Life in Roman Britain

This tutorial is based on work done by the children at Crofton Hammond

Junior School in Stubbington, Hampshire, UK.

First of all, who were the Romans?

The Romans were the people from a city called Rome in what is now Italy.
Rome was the greatest city of its time. At one time it had nearly one million
people living there. The Romans were very clever and very good at
organising things.

What was the Roman Empire?

About 1,800 years ago Rome was the centre of a big empire. Roman soldiers
had conquered large parts of Europe and North Africa. The Roman army
would return to Rome and march through the city to show off all the riches
they had plundered from the people they had beaten. The Roman army was
skilled at fighting and defending the borders from attack and clever civil
servants governed each country.

Where was the Roman Empire?

The green bits show how far the Romans spread out over Europe.

Roman Towns

Also on this page:

Hypocaust
Mosaics
The Romans built towns all over
Britain as centres to administer the
people they had conquered. Veteran soldiers and Celtic Chieftains were
rewarded with houses in the towns and would hold important jobs in the law
courts or town councils.
Roman towns were very organised, with straight streets and neat rows of
buildings. The town plan might be based around a town forum - a large
building often with an open courtyard that was used by the people of the
town as a meeting place, a place to do business, discuss town matters and
hold markets.
This is an artists drawing of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum
(Silchester, Hampshire). In the centre you can see the forum. The roads
are laid out in a neat grid, and outside the town walls, there is the circular
amphitheatre.

This painting shows Calleva Atrebatum

again. This shows the market square
or forum.
Wealthy people lived in large attached
houses made from stone or brick
called villas.
Poor people, who were mainly celts,
worked as carpenters, potters, shopkeepers and craftsmen.
Wealthy people lived in large
detached houses, made of stone
or brick, called villas.
The homes of wealthy Romans
looked bare from the outside.
They were built to be private and
safe from burglars. So there
were very few outside windows.
The house faced inwards around a
courtyard. In Britain the Romans found it so cold that
they invented a sort of central heating called a

hypocaust.

But the insides were very colourful with bright

painted walls with murals and beautiful mosaics on the
floors.

The Hypocaust
Instead of a fire in each room, they had a special fire room built against an
outside wall. The floors were raised on pillars and the walls of the villa were
hollow. The heated air from the fire went to all the other rooms, through
these spaces under the floor and in the walls.
It was a very clever invention and after the Romans left, it was centuries
before the British people had central heating again.

This is a picture of the hypocaust at Rockborne in Hampshire. These pillars

(red) held up the floor and allowed the hot air to circulate underneath,
heating the room.

Mosaics
Wealthy Romans might decorate
their house with mosaics, floors
made of tiny, coloured clay pieces
that together made a wonderful
picture. They were called tesserae.
A wealthy Roman might have
chosen a design from a pattern
book, much like choosing wall paper
today! Also it is thought that many
of the designs might have arrived
pre-made, so all the workman had
to do was to stick them to the
floor!
The mosaic here shows a man and a giant eagle. It is made from thousands
of tiny tile pieces. They took a very long time to make.

Roman Entertainment
The amphitheatre was a very popular
location for entertainment.
This is what the amphitheatre at
Dorchester looked like. It was a simple
wooden enclosure, the audience sat on the
grassy banks around.
The audience had a lot of power over the
outcome of the gladiator battles. If they
waved their hands it meant the loosing
gladiator could live, if they made a thumbs down, he would die.

Gladiators
Gladiators were mainly slaves or prisoners and they had no choice - they
had to go and fight. In the amphitheatre, gladiators would fight with
animals and other gladiators. There were fake fights and then the
performance would finish with a real fight to the death.
In the Coliseum in Rome ( a huge building that held Gladiatorial fights)
2,000 men were killed in the first 2 weeks of it opening!

Theatres
The town was the centre for entertainment and people would come from
the countryside around the town to have a good time.
A town would have a theatre where people could see plays, mime, dancing
and concerts. The shows were free, paid for by wealthy townspeople who
wanted to become popular with ordinary people.

Chariot Racing
Chariot races in Roman Britain were held in fields, watched by spectators
on wooden seats. The chariots were pulled by two, four, or even eight
horses. Each race had seven laps. The chariots were often crashed.
Roman Baths
Every Roman town would have a public bath house. People would come each
day to wash, chat, exercise and relax.
The bathhouse had a large staff of slaves, heating water, carrying towels
and helping to clean the bathers.
The slaves would rub the bathers with olive oil and then scrape it off
(with any dirt) with a special scraper called a strigil.
Men and women were expected to keep clean and visit the baths every
day.
Men had to be clean shaven, which was painful and difficult as good

soap and razors hadn't been invented yet. It was a great relief when
Emperor Hadrian grew a beard so all the men could then copy him.
Lamplight
There was no electricity. The lamps were made of pottery and burned oil.
This might be olive oil if they could afford it (it was imported from Italy
where it was made). But most homes burnt tallow, made from animal fat.
The lamps gave a very dull, smokey light.

