FICHA 3: ESPACIO LIBRE: PLAZA CIUDAD DE BRUJAS Y PLAZA JUAN DE VILARRASA

Britannia’s culture was Celtic in origin. Throughout the southernmost regions there were Belgae Gallic influ- ences, but the Celtic character remained predominant (an ancient lifestyle once enjoyed by the Gauls as well). The Celts painted themselves blue, the sacred Druid

color, and HERODIAN wrote that tattoos were also com-

mon. He described the Britons as savage and warlike, armed with spears and shields, and with swords sus- pended from their waists. They also used chariots to great effect.

Roman imperial civilization began in Claudius’

reign, when Camulodunum (Colchester) fell in 43 C.E.

Subsequent occupation saw the construction of harbor settlements near modern Fishbourne, just outside of Colchester; in 49, an actual colony was begun. Roman veterans helped establish the colonia, building a town with a provincial cult, a theater and baths. By the middle of the first century small towns were populating the Roman possession. Camulodunum was the capital, while

other influential towns like VERULAMIUM (St. Alban’s)

and the trading center of LONDINIUM (London) sprang

up. As with the other major towns and fledgling home- steads, London could not defend itself, a fact that

became catastrophically evident in 61 C.E., during the

revolt of Boudicca. Sweeping across the countryside, the vengeful Britons sacked Colchester, St. Albans and Lon- don, as well as every farm and estate in between. Although Tacitus’ figure of 80,000 dead was high, losses were severe enough to ensure that all subsequent build- ing was fortified.

After the campaigns of Cerealis, Frontinus and Agri-

cola from 71 to 84 C.E., towns were walled and economic

prosperity increased. London came to serve as a vital link in the military control of the south and had a garri- son, while more veterans arrived to establish colonies, such as those of Lincoln and Gloucester. In urban areas, Latin was used, and native art and culture waned. Out- side of the cities, farming was an essential way of life, and the Romans relied upon this agricultural base. Con-

GAU

L

Route of Julius Caesar’s expedition 54 B.C.E.

Roman advances 43–83 C.E.

Roman fort with date of foundation _{0 50 Kms}

50 Miles 0 N NorthDo wnsTr ackway Glevum (Gloucester) 50C.E. Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter) 47C.E. Deva (Chester) 77C.E. Eburacum (York) 77C.E. Lindum (Lincoln) 47C.E. Londinium Londinium (London) (London) Londinium (London) Isca Silurum (Caerleon) 75 C.E.

North

Sea

Irish

Sea

EnglishChannel

Roman Conquest of Britannia,

54

B.C.E.–

100

C.E.

siderable gentry holdings, the villas, ensured that agri- cultural products were pumped into the cities. But in the country, even in the villas, elements of Celtic culture endured.

An excellent road system connected cities, which now sported public baths and temples, including ones to the IMPERIAL CULT. By Hadrian’s reign (117–138 C.E.)

many municipalities used street grid systems to expand. Under Cunobellinus the economy had fared well, and the Roman occupation following his reign merely tapped into that abundance. Agriculture, supported by the villas, was the source of Britannia’s wealth. Wheat was grown to feed the natives and the legions and was used as an export. Aside from its verdant fields, the province boasted numerous mineral deposits. Tin was important in the first

century C.E., and again in the fourth century, when Rome

was forced to seek new resources to sustain itself. Iron exports helped the economy of the empire as a whole, and administrators in Britannia mined it extensively. The

geographer STRABO noted Britannia’s economic wealth

and exports in corn, cattle, gold, iron, and silver.

In the balance of trade, Gaul supplied pottery, manu- factured goods and art, while Britannia exported minerals and agricultural products. There was little incentive for developing other industry, and the quality of life in the province was better than in many other imperial domains.

