Strabo explains in his book Geography, written during the later part of Augustus’ reign, that Rome gained lots of money from the taxes that it imposed upon the Britons from trading.
‘Further, they submit so easily to heavy duties, both on the exports from there to Celtica and on the imports from Celtica (these latter are ivory chains and necklaces, and amber-gems and glass vessels and other petty wares of that sort) that there is no need of garrisoning the island; for one legion, at the least, and some cavalry would be required in order to carry off the tribute from them, and the expense of the army would offset the tribute-money.’
Strabo explains that Rome received large amounts of taxes from the Britons, and this is a benefit to the Roman Empire. Also, he implies that the Britons were being taxed larger amounts than other provinces, and that they were less reluctant to pay, which would suggest that Britain had even more financial importance than other areas of the Roman Empire. Strabo also mentions that it is of no interest to Rome to place garrisons on Britain.
However, later on in the Roman rule of Britain, the Romans did put garrisons on Britain, and taxed the Britons with taxes called Tributes. This money was usually used to buy the troops corn for their bread ration. Most of the time, tax was paid in corn, rather than money. Not all the tax collected was used to help pay for the expenses to upkeep the province; some of it was sent back to Rome. Despite what Strabo said, the Romans did profit from Tributes, and this was an obvious advantage for the Romans, as it meant that they could profit from the invasion of Britain.
However, not everyone agreed. Some viewed this taxing policy as unjust. St. Augustine wrote in A.D. 400-
“The Roman townsmen have no land, so they rely on government payments. Surely it is wrong to take that money from defeated countries?”
Therefore, this source highlights a disadvantage of the Roman invasion; namely, that the Romans were looked back on later on in a bad light because of their previous use of the conquered provinces, for example, Britain. However, this source may be deemed as unreliable, because St. Augustine was a Christian, and therefore viewed things differently to the earlier Romans.
The upkeeping of the Roman Britain was extremely expensive for Rome. Britain had more men in its garrisons than in any other province in the Roman Empire. The garrisons contained approximately 20,000 men.
It has been approximated that the annual wages of the Roman army in Britain exceeded 13 million denarii. After adding the expenses of the governor, procurator and their staff, taxes, grants, and the cost of raw materials and equipment, the total cost to the Roman Empire would be approximately 20 million denarii. This is about £2 billion by today’s standards- an incredibly large amount of money. However, some of this cost would have reduced by the money gained from taxing Britons and selling and trading the resources found there; although it was not a large enough amount to drastically reduce the cost.
Many roman roads can be found in Britain, and many roads that we use nowadays lay along the top of the old Roman roads. The Romans also built lots of water systems, which were still in use long after the Romans had left. There are also many Roman buildings that can be found in Britain, for example, the Roman baths in Bath, and Maridunum Demetarum, an Amphitheatre in Carmarthen, Wales.
The fact that these structures were built would have made a positive psychological effect on Rome and the Romans, as they were found all throughout Britain, except for the northern parts of Scotland that the Romans never conquered. They showed that a lot of Britain had been successfully conquered, as the buildings were so spread out. The structures also showed that the Romans were powerful enough in Britain to be able to build so many of the buildings, and also for them to be built without the objections of locals, as many have remained quite intact.
One drawback to the Roman’s occupation of Britain was the building of Hadrian’s Wall. It was first being built in AD 122, and took about 10 years to complete, measuring roughly 117 kilometres long. It was built to keep out the northern tribes from trying to gain back land, and was used as a fort by Roman garrisons.
The source on the left shows a section of Hadrian’s Wall, and shows how well the wall was built. The quality of the construction suggests that a lot of the Romans’ resources were used in the building of the wall. In fact, it was the largest wall in the Roman Empire, and took 20,000 men to build it.
However, despite taking 10 years to build, it was abandoned soon after the construction was finished, which would indicate that it was a huge waste of resources; but, even though it was not used much by the Romans, it has become a symbol of the Roman occupation of Britain, and so, although a financial loss, its construction was a psychological gain.
The first expedition that Julius Caesar was in charge of to Britain did not do much to boost the image of the Roman military, as they had to retreat. However, it was viewed as a success in regards to Roman politics. Julius Caesar describes in his book Commentarii de Bello Gallico that ‘for these successes, a thanksgiving of twenty days was decreed by the Senate upon receiving Caesar’s letter.’ This shows that this first ‘invasion’ of Britain must have been very important to the Romans, if the Senate declared a 20 day public holiday. This first expedition was a benefit to Rome, as it obviously boosted public morale.
There is a great importance in the psychological gains that were found from the Romans invading Britain. The psychological impact would determine certain people’s reputations at certain times, as well as how they viewed themselves. This psychological impact could also affect people’s careers.
Firstly, it boosted the morale of the conqueror. Caesar was certainly looked upon as a great leader after his conquest of Britain. After Caesars’ death, he was given the title of divus, which means ‘divine’. This is obviously a very important title to be given, as it suggests he like a god. Also, all future emperors were named after him. This may have been because of his other achievements, but invading Britain was, arguably, one of his greatest accomplishments. There can be no doubt that him leading the invasion of Britain was, among others, an accomplishment that greatly boosted his career.