Roman Building
The Romans were extremely good at building things, roads, buildings,
bridges, walls....anything they needed.
They were very well trained, had lots of men to help and always did things
the best way, not trying to save time or money.
The Romans invented concrete which meant that they could build much
bigger buildings than anyone could have done before. They also used arches
a lot to make their buildings very strong.
On this page:
Hadrians Wall
Aqueducts
Roman Roads
How to build a Roman Road

Hadrians Wall
One of the most famous things that the Romans built was the frontier
between England and Scotland, called Hadrians Wall, named after the
Emperor who ordered it built.

It was started in 120 A.D. and took nine years to build.

It was built to protect Roman Britain from raids by the Picts and Scots.
Those were the tribes that lived in Scotland then. It stretched for over
100Km across Northern Britain, and was 5 metres high and 4 meters wide.
It was built so well, that you can still go and see parts of it today, nearly
2000 years after it was made.

What is less well known is that the Romans did invade Scotland and built
another wall (The Antonine Wall) in 142AD roughly between Glasgow and
Edinburgh. It was not as solid as Hadrians Wall, and most of it has
disappeared but there are some bits you can still see.
It was called the Antonine Wall because Emperor Antoninus Pius was in
charge at the time.
The Romans only stayed for about 30 years, after that they went back to
Hadrians Wall further south.

Aqueducts
The Romans built fantastic bridges all over Europe, like this aqueduct (a
bridge to carry water) in Pont du Gard in Southern France. This one had a
path for walking across, one for riding a chariot across and a channel for
getting water across!

Roman Roads
It was important for the Roman army to be able to move
soldiers and all their baggage around the country. They built
roads as straight as possible, in order to travel as quickly as
they could.
The roads connected forts and important towns
Many of our modern day roads are in the same place as Roman ones.
If you are ever travelling on a really straight road, with no bends, it's
probably an old Roman one. (They have put some new Tarmac on it since
then!)
Before the Romans came, roads were just mud tracks high on hills. When
planning a new road, Roman surveyors would look for the straightest
flattest route.
This would follow the valleys and go straight over hills if no other route was
possible.
The surveyors used a Groma. This was a wooden cross with weights hanging
from it which gave them a straight line.
The most famous Roman Road
'Watling Street' is the name given to a long straight road that the Romans
built from the Kent coast, up through London towards Leicester. Then the
road bent round to North Wales. It consisted of 11 straight lines that
might change direction where they met.

The reason for building the road was to make sure that the Roman Army
could march into central England easily once they arrived at the shore.
Much of Watling Street is used as roads today and many parts of it are
still called by the same name.

How to make a Roman Road

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Plan your route carefully.

Clear any trees and grass out of your way.
Dig a deep trench and fill the bottom with layers of stones.
Make sure the road will be wide enough for soldiers to march along.
Cover the surface with small gravel or cobblestones.
Make sure that the surface of the road is curved, so that all the rain
will run off to the ditches at the edge and not make any puddles.

The Roman Army

Also on this page:

Army Camps
War Machines

The Roman Empire grew strong because it had a very good army to help
conquer and later control all the other lands.
The Roman Army was successful because it was better equipped and
organised than any army had been before.
The Roman Soldier

The Roman soldier was a professional soldier. This means that he joined the
army for 25 years and would be paid a salary.
A part of his wages was paid in salt, hence the saying 'being worth your
salt' -- (a good worker).
A soldier belonged to a Legion which had about 5,000 or 6,000 men. Each
legion was divided into companies of 80 men called Centuries.
Each legion had a standard that had badges on it from all the battles the
legion had won.
A Centurion was the man in charge of a century.
As a professional soldier, he spent most of the time training and kept his
uniform clean and smart. As well as being first class fighters, the
legionaries were good engineers and craftsmen.
There were also other regiments called Auxilia. These soldiers came from
the tribes which the Romans had conquered. Their job was to help the
legions.
They had to fight in front of the Roman soldiers to protect them from
attack. So they got killed first. They were divided into groups of about 500
or 1000 men called Cohorts.

Archers
Each company of the army would have some archers. Their bows were made
of horn and sinew. They could shoot a very long way and were very accurate.

