ROME

An Introductory History of England & Europe by Mrs H. A. L. Fisher - published London Victor Gollancz - 1935

While Greek influence was spreading westwards over Europe and eastwards into Asia, reaching even to India, another people was growing up in Italy: a people to whom the world was destined to owe the preservation of Greek civilisation.

The map of the Mediterranean world shows Italy coming down into the middle of it: a long, thin hilly land, easily reached from east and west, from north and south. As some of the wandering tribes had pushed south into Greece, so, too, others pressed down, out of the colder north, into the sunshine of Italy. There they established themselves, and there they fought long and hard against their foes. Gradually one tribe among them rose to leadership, and Rome, its fortress city, comes into the very front of our picture of the development of Europe and of our own island. The Latins had to contend against the wandering tribes from the north, and in the middle against the Etruscans, a people of whom we know little but that they had invaded Italy and subdued those whom they found living there. Each in turn conquered the city, but gradually, after long and stern fighting, after a struggle for life which several times seemed nearly hopeless, Rome became mistress of almost the whole Italian peninsula.

The tremendous experiences through which she had come had made of her people something so strong, so disciplined, so steady, so efficient, that not only the Italian peninsula was to feel her might. She was to become the greatest power in the world.

There is no space here for the story of how Rome first absorbed the Grecian cities in the south of Italy, and then became involved in a terrible struggle which lasted for over a hundred years with Carthage, the great trading city of the Phoenicians in North Africa; a struggle which resulted in the destruction of Carthage, and established Rome as the leading force in the western Mediterranean, as before long she was to be not only over the Mediterranean, but beyond.

Meanwhile the wandering tribes continued to press and to threaten, and Rome in her turn had to move forward in order to protect herself and her provinces. The growth of the Roman Empire means to us not only the spread of what we think of as Roman institutions, but also the guarding of the Mediterranean world, with its priceless treasures of civilisation, against the flood of the barbarians who perpetually threatened to overwhelm and destroy it.

In the last century before the birth of Christ the Roman frontier had reached what was then called Gaul - that is, the lands we now know as France and Belgium - and the general familiar to us all, Julius Caesar, crossed the Channel and came to Britain. Before we try to picture to ourselves the Britain he found, and to trace its history during its Roman period, let us think for a moment what the Roman world was like.

The Romans were above all a practical people, and, as they spread their rule over the world, they took with them the comforts and conveniences to which they were accustomed. They made great roads, many still in use, as we shall see when we come to trace our own history, they built comfortable houses with excellent baths, drains, and hot-water supplies; they made bridges and aqueducts of such solidity that numbers still stand. But they were also a disciplined people, and they brought with them not only their skill in building and engineering, but also their respect for law, that is, for rules inspired by reason and by experience, and in consequence accepted by human beings. By the time they came to Britain their old simplicity and hardness had to some extent gone, but much that was valuable remained; public spirit, discipline, the power of managing affairs, duty. They were not a race of artists, like the Greeks, but they produced a literature which has had an immense effect upon our own, and by the time they came to our shores they were a highly civilised, capable people, while we in Britain were still some distance from civilisation.
We are told by Caesar himself that perhaps a hundred years or more before he arrived another tribe had invaded Britain, and had pushed its way east and south. This tribe had kinsmen in Gaul, and we gather that in Caesar's time there was a good deal of going to and fro between the people who lived in the south-east of Britain and the Gaul. There was trade, to begin with, and perhaps people who got into difficulties in one country found it easy and convenient to move into the other.

We think of Britain as occupied by a number of different tribes, which fought among one another, and were ruled over by chiefs, of whom one was sometimes strong enough to make his power felt by others. Much of the country was forest; the rivers flowed through wide marshlands; movement was difficult. The Britons were good fighters, driving war chariots, with sharp scythes attached to them, which their drivers managed with great skill. The Romans were thoroughly perplexed by the tides, especially at the time of a hill moon, when, as we islanders know, the sea swings to and fro over what seemed to the people whose only sea was the tideless Mediterranean a great and confusing distance. Caesar's first invasion, in 55 BC , did not come to much, but he was back again in a year, armed with some idea of what the Britons really were like, and with some knowledge of their coast and their country.

This time the Britons found it impossible to stand against the discipline and training of the Roman soldiers. Caesar not only landed, but marched into the country, crossed the Thames, made terms with some tribes, subdued others, and went back to Gaul, taking with him hostages, a large number of slaves, a breast-plate ornamented with pearls, and the promise of the chiefs to pay tribute every year to the Roman people. No further Roman landing took place for some ninety years.

During this century Rome itself, or rather the Roman world, was first distressed by civil war, and then, under the rule of Augustus, organised and reformed. The Empire became a strong and well-linked union of provinces and of dependent kingdoms. The provinces had their own governors, their own councils. Peace was kept, the frontiers defended, and, as far as possible, secured. Towns grew up in the provinces, for the Romans were above all town dwellers; their civilisation was the civilisation of cities; St. Paul, as we remember, travelled from city to city. In the towns were built theatres, temples, baths, many of which are still to be seen. And in these towns and in the Roman world there came gradually to be established that real belief in, and respect for, just laws which is one of the greatest legacies of Rome.

Some ninety years after Caesar had left Britain the leading British prince died. His name, Cymbeline (in the Latin form, Cunobelinus), has been made familiar to us by Shakespeare, but he was a real being and not an imaginary prince: we have many coins bearing his name. After his death his sons seem to have quarrelled ; one claimant to his throne fled to Rome and appealed for help, and the Emperor Claudius decided to conquer our island; partly perhaps because it was thought to be rich in minerals, partly because an unconquered Britain was a dangerous neighbour to Roman Gaul. His task was the easier because Britain's nearest neighbour, Gaul, still in close communication with Britain, had become Romanised, and although it is likely that Britain seemed rather like the end of the world to the Roman soldiers, who were, we hear, annoyed at having to go and fight there, the land itself was no longer unknown, and as there was so much intercourse between Britain and Gaul there must have been plenty of people who could give information as to the geography and the customs of the country.