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    Life in Roman Britain: The Sutton Life Series
    Life in Roman Britain: The Sutton Life Series
    Life in Roman Britain: The Sutton Life Series
    Ebook58 pages1 hour

    Life in Roman Britain: The Sutton Life Series

    By Joan P. Alcock

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    About this ebook

    The authoritative and accessible look at life in Roman Britain begins with a brief overview of the province in its historical context. The book then concentrates on the social history of the 400 years of Roman occupation with thematically arranged chapters on fucisign on administration; life in the army; religion; recreation; housing; food and drink; personal lifestyle; and art and decoration. Drawing on both the latest archaeological evidence and testimony from classical writers. the author recreates the lifestyles of those who lived in this part of a once great empire. With over 100 illustrations of sites, artefacts and reconstructions, and a comprehensive further reading section, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the Roman Period in Britain.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateJan 31, 2012
    ISBN9780752482668
    Life in Roman Britain: The Sutton Life Series
    Author

    Joan P. Alcock

    JOAN ALCOCK has a PhD in archaeology, if a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the author of 'Life in Roman Britain'. Until recently she was a Principal Lecturer at South Bank University, where she lectured on history and the history of food, and where she is now an Honorary Visiting Fellow. Her extensive travels in Europe and the Far East have contributed to the writing of this book..

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      Book preview

      Life in Roman Britain - Joan P. Alcock

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      Introduction

      For almost 400 years, from the first century AD to the early fifth century, what are today England and Wales were part of the Roman Empire, and for some of that time much of southern Scotland was also within the Empire’s borders. The countryside of Britain is scattered with remains from the Roman period, a material heritage that still affects us by shaping aspects of the landscape in which we live. Many British cities, including London, Canterbury, Colchester, York, Leicester, Lincoln, Cirencester, Gloucester, Carmarthen, Carlisle, Exeter, Chichester and Winchester, were first built as Roman towns. Some retain elements of their Roman-period layout or even – as in the case of London (Londinium) – versions of their Roman names, and several of the Roman roads that linked these towns also survive as the routes of roads in use today. Everyone in Britain today who lives in or visits one of these places, or travels along one of these roads, has a link with the people of Roman Britain, even without considering other ways in which Britain’s incorporation into the Roman state, and the consequences of the end of Roman rule, shaped later British history and culture.

      This short book is designed to give an impression of what it might have been like to experience living in Roman Britain. The first chapter comprises a series of reconstructions, and the second summarises the evidence on which these reconstructions are based and discusses the broader context of life in Roman Britain.

      An important point to bear in mind about Roman Britain is that hardly anyone who lived there would have been an ‘actual Roman’, in the sense of coming from Rome. Instead, ‘being Roman’ was – like ‘being American’ in the twenty-first century – a matter of citizenship and legal status, even to some extent a matter of culture, not one of ethnic origin. People from all over the Roman world, and perhaps beyond it, came to Roman Britain, because of trade, government, the army, through voluntary migration and enforced population movements. However, the majority of the Romano British (meaning ‘of Britain in the Roman period’) population was probably descended from people who had lived in Britain prior to the Roman conquest.

      CHAPTER 1

      Experiencing Roman Britain

      The Roman invasion in AD 43 (on the orders of the emperor Claudius) is generally taken to be the start of the Roman period in Britain. However, it is necessary to consider what it was like just before the Conquest, and just after the end of Roman Britain, to understand how incorporation into the Empire affected Britain and the lives of its people. This chapter presents a series of reconstructions from various people’s viewpoints and at a range of times just before, during, and immediately after, the period of Roman rule.

      The reconstructions in this chapter are works of imagination in the sense that the people and events are fictional, but the descriptions of how they lived are based in detail on current knowledge about Roman Britain, and the sentiments that the characters express are derived, where possible, from those found in written sources from the period. Reconstructing Roman Britain in the way attempted here can only give an impression of what it might have been like at specific times and in specific places. There are many gaps in knowledge about the past, and we can never really put ourselves in the minds of ancient people or totally escape the context in which we think about the past. Nor would all archaeologists or historians agree with every aspect of the reconstructions presented here (some would probably disagree with them all, or even with the use of such reconstructions), but it must be stressed that they are based as far as possible on up-to-date archaeological and historical studies.

      Everyone living there will have experienced Roman Britain differently to some degree, depending on who they were (such as whether they were free or unfree, rich or poor, or male or female) and when and where they lived. Experiences will also have differed depending on factors such as age, family circumstances, health, religious and moral beliefs and personality. Furthermore, evidence for life in Roman Britain is open to varying interpretations, leading to a range of opinions among specialists about many of the topics discussed here. This does not mean that ‘one guess is as good as another’ or ‘almost anything might have been the case’, but it does mean that any book on Roman Britain (and

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