The Romans Have Landed Primary History

-Who were the Romans?

-Why did they come to Britain?

-Did they have a big empire?

-Were they powerful?

Is anybody sitting there?

No, go ahead.

Where are you off to?

21st century.

Ah. So am I.

Maybe you could tag along with me, Romulus the Roman,

master trader and good bloke.

-Call me Rom. Most people do.

-I might've known!

Another Roman trying to take over.

Huh! Colin the Celt,

brave warrior and nobody's fool.

AND may I remind you, I was here first.

-Yeah, I know. I wasn't trying to muscle in...

-That makes a change.

That's what you Romans usually do.

That's what you did when you invaded Britain.

Oh, come on! We did a lot of good, too.

We brought order and discipline and smartened things up

and...some of you needed smartening up.

Well, I don't need anything from you today.

And I'm going to 21st-century Britain

-by myself.

-Hah! Dressed like that?! All that muck on your face!

You'll frighten people.

Muck?! It's not muck, it's war paint.

And frightening people's the point!

We scared off you Romans a few times.

Yes, well, it's not working now, is it?

Close up, it just looks silly.

On your own,

you're not so scary either.

What are you going to the 21st century for?

See if there are still signs of us Celts.

You'll be lucky. There'll be far more signs of us Romans.

-How do you know?

-Come with me and find out.

-See?!

I KNEW you'd try and take over. Cor!

Next stop - 21st century. Mind the time gap.

Where have you brought me? Doesn't look very Celtic.

It's not. We're in the modern port of Dover,

known in Roman times as Dubris.

We'll start in the south of Britain where we Romans first landed.

But why haven't we arrived somewhere Celtic?

We Celts were in Britain before you!

I know. Like I keep saying,

it's very difficult to find signs of you Celts.

Might as well stick with me, see some Roman sites instead...

like that fantastic lighthouse.

Called a pharos in Roman times,

it's the tallest remaining Roman building in 21C Britain.

-I thought we'd start with something impressive.

-Seen better days.

It's 2,000 years old is that!

There were two of them in Roman times. They had to be tall

so sailors could see the flames burning on the top. On a clear day,

you could see France from here.

-Known as Gaul in those days.

-Yes, Colin, it was.

Well done! Now...

this was a magnificent spot for our pharos, and generations after us

built an entire castle around it.

Dover was a great port.

It was full of hustle and bustle,

and it still is.

We knew a good spot when we saw one.

-Except for Julius Caesar.

-Yeah... What do you mean?

Well, he came to Britain in 55BC and totally missed Dover!

Perhaps his eyesight wasn't so good in those days.

I...I beg your pardon?! How dare you

criticise the great Caesar?!

He was brave and clever and strong

-and talented...

-And not good at finding a parking space!

Come on!

Hey... Colin!

-Who was Julius Caesar?

-Why did he come to Britain?

Look! This is where Julius Caesar landed.

On this stony beach at Walmer in Kent, about five miles from Dover.

Don't believe you. How do you know?

I know because we Celts weren't too far away.

We were warned he was coming by the Celtic tribes we knew in Gaul,

so we covered ourselves in war paint and waited for him.

Oh, we looked pretty fierce.

Well, you didn't frighten him away.

Not at first.

But we were brave enough to take him on,

and he had 10,000 men and 500 cavalry.

-The storms finished him off.

-The storms finished him off!

-Caesar wouldn't be bothered by bad weather.

-Maybe not as a rule,

but he was when his ships stuck in this shingle.

You see, Caesar and his army didn't land at a proper harbour

so, in the storms, his ships weren't protected and got damaged.

-That's why he hurried back to Gaul.

-Probably had business to attend to.

Well, whatever his reason, it was good news for us Celts.

You Romans stayed out of Britain longer.

I don't really know why you wanted to come here in the first place.

-You already had a huge empire.

-We had lots of reasons.

Like what?

Like...

I'll show you.

From the 8th century BC,

the Roman empire began to grow.

