Roman Towns

              From about AD 150onwards, the Romans built  wallsround  their  towns to  keep  them  safe  from  attack. Strongly built towns helped  to  keep  peace and  showed the Roman Britons how good  roman life could  be. The aqueduct brought clean water to the town.Lead pipes  carried  the water underground to  the  houses.  The streets  were  straight  and laid  out  in the pattern of  a chessboard. Some  people  lived in  blocks  of  flats. Later,  more  comfortable houses were built. Some large towns had amphitheares. The most important buildings, such as the Law Court, were in the  centre  of  the town, built round  the main squaer called the Forum .There  were theatres, temples, public  baths. Sewers ran undergrouns. People came to the towns to buy and sell goods, to pay  their  taxes and  enjoy themselves. 

During Roman Times, the towns of Britain had Roman names, for example: Modern Roman Modern Roman London Londinium Canterbury Durovernum York Eboracum St. Albans Verulamium Bath Aquae Sulis Cirencester Corinium Colchester Camulodunum Chester Deva Dorchester Durnovaria Exeter Isca Scotland Caledonia

 

 

Britain After the Romans

Exquisite Roman treasure gives up its secrets

Discovered in 2003, this exquisite Roman vessel has been the subject of detailed study at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.
The bronze cup is one of the finest Roman vessels to have been found in Wales. It was discovered near Abergavenny (Monmouthshire). It was reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, enabling the finds spot to be investigated.
Excavation of the site revealed that the cup had been placed upside down in a small pit containing a cremation. This cremation was part of a cemetery beside a Roman Road some distance from the mid 1st to early 2nd century fort at Abergavenny (Roman Gobannium). There is also a growing amount of evidence for a civilian settlement dating from the 2nd to 4th centuries in the neighbourhood of this cemetery.
The cup displays craftsmanship of a high standard and it was almost certainly manufactured in Italy during the 1st century AD. Very similar cups have been found at the doomed city of Pompeii, which was destroyed after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.
X-rays of the cup revealed that it was first cast in a mould using leaded bronze. Lead was added to help the molten bronze (principally copper and tin) flow more easily and improve the quality of the casting. Once this casting had been made the vessel was turned on a lathe with the use of a sharp cutting tool to produce its final shape. 

The cup's decorative handle depicts a leopard which, in Roman mythology, appears as the draught-beast and companion of Bacchus, the god of wine. His worship involved feasting, drinking, music and dancing. Leopards, captured in both Africa and Asia, were also popular with the Romans for display and fighting in the amphitheatre arena.
The leopard handle was made separately using 'lost wax' casting. The first process was to make a wax model of the leopard. A clay mould was formed around the model and then heated to run off the wax. Leaded bronze was poured in to fill the space left by the wax and, after cooling, the mould was broken to remove the bronze handle.
Further work was undertaken on the finished casting: for example the tail and canine teeth, originally cast thicker, were cut away to form finer features. The spots were also chiselled out from the body after casting and inlaid with silver. The leopard was then attached to the cup using solder. The leopard's eyes, measuring about a millimetre in diameter, were also inlaid. Analysis of the remaining traces of inlay indicate that the eyes may have been of amber.
It is unknown whether the cup belonged to a member of the Roman army, or a native Briton from the nearby civilian settlement. Whichever is the case, this 1st century cup was a costly import and probably belonged to someone of status, who cherished it sufficiently to want it buried with them on their death.

The Roman Occupation

       In 55 ВС Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar, а Roman general and governor of Gaul (France), soon to be, in all but name, the first Roman emperor.

       At that time the city of Rome was about 700 years old, but the Roman empire was much younger. As late as 211 ВС Rome had narrowly escaped destruction by the Carthaginian general, Hannibal. But Hannibal's defeat left Rome without а serious rival, and by Caesar's time it controlled an empire that stretched from Spain to the Near East.

       Two places more different than imperial Rome and Celtic Britain could hardly have existed. Roman society was urban, with grand public buildings built of marble. Britain was а country of mud huts, with no settlement large enough to be called а town. An upper-class Roman lived in greater comfort than any Britisher before the 15th century. His house even had central heating.

       The Romans, as heirs of the civilization of Ancient Greece, were interested in art, philosophy and history (Caesar himself wrote good military history in simple prose). The British could neither  read nor write. They were not savages, and in some ways Celtic art was superior to Roman, or so it seems to us, but the Romans naturally thought of them as hopelessly primitive barbarians. То the Romans - and to many non-Romans too - there was but one worthwhile form of society, and that was their own. The only useful function of other peoples was to contribute to the glory of Rome. Britain was а mysterious isle to the Romans. But Caesar knew it contained valuable minerals, and he knew also that the British were helping their cousins in Gaul against Rome. Не decided on invasion. ...