- Celts and Romans -
baths, the timber phase of the amphitheatre and the earliest of the massive timber
buildings on the site of the later forum all originated in the Neronian period, the
baths even incorporating tiles of Nero, suggestive of an imperial interest (Boon 1974;
Fulford 1985b).
The clearest evidence for competition and patronage across the empire is to be
found in epigraphic material, though even this seems to betray marked variations
between the more romanized areas and the more peripheral provinces like northern
Gaul, the Germanies and Britain (Blagg 1990). There is clear evidence also in the
provision of street grids, public buildings and amenities, and wealthy private housing
- the distinctive features of the developed Mediterranean town. It is vital to stress,
however, that such distinctive features did not emerge overnight; close analysis of the
archaeological evidence reveals significant variations in the speed with which the
individual building complexes were provided (Todd 1989a; Wacher 1989). This is
much as one would expect, given the lengthy time-span over which the civitates were
created, and, more importantly, the varying levels of public-spiritedness or private
enterprise which the local elites exhibited in their development.
It now seems clear that at most sites during the first and early second centuries,
the only stone buildings were public structures, though not all sites had even these;
instead the majority of buildings were timber-framed structures, most of them of
strip-building type, associated with commercial or industrial activities (Perring
1987); these clearly reflect the early economic growth of the cities within their
respective civitates, as illustrated by the shops in Insula XIV at Verulamium and
elsewhere at Chichester, Colchester and London. Even the most important of the
public buildings, the forum-basilica, provides a surprising date range for the known
stone structures (Table 8.1). On the surface this is an interesting reflection of the
speed at which money was committed to public buildings, but the picture is some-
what complicated by the evidence for two phases of timber building (both apparently
fora) pre-dating the Silchester complex (Fulford 1985 b), and suggestive traces of a
similar wooden phase at Exeter in the 80S (Bidwell 1979: 73). Such material advises
caution elsewhere for the general level of first-century developments, even though
the picture for other public .buildings generally conforms to the prolonged sequence
identified for fora (Table 8.1). An even starker picture is provided by the evidence
for private housing which is such a prominent feature in the developed urban plans.
In this context, Walthew (1975) has argued that, generally speaking, rich town houses
may not have appeared in any great numbers until the second century, somewhat
later than their villa counterparts, suggesting perhaps that the elite were slow to move
into the town.
Despite this generally slow and piecemeal development of romanized urban
centres, most had been provided with a basic range of public buildings and related
facilities by the end of the second century (Wacher 1989). Some measure of official
encouragement must have been available under the Flavian governors, and again
in the wake of Hadrian's visit, which would help to explain the surge of second-
century activity. In general terms, Britain conforms with trends identified elsewhere
in the Roman world; but like northern Gaul and Germany, there is increasing
evidence to suggest a more restricted level of provision in terms of public buildings,
statuary and inscriptions recording individual civic benefactions, by comparison with
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