By 55BC, Julius Caesar had gone as far as conquering France,

but he wanted to go further.

He believed Britain had lots of minerals

like iron, silver and gold,

which would increase the wealth of the empire

and add to his glory back in Rome.

After landing in Britain,

Caesar soon fled when his ships got damaged in a storm.

He came back a year later, in 54BC, with an even bigger army.

He fought the Britons and moved further inland,

then decided to go back to France, and never returned.

In 43AD, the Romans invaded Britain again,

this time following orders from Emperor Claudius.

We were always quick to spot something worth having.

Like that gadget?

We'd have invented this eventually. We were quick off the mark.

Not about coming back to Britain, though.

-I reckon you were more scared of us Celts than you let on.

-Huh!

You were always fighting each other!

-You needed us to sort you out.

-So why didn't you come sooner?

Biding our time.

Fancy taking 100 years to find a new parking space!

Yes! And what a good parking space it proved to be! Come on.

I'll show you.

-Where did the Romans land in 43AD?

-How come they were able to settle this time?

Look. Another Roman site in the 21st century.

There's not much left. It's all falling down.

What's it supposed to be anyway?

It's Richborough, known in Roman times as Rutupiae.

It started off as a fort and an army base,

but it soon grew to a successful town and port.

Once we'd landed, there was no going back.

-More's the pity.

-What did you say?

I said, "Great city!"

-It is.

-Yeah.

-There are only traces now,

but it had a sheltered harbour

and it was easy to sail to from France and...

We came, we saw, we conquered!

-And you lot just weren't ready for us!

-Hey!

We put up a fight when we could.

And we thrashed you every time. Hah!

Britain was ours for the taking.

Why didn't the Celts fight harder?

-How do we know Romans fought well?

-Where's the evidence?

Richborough was next to the sea in Roman times.

In 43AD,

40,000 of us came here.

Landed right here. THEY never had any problems parking.

They even brought with them elephants.

-Elephants?

-Yeah. You'd never seen elephants. You were scared to death!

-How do you know?

-It's in the writings of Dio Cassius.

-Dio who?

-Dio Cassius.

-And was he Roman(?)

Of course.

We Romans, we had lots of writers.

Dio Cassius was writing about the invasion of Britain

under Emperor Claudius.

That's how 21st-century people know about our army's talents.

-And your elephants.

-Yes. Well, you just didn't stand a chance

against our mighty legions.

Dio Cassius saw it all, did he?

Yes. ..No.

He wrote about it 150 years later,

and those stories were passed down through generations.

They were told from a Roman point of view.

You Celts couldn't record your own evidence! You couldn't write!

No.

I suppose not. ..But we could definitely fight.

And I don't believe we didn't put up a struggle against you lot,

elephants or no elephants!

Right, I think it's time we saw a Celtic site now.

If you like.

But, er, this is Watling Street

which is Roman,

so it'll probably lead somewhere Roman!

I did tell you -

there's not a lot of signs of you Celts in the 21st century.

Yeah, and I don't believe you. In fact, I'll find out for myself.

This is Butser Ancient Farm,

a 30-year-old project researching the British Iron Age,

the time of the Celts.

Here, people learn a lot about the Celts and the Celtic way of life.

Before the Romans came,

we're looking at a very different sort of countryside

covered in small settlements.

It was made up of fields and woods and pastures.

Think of a patchwork of different shades of green across the country.

The Celts were a warrior-based society,

but they were very, very good farmers,

and this led to an enormous amount of trade.

Life in a Celtic village revolved around the production of food.

If they couldn't produce food, they starved. It's very seasonal work.

Even the building and maintenance of houses

depended on the right time of year.

During the summer, all effort was spent on looking after the crops.

Autumn was time to sort the animals out and decide which ones to keep.

And the winter was the time to cut the wood.

There is little evidence of Celtic houses in modern times

as they were built of wood and straw which rots away to nothing.

At Butser, there are all sorts of activities.

We learn about the differences

between life lived under an empire, which is similar to today,

and life before the arrival of an empire.

