All language subtitles for A.History.Of.Ancient.Britain.S02E04

This is the story of how Britain came to
be.

Of how our land and its people were
forged over thousands of years of

history.

This Britain is a strange and alien
world.

A world that contains the epic story of
our distant prehistoric past.

For hundreds of years, regional tribes
had fought for the land of Iron Age

Britain.

It was the time of heroes, of champions,
men who could wield swords.

This was a world of powerful Celtic
warriors, druids and kings,

before Britain was torn apart by an even
greater force,

the Roman army.

These men, were executed and their heads
were stuck on spikes.

This was what would happen to you if you
got in the way of Rome.

Now, the journey continues with the next
chapter in our epic story.

A time when our land was being recreated
in the image of Rome itself.

This isn't just an abstract depiction of
gladiatorial combat.

These people have names.

And its people had to come to terms with
a bewildering, new and utterly modern

world. This is science fiction.

Britain. 200 AD The brutal violence of
the Roman military campaign

was a distant memory.

Apart from the lands of the Picts to the
north, all this was a far -flung corner

of empire.

Roman garrisons and administrators
ruling over a land of more than 3

people.

The roads, buildings and cities were
established and impressed the features

the landscape of Britain.

People no longer felt that they had been
invaded.

Instead, they were part of the most
impressive, most technologically

empire the world had ever seen.

Britain was being dragged from its
ancient prehistoric past into a new and

modern world.

A world in which you could, perhaps, be
both British, and Roman at the same

time.

Today, the relics of Roman Britain still
lie buried right beneath our feet.

Here in central London, construction
work is uncovering fragments of a city

once stood here almost 2000 years ago.

This building is completely derelict, as
you can see, and it's shortly going to

be, well, almost razed to the ground and
replaced by something new.

But at the moment, there's just this
brief window of time that archaeologists

can take advantage of and dig deep into
the foundations.

And what they're revealing deep down
here is a rare glimpse of Roman London.

Alison Telfer and her team are
uncovering the preserved remains of

buildings.

This is planned urban development.

Everything about this is amazing, Al.
It's so recognisable. This is Roman

timber. Yes, and you can see the skill
of the workmen who made this.

The timber survived very well because of
the damp conditions, and that's really

helped, obviously, preserve it.

In just a few generations, Roman London
had grown into Britain's most important

trading town.

What's being discovered here?

are some of the shops and workshops that
stood right at its very heart.

Is that a fence line there? It is a
fence line dividing this building from

one over there.

And then heading that way, there might
have been shop frontages, and about 20

metres that way is probably the Roman
road.

When you use words like shop frontages,
it suddenly sounds modern.

Well, at the time it would have been.
You probably could come and get your

latest leather shoes here, maybe get
them made to measure.

It fascinates me that life down here is
so vivid.

Yes. It makes people real, doesn't it?

Look at this. This is a bag of leather
pieces that have been excavated from

here. How recognisable is that?

That's the sole of a leather Roman shoe.
Look at that.

And you can see on the sides the holes
for stitching.

And even more interesting in a way,
given that we're in a workshop, is a

like this, which is an off -cut of
leather.

That's been cut from a larger piece
during the shaping and the making of

something. And it's a find like this
that shows that shoes aren't just being

sold from these premises. They're
actually being made here.

And it still smells ever so faintly of
leather.

As early as AD 50, a bridge had been
built across the River Thames, and

grew rapidly around it.

This was a trading hub, the Thames
connecting Britain to mainland Europe

furthest reaches of the Roman world.

Not only to France, Italy and Spain, but
Africa and the Middle East.

Nearly 2 ,000 years ago, all of this was
green fields, as far as the eye could

see. because there were no Britons
settled on either bank.

This is the actual site of the very
first bridge across the Thames, built by

Romans in the first century AD.

It would have taken its line across the
Thames, parallel to modern London Bridge

up there, and the settlement that grew
up on either side they called Londinium.

a name that has such a profound and deep
connection to the city we know today.

The Roman city of London was built on
two hills, Cornhill and Ludgate Hill.

By around 200 years AD, it stretched all
the way from where St Paul's Cathedral

is today to the site of the Tower of
London. It was home to maybe 40 ,000

and it was Britain's very first
metropolis.

