floundered, waned and just about expired in phase with the decline of the Empire, whose ruination became complete by the sixth century A.D. By then Roman garrisons in Britain had been invaded by hordes of Picts, Saxons, Scots and Irish, and could count on no help from Rome, which was in trouble itself. When the last Roman garrisons fled the isle of Britain, the secrets of sanitary design went with them.

Replacing them were the Barbarians, leveling cities and decimating populations as they hacked their way across the continent. Civilization reeled and regressed. Sanitation technology reverted to its basest forms.

The early Christians rejected most anything Roman, including the value of cleanliness. They considered it unsanitary to be clean, sinful to display material wealth. "All is vanity," stated an early Christian writer. St. Benedict pronounced that "to those that are well, and especially for the young, bathing shall seldom be permitted." A 4th century pilgrim to Jerusalem would brag that she had not washed her face for 18 years so as "not to disturb the holy water" used at her baptism.

By the Middle Ages, the "hot houses" or "stews" of the Roman baths carried the stigma of debauchery and wild parties. During the reign of Richard the Lionhearted, the little rooms or "bordellos" of the baths became synonymous with brothels.

In 1348 the first wave of Black Plague entered England through the town of Melcombe in Dorset County. One third of the population would be wiped out, as rats and fleas thrived in the filth and garbage steeped in and about and all around.

The Dark Ages had begun.

These people threw out the baby with the bathwater, as it were.

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Roman occupation and the impact on Britain
I can recommend getting hold of a book by P H Sawyer called "From Roman Britain to Norman England" (published about 1980) which has a brief but good analysis of the impact of Rome on the British Isles.

In the last 25 years or so there has been a lot of research suggesting that the British tribes in the South and East had a lot of trade contact with the empire before the conquest in AD55. Along with the trade there would almost certainly have been a lot of technological and cultural exchange.

It is almost certain that Emperor Claudius had arranged alliances with some of the tribal chiefs before the invasion of AD55. The concept of Roman sponsored client chiefs who exchanged co-operation for political backing from Rome was established right from the word go.

It is certain that the Romans had a profound influence on technology in Britain but it is not clear whether the occupation was a necessary pre-condition for the spread of this technology. In my opinion the Romans had a more fundamental impact on Britian in terms of the political syste of client states that became the norm after the occupation.

Good luck with the research!

Best wishes

Aquinas. Smile

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Some answers and/or new points to be discussed may be found here:

Romans in Britain

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Thanks guys xXx

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When I was working in Celtic Studies just a few years ago, the thought was that the Romans made little impact on Britain. Certainly, the Romans were great at water transport and had heated their villas with a kind of radiant heat but it seems the Brits did not adopt those things.

There was some thought that the Brits might have adopted the tombstone from the Romans.

I think some of the power of the Romans is overstated: I wonder just how much some of those conquered peoples actually cared or noticed that the Romans were there.

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I think that the water supply, ( standard feature of Roman towns and you got a package deal) plus the sewage system was the most important feature of the Roman cities and towns.

We wouldn't be so civilised agian til the 18th-19th centuries. i think you should make that point.

In some towns traces of the aquaducts to them remain - Dorchester and Lincoln.
In others the sewage system is still there below the medieval construction - Lincoln.

It was used for fountains and public baths as well.
Bede reports a fountain stiill working in Carlisle in his day.
In London traces of a bucket train drive from a well have been found.

These were really "civilised" cities with huge public buildings, libraries, squares and statues and columns.

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POM, you did bring to mind one aspect of history and of the Roman empire which i had not thought of when first i replied to this thread. Tacitus tells us of the doings of the high and mighty, and, of course, Seutonius is only concerned with the ceasars and those around them. But probably the biggest impace the Romans had on any region while they controlled it was public safety. It was far from perfect, but it was a world away from what people would contend with when the empire faded away. Probably the greatest contribution the empire made to the regions of Europe it controlled was public order. I agree with those who contend that Rome had little to no long term impact on Britain, but i do wonder to what extent generations of relative peace and a modest prosperity affected the world view of the Kelt.

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Soory, I overlooked some of the other posts.

I think you should look as the Post-Roman britian sites on the net.

I don't know if this is the quote for the question, but there was a post-Roman rule Roman-British era in which some of these civilised features survived for a time. You need to read Gildas in which his says "our cities are in a real state" and they actually continued to refer to themselves as "cives2 - citizens.

It does appear there had been great prosperity in the Roman cities at one stage.

It's not entirely true incidentally that all christians were opposed to cleanliness, only the asthetic wing lead by people quoted as Simon Stilytes etc.

Also "orgies in the bathhouse" was a standard and justified Roman complaint.

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their roads had a huge impact that is visible to this day,.

They took the straightest and most direct route - rather like American roads. If you look at a road map of Britain you;ll see their roads - tarmaced over , but obviously straight and Roman,compared with the surrounding winding English lanes. Many of them retain their Roman names - the Fosse Way passes through where i live and goes far south of me and far north in a dead straight line. Some of it is now a major road and some country roads - but the line is clear to see and i often travel it to go to galleries to the south.

Incidentally, Roman towns were built off to each side of these major routes and not actually on them as English villages are.

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I have always thought that the real question was what influence did Britain have on the Empire? Certainly any inherent "Romanitas" was changed within a generation of contact.

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Unfortunately, HB, Britain, at the least indirectly, provided the empire Constantine's wife and mother-in-law--civilization has been going down hill ever since . . .

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Setanta

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Aaaah.. i don't do History anymore.. *phew*

oh actually, thats a lie - I do. But only one module not a whole friggin A Level.. and i never have to think about the Romans ever again mwhahahaha

That assignment was torturous, alack I brought it upon myself.

Doing a little Medieval Histoire at the moment! Diversifying!

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Hoping, you have great success!

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I gotta agree the longest-lasting artifact of Roman Rule was the road system, though some concepts of Roman Law carried over into Britanic culture as well. And of course, the concepts of coinage and regulated taxation.

One thing re the Celts - the Romans pretty much wrote off Ireland as being unworth the effort. One Roman commander observed he couldn't understand why a people with so little would fight so visciously to keep it to themselves.

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An afterthought here - it was the Roman Latifundia land distribution/management system, which essentially formed the basis of the Feudal System - that stuck around a good long while throughout the entire area once encompassed by the Roman Empire.

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The Roman Occupation

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