The
city of Leicester was an important place in Roman Britain, and the countryside
around it was settled by people who became Romanized and contributed to the
support of the Roman colony.
There
was a Celtic settlement at Leicester before
the Romans arrived during the first century AD, this being known as
“Caer-leirion” or the camp of the Ligore. The name of the river that flowed
past the gravel terrace on which these early settlers had their camp was the
Leir, although it is now known as the Soar. The name stuck as “Leicester”, the citadel by the Leir, after the Romans
left.
Leicester
is situated on the Fosse Way, which was the Roman road that ran almost in a
straight line (never deviating by more than six miles) between Exeter (to the
south-west) and Lincoln (to the north-east). This road marked the boundary of
Roman Britain for a time, before the legions pushed further west, and so linked
a string of frontier forts and towns.
A
vital town in this push west and north was Chester, near the wild country of
Wales, and the road that linked Chester to the oldest Roman town of Colchester,
in the south-east, was the Via Devana. Leicester
lies at the crossing point of these two important routes. Other important roads
in the vicinity were Watling
Street (which still forms the boundary between
Leicestershire and Warwickshire) and Ermine
Street.
At
first, the town established by the invaders would have been no more than an
earth embankment within which the soldiers (probably of the 9th and
14th Legions) pitched their tents, but this later became a regional
capital with all the trappings of a Roman “civitas”.
The
name used by the Romans was "Ratae Corieltauvorum", or “Ramparts of the Corieltauvi”, this being the name of
the local Celtic tribe.
By
the third century, Ratae had stone walls, a forum, a basilica, temples, and a
large bath-house. Very little remains to be seen of any of this, apart from the
bath-house. On one side of the bath-house site is the so-called “Jewry Wall”,
although this never had any connection with a Jewish community in Leicester. In fact, this wall, which is about 70 feet
long and 30 feet high, is one of the tallest pieces of free-standing Roman
masonry in the country and is useful for understanding Roman building methods.
Next
to the wall are the excavated foundations of the bath-house, which are free to
visit. Alongside, in the Jewry Wall Museum, can be seen a number of items from the Roman period that have
been found by archaeologists both here and throughout the city.
Excavations
for modern building developments have revealed another “Jewry Wall”, this being
a collapsed stretch of wall that had fallen on top of an even earlier wall.
Country
living
Beyond
the city, a network of villas worked the land, concentrating on food crops for
the city and its garrison, and producing wool for export. The villa owners were
probably local people who were descended from the original Celtic inhabitants
of the area but who had become Romanized and taken Roman citizenship. The
estate workers would have included slaves and peasants who lived in circular
huts near the villa.
The
word “villa” can give the impression of luxurious living, and indeed some Roman
villas, lived in by tribal “kings”, were palatial in their size and
furnishings. However, most villas in Leicestershire were relatively modest,
being sparsely furnished farmhouses together with their outbuildings. There are
some examples of mosaic floors and evidence of wall painting, these dating from
the later Roman period when some of the owners had acquired wealth from their
trading activities.
The
Romans brought knowledge of improved farming methods with them, such as heavy
ox-drawn ploughs, as well as introducing food crops that would have been new to
the British, such as peas and beans. Many sherds of Roman pottery have been
discovered that would have been used as a means of giving better structure to
the somewhat heavy clay soils that are typical of the lower-lying parts of the
county.
During
the “pax Romana” up to the late third century, the wealthier inhabitants of
Leicestershire would have enjoyed luxuries from abroad that came their way from
being part of a European empire. These included wines from Germany and fish paste
from Italy, as well as objects such as ivory carvings and stone figurines that
were either of religious significance or purely decorative. This was, generally
speaking, a safe time in a safe part of the province of “Flavia Caesariensis”,
as “Britannica Secunda” became known.
Leicestershire
during the decline of Roman Britain
However,
it could not last for ever, and the Roman Empire
was on the defensive against various threats from the mid third century
onwards. There were upheavals at the heart of the Empire and invasions from
outside, particularly the Germanic tribes that included the Angles and Saxons.
Being in the centre of England,
and therefore a long way from trouble, Leicestershire’s inhabitants were not
directly affected, although they would doubtless have been aware of the
increased troop movements along the Roman roads that criss-crossed the area.
But
in the year 410 AD the situation had become so serious that Emperor Honorius
had to write to the Roman cities in England,
including Leicester, to tell them that they could no longer count on support
from Rome and
they were now on their own. They had already lost their permanent garrisons in
383, when general Maximus ordered the soldiers to go to other parts of the
Empire where their presence was needed, but now any hope of defence was dashed.
The
change in Leicestershire was a gradual one, and the ordinary farmer would have
noticed little difference in his daily way of life. Not every Roman left the
country, and many retired soldiers would have continued to live in the city of Leicester, or on the
farms they had bought on their retirement, having married local women and
raised families of their own. Romanized Britons continued to exercise law and
order through the institutions set up by the Romans and life would have gone on
smoothly enough for most people, for some considerable time.
Leicestershire’s
Roman legacy was therefore a positive one, with the patterns of farming, trade
and civic life established by the Romans being apparent for many centuries to
come.
