Venta (Caerwent), capital of the Silures, and
Uriconium (Wroxeter), capital of the Cornovii. Besides these were other
smaller places, of less than capital rank, but still bearing some
resemblance to that which we should naturally call a town.
We know the character of these towns principally by
excavations at Silchester and Caerwent. They were walled, and the walls
were substantially built of stone and defended further by a broad ditch.
They had streets running at right angles in Roman fashion, a forum and
basilica built on the Roman plan to provide accommodation for the
town-authorities, the magistrates, public meetings, and trade, and no
doubt also for idling; and, in addition, public baths, some small
temples, perhaps a tiny Christian church or two, a theatre (if the town
were large enough to contain one), maybe an hotel, and outside the
walls, not improbably, a little amphitheatre. The remainder of the area
inside the walls was taken up by private houses, shops, gardens, and
yards. If Silchester is to be regarded as typical, the houses did not
stand in continuous lines fronting the streets, like the houses of
Pompeii or those of any modern town. They were often planted rather
irregularly, sometimes in line with the streets, sometimes more or less
obliquely to them, sometimes isolated, sometimes two or three together,
and resembling in their position the cottages of a modern village.
Indeed, Silchester and, only to a less extent, Caerwent show in this
respect a very rudimentary stage in the structural development of town
life. Their streets follow a Roman plan, and their public buildings are
Roman. They themselves are not far removed from large villages. They
indicate that town life was a novelty in Roman Britain.
Outside the towns the most noticeable element is provided
by the country houses. These vary very much in size and character. The
larger and more splendid examples seem to have been the residences of
great landlords, probably the descendants of British chiefs or nobles.
Others are obviously the houses of farmers or bailiffs. Antiquaries
usually give the name of ‘villa’ to all these houses, large or
small. The term is unfortunate. Its modern associations are purely
suburban. To the ancients it denoted a definite system which is the
antecedent of the medieval manor. The ancient ‘villa’ was the
property of a great landowner who inhabited the ‘great house,’
cultivated the soil close to it by slaves, and let the rest to half-serf
colonia. We can trace this system in full use in Gaul, where some
of the estates measured 8,000 or 10,000 acres and the houses of the
lords were extensive palaces. We know also that it obtained in Britain,
for fourth-century documents mention it. But we have no means of
determining whether all British estates were held under it, or whether
other, perhaps Celtic, tenures existed beside it. Nor have we any means
of distinguishing the large farmhouse and the small country house.
Indeed, the analogies of later rural England suggest that there was,
perhaps, no distinct line between them. We are on safer ground when we
ascribe to these estates the production of the cloth and wheat which
were exported from Britain during the later Imperial period, or when we
trace among the surviving structural remains of the houses some
arrangements which suggest the practice of fulling or dyeing.
Both in the towns and among the country houses a notable
feature is presented by the houses themselves. The commonest of the
Romano-British |