The growth of urban living wasn't only
felt in the South East.

From Bath in the West to York in the
North

Many early forts and garrison towns had
evolved into civilian centres of

government and commerce.

The roads that had been built to
transport troops were now carrying the

goods to growing centres of population.

Roman mass manufacturing was making
decorative goods ever more accessible to

aspirant middle classes.

Innovation such as glassware would have
been a modern marvel.

Look at that.

Instant product.

And it's so detailed just from the clay
mould.

You've got the basis of mass production
there, haven't you?

Even the idea of windows was new to
Britain.

It's almost impossible for us to imagine
a world without glass.

But try and put yourself into the mind
of an Iron Age Britain for whom the

had only and always been glassless. And
think of the impact for him of standing

inside a building and, while being proof
against the rain and the wind, to still

be bathed in sunlight.

And glass was far from the only modern
marvel that came with the Romans.

Look at this.

This would have been a wonder.

This is all that remains of a gigantic
statue that stood 20 feet high.

And it wouldn't have been green either.

The figure would have been painted gold,
even gilded.

The native tribes had never before seen
likenesses.

Of human beings.

But to see that these people were
accompanied by golden giants.

Three times the size of a human being.

What would that have said to you about
what these people were capable of?

And then look at this.

So familiar.

It's exactly what it looks like. It's a
padlock.

There's the keyhole.

This could well be the key that fits.

It shows the way in which the Romans
quite literally brought the modern

They brought the future with them.

This is science fiction.

Of course, not everyone in Britain was
so directly exposed to the wonders of

Rome. Away from the heavily Romanised
South, the impact of Roman culture would

have been much less.

But if you were living in one of the new
urban centres...

then the classical, civilised Roman
world would have touched every part of

life. And it wouldn't necessarily have
been threatening and foreign.

It would have been exciting and
seductive.

But if the new urban centres weren't
enough, the new commercial

the new technologies, then Rome had
something else to offer the people for

first time.

And that was mass entertainment, often
on a truly massive scale.

cycling along a piece of invisible Roman
Britain.

Because where I am now used to be a
racetrack where charioteers would hurtle

along racing against one another.

That's once around. Another six to go.

Colchester was the first Roman
retirement town.

where old soldiers could settle with
their own plots of land.

Its racetrack, or circus, was discovered
by archaeologist Philip Crummey.

What we've found is the only circus
known in Roman Britain.

Comparing it to these modern buildings,
it's colossal even by modern standards.

I mean, look at this massive industrial
unit there and the circus dwarfs it.

Well, this is the largest Roman building
that we know of in Britain.

This is the real deal. This is a giant
thing. It's a giant.

Despite knowing its layout, only
fragments of the original structure have

been excavated.

It's half a kilometre long and we're
taking out just this slot here.

That's right.

Inches beneath the ground, evidence of
building work still remains from the

massive stadium.

Right, let's fire this up.

1 ,800 years ago, Romans and Britons,
rich and poor, citizens and slaves,

would have shared in one of the greatest
sporting spectacles of the ancient

world.

A chariot race.

What you'd hear is the sound of a
chariot going seven times around the

barrier and the cheers of up to 15 ,000
people yelling and screaming. This was

the modern equivalent.

of football right so it's mass
entertainment almost on an industrial

is where you come from there'll be
excitement so that's mortared masonry oh

yeah look at that sit there that mortar
coming up there

oh yeah that's good start of Roman stuff
Roman brick there

These are the foundation remains of one
of the greatest stadiums in Northern

Europe.

But in Colchester,

the racetrack wasn't the only math
entertainment on offer.

People could also get a glimpse of some
of the sporting superstars of the age.

Gladiators.

This piece of pottery, this vase,
encapsulates so much of what we think

the Roman world.

It was found in Colchester, near the
circus.

It's widely regarded as one of the
finest pieces of Roman period pottery

found in Northern Europe.

These two men here are baiting what
looks to our eyes like a dog, but it's

actually a bear.

And that is so much.

how we think about Roman sports, Roman
entertainment, how it was all wound up

blood and cruelty.

But it's not just animals that are on
the receiving end of the violence.

On this side of the vase are two
gladiators.

