How did the Romans change Britain? Well, first off, by conquering it – and conquering it
violently.
The Romans loved conquering other people. In fact, it kept the whole empire going – conquering
their neighbours gave Roman leaders a chance to steal booty, capture slaves, grab natural
resources like lead and tin, and generally look good in front of their mates and rivals.
In AD 43 the new Roman Emperor, Claudius, was in search of a scrap to cement his status,
and so he plotted his invasion of Britain – an island the Romans had been eyeing up
for some time. He sent 40,000 soldiers over the Channel and they quickly defeated the
tribes in the south east. Once it was safe, the emperor popped across to Britain to soak
up the praise and show off his elephants.
Some tribal leaders gave in to the empire rather than try to fight it, but not everyone
was happy. The Druids helped to organise the resistance against the Romans, and queen Boudicca
led a huge revolt in AD 60.
But the Romans didn’t mess about.
They beat Boudicca in battle, destroyed the druids – and brought the bulk of Britain
under their control.
But Roman soldiers were more than just fearsome fighters – they were brilliant builders.
Forts were their speciality, and they built hundreds of them across the province.
The Romans also loved their roads. They built over 8,000 miles of them in the first century
AD alone, and many of our roads today still follow old Roman routes.
But the biggest, baddest structure in Roman Britain was Hadrian’s Wall. It was a whopping
73 miles long, and in places it was up to six metres high and three metres thick. No
wonder it took 15,000 men about six years to build!
The Romans founded some terrific towns too, like London, York, Bath and Chester.
On a trip into town you could shop on the high street, worship gods at the temples,
grab a burger from a takeaway, have a kip in a hotel, and go for a wash and a gossip
at the heated public baths. A lot like towns today in fact – although unlike today, you
could also go to the amphitheatre to watch executions and animals being hunted!
The Romans brought new types of food to Britain, like apples, pears, plums, cucumbers and walnuts.
They brought a new language – Latin. They brought new ways of farming, new medicines
and new types of pottery.
Life for the rich had never been better. Wealthy Roman Britons built grand houses in towns
and Roman-style villas in the countryside, full of mosaic floors, fine wines and formal
gardens. They even had underfloor heating!
For most people in Roman Britain though, life didn’t change too much. They were still
mostly farmers, and they still had to pay their landlords for the privilege of doing
all of the hard work.
When the Roman Army left Britain in 410 AD, many aspects of Roman life crumbled for everyone,
rich and poor. Towns and forts were abandoned, roads fell into disrepair, and large scale
industry collapsed without an economy to sustain it.
People adapted to the new reality, new leaders emerged and farmers kept on farming - but
after nearly 400 years, Roman Britain was in ruins.