While the Britons appeared highly Romanized, Celtic culture persisted, especially in the rural areas. Druidism was pervasive and hence viewed as dangerous; Suetonius Paulinus attacked the island of Mona, a Druid strong- hold, and the Druids were massacred. Christianity faced the same resistance, and upon its arrival, which coincided with the decline of Roman power, it struggled to attract vast numbers of followers in the isles.

Suggested Readings: Allason-Jones, Lindsay. Women in

Roman Britain. London: British Museum Publications,

1989; Arnold, C. J. Roman Britain to Saxon England. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984; Askew, Gilbert. The Coinage of Roman Britain. London: Seaby Publications, 1980; Birley, Anthony. The People of Roman

Britain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980;

Campbell, J. B. Roman Britain. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963; Collingwood, R. G. Roman Britain. New York: Barnes & Noble in cooperation with Oxford University Press, 1994; Coulston, J. C. Hadrian’s Wall West of the

North Tyne and Carlisle. Oxford, U.K.: Published for the

British Academy by the Oxford University Press, 1988; Dark, Petra. The Landscape of Roman Britain. London: Sutton Publishing, 1997; Frere, Sheppard Sunderland.

Britannia: A History of Roman Britain. 3rd ed. London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987; Hanson, William and Maxwell, Gordon. Rome’s Northwest Frontier: The Anto-

nine Wall. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983;

Hingley, Richard. Rural Settlement in Roman Britain. Lon-

don: B. A. Seaby, 1989; Holder, P. A. The Roman Army in

Britain. London: B. T. Batsford, 1982; Johnson, Stephen. Later Roman Britain. New York: Scribner, 1980; Jones

Michael. The End of Roman Britain. Cornell: Cornell Uni-

versity Press, 1996; Manning, William H. The fortress

excavations, 1968–1971. Cardiff: University of Wales

Press, 1981; Marsden, Peter R. Roman London. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1981; Marsh, Henry. Dark Age

Britain. New York: Dorset Press, 1987; Milne, Gustav. The Port of Roman London. London: B. T. Batsford, 1985; Mor-

gan, Kenneth, ed. The Oxford History of Britain: Roman

and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1992; Peddie, John. Conquest: The Roman Invasion of

Britain. London: Palgrave, 1997; Place, Robin. The Romans: Fact and Fiction. Adventures in Roman Britain.

Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1988; Sal- way, Peter. A History of Roman Britain. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1997; Salway, Peter. The Oxford

Illustrated History of Roman Britain. Oxford: Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 1993; Scullard, H. H. Roman Britain: Out-

post of the empire. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986;

Stead, Ian M. Verulamium, the King Harry Lane site. Lon- don: English Heritage in association with British Museum Publications, 1989; Webster, Graham, ed. Fortress into

City: The Consolidation of Roman Britain, First Century A.D. London: Batsford, 1988.

Britannia (2) The name given to a coin minted by

emperors HADRIAN (117–138 C.E.) and ANTONIUS PIUS

(117–161 C.E.) to celebrate their victories in Britain. The

coin was decorated with the personified figure of Britan- nia. Its value was that of a sestertius.

See alsoCOINAGE.

Britannicus (41–55 C.E.) Son of Emperor Claudius and

Messalina and the legitimate heir to the throne

Britannicus lived under a cloud from birth, being the off-

spring of MESSALINA, whose scandalous life had shocked

Rome and resulted in her death. His position as heir was thus questioned and was hampered even further by the

arrival of AGRIPPINA as CLAUDIUS’s new wife, together

with her son NERO. Britannicus appears to have done lit-

tle to ingratiate himself with his stepmother and adopted brother. He refused the goodwill of Agrippina, referred to Nero by his original family name “Domitius” and

later, in 55 C.E., went so far as to accuse Nero of being a

usurper.

With Claudius’s death and Nero’s claim to the throne

supported by the Praetorian Guard and the Prefect BUR-

RUS, Britannicus was left politically impotent. Already

sensitive to the inflammatory accusation of usurper hurled at him. Nero plotted to remove Britannicus and charged a tribune of the Guard, Pollio Julius, with the task. The poison administered proved ineffective, and

LUCUSTA, who had arranged the poison, died as a result.

