1st Century Britain

 

The Romans called the British Isles Britannia and first visited in 55BC When Julius Caesar led an army to the South coast. He didn’t last long and it was nearly a century until the Roman invasion of 43AD began. At the time there were dozens of British tribes spread throughout the British Isles and they were at war with each other more often than with the Romans. The tribes throughout Britain were all Celts and had a lot in common with other Celtic people who lived across Europe at the time, but there had never been a single Celtic nation.

 

 

Swords and Slavery begins in what is now North Wales in 78AD and was at the time called the Kingdom of Ordovice. Up until this time the Romans had largely ignored this mountainous area but were beginning to send soldiers in to either demand tribute or incorporate the area into the Roman Empire. However, even without the presence of Roman soldiers in the region the Romans would have had significant influence on the local population and Roman imported goods and culture would have already significantly changed to local way of life.

 

 

Not much is known about the Ordovice tribe except for a brief mention in Tacticus’s ‘The life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola’ written in 98AD. I won’t go into the details here as it would give some significant spoilers for the early part of the book, but if you’re interested there is a link to the works below.

The locals throughout Britain lived a mainly agricultural life, but they did have metalworking and produced iron weaponry, coinage as well as jewellery. Life was almost certainly tough for the vast majority of Britons with food shortages and disease resulting in high infant mortality. For those avoiding being killed in battle or dying in childbirth, backbreaking labour left many in poor health by the time they reached their 40s. That said the Britons produced a range of art, architecture and brewed their own alcoholic beverages. There’s no doubt the ancient Britons would have had a thriving culture that is now lost to history.

 

The druids

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The Druids are some of the most misunderstood people of all time probably because they were one of them most advanced societies to never write anything down, or at least nothing about their religion. Also writers throughout the past few centuries drawn to the romanticism of a lost British society have invented many of the ideas often now taken as fact about the druids. One famous writer called Edward Williams in the 18th Century wrote about druids and how their religion worked and became the inspiration for some of the neo-druid groups that wander around Stonehenge in robes each summer solstice. He was taken seriously as a scholar at the time and it was nearly a century after his death when historians realised that nearly everything he wrote down had been made up. Where his inspiration came from is hard to tell but he was an opium addict which may explain something.

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A popular misconception is that druids built the stone circles including Stonehenge that are scattered across the British isles and northern France. Although difficult to date, the building of stone circles probably began around 3000BC and ended by 1500BC. Druidism only arrived in Britain around 500BC when the Celts spread from continental Europe, so to associate druids with stone circles would be a bit like a future historian presuming that William the conqueror won the battle of Hastings as his army had superior iPhones.

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There were some contemporary accounts of the druids written by Greek and Roman scholars. The most famous was an account by Julius Caesar describing how druids believed in reincarnation and also how in addition to being priests, they acted as magistrates and teachers. They were also described as worshipping in wooded areas, especially around oak trees. Caesar went on to say that they carried out ritual human sacrifice including hoarding victims into a giant woven image of a man before setting fire to them, an act portrayed famously in the film ‘the wicker man’. Whether this is true or not is hard to tell as the Romans were often experts at propaganda describing foreigners as evil bloodthirsty savages that needed taming by Roman civilization.

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The best archaeological evidence of human sacrifice from this time comes from a body found in a Cheshire bog in 1984 and named ‘Lindow man’. The man probably died in the 1st Century AD and appeared to be of high status as there is no evidence he had ever been subjected to heavy labour. He had suffered significant head trauma but this probably did not kill him and he also showed signs of strangulation.

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Within swords and slavery I have tried to include some of the aspects of Druidism that we know to be true. However, as there is so little we know for certain, some of ceremonies and traditions that are described are entirely guess work and I hope no one tries to use my novel as an historical reference point. If anyone reading my novel notices some serious errors in the way the ancient Britons and Druids are described please feel free to let me know on my discussion page and I’ll take it on board for any future novels I might write.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Romans and slavery

 

 

In the 1st Century AD all societies had slaves but the Romans took it to another level and had slavery on a huge industrialised scale. The Roman army partly paid for its self by invading new lands and then taking huge numbers of captives who then were forcibly worked to feed Roman citizens and build the infrastructure that held the Roman Empire together. It’s estimated that in the 1st Century up to one third of the population were slaves.