This one here is a class of gladiator
called a secutor.

He has armour, a helmet, a shield and
a... classically a sword.

His opponent, however, is in all kinds
of trouble.

He should be armed with a net and a
trident, but he has lost both.

But what makes this bath so fascinating
is that this isn't just an

abstract, notional depiction of
gladiatorial combat.

These people have names.

Valentinius and Memnon.

Now,

Valentinius was an international
superstar of his age. He was attached to

legion in Germany, so perhaps he was
brought over to Colchester, to Britain,

the provinces, to entertain the locals
here and give them a taste of European

glamour.

Nothing like this could have been seen,
even conceived of, by the native British

tribes. Not at least until they had
contact with Rome.

Ancient Britain had evolved gradually
through thousands of years of

But in the centuries following the Roman
invasion, the face of Britain was being

transformed.

And it was all part of a plan to feed
and bolster the economy of an

bloated Roman Empire.

Look at this.

It's a silver Roman coin.

It's got the head of the emperor on one
side. It's called a denarius.

And in its day, it was worth around
£100.

And it was money and wealth like this
that was key to the control of Britain.

Across an empire of perhaps 80 million
people, the Romans needed to keep

resources circulating and coming towards
them.

And so it's likely that Britain was
taxed directly, the individuals, for the

very first time.

All the building, all the
entertainments, the military forts, the

had to be paid for.

So another coin, like this one.

would have become a common fight.

It's called an ad, and it was the pound
coin of its day.

We can imagine it being handed over
reluctantly by a worker from Londinium

Roman tax collector.

It's usually the Roman military that
gets all the attention, that has all the

glamour. But in truth, when it comes to
controlling a province like Britannia,

keeping control of its economy, then the
secret lies in Roman bureaucracy.

its civil service.

London, the commercial gateway to
Britain, also became its political nerve

centre.

At the heart of the city, the Roman
administration built a base for

in the shape of a vast basilica.

The one built here was three storeys
high, so an enormous building.

In fact, It wouldn't have been much
smaller than the building that's here on

site today.

The Roman Basilica, though, was part
courthouse, part records office, part

office. So, all in all, a frighteningly
imposing structure.

During the last 2 ,000 years, this
ground has been built on over and over

But amazingly, a fragment of the ancient
basilica still survives.

If you know where to look for it.

You are not going to believe what is
behind this door.

Look at that.

Unbelievable as it may seem, this is all
that remains of what was once one of

the largest, most impressive buildings
of the Roman Empire.

One of the largest things they ever
built north of the Alps.

It might have been a wonder of the
empire. It was certainly a wonder of

Roman Britain.

In London, Rome had created a provincial
capital.

The capital of a single territory.

The very idea of Britannia that endured
to this day.

What you've got here is the start of
something quite new.

Whereas Iron Age Britain was based
around local tribal power bases, the

had imposed a single unified political
structure. Look at this. It's a tile and

it's stamped with the letters PPBRLON.
So it's from London.

It's stamped by the authority of the
procurator of the province of Britannia.

What you've got here is the very start
of the idea of...

Britain as a separate country, a single
unit if you like, and it all starts with

Rome.

For Rome though, Britannia was just one
part of something even greater still,

the Roman Empire itself.

And just like today's cities, Roman
towns were cultural melting pots.

not only between the people of Britain
and Rome, but people from all its far

-flung provinces.

As far north as York, just a hundred
miles or so from Hadrian's Wall itself,

inhabitants would still have felt very
much part of an exotic international

world.

This was about as far from Rome as you
could get, and yet still feel that we

were in a civilised city.

But even this far north, you would still
have been bumping into people from all

corners of the empire.

People who were either from or had their
origins in Germany, France, the Middle

East, even Africa.

Here, languages would have been heard
from across the empire.

But there was a common tongue.

Latin.

What made Latin special was you couldn't
just hear it, you could see it.

Latin brought writing to Britain for the
very first time, and that was a massive

shift. It took us from the prehistoric
world into a world of records, names and

dates.

The trouble is so little remains of
Britain at this time.

Most of what we have are abbreviated
memorial slabs and gateways and

and the like.

So it's very difficult to know what
ordinary people in Britain were writing

about.

