An army of 10,000 Roman soldiers landed in England in 55 BC, led by general Julius Caesar.
Despite defeating the Gauls in France, the landing was not a success and the Romans returned to Gaul. In 54 BC the Romans came back with 27,000 soldiers. They marched north to the River Themes and forced the people there to pay money to Rome.
The romans returned yet again in AD 43 and this time they stayed.
They conquered all of Britain except for the North of Scotland, where they built the Antonnine Wall, to keep the Highlanders out. In AD 122, the Roman’s built Hadrian’s Wall. This was the northern border of an empire that stretched from Spain, to North Africa and the Black Sea.
In AD 60 there was a bloody revolt against Roman rule, led by a queen called Boudicca.
She burned down Roman towns. When her warriors were defeated, she killed herself in despair. Rich Britons now learned to live like Romans. Poorer Britons carried on farming and trading, much as the always had done.
The Roman name for Britain was Britannia.
Boudicca led her armies to war against Rome and burned down London.
The Romans liked their comforts.
They built baths where people could have a cold or hot dip, a work-out or a massage. Rich people lived in luxurious country-houses called villas. These even had under-the-floor central heating.
Floors were often decorate with tile pictures called mosaics.
Romans soldiers began to leave Britain in AD 401.
Many parts of the great empire were now under attack. In Britain there were rebellions. Pirates sailed the seas. The Irish attacked western shores. The city of Rome itself was captured by German warriors in AD 476.
The Romans built long, straight roads from one town to the next.
The were built using layers o sand and gravel, paved with stone. In fact, there were o better roads in Britain until the 1800s.
I DON’T BELIEVE IT!
The Romans’s secret weapon of war was … tortoise! “Tortoise” was the name given to a group of soldiers who crouched under linking shields to attack a hill fort. Enemy spears just bounced off the top and sides of the tortoise’s ‘shell’.
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