Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Gentleman's Magazine Library, Vol. 7: Being a Classified Collection of the Chief Contents of the Gentleman's Magazine From 1731 to 1868; Romano-British Remains, Part I
HE fact of Britain at one time forming part of the Roman empire hasintroduced one of the most interesting branches of archaeological research into the history of this country. Rome was so powerful, and her in?uence in all branches of law and polity was so enormous, that it has always been a problem as to how far she affected the course of events in Great Britain even after her fall had done away with a direct and recognised in?uence. So far as history teaches us, we know that the Romans found upon their arrival in Britain several Celtic tribes, more or less barbarous according to their degree of contact with the commercial nations who then traded with this island; and that after a vigorous government of about 300 years they left these tribes under much the same organization, and then the island was practically cut off from continental in?uences and civilization. That the Britons could not and did not step into the place of their Roman masters seems to be shown clearly enough. At any rate, so far as my own opinion is concerned, I cannot ignore the importance of the fact, strangely undervalued if not overlooked by all historians, that the British did not levy a national or imperial force to stem the tide of Saxon conquest. So significant a fact surely suggests that the Roman occupation of Britain was not a social occupation but a military one, and that Roman Britain meant little more than the few thousand luxurious occupiers of the villas, the mer chants of the cities, together with the various garrisons in the military stations which dominated the country. Let it be granted that these several centres of Roman life gathered round them numerous British followers, and by this means permeated a portion.
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