Chariots
The fast fighting chariots made the Romans a formidable fighting force.
Light weight chariots were used for racing and training.

Army Camps
To keep Britain under Roman rule the Army built over a hundred camps in
all parts of the country.
Each camp would be a defensive site that would have everything they would
need to live a settled life.
Each camp would be rectangular, protected by a ditch and a wall. The
soldiers would live in wooden huts built in straight rows.
When they were marching from one place to another the soldiers had to
build a camp every night. Then they would sleep in tents pitched in neat
rows.

War Machines

The Army had special equipment to help them.

They had large war machine like catapults called ballista that fired arrows
and a sort of giant catapult that fired massive pieces of rock.
The Romans were so good at inventing things that they made the first
machine gun - which could fire many bolts a minute. No-one invented
another machine gun for over 1900 years!
The army also used special sheds and towers. The sheds gave them
protection as they dug under walls and the towers helped them climb high
walls and battlements.
Why did the Romans invade Britain?
A famous Roman General, Julius Caesar, decided to invade Britain in 55 B.C.
(That means 55 years before Jesus was born) because:

He was cross with the Britons for helping the Gauls (now called the
French) to fight the Romans.
He thought it would make him look good back in Rome (no-one had
travelled here before, it was like going to the moon for the Romans!).
He had heard that there was great treasure in Britain and he wanted
it.

He tried twice in 55 B.C. and 54 B.C. and his army did defeat the tribes
that were waiting for him but both times his boats were destroyed by
storms and he went home.
The Romans did not come back for another 90 years.
The Second Invasion

In 43 A.D. (43 years after Jesus was born) Emperor Claudius decided to
invade Britain again. He sent 40,000 troops, who gradually conquered most
of the country. The troops were terrified of going to Britain because they
had heard about the tribes who lived there. In fact they nearly refused to
go!
Emperor Claudius even brought elephants over to Britain to scare the
tribes - who would have never seen such an incredible animal before.
After the Romans had conquered most of Britain, the country became
peaceful.
The Romans were good rulers. They built good roads, and big
towns and made sensible laws.

Food
There was a great difference between the food that the poor Romans ate
and the food that the wealthy Romans had.

Poor people ate very simple food. They survived on bread, porridge and a
sort of vegetable soup with lentils, turnips, onions and beans. They might
also eat local food like figs and olives. They rarely ate meat.
Rich Romans could afford to buy lots of different food, from all over the
Empire. They used food to show off how wealthy they were.
Kitchens
Most houses had kitchen. It would have a charcoal fire and food was boiled
or fried in bronze or earthenware containers. Bread was baked in the ashes
of the fire. Some large houses might have special ovens built into the walls.
Kitchens would have containers of wine, olive oil, vinegar and a salty sauce
(made from gone off fish guts! - it was their favourite sauce.) called
liquamen.
Dinner Parties
Rich Romans served expensive and unusual food in order to show off.
Strange food included delicacies such as dormice stuffed with pine kernels
or boiled pigs udders and roast peacock. The more unusual the food, the
more the guests were impressed.

Guests ate lying on sofas, leaning on their left elbows while picking up the
food with their fingers. Slaves would bring bowls of water so that guests
could wash their hands.

Farming
The Roman farms grew wheat, grapes and olives. They also grew local crops
which might be sold all over the Roman Empire.

Farms were usually large estates and owned by wealthy men. Each estate
would have a large number of slaves. The day to day running of the farms
was done by stewards who were often slaves as well.

Roman farmers took great care

to keep on the right side of the
Gods.

important
the farm.
At harvest
would be placed in

Every month of the year had

special religious rituals
connected with it. The farmers
thought these were more
than anything else they did on

time offerings of fresh bread

the fields for the Gods to eat.

Roman Clothing
Roman men wore a short linen tunic. Over this they wore a heavy toga which
was arranged in a complicated system of folds.
Men wore the toga when they wanted to look smart, like wearing a suit
today. For ordinary times they would just wear a simple woollen cloak over
their tunic.
Roman women wore a long tunic which reached almost to the ground. On top
of this they had a stola, a dress belted at the waist and on top of that a
wool or linen cloak.

Rich women were very fashion conscious and their hairstyles were always
changing. They also wore lots of expensive jewellery to show off their
wealth.

Hairstyles
Hairstyles changed constantly, one year it would be fashionable to have the
hair piled high on your head, the next year the fashion would be ringlets.
Women also wore elaborate wigs. Black wigs were popular and they were
made from the dark hair of British slave girls.

Jewellery
Wealthy women wore beautiful jewellery made from gold and silver with
precious gems set in it.