Roman Impact on Britain and the English Language
English is not the native language of England. It was introduced by Germanic tribes who invaded Britain in successive waves. Around the mid-fifth century, the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes drove back the Britons, who were Celts. Celtic is the only substratum that Germanic peoples could find apart from Latin.
During the Old English period (c. 450-1150), the language came into contact with three other languages: those of the Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians. This section will focus on the significant Latin influence on the English language, marked by a large number of loanwords and adaptations. This influence was undoubtedly due mainly to the Romanization of Britain and especially to its subsequent Christianisation by Roman missionaries.
Britain and the Roman Empire
To the Romans, Britannia was a mysterious island lying beyond Oceanus. Britain was therefore seen as a land beyond the limits of civilisation.
Britannia was first brought to the attention of the Roman people by the campaigns of Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BC.
Caesar made two expeditions to Britain in the successive campaign seasons of 55 and 54 BC, during which he effectively rattled his armour and thus coerced the native inhabitants to pay tribute to Rome.
The campaigns conducted in Britain by the militaristic governors of the first century carried in their wake the luxuries of Roman civilisation and were to have a profound effect on the future development of the British Isles. Native British artisans, attracted by the regular salaries of Roman soldiers, gathered outside the defences of almost every Roman fort in England and Wales. Some of these shantytowns quickly disappeared once the military moved on, but where local conditions permitted, many communities were able to survive the resultant upheaval and later developed into self-sustaining settlements.
Britain Before the Romans
At the time of the Roman invasions of 55 and 54 BC, Britain was still in the late Iron Age, inhabited by Celtic tribes.
The Celts were not the savage barbarians that Caesar described: they were a well-organised society with strict laws and relatively advanced bronze and iron technology; they even had goldsmiths.
Roman Invasion and Conquest of Britain
In 61 BC, when the city-state of Rome ruled the whole of Italy and much of the Mediterranean seaboard, the Senate appointed General Caius Julius Caesar to be Governor of Transalpine Gaul (modern-day France). Within four years, he had conquered the whole area and stood on the north coast of France, gazing at the white cliffs of Dover. He knew there was mineral wealth to be won and that the lowlands in the south produced an abundance of corn, the staple diet of the hungry legions.
On the night of 25 August 55 BC, Caesar sailed with 10,000 men in 80 ships across the Straits of Dover. However, Caesar’s progress inland was painfully slow as his cavalry, aboard a fleet of transports, had been dispersed in a gale. Four weeks after the landing, he re-embarked his army for France, determined to return the next year and gain Britain as a Roman province.
To achieve any degree of conquest, he had to defeat the Catuvellauni, the strongest tribe in Britain. The stronghold was betrayed by a rival tribe, the Trinovantes, and in August, Caesar overpowered them, and their chief surrendered.
The next invasion, which was to lead to 365 years of Roman rule, was ordered by Emperor Claudius in 43 AD. Claudius’s forces landed in the natural harbour at Richborough on the east Kent coast. A battle on the banks of the Medway lasted two days before the Britons retreated north of the Thames. The Romans soon crossed the river and prepared for an assault on the tribal capital of Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester). The capital was taken. It was to take another 90 years before the whole of England and Wales was fully pacified, with Hadrian’s Wall forming the northern frontier of the empire.
Roman Leisure and Daily Life in Britain
The Celts had always been a clean people, but the Romans developed cleanliness to a fine art and made it one of life’s pleasures. Every town had its bath complex, as did inns and all the best houses.
Public baths and those outside army forts were the Roman equivalent of modern sports centres.
Many towns boasted an amphitheatre, usually built on the outskirts. Games were held on religious and military festivals and certainly on the emperor’s birthday. The ‘stars’ of the entertainment world were the gladiators.
Families played games similar to draughts and chess with pieces made of bone or pottery, and for musical entertainment, there were the lyre and cithara.