82 Bructeri

A second attempt worked perfectly. Britannicus, dining with the court, became ill, and many fled the scene in horror. Nero commented to the onlookers that Britanni- cus was subject to epileptic fits.

Bructeri Germanic people living near the Ems and Lippe rivers; fought extensively in the wars against

Roman expansion along the northern Rhine. In 4 C.E.,

TIBERIUS, campaigning in Germany, forced them to accept

his domination, and in 14–15 C.E., Roman supremacy

was certified in the defeat the Bructeri suffered from

CAECINA SEVERUS, the legate of GERMANICUS. Although

Germanicus thus avenged the annihilation of VARUSin 9

C.E. at the hands of ARMINIUS, the Bructeri simply waited

for another moment in which to strike at the Romans. In

69 C.E., when Julius CIVILIS led the BATAVIin revolt, the

Bructeri joined in the fray but were put to flight by Petil-

lius CEREALIS. Undaunted, the Bructeri priestess Veleda

became the heart of the Bructeri resistance, and the target of Roman operations.

In 75–78 C.E.,RUTILIUS GALLICUSsuccessfully crushed

the Germans with several sorties, one of which captured Veleda. The Bructeri then ousted one of their kings, who fled across the Rhine and convinced the Romans, under

Vestricius SPURINNA, the governor of Lower Germany, to

force his people to take him back. Subsequent fighting supposedly cost the Bructeri some 60,000 men. Following the disaster, the Bructeri were subdued, eventually joining

with the migratory FRANKS.

Brundisium City in the Calabria region of southern Italy, on the Adriatic; it became one of the most impor- tant ports and harbors in the empire. With its natural port facilities and location, Brundisium was the gateway for shipping activity in the southern Adriatic, in Greece and in much of Asia. Commerce and trade to all of Italy

started through the city and moved along the VIA APPIA,

which stretched northward. Roman domination of the sea lanes relied upon Brundisium as a naval cornerstone,

along with RAVENNA,AQUILEIAand MISENUMfor the east-

ern Mediterranean. In the Civil War between Caesar and

Pompey in 48 B.C.E., Marc Antony used it as the launch-

ing point of an invasion of Asia.

Brundisium, Treaty of Pact signed in the later part of

October 40 B.C.E. between Marc ANTONY and Octavian

(AUGUSTUS), after the battle of PHILIPPI in 42 C.E., in

which the forces of the SECOND TRIUMVIRATEhad defeated

the LIBERATORSled by CASSIUSand BRUTUS.

Following Philippi, great tension remained between the forces of Antony and Octavian, with all of Italy pre- pared for war. The death of Antony’s troublesome wife

FULVIApaved the way for peace. Two envoys, Asinius Pol-

lio representing Antony and Maecenas representing Octa-

vian, hammered out an accord. Marcus LEPIDUS(1) was to

remain in Africa as the impotent third triumvir, but the rest of the Roman world was split between Antony and Octavian. Antony received the east, and Octavian the

west, the boundary line running through DALMATIA, with

Italy accessible to both. They could both appoint consuls, and Octavian ceded Antony five legions belonging to

CALENUS. Individuals proscribed by both parties were par-

doned. The two triumvirs embraced. Antony then warned his new ally of a plot against him instigated by Salvidi- enus Rufus, Octavian’s general in Gaul, while Octavian

gave Antony his sister OCTAVIA in marriage—a union

doomed to failure. As the men grew distant, so did the

spirit of the treaty. Though reaffirmed in 37 B.C.E., with

the Treaty of TARENTUM, Antony’s infatuation with the

East, and Octavian’s increasing power in the West, pro- pelled them into conflict that was finally resolved at the

battle of ACTIUMin 31 B.C.E.