A rare collection of wax tablets is
revealing unique insights into ordinary

in Roman Britain.

It's a most remarkable find for Roman
Britain because until this material came

to light, we had nothing at all like
this, either from this period or really

from the whole of the provincial era of
Britain under the Roman Empire.

The tablets were discovered at Hadrian's
Wall in 1973, but it's only now that

new imaging technology is able to decode
them fully.

These are private letters, written
around 100 AD and sent home from the

edge of empire.

I've got one tablet which mentions a
price paid for a small quantity of

We have another example in which a
writer refers to somebody who he's

trying to help as a man who is a lover
of literary culture.

It's really quite a remarkable phrase to
be using on the northern frontier of

Britain at this time.

These fragments reveal Britain on the
cusp of a new age, the very beginnings

written history.

For Britain itself, of course, there
were a large number in the pre -Roman

period of different tribal units and
different small kingdoms and fiefdoms,

of course one of the things which the
Roman presence did was to bring them all

under one political system, and that
political system was run in Latin.

Latin language and widening literacy
were yet more unifying forces across the

empire.

If you had the chance and you took the
leap, Regardless of the heritage that

carried with you from birth, you could
be Roman.

Even as far north as York, evidence can
be found of the cultural mobility that

came with Rome.

The remains of a woman who died nearly 1
,800 years ago.

This is the skull of a young woman.

When she died, she was around 22, 23
years old.

She was buried with fantastic wealth.
This is just a few of the things that

alongside her in her grave.

This is a necklace made of blue glass
beads.

The individual beads are so beautifully
made.

Look at the way it allows the light
through it.

Anyone who saw this, saw this woman
wearing it, would have identified her as

someone of status, someone with access
to real money.

But then the story takes a strange twist
because alongside her in the grave were

bangles made of African elephant ivory
with beautiful turned decoration

on it. Now, what on earth is an African
ivory bangle doing in a grave

in York?

There are clues here in the skull
itself.

First of all, she has a broad and quite
flattened forehead, which suggests

someone of black African descent.

But when we look at her nose, her nose
is typical of a white European.

So in the skull, we've got the
suggestion of someone of mixed race.

And when her teeth were subjected to
chemical analysis, it was found...

Possible, or even likely, that she grew
up in North Africa, somewhere like Libya

or Tunisia.

Perhaps she's the wife or the daughter
of a centurion posted to York.

She's this, to our eyes, exotic figure
with this luxury jewellery, these luxury

items. And yet, in Roman York, when she
walked around the streets, she wouldn't

have been so very unusual.

To be a Roman wasn't about where you
were born, but about how you lived, how

dressed, how you spoke, the values you
held.

There was a sense that within the Roman
Empire, you could make your own way.

You weren't necessarily bound or
handicapped by your ancestral class.

And whatever barriers Rome did put up,
colour wasn't one of them.

But was it possible to be both Roman and
British at the same time?

Or, 200 years after the invasion, did
that distinction even matter anymore?

In Celtic Britain, tribal identity had
always been central to who you were.

Now, under Rome, Who and what you were
seemed to be becoming more of a choice

a matter of circumstance.

You could either act as a Roman or not.

You could either live an urban life or
not.

And that's aside from class.

Whether you were wealthy and powerful,
or a trader or craftsman, or at the

bottom, a slave, or even more grim than
that, a slave slave.

Think of that.

Despite the growth of Roman towns, most
of the population of Britain remained

rural.

But even out here, the influence of Rome
was unmistakable.

The modern Roman ways weren't restricted
to the townsfolk.

As a Roman citizen, you could own land
with proper legal title, which meant

it could be bought, sold and inherited.

And in the South East, amongst the very
rich, that was to lead to something

truly spectacular.

Rich agricultural estates surrounding
big country houses.

The villas of southern England.

To our eyes, this is incredibly
ordinary.

But it's as staggeringly modern as
anything you would have seen in the

towns.

These buildings were built on top of the
foundations of the original building

that stood here in the late Roman
period, into the 300s.

And it's representative of a kind of
architecture that had never been seen in

Britain before the Romans.

You have to remember that Iron Age
houses in Britain were round, single

dwellings. They look ancient.

But this is a house.

You've got a rectangular floor plan.

