Roman Occupation of Britain

This post caters to the study of the Complementary Course “Evolution of Literary Movements”, assigned for students of BA English programme at CMS College.

(Note: from this point onwards, we need to pay significance to the impact of socio political movements upon language and literature.)

ROMAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN

Points of Study

Fortifications

Towns (*influence on literature)

Peace

Roads

Governance

Advent of Christianity (*influence on literature)

Decline of the Roman Rule

Post Roman Situations

Fortifications: Huge walls and forts (eg. Hadrian’s Wall, Antoine’s Wall)

Towns: stone buildings, public baths, temples, theatres, rich villas

(Influence on literature: References in Old English literature: Old English poetry is full of allusions to these works of giants, to the crumbling ruins of the walls, the gates, the towers, the market place and marble baths of Caerleon on the river Usk which is perhaps the towered Camelot of Arthurian legends.)

Peace: Pax Romana or Roman Peace. The Celts in south and east accepted Rome as their master. The country houses in these regions were in the style of Roman villas without fortifications. The only people trained to fight were the soldiers. (An adverse effect: Britons were not able to defend themselves from the later invaders.)

Roads: “All roads lead to Rome”. Carefully planned, paved roads to every corner of Britain, whereby every part of the island was accessible to the rulers.

Governance:

Military despotism built up on social slavery. Yet, permitted self governance.

Five privileged municipalities - Verulamium (St. Albans), Colchester, Lincoln, Gloucester, York- enjoyed self government to a great extent.

Rest of England divided into cantons/ districts, each under a municipality.

Advent of Christianity in Britain: Ordinary Roman soldiers who might have accepted Christianity on their own spread the religion in the island.

Christianity continued to be a persecuted religion in the Roman empire, and so in Britain too.

By the second century, Christianity had taken firm roots in Britain, as we see from an account of Tertullian, a Roman historian.

By the beginning of the 4^th c, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian who persecuted the Christians, Britain had three martyrs: Alban of Cerulam, Julius and Aaron of Caerleon.

Literature was influenced by British Christianity. (eg. Legend of St. Alban, Story of Helena and her Invention of the True Cross). Helena’s son Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion. Helana’s story is the basis of Cynewulf’s poem “Elene”.

Decline of the Roman Rule: Rome did not leave a lasting impression on Britain. The relation between the two countries was that between the ruler and the ruled. The Roman legions did not develop any lasting attachment for Britain.

By the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire began to totter. The Roman rulers were despots, but many of them were not very able. The people became pampered and indolent, steeped in luxury and immorality. In Europe, the Romans were unable to fight back the tribes like the Goths, the Franks, the Vandals, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. In 410 AD, a huge army of Goths led by King Alaric attacked the capital city of Rome. So, Rome had to withdraw its military from various colonies to face this situation. Thus the Roman rule came to an end in Britain.

Post-Roman situations: Britain had to face boatloads of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Danes from Europe. There were also attacks from the Picts and Scots in the north, who broke through the Hadrian’s Wall. The Britons took up arms under the leadership of a Welsh Bishop St. Germanus. In AD 450, a British chief Vortigern sought the help of Jute warriors Hengist and Horsa to beat down the Picts and Scots. This action was a momentous turn in the history of Britain.