CHAPTER EIGHT
CELTS AND ROMANS
Towards a Romano-Celtic society
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Barry C. Burnham
R
ome's expansion in the west brought her into contact with diverse peoples, not
least those traditionally grouped together as the 'Celts'. This raises interesting
questions about native and Roman interaction and the emergence of hybrid cultures
as conquest, assimilation and romanization took place, questions which are appro-
priate to a volume on the 'Celtic world'. Detailed comments will be confined to
southern Britain, with appropriate references where necessary to continental
material, principally for the period between the first century BC and the early third
century AD; the significant changes wrought in the third and fourth centuries lie
beyond the scope of this paper. Key questions include: (i) how did the process of
interaction and romanization work? (ii) how far did things actually change under
Roman rule? and (iii) how deep did the veneer of romanization percolate?
Caution is necessary at the outset about terminology. Terms like 'Celts' and
'Romans' carry the notion of two identifiable cultural entities, a notion which may
hinder rather than help the analysis of change. 'Roman culture' was not itself a 'pure'
entity, rather a progressive synthesis of many different strands. Initially these were
of Greek, Etruscan and Italian origin, overlaid by contact with other Mediterranean
peoples. This amalgam progressively developed as it spread northwards and west-
wards into Gaul and Britain from the first century BC onwards. The notion of 'Celtic
culture' is even more problematical, bound up as it is with historical issues of ethnic
identity and the nature of the classical sources, and with the modern debate over
'Who were the Celts?' Views range from outright scepticism about the value of
classical sources and the reality of Celtic identity (Hill 1989; Taylor 1991) to the
somewhat 'homogenized' portrayal of the Celtic world in recent works (Audouze
and Biichsenschiitz 1991), with its overtones of the Celts as the 'first Europeans'.
This homogeneity may be more apparent than real, serving to mask important vari-
ations in the society and economy of north-west Europe on the eve of the conquest,
variations which are vital to our understanding of the processes of interaction
(Haselgrove 1991).
The material impact of romanization is self-evident in the north-west provinces,
stretching from southern Gaul to northern Britain. It is most clearly seen in the
emergence of distinctive urban centres, all conforming to a recognizable Graeco-
Roman model, the essential foundations of which were laid in the context of Rome's
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