An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England | Page 4

*3. Roman Britain.*--This condition of insular isolation and barbarism
was brought to a close in the year 55 B.C. by the invasion of the
Roman army. Julius Cæsar, the Roman general who was engaged in the
conquest and government of Gaul, or modern France, feared that the
Britons might bring aid to certain newly subjected and still restless
Gallic tribes. He therefore transported a body of troops across the
Channel and fought two campaigns against the tribes in the southeast of
Britain. His success in the second campaign was, however, not
followed up, and he retired without leaving any permanent garrison in
the country. The Britons were then left alone, so far as military
invasion was concerned, for almost a century, though in the meantime

trade with the adjacent parts of the Continent became more common,
and Roman influence showed itself in the manners and customs of the
people. In the year 44 A.D., just ninety years after Cæsar's campaigns,
the conquest of Britain was resumed by the Roman armies and
completed within the next thirty years. Britain now became an integral
part of the great, well-ordered, civilized, and wealthy Roman Empire.
During the greater part of that long period, Britain enjoyed profound
peace, internal and external trade were safe, and much of the culture
and refinement of Italy and Gaul must have made their way even to this
distant province. A part of the inhabitants adopted the Roman language,
dress, customs, and manner of life. Discharged veterans from the
Roman legions, wealthy civil officials and merchants, settled
permanently in Britain. Several bodies of turbulent tribesmen who had
been defeated on the German frontier were transported by the
government into Britain. The population must, therefore, have become
very mixed, containing representatives of most of the races which had
been conquered by the Roman armies. A permanent military force was
maintained in Britain with fortified stations along the eastern and
southern coast, on the Welsh frontier, and along a series of walls or
dikes running across the island from the Tyne to Solway Firth.
Excellent roads were constructed through the length and breadth of the
land for the use of this military body and to connect the scattered
stations. Along these highways population spread and the remains of
spacious villas still exist to attest the magnificence of the wealthy
provincials. The roads served also as channels of trade by which goods
could readily be carried from one part of the country to another.
Foreign as well as internal trade became extensive, although exports
were mostly of crude natural products, such as hides, skins, and furs,
cattle and sheep, grain, pig-iron, lead and tin, hunting-dogs and slaves.
The rapid development of towns and cities was a marked characteristic
of Roman Britain. Fifty-nine towns or cities of various grades of
self-government are named in the Roman survey, and many of these
must have been populous, wealthy, and active, judging from the
extensive ruins that remain, and the enormous number of Roman coins
that have since been found. Christianity was adopted here as in other
parts of the Roman Empire, though the extent of its influence is
unknown.

During the Roman occupation much waste land was reclaimed. Most of
the great valley regions and many of the hillsides had been originally
covered with dense forests, swamps spread along the rivers and
extended far inland from the coast; so that almost the only parts capable
of tillage were the high treeless plains, the hill tops, and certain favored
stretches of open country. The reduction of these waste lands to human
habitation has been an age-long task. It was begun in prehistoric times,
it has been carried further by each successive race, and brought to final
completion only within our own century. A share in this work and the
great roads were the most permanent results of the Roman period of
occupation and government. Throughout the fourth and fifth centuries
of the Christian era the Roman administration and society in Britain
were evidently disintegrating. Several successive generals of the
Roman troops stationed in Britain rose in revolt with their soldiers,
declared their independence of Rome, or passed over to the Continent
to enter into a struggle for the control of the whole Empire. In 383 and
407 the military forces were suddenly depleted in this way and the
provincial government disorganized, while the central government of
the Empire was so weak that it was unable to reëstablish a firm
administration. During the same period barbarian invaders were making
frequent inroads into Britain. The Picts and Scots from modern
Scotland, Saxon pirates, and, later, ever increasing swarms of Angles,
Jutes, and Frisians from across the North Sea ravaged and ultimately
occupied parts of the borders and the coasts. The surviving records of
this period of disintegration and reorganization are