People lived a lot closer to the earth. They used natural materials

to do all their building, and everything was based on farming.

Where have you brought me now? This doesn't look very Celtic.

It doesn't look very Roman either.

This is modern Colchester, known in Roman times as Camulodunum.

When we arrived here in 43AD with Emperor Claudius,

we'd succeeded in conquering Britain.

-Shame you didn't stop here.

-Oh, no. We had to capture ALL of Britain,

fighting you lot, and building Roman settlements all over.

The Romans arrived at Richborough in 43AD.

They fought their early battles near the River Medway in Kent

and then marched into London.

Then they moved north of the River Thames

and took their target city of Colchester.

The victorious Romans continued to move across Britain

building many towns...

They also introduced taxes in these places,

and sent the money raised to Rome.

Colchester became Britannia's capital city.

If Colchester was so important to you Romans,

how come there aren't many signs of you left in the 21st century?

There are! They're just not all obvious.

The roads still follow the same pattern they did in Roman times.

Some of the walls still exist.

And you wouldn't have to dig very deep to find signs of us Romans.

-Why would you do that?

-Because the past is often hidden

beneath the present.

No, Colchester was built in the Roman style,

all the usual features.

Forum - Roman market place.

Basilica - government building.

Temple...

How do you know that?

It WAS Emperor Claudius's temple, wasn't it?

-Yes.

-The one specially built to celebrate his victory?

-Ye-es.

-And the one destroyed by the Iceni tribe

who, if I remember rightly...

were Celts!

Yes.

But...they didn't destroy it all, though.

-Didn't they?

-No.

-You can see signs of it there.

-That's not a Roman building.

-No.

But the signs of us Romans can be found...

Oh, UNDERNEATH!

-What happened to Roman Colchester?

-Why was the temple destroyed?

There you are - the foundations of the temple.

Those are 100% Roman.

Shame they're not 100% HERE.

Rom, remind me exactly what happened here in Colchester.

Surely we Celts didn't get the better

of your "splendid Roman army"?

Can't quite remember, to tell you the truth.

Can't you? Well, I think I may be able to.

I believe it had something to do with Boudicca,

who, if my memory serves me well,

wasn't only a Celt but a woman!

Hey, and a very brave one, too!

Boudicca?

Never heard of her.

Who's she when she's at home?

I expect your gadget will be able to tell us.

Very well.

Boudicca was queen of Iceni tribe,

a group of Celts who lived north of Colchester.

When the Romans first conquered Britain, they left the Icenis alone

but when Boudicca's husband died, everything changed.

They took the Icenis' land,

whipped Boudicca and attacked her daughters,

forcing her to take revenge.

Boudicca led the Icenis in a raid on Colchester. They set fire

to the city, and went on to burn down London and St Albans.

At first, they didn't face much opposition,

but the Romans soon put up an impressive fight

and took charge again.

Boudicca is said to have killed herself rather than be shamed by her Roman enemies.

Ah, Boudicca was a fine woman -

brave, courageous,

-noble...

-Beaten!

Yes, all right, so you beat her in the end.

But you took your time, though.

I suppose you've brought us to yet another Roman site.

-Where are we now?

-St Albans,

the Roman city of Verulamium.

-Their amphitheatre.

-Well, I hope we haven't PAID for these seats!

Not exactly ready for an audience.

It's not bad considering how old it is. Use your imagination.

CROWD CHEERS

We Romans changed the face of Britain

with all our wonderful buildings.

We improved things no end.

No, you didn't. We didn't NEED improving.

-We were happy with things the way they were.

-You WOULD say that!

21st-century people know what great things we brought to Britain.

Yes, and I've had enough of them,

-thank you.

-We haven't finished yet!

-Yes, well,

-I

-have. And I'm going back to my own time.

Now... where's that time travel express?

I don't suppose it's disappeared back to Gaul, like Julius Caesar?

It'll be here, don't worry.

It's probably just looking for a parking space.

Subtitles by Judith Simpson BBC Broadcast 2003

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