- The Celtic Britons under Rome -
the migration latterly accelerated by Caesar's conquest. These were the peoples who
would have been expected to take most readily to the Roman way of life and
especially to commerce and trade. The trading posts established in consequence of
Caesar's trading arrangements had already intensified this process.
In the wake of the army, Gallic and other traders moved to Britain to supply the
army and its followers and later to set up their workshops and markets. The British
Celts of the south-east had hitherto built only in timber, but now the stone-masons
arrived and rapidly found ample supplies of high quality stone. The two early
military tombstones at Colchester (Collingwood and Wright 1965: 200, 201) are of
Bath stone; Purbeck marble was very soon discovered and exploited, before its poor
weathering qualities had been recognized. Tiles were an essential building material,
especially for roof and heating systems and tile-wrights constructed their kilns
where there were suitable amounts of clay and near enough to the demand for their
products. The search for minerals by prospectors also rapidly followed the conquest,
especially for silver and gold, which Tacitus regarded as pretium victoriae ('spoils
of victory', Agricola 12). This almost precipitated a crisis in Rome when the Spanish
lessees thought their prices would be seriously undercut. However, any fears
were soon dissipated when it became known that the silver content in the British
ore (galena) was low. This increased the production costs, but also provided a large
lead resource, which was much needed for tanks, water-pipes and roof-flashings.
That the Mendip mines were being worked by AD 49 is indicated by a stamped lead
pipe (Collingwood and Wright 1990: n.2404.1) which must imply army involvement.
The stamps also show that, at this stage, it was an imperial monopoly and under
military protection in a potentially hostile area.
Thus the Britons of the south-east suddenly found themselves living in a capitalist
state with large-scale exploitation of land and natural resources and urban building
projects. This was an enormous change from life in tribal-centred communities totally
unused to land ownership and a money economy. There is no evidence of their
reactions, but one can assume that the kings, chieftains, their families and higher-
ranking retainers would have quickly adapted to it with the help of any accumulated
bullion which could now be changed into Imperial coinage. The craftsmen and trades-
men would have had little difficulty in adapting to the new regime and in particular
the Celtic smiths would have found many increased opportunities. But the bulk of
the peasants remained tied to the land, with new masters who employed ruthless
bailiffs and managers to introduce large-scale production methods. There would
also have been a great demand for labourers in all trades.
In Celtic tribal society, the individual had a place and a feeling of belonging to a
powerfully interknit family. The inevitable destruction of this basic way of life must
have had serious effects on most individuals. This kind of process has been seen in
recent times when our so-called civilization has descended on 'primitive' societies in
many parts of the world and exploited their lands for commercial gain, with the sad
result of total disintegration of tribal life. One of the most obvious and pitiful has
been the fate of the Australian Aborigines and their treatment by the brash, ignorant
settlers from Europe who regarded them only as savages. But the differences between
the British Celts and the newcomers were not so extreme and many 'Romans' were
Gauls who had close affinities with their fellow Celts of south-east Britain.