When not in Rome

The confident and aggressive Romans brought savagery, great taste and efficiency to the Cotswolds, crowning Cirencester Britain's second city, says Charles Harris

- Charles Harris

THE Emperor Claudius, whose mother once described him as 'not so much unfinished by nature, as barely begun', ordered the invasion of Britain in AD43. A legion crossed the Cotswolds unopposed and came to a pagan temple set by inviting hot springs. They liked it. By AD75, the Romans had built a classical temple and bathing complex there—a blend of healing, restful sophistication and imaginative architecture at the edge of the known world. They called it Aquae Sulis: Bath. It heralded a transformation.

The former Cotswold elite, nobles of the Dobunni tribe, were recruited into a new ruling class—a Roman method of governing that was admired by the orator Aristides: 'There is nothing like it to be found anywhere else at all.' Roman control lasted 400 years, nearly as long as the time between Charles I and Charles III, so conditions varied considerably. However, the Cotswolds were always desirable and the 4th century was a golden age.

At that time, a splendid house in a wooded combe north of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, was in its remarkable prime—with courtyards, gardens, central heating, tessellated floors, inventive bathing facilities, communal lavatories and galleried wings. This was Chedworth, discovered in 1864, when Thomas Margetts, a keeper on the 3rd Earl of Eldon's estate, found mosaic fragments when ferreting. Chedworth is an example of the widespread construction of Roman 'villas' (country houses with farms) that stretched, in scores, from Woodchester near Stroud in Gloucestershire to Ditchley and Chipping Norton in Oxford-shire—but centred around Cirencester.

What was life like then? Britain's population, scarcely two million, was scant, rural and young. Life expectancy was about 30. About one-quarter were slaves—not a Roman introduction. Albeit traded internationally, as were wool, hides and hunting dogs, many were cherished. Wealthy families employed educated Greek slaves as physicians, managers or tutors.