Emperor Claudius conquered the provinces of Mauretania, Thrace, Lycia, Pamphylia, Noricum, and Judea, but his most important conquest was that of Britain. Claudius was disabled, which the senate resented, and, as a result of his disability and arguments with the senate, many Roman historians ridiculed him in their works, as most were pro-senate. Therefore, his achievement of conquering Britain was often underestimated, and he was mocked, despite this great accomplishment. During his lifetime, the invasion didn’t seem to boost his reputation or career in any way, though this was probably his intention, along with the rest of his military achievements, especially seeing as he was looked at in such a bad light by the public. However, after his death, he is now considered an important figure in Roman history.
Although Emperor Augustus never invaded Britain, and he did not consider it an important part of the Roman Empire, it was part of the empire when he was emperor. He realised that the Britons benefited from their occupation. He mentions in his book Res Gestae Divi Augusti that Artaxares of the Britons, among others, took refuge with him in Rome. He also says that ‘a large number of other nations experienced the good faith of the Roman people during my principate who never before had any interchange of embassies or of friendship with the Roman people.’
As can be told from this extract, Emperor Augustus felt positively about the invasion of Britain, and other areas under Roman rule, as he clearly thought that he was helping the people that were under Roman rule. It also made him seem more important and powerful, as people were coming to him for help. Other Roman people who read his book were likely to feel the same way. Therefore, this would have an overall positive psychological effect.
Another psychological gain in the invasion of Britain was the spread of the Roman religion. Looking back, we can see that the invasion had a similar effect to that of the Christian missionaries, although the Romans probably didn’t intend this. The people of Roman Britain merged many of their original Celtic gods with the Roman equivalent, creating gods like Mars Medocius and Sulis Minerva.
Sulis Minerva was the result of a combination of the Celtic goddess of spring water, Sulis, and the Roman goddess of craft and wisdom, Minerva. Her name only appears at Bath, and has not been found by archaeologists anywhere else.
The source above shows the haruspex stone found at the Roman baths in Bath. The inscription tells us that it is dedicated to Sulis Minerva, and therefore, it is likely that this stone supported a statue of her. The Roman temple at Bath is also dedicated to her. The fact that it was found at a Roman building suggests that the Romans also took on these new gods, and so means that the Roman religion was expanded in these areas where merged gods could be found.
The Roman religion was often passed onto the areas that the Romans invaded, as was the Roman language. The language we use today is derived form Latin, the language the Romans spoke. This is another advantage because it meant that the Romans could feel positively about their invasion because another aspect of their culture was being passed on. However, this may not seem as significant when paired with the fact that most of the Roman provinces now speak a language derived from Latin.
A disadvantage to the Roman occupation of Britain was that the Romans had to control revolters, like Boudicca. Boudicca’s husband, Prasutagus, who was the tribal chieftain of the Iceni, died in AD 60. After his death, Boudicca led a rebellion against the Romans.
Dio Cassius, a Roman historian, reported the events-
“Two cities were sacked, 80,000 Romans and their allies were killed, and the island lost to the Romans.”
He states a large loss of Roman life, which would be a blow to Rome, not only because of the loss of soldiers, but also the loss of confidence that the Roman army could not control the situation. Also, the Romans would have to find replacements for all the soldiers that were killed if they still wanted to occupy Britain, which would’ve cost a lot of money, and used up a lot of Rome’s resources.
The first city that Boudicca’s army attacked was Camulodunum, now known as Colchester. They destroyed the city, and killed about 200 Roman soldiers. It seems that the city had a lot of anger directed at it, because, according to Tacitus, the ‘new settlers in the colony of Camulodunum drove people out of their houses, ejected them from their farms, called them captives and slaves’. This shows an example of how their occupation of Britain was seen in a negative light, and so was not an advantage to the Romans, in regards to their reputation.
Luckily for the Romans, they managed to gain control of the revolt. Boudicca later fled back to Norfolk, where she killed herself with poison. The Romans would’ve lost confidence in the garrisons that were stationed in Britain as a result of this uprising, and may have encouraged inhabitants in other provinces to revolt against the Romans. Also, the revolt led by Boudicca was the beginning of the end of Roman rule in Britain. The rebellion, whilst not being a direct cause to the Roman exit of Britain, seeing as the Romans left a few hundred years later, may have been a contributing factor; and thus reduced the size of the empire.
In conclusion, I think that the Roman invasion of Britain was probably worth all the trouble to the Romans. It is probable that they made a profit, and that financially, it was a good venture for Rome, as not only did they receive money from Tributes, but were also able to trade with those on the island, and had more access to resources.
It also enabled Rome to expand its empire, which would have meant more public support, and therefore made those involved (i.e. Julius Caesar, Emperor Claudius) more powerful and greater in the Roman publics eyes. The overall confidence boost to the Roman people would have been a big reason as to why Britain was worth the Romans invading. Also, not only did the invasion benefit Rome, the Romans, particularly Emperor Augustus, believed that the Britons benefited from the conquest too, as they also had new trading partners, and they had more facilities and buildings, that were constructed by the Romans.
Therefore, I believe that, despite some drawbacks, for example the uprising, the Roman occupation of Britain was, overall, a good venture for the Roman Empire.