You've got separate rooms inside.

There's even glass in the windows. This
is the future.

Wait till you see what's inside.

No one knows who owned this villa and
its surrounding estate, but we can be

they were rich and that they enjoyed a
life of luxury.

If this was my villa, this would have
been the floor of my private dining

It's luxurious and lavish in the
extreme. It's a real show of status.

My guests would have been arranged
around.

the outside of this mosaic floor, and
it's covered in scenes of myth and Roman

legend.

My guests would have listened to the
soft sounds of the water tinkling in the

fountain.

They'd have been drinking wine,
celebrating the god Bacchus.

Their eyes were probably drawn to the
depictions of topless lady dancers.

And maybe if it was a really special
occasion I'd have laid on real topless

dancers, make it a real party.

But in any event, this was and is a
spectacular place.

Now, as well as all the grandeur, this
room affords us a glimpse of something

else. Because at some point, this part
of the floor has collapsed, revealing...

the underfloor central heating system.

It's called a hypocaust, which means
heat from below.

And you can see in this void where all
the vents have been positioned to

circulate the hot air. And the heat
actually comes from a purpose -built

on the other side of that wall. All the
hot air is just pushed through, makes

the floor warm. So the whole interior is
heated. Very cosy.

The big man, the owner of the estate...

would have sat at that end of the room
in pride of place.

He would have greeted his guests and
visitors from there.

And he would have been close by where
that mosaic of Venus is.

And that is regarded as one of the very
finest Roman mosaics anywhere in

Britain.

Any rich landowner would also have
enjoyed a rich Roman diet.

an aspect of life studied by Sally
Granger.

We've got coriander and cumin. Now, they
are the dominant spices in curry today.

Yeah. We've got lovage.

Lovage. Very bitter.

If you use too much of it, you make
appalling food.

We can then add some fish sauce. It's
rather fundamental to Roman... Fish

Yeah. That's quintessential Roman
cuisine. It is, it is.

Oh, that's so potent.

Yeah, that's strong, whatever it is.
Yeah.

Lentils in wine.

Are lentils wrong?

They are.

They came to Britain in the first 20
years after the invasion. You find them

sale in London.

So compared to the way that native
Britons would have approached food, how

of a surprise would all this messing
about with spices have been? I think a

great surprise.

Because, certainly archaeologically, we
have no evidence for use of spices in

Britain. I think what they were doing is
roasting a lot of meat and drinking a

lot of beer and eating a lot of bread,
but not actually developing a cuisine.

And I don't think it comes until the
Romans.

The Romans wrote recipe books and
created the first fine dining.

Fruits from cultivated orchards of
apples and cherries.

New green vegetables.

Cabbages, leeks and peas, as well as
exotic herbs.

Even modern staples like chicken begin
with the Romans.

For rich Britain, it was a culinary
revolution.

Now we're going to flavour our pears.
And we're going to also add the fish

sauce. The fish sauce? Fish sauce.

Goodness, why?

Why ever do that? It's all going so
well. Sounds wrong.

It works.

I can't believe you put that in there.
That just... God!

It's like varnish.

There we go.

Oh!

Fairly crunchy on the outside there, but
on the inside there, you can see it

looks pretty... At least it's definitely
cooked.

Very tender.

It's falling off.

Mmm.

I must say, it's good.

I must hold my hands up and say I can't
taste fish sauce in that. Of course you

can't. Somehow all of this, you know,
the variety, the spices, the care,

seems almost more civilising than so
many other things that Romans

are famous for.

There's something about all this fine
food that would be so pleasing to

You'd think it would lead to the
betterment of society.

You'd think, yeah.

The trouble is we don't know how many
people are affected.

It's very difficult to tell.

City life and some of the big villas,
yes.

And I think as British natives became
more Romanised and consumed more of this

stuff, yes, it was great, it was
wonderful.

But always for the people with wealth
and leisure.

And a slave cook.

I can't do without one myself.

Rome might have transformed the lives of
many people, but it didn't transform

everyone's, not by a long way.

Of the three to four million people
living in Britain, only a tiny fraction

lived in towns, even fewer around
villas.

For over 90 % of the population, for all
Rome's apparent impact, life carried on

much as it always had done.

