The Romanization of Roman BritainHaverfield, F. (Francis)
History
The Romanization of Roman Britain
Haverfield, F. (Francis)
Great Britain -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- Great Britain
Thirty years later Agricola, who was obviously a better administrator
than a general, openly encouraged the process. According to Tacitus, his
efforts met with great success; Latin began to be spoken, the toga to be
worn, temples, town halls, and private houses to be built in Roman
fashion.[1] Agricola appears to have been merely carrying out the policy
of his age. Certainly it is just at this period (about 75-85 A.D.) that
towns like Silchester, Bath, Caerwent, seem to take definite shape,[2]
and civil judges (_legati iuridici_) were appointed, presumably to
administer the justice more frequently required by the advancing
civilization.[3] In A.D. 85 it was thought safe to reduce the garrison
by a legion and some auxiliaries.[4] Progress, however, was not
maintained. About 115-20, and again about 155-63 and 175-80, the
northern part of the province was vexed by serious risings, and the
civilian area was doubtless kept somewhat in disturbance.[5] Probably it
was at some point in this period that the flourishing country town of
Isurium (Aldborough), fifteen miles from York, had to shield itself by a
stone wall and ditch.[6]
[Footnote 1: Tac. _Agr._ 21, quoted in note 3 to p. 13.]
[Footnote 2: Silchester was plainly laid out in Roman fashion all at
once on a definite street plan, and though some few of its houses may be
older, the town as a whole seems to have taken its rise from this event.
The evidence of coins implies that the development of the place began in
the Flavian period (_Athenaeum_, Dec. 15, 1904). At Bath the earliest
datable stones belong to the same time (_Victoria Hist. of Somerset_,
vol. i, Roman Bath), the first being a fragmentary inscription of A.D.
76. At Caerwent the evidence is confined to coins and fibulae, none of
which seem earlier than Vespasian or Domitian: for the coins see
_Clifton Antiq. Club's Proceedings_, v. 170-82.]
[Footnote 3: A. von Domaszewski, _Rhein. Mus._, xlvi. 599; C. ix. 5533
(as completed by Domaszewski), inscription of Salvius Liberalis; C. iii.
2864=9960, inscription of Iavolenus Priscus. Both these belong to the
Flavian period. Other instances are known from the second century.]
[Footnote 4: _Classical Review_, xviii. (1904) 458; xix. (1905) 58,
withdrawal of Batavian cohorts. The withdrawal of _Legio ii Adiutrix_ is
well known.]
[Footnote 5: See my papers in _Archaeologia Aeliana_, xxv. (1904) 142-7,
and _Proceedings of Soc. of Antiq. of Scotland_, xxxviii. 454.]
[Footnote 6: The town wall of Isurium, partly visible to-day in Mr. A.S.
Lawson's garden, is constructed in a fashion which suggests rather the
second century than the later date when most of the town walls in
Britain and Gaul were probably built, the end of the third or even the
fourth century. Thus, its stones show the 'diamond broaching' which
occurs on the Vallum of Pius, and which must therefore have been in use
during the second century.]
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