Unlike the slavery that existed in the 17th to 19th Centuries in the Americas, Roman slavery had little to do with race. There were slaves of many different nationalities from across and outside the Roman Empire including Romans. Some people had been born into slavery whilst others had been taken hostage during warfare, some became slaves after getting in debt and some were even sold into slavery by their own family. This meant it was difficult to distinguish runaways from

private citizens and so many slave owners branded their slaves.

One thing all slaves had in common was that they had almost no rights. In the 1st Century masters had the right of life and death over what they considered their property. Slaves could not legally marry although some slave owners effectively let their slaves live together as husband and wife. Slaves could not even testify in court unless they had been subjected to torture.

How slaves were treated varied enormously depending on their position and their master. Some household slaves were treated as effectively part of the family and some would have lived more comfortable lives than poor citizens. Others would have been treated much more worse, especially those forced into prostitution or made to work in huge work gangs on farms or in mines. Mines were considered especially harsh for slaves and most were worked to death within a couple of years and this is where most soldiers captured in battle would have been sent.

There had been previous slave rebellions, probably the most famous being that of Spartacus in 73BC. This led to strict punishments meted out to runaways who would usually face crucifixion, a slow drawn out death. If a slave struck their master they had to be executed and if a slave killed their master then the whole household of slaves would be put to death.

Slaves were looked down upon by most of Roman society including poor citizens who saw them as inferior. In some rare cases slaves would be freed by their masters, but even then the former slave would be called a freedman and still most of society would look down on them.

 

 

 

 

 

Gladiators

 

Originally gladiatorial combat was an important part of funeral celebrations. But by 1st century they had become a way patrons could look good in front of the mob, and was often used to win elections. Gladiatorial combat had become so popular by the middle of the 1st Century a huge amphitheatre was built in the centre of Rome that could fit 80,000 people. Work on this new arena was started by the Emperor Vespasian presumably to win popularity and avoid being assassinated as had happened to so many previous Emperors.

Popular culture has us believe that gladiators marched into the arena shouted ‘for those of us about to die we salute you’ at the Emperor and then fought to the death. This is a long way from the truth as there is no evidence gladiators ever shouted their famous words to the Emperor and most gladiators survived their fights. Gladiators had months of training and it would have been far too costly for every fight to result in a death. There were fights called sine missione which were fights to the death, but these were more common early on in the Roman republic and had become rare by the 1st century AD. Normally gladiators fought two or three fights a year and with only around 10 to 15% dying in each fight many lived for years. Given the abysmal death rates of slaves working in mines and on farms it was likely many slaves would have been very happy if they were sold to a gladiator school. Amazingly some gladiators were volunteers who would abandon their liberty often for a set number of years. This might have been in desperation due to debts or in the hope of winning fame and fortune.

Romans feelings towards gladiators can be described as confused. Most Romans considered gladiators to be as low or even worse than common slaves and on a par with prostitutes. The term ‘gladiator’ even became a term of abuse but when they fought in the arena they were adored for their skills. There even became a trade in the hair, fingernails and blood of gladiators and some women went as far as paying to sleep with famous gladiators.

Gladiators could win their freedom in the arena but this was rare. More common was gladiators keeping their prize money which they could then use to buy their freedom. Some of those who won their freedom went back to fight in the arena often for huge sums of money.

Even if gladiators had a good chance of surviving fights in the arena, there were plenty of less fortunate people who would die very quickly. These were usually criminals but sometimes prisoners of war and they would be killed in a variety of entertaining ways. Some would be sent out to face beast such as lions and tigers and would be mauled to death. Others would become part of re-enactments of famous battles and would represent hordes of barbarians killed by the Roman army.

Despite being slaves gladiators were well looked after. They had diet experts who would ensure they were fed the best food for building muscle. Interestingly this was usually a mostly vegetarian diet of beans and pulses. They also had some of the best doctors in the Empire who would ensure they were kept in peak physical condition. Some doctors worked at the arenas to practice healing terrible wounds before they went to work in the army.