How the Romans lived in Britain By Michael Coleman POOR BRITON: POOR BRITON: In the early years of Roman Britain there were some big differences between the people... I am a rich Roman. I m powerful and I m wealthy. I am a poor Briton. Er...that s it, really. But over the next 300 years life changed for the Britons... I don t feel like a poor Briton any more! I eat like a Roman, I dress like a Roman, I speak like a Roman. Now I feel like a poor Roman! I still feel like a rich Roman, though. Meet my family. I am the paterfamilias which means head of a family. Then there is my wife whose money became mine when we were married. My children live with us. My daughters will move out when I find husbands for them, but when my sons marry they will probably stay here with their wives and their children... Quiet! I own a villa, many sheep and pigs and a lot of slaves. The Romans forced people to work for them as slaves. Slaves would be bought and sold in markets. Male slaves would be used for such things as working in the field, female slaves for duties in the house. A slave with a talent would cost more like this slave, who is able to cook... A valuable slave s still a slave, though and I ve been slaving away in the kitchen since dawn. Do you eat three meals a day? Then you re eating like a Roman. First I have to deal with ientaculum: that s breakfast... 1
ANNOUNCER: My usual, cook. Wheat pancakes with dates and honey. Then there s prandium: the mid-day meal. Fish, bread, cold meat and vegetables for me. I m saving myself for later! Later. He means cena, the main meal, evening dinner. If I was slaving for a poor Roman it would be easy: just vegetables and porridge. But for a rich Roman, food is a way of showing off. Oh, cook! We have a dinner party tonight, cook. Be adventurous! Your snails fattened in milk are good, but what I d really like are partridge brains or flamingo tongues! Partridges? Flamingoes? Hah! He s getting the snails. They re easier to catch! Romans liked crazy dishes, too such as a roast hare with bird s wings stuck on to make it look like a flying horse! Yuk! Dinner parties also gave Romans a chance to dress up. Everyday wear for a man would be a knee-length tunic and a cloak and for a woman a tunic that stretched down to her ankles, with a loose garment called a stolla on top. Dressing-up clothes were different... On to the catwalk first: Roman citizen in his best toga. See how all that fine Egyptian cotton is carefully folded round his body to hide the tunic beneath? And notice the coloured trim, showing how important he is. Delightful! Next, the citizen s wife: a tunic of silk, perfectly matched by her jewellery and make-up. And to top it off beautiful, curly hair! Yes, you can t beat a wig made from the lovely hair of your British slave girl! Beautiful things were important to the Romans. Their buildings and villas were elaborately decorated. A special type of picture they brought to Britain was a mosaic... 2
Hello, listeners! Today I m talking to Pickaxo, the world-famous mosaic-maker. Hello every bodies. Mr Pickaxo, what exactly is a mosaic? A mosaic is picture made of itsy-bitsy stones or teeny-weeny pebbles or titchy-witchy bits of glass or pottery. Well, the stones and pebbles I can work out. But what is your favourite way of collecting...er...titchy-witchy bits of glass or pottery? Simple. First, find vase or glass or something you not like much. Then take big hammer and whack hard! Now have lots of titchy-witchy bits! Picture mosaics and other types of picture would have been understood by both Romans and Britons. But some mosaics included lettering. They would have been difficult for Britons to understand because for a long while Britons and Romans spoke a different language. * * * * * Britons at the time of the invasion spoke a language called Common Britonic; the Romans spoke a language called Latin. Nearly all books and documents were written in Latin, but whether Britons learned to speak it isn t really known. They probably did. After all, even Britons today know some Latin... Latin homeworks, please! Simkins, have you got yours? Nah! Ridiculous language! Really? You ve just used a fair amount of Latin yourself. Yer what? 3
JUPITER: FARMER: HOSTESS: JUPITER: MARCUS: Ridiculous comes from the Latin word rideo, meaning laugh and language comes from the Latin word lingua, meaning speech. Cor, you learn something every day! And here s another one for you: teneo meaning hold, is where we get detention from Simkins which you re in for not doing your Latin homework! In one way, though, life in Britain didn t change much at all. The land still had to be cultivated to grow food. Wheat for making bread, barley for making beer and oats for animal feeds were the main crops. Cows, goats, sheep, pigs and hens were raised in Roman Britain, exactly as they are today. Also like today, famers knew that a good harvest was at the mercy of the weather. But the weather, they believed, was controlled by the gods. Jupiter, the god of the sky, must have been in great demand... Oh, who d be a god! Here they come again. Oh, divine Jupiter... Oh, divine Jupiter, I beseech you to send rain this day for my thirsty crops... Divine Jupiter, I m holding an awfully important outdoor party today. Be a dear god and don t allow it to rain. I d better help or they ll never stop. I know - the party can have a dry day...and I ll give the crops a good soaking tonight. Ha-ha. Who s a clever god, then! Visiting a temple to ask the gods for help was a part of everyday life. And the help wasn t always for good crops or a sunny day. It could be a request for the god to do something nasty to your enemy! You went to the temple and wrote your request on a thing called a curse tablet. A bit like this... I hate you, Vesuvia Whinius! 4
VESUVIA: MARCUS: VESUVIA: And I hate you, Marcus Moanius! I hate you so much I ve just written a curse tablet about you. Divine Jupiter, I wrote, strike Vesuvia Whinius by lightning! Well, I ve just written one begging Jupiter to do the same thing to you, Marcus Moanius...after throwing your curse tablet away first, of course! 5