History Cookbook

The Romans had originally founded the city of Rome from a group of villages, in about 750 BC. Since then, they had conquered a huge empire, stretching right across Europe and into western Asia and northern Africa. 

Roman towns were small by modern standards but, for the average Briton, they must have seemed enormous. Indeed, one or two, especially Londinium (London), grew to be large by any standards of the time.

These walls were pierced by gates – stout stone buildings with great doorways in them, through which people, animals and carts could pass. The towns were laid out according to a grid pattern, with the streets crossing one another at right angles. At the centre was the forum, a wide open space around which several large buildings stood. Here, all the public business of the town was carried on.

The spiritual centre of the community were the temples of the many Roman gods and goddesses. Each temple would have had its own set of priests – usually important people in the community who held other jobs as well. In pride of place, also, was often a temple to the Roman emperor, who was widely regarded as a living god. Those who did not worship here were frowned upon. After 380, Christianity was recognised as the Empire's official religion.

 

The councils were made up of the richest and most important men in the community. The council was responsible for maintaining law and order, for making sure the taxes were paid on time, and for the upkeep of the public buildings in the town. On a day-to-day basis, the town was run by several magistrates, who were elected by the citizens of the town for a period of a year.  At a trial the ability to persuade crowds – or oratory - was a very important skill. Upper class Romans were trained in public speaking as well as law. Roman Law was famed for its fairness and is still the basis of much law around the world today.

The public baths would have been in a large building near the central forum. Here, both men and women (sometimes on separate days) would bathe, in hot and cold pools. They could also sweat in hot rooms, have massages, do physical exercises, and chat. This was one of the main social centres of the town, and all citizens, high and low, mixed here on an equal basis. The water for these public baths and many fountains that dotted all Roman towns (from which the poorer people would gather their water), was often carried there from miles away. Stone pipes channelled water from fresh springs in the hills, carrying it for miles underground and over valleys by means of aqueducts. These were fine examples of Roman engineering, with their arches at different levels. Such structures would not be seen again in this country until Victorian times.

Some towns would have an imposing theatre, where plays – often by Greek authors - were performed. Outside the walls of some towns would be an amphitheatre, where gladiators fought wild animals or each other, sometimes to the death. 

This fact reminds us that Britain was a frontier province, with the need to be able to quickly transport large numbers of troops to any area where their might be trouble. Many modern roads, such as the A1, largely follow the routes of earlier Roman Roads.

Wines, cloths, pottery, metal cutlery, mirrors and a host of other items would be landed in our ports and distributed to the various towns for sale. In exchange Britain exported massive amounts of grain to the rest of the Roman empire and helped feed the people of Rome itself.

Hadrian’s Wall stretched right across the country, from coast to coast, each of its seventy miles marked by a small fort where a patrol of soldiers would be stationed. At further intervals larger forts were located, in which whole regiments – five hundred to a thousand men - were based.  Well behind the frontier, at York, was one of three huge bases in the province where a whole legion was stationed - some six thousand soldiers. The other two legionary bases were at Chester and Lincoln. Over time, these great military bases grew into some of the biggest towns in Roman Britain, complete with a large civilian population of traders and innkeepers. Regiments recruited amongst the people of Britain were sent all over the empire, while troops from as far afield as Syria, Spain and Africa were stationed in this country. 

In this courtyard might be a garden, a pool, a fountain and a walking area. Surrounding it would be the bedrooms, in which mats would be laid for sleeping, offices, kitchens, toilets, bath house, storerooms and large rooms in which the family could meet and eat. There would also be slave quarters, as wealthy families often had many slaves to look after them. 

An educated slave would teach the older children. Slaves were very valuable and were often well treated by their owners. The education of a wealthy Romano-Briton would consist first of reading, writing and arithmetic, followed (for boys) by such subjects as logic, public speaking, law and philosophy. Boys would also be taken to the public gymnasia (usually located in the public baths) for physical training, deemed very important for young Romans. Girls would also receive physical education, but the rest of their education would be spent on training them to be good household managers.

The villa was a luxurious house in the countryside, which also doubled as a farmstead, as most rich people were also farmers. The Roman Britons had some of the largest and most luxurious villas found anywhere in the northern empire. Many villas were like small villages, with several dozen people and slaves living there and farming the land.  One of the later villas, at a place called Lullingstone, show signs that the people living there were probably members of a new religion sweeping the empire, Christianity.

Large houses in Roman Britain were heated by an early but effective form of central heating. A fire would be located in one corner of the house, and the heat it produced would be channelled into the space under the floors, raised on columns for that purpose, warming the rooms above them. Many Roman villas also had their own bath houses, running water and toilet systems.

New peoples from Germany came into these islands. The new arrivals were warriors and farmers who lived in small, simple villages, not in large and sophisticated towns. These people had never been ruled by the Romans and brought with them new ideas and ways of doing things. The great Roman cities and villas crumbled and were buried.