This is a living space up here, I think.

Up these steps.

They're very simple.

Massively built of stone, circular in
shape, cellular in shape.

You look at it and you can think or
assume that it was built and lived in

a thousand years BC, during the Bronze
Age, because the whole site resonates

with... Everything you think of when you
think about ancient Britain.

In fact, this village was built right in
the middle of the Roman period.

In 200 AD, these very ancient -looking
houses were brand new.

Away from the Roman centres, away from
the towns and the forts,

you would have had so much more choice
about just how Roman you actually wanted

to be.

And so a village like Chisoster would be
left behind as a kind of relic

of ancient Britishness, a kind of
passive resistance, if you like, to the

centralised authority of the Roman
Empire.

For many Iron Age Britons, Ancient
Celtic identity was even more important

death than in life.

This is the skeleton of a man who was
around 1920

-21 at the time of death.

He was buried in a very particular way.

He was buried in a crouched position.

with the knees drawn up to the chest,
like a baby in the womb.

A Roman in death would have been laid
out lying flat and furthermore would

been buried far away from any settlement
in a dedicated cemetery.

It's fascinating to speculate that while
in life this young man might have taken

on certain aspects of Rome, He was using
the same tableware. He might have worn

a pin or a pendant, ate the Roman ways,
but in death he showed his true colours

in his heart and in the heart of the
people who put him in the ground. He was

Roman. He was a Briton.

have established Britannia as a single
entity.

But behind the administration, this was
a diverse, even fractured land.

The urban hordes and their mass
entertainments, the village elite and

luxuries, the serfs and slaves who
worked for them, and the lives of the

countless thousands of self -sufficient
farmers.

And that's just counting the part of
Britain that was actually under Roman

control.

We're talking about the territories that
would one day be called England and

Wales. Because up here in
Northumberland, beyond the edge of

an awful lot of Britain that the Romans
never did control.

Ever since 136 AD, a defensive wall had
stretched like a ribbon from coast to

coast. from Carlisle to Newcastle,
guarded by 40 ,000 Roman soldiers.

This wall marked more than the limit of
empire.

For Rome, it was the very edge of
civilization itself.

Far beyond the wall, the Scottish
Highlands still remained under the

Celtic Iron Age tribes.

Pictish peoples who were as fiercely
resistant to Roman rule as they'd ever

been.

And at the National Museum of Scotland
there's a relic of a proud and fiercely

independent Britain.

This fragment is the earliest, the
oldest piece of tartan cloth ever found.

And for us in the modern world, it's
also a potent symbol of Scottishness.

The people who made this, used this,
wore this, had their own

culture, customs and traditions.

It wasn't by choice that Rome had drawn
a line across Britain.

It had tried to conquer Caledonia a
number of times.

But the Picts had repelled them again
and again.

The name Picts means painted people.

And when it came to battle, the warriors
were in the habit of stripping off

naked to reveal these tattoos or painted
designs on their skin.

They believed that the gods would look
down upon them, see the designs, and

confer their protection upon them.

The Picts generally avoided engaging the
Roman army in set -piece battles,

preferring instead to employ guerrilla
tactics, striking fast and then

disappearing into the forbidding
landscape of mountains and forests.

And you can easily see, in terrain like
this, Even a small group of lightly

armed men who understood this landscape
could use it to turn it to their

advantage so that they could harass and
even severely damage a much larger

force.

In the end, for the Romans, it simply
wasn't worth the effort and the tribal

lands of Scotland always remained
unconquered.

Even in the 2nd and the 3rd century AD,
here in the north, the customs... The

tradition is the lifestyle of ancient
Iron Age Britain continued stubbornly

beyond the reach of empire.

Rome still needed to make sure the Picts
couldn't cause any trouble further

south though.

And back in Edinburgh, there's evidence
of how they managed the slightly

friendlier tribes of southern Scotland
and Northumberland.

Look at this.

It's a tiny part of a huge hoard of
Roman silver that dates from around 400

The whole hoard, the whole collection,
would fill several museum cases.

It's thought that all this was a massive
bribe from the Romans to a local tribe

called the Votadini.

You can see how it's been crudely cut up
with shears of some kind.

