Romano-British
The term
Romano-British describes the
romanised culture of
Britannia under the rule of the
Roman Empire, when Roman and Christian culture had extensively entered into the life of the native
Brythonic and
Pictish peoples of Britain.
One vector of Roman influence into British life was the grant of Roman
citizenship. At first this grant went out very selectively: to the council members of certain classes of towns, which Roman practice made citizens; to veterans, either
legionaries or soldiers in auxiliary units; and to a number of natives whose
patrons were able to obtain it for them â€" some of the local
Celtic
kings, such as
Togidubnus, received citizenship in this manner. However, the number of citizens steadily increased over the years, as people inherited citizenship and more grants were made. Eventually all people who were not slaves or freed slaves were granted citizenship by the
Constitutio Antoniniana in
212.
The other inhabitants of Britain, who did not enjoy citizenship, were
Peregrini, who continued to live under the laws of their ancestors. The principal handicaps were that they could not:
* own land with an
Italic title,
* serve as a legionary in the army (although they could serve in an auxiliary unit, and become a Roman citizen upon discharge) nor could they
* usually
inherit from a Roman citizen But for the vast number of British inhabitants, who were peasants tied to the soil, citizenship would not dramatically alter daily operation of their lives.
Britain was also independent of the rest of the Roman Empire for a number of years, first as a part of the
Gallic Empire, then a couple of decades later under the usurpers
Carausius and
Allectus.
Christianity came to Britain in the third century. One early figure was
Saint Alban, who was martyred near the Roman town of
Verulamium, on the site of the modern
St Albans, by tradition during the reign of the emperor
Decius.
After the
withdrawal of Roman troops in the reign of the emperor
Honorius the Romano-British were forced to defend their Romanised civilisation with their own forces. The depredations of the
Picts from the north and
Scotti (Scots) from Ireland forced them to seek help from pagan
Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who decided to settle. However, the Germanic tribes became hostile against their hosts and began to conquer their territory. Romano-British culture, over the course of six centuries, was restricted to the western fringes of the island in
Wales,
Devon and
Cornwall and the north in
Strathclyde,
Cumbria and
Elmet. Many Romano-British migrated to
Brittany,
Galicia in Northern
Spain (see
Mailoc) and possibly
Ireland.
Though not strictly accurate, some histories (in context) refer to Romano-British people as "Welsh".
The struggles of this period have given rise to the legends of
Uther Pendragon and
King Arthur. It is sometimes said that
Ambrosius Aurelianus, the leader of the Romano-British forces, was the model for the former, and that Arthur's court of
Camelot is an idealised Welsh memory of pre-Saxon Romano-British civilisation.
*
Roman Britain*
Roman sites in the United Kingdom