Bruttidius Niger (d. c. 31 C.E.) Aedile, or administrator,

during the reign of Tiberius (14–37 C.E.)

Niger was responsible, with Mamercus Scaurus and Junius Otho, for the persecution of the proconsul of Asia Gaius Silanus, on charges of maiesta, or treason. Niger was a student of Apollodorus and was both a rhetorician

and historian. His friendship with Lucius Aelius SEJANUS,

prefect of the Praetorian Guard, was a powerful aid in his

career, but, like for so many others, in 31 C.E., that

friendship cost him his life.

Brutus, Marcus Junius (d. 42 B.C.E.) One of the prime

movers in the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. and

a champion of the Republican cause

Brutus was the son of Marcus Junius and Servilia, the half

sister of CATO UTICENSIS, and was brought up in a

staunchly Republican environment. Though his father

had been killed by POMPEYin 77 B.C.E. Brutus allied him-

self to the general in 49 B.C.E., at the outbreak of the CIVIL

WAR against CAESAR, who was at the time his mother’s

lover. The battle of PHARSALUS in 48 B.C.E. brought him

once more into contact with Caesar, who expressed faith in him, appointing Brutus the governor of Cisalpine Gaul

in 46 B.C.E. In 44 B.C.E. he was made praeter and was

promised not only the governorship of Macedonia but the consulship in 41 as well.

Brutus, however, suffered a change of heart while in

Rome in 44 B.C.E., coming under the influence of CASSIUS,

who worked on his desire to ensure the survival of the

Republic. On the Ides of March, the LIBERATORS, as they

called themselves, murdered Caesar. Brutus had underes- timated the sentiment of the Roman people and was forced to flee the city and eventually to abandon Italy altogether. The Senate gave him a command in the

Balkans, and in 43 B.C.E. he was put in charge of the

provinces of Greece-Macedonia. Brutus demanded tribute from the provinces in Asia Minor, earning their enmity.

With Caesar’s deification by the Senate in January of

42 B.C.E., the campaign against all of the Liberators

began. By October of that year the forces of the SECOND

TRIUMVIRATE were pressing the attack at PHILIPPI, and on

October 23, the Republican forces fell to Antony and Octavian. In defeat, Cassius and Brutus committed sui- cide and with them perished the Republican cause. Bru- tus was known as a literary man, writing numerous now

lost histories, and was a friend of CICERO. His second wife

was the beautiful PORCIA, daughter of Cato Uticensis.

Brutus Albinus, Decimus Junius (d. 43 B.C.E.) One-

time officer under Julius Caesar who joined in the conspir- acy to assassinate his former commander

Brutus Albinus had had a successful military career with

CAESARas his legate in the GALLIC WARSand then his sup-

porter in the CIVIL WAR(49–45 B.C.E.). He served as pro-

praetor in Gaul from 48 to 46 B.C.E. and was promised a

proconsulship in the area of Cisalpine Gaul. But before

he took up the position, the conspirator CASSIUS drew

him into the plot. Presumably in the belief that a true Republic would be reinstated, he joined in the murder. He then fled to Cisalpine Gaul, pursued by the avenging

Marc ANTONY, who besieged him at MUTINA. In April of

43 B.C.E., Brutus Albinus was rescued by the combined

legions of Hirtius, Pansa, and Octavian. Octavian turned against him, however. Fleeing to Gaul, and hoping to make his way to Macedonia and his coconspirator Mar- cus BRUTUS, he was trapped by Antony and slain.

Bucolici Tribe of herdsmen and nationalists living near

the Nile Delta just northeast of ALEXANDRIAin Egypt. In

172–175 C.E., they revolted against Rome in a widespread

uprising. Under the leadership of the local chief Isidorus, a priest, the Bucolici first killed Roman troops stationed nearby in Alexandria, then defeated larger forces sent against them. Fearing the loss of such an important city as Alexandria, the governor of Syria, Gaius Avidius Cas- sius, marched into Egypt. His war on Isidorus was aided

by dissension among the tribesmen, and by 173 C.E. the

region was pacified and the rebels crushed. Dio remarked on their bravery. They were also called the Bucoli, and the Boukolai.