Experts believe that before the Romans
handed the silver over, they themselves

cut it up so that it was only going
across a scrap silver.

Now, the Romans weren't bribing the
Votadini because they had trouble with

Rather, they were determined to keep
that tribe on side.

Because with the Votadini inside the
tent, as it were, the Romans were free

concentrate their attentions on the
tribes, the people.

Further north in Scotland, people
considered potentially more dangerous.

It's about undermining inter -tribal
allegiances. This is classic divide and

conquer.

Much of the success of Rome was down to
the number of levels on which it

operated.

At first, military might could crush
you.

And then a finely tuned administration
would control you.

The trappings of Roman civilization
could seduce you and turn you Roman

yourself.

And if all that failed, well, the empire
could simply exclude you.

When Rome came, it changed your land.

It changed your entire way of life.

But the Romans were used to dealing with
culture clash.

After all, they'd been doing it all
across Europe, in parts of Africa and in

Middle East.

But they were also pathmasters at
dealing with something much more

Religion and the clash of beliefs.

Rome might have transformed the land of
Britain and the lives of many of its

people.

But religion was something else
altogether.

Ancient and heartfelt Celtic traditions
and beliefs.

Every tribe might have had its own set
of gods controlling a specific part of

the countryside.

Their hills, their woods, their rivers.

And then between the individual tribes
were the Druids, the great priesthood of

the Celtic world, trying to make sense
of it all.

The Romans worshipped very different
gods.

Jupiter and Mars.

Apollo, god of the sun.

And Saturn, god of time.

Powerful supernatural beings that held
sway over the mortal world.

The Romans had imposed all sorts of
ideas on Britain.

Would they impose their gods on the
people as well?

The city of Bath offers clues to how the
Romans dealt with the most sensitive

cultural invasion of all.

Because it was here that a spring
producing a magical flow of hot water

sacred, venerated by the Britons.

As far as we can tell, the ancient
Britons believed that this spring was

domain of a goddess called Sulla.

And she was all about wisdom.

and healing and insight, and she had to
be appeased with gifts and offerings.

When the Romans conquered Britain, they
were presented with a choice.

Either they could leave the local gods
and goddesses alone, or they could seek

to obliterate goddesses like Sulith and
replace them with their own Roman

deities.

The Romans found a pragmatic solution.

Often they chose one of their own Roman
gods who seemed similar to the local

British god and combined the two.

This is a depiction of the Roman goddess
Minerva.

What's happening here is something very
interesting.

It's really about the union of two
goddesses, one British and one Roman.

The Roman goddess Minerva here is all
about healing and about wisdom,

particularly military wisdom.

And that made her the perfect partner
for the British goddess Sulis, who was

responsible for a lot of the same areas
of business.

So what you've got here is a
combination.

And when it came to naming the goddess
of the spring here in Bath, they called

her Sulis Minerva.

This combined deity inhabited the sacred
spring and continued to attract

acolytes who communicated with the
goddess Sulith Minerva through

lead tablets that give a rare insight
into their beliefs.

Classicist Roger Tomlin has been
studying them for 25 years.

Exactly what are these, Roger?

Well, in very crude terms, they're
called curses.

They're a specialised sort of curse.
They're really letters written to the

goddess asking for ill health or
misfortune to people who've done someone

This one is this woman, Basilia, who's
lost her silver ring, tells the goddess,

I've lost my silver ring.

Curse the thief who did it. The thief
should lose his eyes. He should have his

intestines utterly eaten out. This is a
wonderful exotic phrase.

Intestinis excommasis, his intestines
utterly eaten out, and so on. Just for

theft of a ring. Yes, just for the theft
of a ring. You can't be exactly certain

the ring's going to come back. You tend
to overreact, I think. If you were

certain the ring was going to come back,
you might say, well, I'll give him

dinner afterwards.

There's always an element of uncertainty
whether the God is actually going to

react. So people come up with this
horrific language. Also, it's a bit like

letting blood.

It reduces the pressure a bit.

Right. OK.

This one is written backwards in a
rather peculiar way.

Each word is written backwards, but the
whole text isn't written backwards.

It makes it a devil to read, because you
never know where the word is ending.

And what's the logic?

