Roman Towns
Britain's First Taste of Urban Living

Roman towns introduced a newly conquered land to Roman civilization.

The Roman Army built Roman style towns as part of Imperial policy. They were the best way to make people accept Roman rule. The barbarians would see us enjoying ourselves in style and want the same things.

Prosperous towns also pay lots of tax that's easy to collect.

Roman poets and writers made farming on a Roman Villa sound like the Roman dream. The soldiers and provincial officials who built and managed the Roman empire, came from the towns and cities around the Mediterranean. We wanted to build the comforts and conveniences we were used to.

Roman towns had the same amenities yours do. Besides a place to live,they were centers for business and industry, religion and education, entertainment and local government...(Local government can be quite entertaining - it's called Black Humor.)

Larger towns had big government buildings and a forum (market place) that was a lot like your shopping malls, except it had no roof. The forum was at the centre of a Roman town - at the centre of town life.

A Forum and Basilica Said a Town Was Proud to be Roman

Roman citizens went to the forum to shop, to bank and do business, meet their friends, see and be seen, look for work and hear the latest gossip.

Beside the forum was the basilica. It was the biggest, most impressive building in any Roman town. The elected ordo (town council) met there. Advocates (lawyers) argued cases before the Magistrates in the basilica. The town's most important temples were often attached to it.

There's one thing I must make clear, right now. I am not talking about cities. You and I don't mean the same thing when we say 'City'.

Rome is what we called 'The City' - the center of our world and home to a million people. One day, some friends and I walked right 'round the outside of Rome itself, in a day - stopping at the odd popina for refreshment. From what I'm told, it would take a bit longer to walk the city boundary of Rome or London, in your time.

We could have walked around any town in Britannia between breakfast and lunch. The 'City of London' earned it's cognomen (nick-name), 'The Square Mile', in my time.

Three Kinds of Roman Towns in Britannia
Three Levels of Romanization

Some grew up near a Roman fort and were only ever big enough to service the local garrison. Others made the most of good locations to grow into proper Roman towns.

A Municipium was often a native town that was seen (or was planned) to be important enough to get a Roman makeover. There had to be enough Roman citizens - or at least Roman sympathisers at the start - to elect an Ordo and they needed to be rich enough to provide the needs of the town.

Speaking of rich, I can't forget Londinium. That town was always a special case - as any native of the place will tell you. I'll find someone to tell you about Londinium.

The most important Roman towns were the Coloniae. They were often set up when a lot of soldiers were due to retire. When the legion moved on, leaving it's veterans behind, it left a town behind as well. (Didn't I tell you that the Roman Army built this place?)

The new town was an example to the natives of how Roman civilization worked. It was run by Roman citizens for Roman citizens. The Forum and Basilica of the new town was often the headquarters building of the legionary fortress the town was built around. We were very good at recycling old forts.

The first Colonia was Camulodunum. Its temple to the Divine Claudius was the center of the Roman Imperial Cult in Britannia

Some Roman towns-people, and some not so Roman, have agreed to tell you about their businesses or jobs in the towns of Roman Britain. Quite a few are Roman army veterans or nobles of the local tribes.

If one or two are a bit stuffy, it's because they believe they are very important. Please be patient with them: they might be some of your ancestors. Roman Towns, like Roman Army forts, were a lot alike because the Romans were 'set in their ways'. What you see in one, you will probably find, bigger or smaller, in most others.

Most of the images of Roman towns are not British but may give you an idea of what a British town would have been like nearer to my time - the Middle of the first century AD.

The town images are from Pompei, Herculaneum and Old Ostia, in Italy.

M D Rodger, the photographer, said I could show them to you.

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