Bulla Regia A town in the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, in what is now Tunisia. The region was taken by Rome after the Third Punic War (149–146

B.C.E.) and was again claimed by Pompey in 81 B.C.E. It

developed an imperial atmosphere sometime during the

reign of Tiberius (14–37 C.E.), when buildings of an Ital-

ian design began appearing. Such construction came as part of the peaceful and prosperous development of Africa, in which the community shared. The archaeologi- cal remains of Bulla Regia display homes built both above and below ground, with ancient lighting and fountains.

Burdigala A major city, modern Bordeaux, in the

province of Gallia AQUITANIA. Burdigala may have been

the provincial capital. The importance of the city did not

begin with the Roman occupation of Gallia in 51 B.C.E.

Burdigala, located on the Garonne River, was the center of activity for the fierce people of the region, the Aqui- tani. After Caesar’s conquest of Aquitania through his legate, Publius Crassus, pacification commenced, and in

27 B.C.E., Augustus declared the area a Roman province.

Burdigala was probably the administrative capital, although Saintes and Poitiers have both been identified as possible seats. Clearly, however, the emperor Vespasian gave it a municipal standing, and the city produced sev- eral senators, as did the province.

In the third century a wall was built around Burdigala to protect it from the increasingly dangerous migrations and invasions of the time. The construction apparently proved valuable, for in the later fourth century the poet Ausonius returned to Burdigala, his native city, and retired there in great comfort. Ausonius wrote of his own land and about his colleagues in the schools of the city.

In the later period of the empire, however, as Roman power collapsed, several Gothic kings conquered the city. Athaulf seized and then burned the city in 415. As part of a compact between Constantius and Wallia, the Gothic kingdom gained the city.

Burebista (d. 44 B.C.E.) King of Dacia responsible for the

aggrandizement of his land from 60 to 44 B.C.E.

With the aid of his adviser, a prophet-priest named Dekaineos (of Decaeneos), Burebista changed much in the country, and then launched an assault on those neigh-

boring peoples who either threatened DACIA or proved

detrimental to his royal ambitions. In succession Bure- bista crushed the Boii, a race of Celts, and the Taurini, moving into Thrace and facing the entire Danube fron- tier, which endangered Roman control and led to direct

involvement in Roman politics. In 48 B.C.E., Pompey the

Great sought Burebista’s aid, but Caesar ended any hope of an alliance at the battle of Pharsalus. Caesar had been aware of the Dacian king since his days governing Illyricum. After Pharsalus, Caesar planned to relieve the pressure on the Danube with a massive campaign against Burebista, really a preparatory move for the greater mili- tary programs planned against Parthia. Burebista was

assassinated in 44 B.C.E. His rapidly created empire broke

apart at his death, but whatever long-term plans Caesar had for Dacia were also cut short, as he too was mur- dered.

See alsoDECEBALUS.

Burgundians A Germanic people originating in the region of the Vistula River, who possessed considerable

power in Gaul in the fifth century C.E. The Burgundians

first appeared around 250 C.E., in the vanguard of the

84 Burrus, Sextus Afranius

Goths, with whom they shared a common ancestry. Set- tling in the region of the Main, they then faded from view, resurfacing again in 406, when they seized the lands directly on the Rhine. By 413, the Burgundians had crossed the great boundary and were in control of Germa- nia Superior. Emperor Honorius was forced to accept their presence and concluded a treaty with them, by which they became allies. A kingdom was born, centered on Worms and ruled by Gundohar. In 436, the realm of Worms was crushed by the Huns, with Gundohar and thousands of his men slain. The remnant of the Burgun- dians moved into Savoy and were settled there by 443.

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