Pre-Roman Celtic Tribes

Episode 7 Celtic Britain and Roman Britain

The Celtic World

Dr Jennifer Paxton (2018)

Film Review

Despite a large presence of La Tene style Celtic art in Britain, there is no evidence the Celts ever invaded the British Isles. To the contrary, archeological evidence suggests strong cultural continuity of the islands’ population from the beginning of the Iron Age to the Roman invasion.

Paxton asserts the Celticization of Britain occurred via diffusion, ie a gradual migration of a Celtic diaspora from western France  and Spain to Britain.

Britain (especially Cornwall and Wales) were an important global source of tin, copper and iron from early in the Iron Age (1200-550 BC). Phoenician traders bought metals from Britain in the early first millennium BC.

Pre-Roman Britain was made up of numerous warring tribes. Those in the southeast had the best agricultural land and were the wealthiest. Those in the North and Southwest were well known for their hill forts.

During Julius Caesar’s two expeditions to Britain (55-53 BC), he persuaded a few of the southeastern tribes to pay tribute to Rome.

In 43 AD, the Roman emperor Claudius conquered the southern half of Britain, with the southeastern tribes happy to increase their wealth by collaborating with the Romans. He built two major Roman cities, Londinium and Eboracum (York), as well as numerous forts and roads.

During the 400-year Roman occupation, 40 urban areas (including Leeds, Newcastle and Exeter) adopted Latin as their primary language and (from the 3rd century AD) Christianity as their primary religion. All benefited from paved Roman roads, forums and amphitheaters. Wealthy southeasterners built large Roman villas and bought slaves to run them. The Romans introduced new fruits, such as apples, and coinage to Britain. The purpose of the coins was to enable a tax levy on all residents of Britain to fund (and pay) the garrisons who quashed rebellious tribes.

Paxton thinks it unlikely that either Latin or Christianity penetrated to rural Britain.

Numerous tribes, especially in Wales, Cornwall and the Northwest staged periodic rebellions against Roman rule (at one point burning Londinium and numerous other settlements to the ground). This led Rome to built large concentrations of heavily garrisoned forts in the most rebellious regions.

In 83 AD the emperor Agricula made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Caledonia (modern day Scotland) and decided it wasn’t worth the number of troops that would be required for continuous occupation. Instead, in 122 AD, the emperor Hadrian built Hadrian’s wall to protect the southern half of Britain from raiding Picts.

The emperor Antonius subsequently built the Antonine Wall (through modern central Scotland) but was unable to defend it.

To archeologists, Britain is a treasure trove of Roman-style pottery, glassware and iron nails.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5701024/5701038