I suppose it's to encrypt the text, to
make it personal between you and the

goddess. No one else can read it.
That's, again, why you fold these things

you throw them into water, you put them
into graves.

They turn up in all sorts of places,
particularly in this hot spring.

It doesn't really sound like religion.

It does make more of an appeal to the
authorities.

It's almost like a...

trying to sue someone or seek legal
redress rather than something to do with

faith. I think there's a strong element
to this legalism. I mean, the Roman

world is somewhat under -policed, and if
earthly authorities can't work, you

appeal to a heavenly authority instead,
and using the language you might well

use in addressing your patron.

Those healing pools...

And the temple to the combined gods of
Sulith and Minerva are a good

illustration of how to handle a clash
between religions.

And the twinning of gods would be tried
again and again all across Roman

Britain. But that cosy religious
relationship that had served the Roman

so well was about to be seriously
disrupted.

In the first century AD, far away in the
Middle East, a new religious cult had

started spreading that many Romans found
absurd.

Because this religion demanded faith to
just one god.

A Christian god.

Look at this dazzling collection.

All of these spectacular items.

The finest early Christian.

artifacts found anywhere in the empire
all come from Britain

look at this magnificent glorious

silver cup, silver vessel it's quite
possible that it was made and used

for the quintessential Christian act,
that of turning wine into the blood of

Christ and if that's what this was for
then it's the earliest such vessel found

anywhere in the world

But as Christianity expanded, it was
outlawed, and its followers had to

in secret.

Look at this piece.

The symbol here is called the Chi Rho.

It was like a secret sign that let early
Christians recognize one another.

Chi and Rho are the first two letters of
Christ's name.

Also within the symbol are the letters
Alpha and Omega.

showing that the person who used this or
made this believed also that Christ was

all -powerful from first to last.

Part of its popularity was the central
tenet that anyone who believed in Christ

would never die, would have everlasting
life, even slaves.

And that was a truly subversive thought.

Despite the threat of persecution, there
was no stopping such an enticing

message.

Nevertheless, it wasn't until AD 313
that Christianity was finally legalised.

The Roman Emperor Constantine was
sympathetic to Christianity.

And then there came a day when his army
secured a key victory.

And while doing so, they had carried at
their head a cross, a Christian cross,

as a symbol to bring them good fortune.

From that moment...

Constantine decreed that Christianity
would be tolerated throughout the Roman

Empire.

It was actually another political move.

With Christianity within the fold, a
religious hierarchy could be

controlled by the state.

Look at this ring. Like the plaque here,
it has on it the Cairo symbol.

Whoever wore this was obviously a
Christian, a believer.

may even have been a bishop in the
country while Christianity was

Beautiful.

Christianity continued to flourish, and
in AD 391, it was the old pagan

religions that were banned.

The ancient spring of Sulith Minerva was
abandoned, left to become filthied up

and to overflow.

its temples left to collapse.

It was the end of yet another ancient
prehistoric tradition.

Tens of thousands of years ago, the
first nomadic hunters came to Britain.

Ever since, the people and the land they
inhabited had been entwined.

Mountains holding up the sky.

The seas that made our land an island.

And the sacred springs and rivers that
were so central to ancient religious

beliefs.

all had shaped our history.

But with Rome, and the modern world it
brought, a new world had been forged.

Not of nature's making, but of man's.

The rule of Rome couldn't and didn't
last forever.

By 410 AD, The empire was collapsing and
the Roman rule of Britain was at an

end. The cities decayed and people in
many ways returned to the rural lives of

the past.

But some of the ideas that had emerged
under Rome couldn't be undone.

Christianity, writing, the very idea of
Britannia, ideas that are still very

much alive with us today.

When the Romans arrived, We didn't just
start a new chapter.

We started a whole new story.

One that would be written down in the
history of our land.

And when people look back 1 ,000 or 2
,000 years from now, perhaps they'll see

the beginning of our world in that
sudden break with prehistory, in the

of Rome.

And here we are.

occupying this fleeting moment of time
with our hopes and fears, pasts and

futures, living our lives, just one more
generation in a story that continues,

the story of Britain and her peoples.

If you want to follow in the footsteps
of our ancestors, then go to the

bbc .co .uk to find out how to connect
with ancient Britons in your area.