Britannia

The province Rome held for nearly four centuries, never fully controlled, and abandoned first. Caesar raided Britain twice in 55 and 54 BC without conquering anything; the real invasion came under Claudius in 43, launched partly because a new emperor with no military reputation needed one. Resistance was serious and repeated: Caratacus fought for eight years and was betrayed by a neighbouring queen, and Boudica's revolt in 60 or 61 destroyed Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium and killed tens of thousands before it was crushed. Agricola pushed into Scotland and won at Mons Graupius, but the conquest was never completed and the northern frontier settled on Hadrian's Wall, built from 122 and now a World Heritage site. The Antonine Wall further north was held only briefly. The province was garrisoned by three legions, a heavy commitment for its size, and Roman writers questioned whether it paid for itself. It exported lead, silver, tin, wool and grain, and Londinium grew into a major port. Britain repeatedly produced usurpers, including Carausius, who ran a breakaway regime for seven years, and Constantine, proclaimed at York in 306. The province was divided administratively several times. Roman forces were withdrawn progressively and the emperor Honorius reportedly told the British cities in 410 to see to their own defence. Towns emptied within a generation and Latin did not survive as a spoken language, unlike everywhere else in the west. The province covered England and Wales and, briefly, southern Scotland. Hadrian's Wall runs 118 kilometres from coast to coast. The garrison numbered around 40 thousand men at its height. Bath was a major religious and spa centre built around hot springs.

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