Free The rule of empires : those who built them, those who endured them, and why they always fall by Timothy H. Parsons Page A

Archaeologists theorize that they were
    centers of political, social, and perhaps religious power that controlled
    productive river valleys and important trade routes. The oppidum at
    Camulodunum (near modern Colchester) covered twelve square miles
    and also may have served as a cattle enclosure. Excavations of British oppida yield both evidence of coin minting and wealthy warrior
    gravesites containing high-value imported goods including arms and
    armor, pottery, glass and metal work, Mediterranean wine amphorae,
    and Roman bronzes.
    Deposits of Roman goods suggest that lowland Britons had commercial and political contacts with continental Europe and Rome well
    before the Caesarian invasion. They may have traded directly with
    42 THE RULE OF EMPIRES
    Romans or acquired Roman goods from the Gauls. Either way, southeastern England had the most developed continental trading links in
    preconquest Britain, which suggests a connection between commerce
    and the building of oppida .
    Both classical and modern historians speak of Britons as living
    in tribes under the rule of chieftains or petty kings. Certainly Britain did not have states on the Greco-Roman model, but the British
    tribe did not fi t the stereotype of a static kin-based polity locked in a
    lower phase of development. It is likely that most of southern Britain
    was undergoing signifi cant political and social change when Caesar
    invaded, suggesting that the tribes he encountered were relatively new
    creations. In fact, the Roman expansion into Gaul probably accelerated and intensifi ed these changes. Although Strabo depicted Britons
    as aboriginal barbarians, he also admitted that they exported grain,
    cattle, gold, silver, iron, hides, hunting dogs, and slaves.22 In return
    they received silver bullion and high-quality material goods. Passing references in the classical sources also suggest that the Romans
    backed cooperative British elites with subsidies and political patronage after the conquest of Gaul.
    These foreign infl uences had a signifi cant impact on British society. Rome’s imperial shadow reordered local systems of agricultural
    and craft production, thereby destabilizing the political entities
    that drew authority from their ability to control and redistribute
    these resources. Infl ows of wealth disrupted alliances, incited wars,
    and ultimately produced political centralization as the victors consolidated their power. Tribes split, reformed, and united in confederations in response to these changing circumstances. The resulting
    militarism and turmoil most likely contributed to the slave exports
    that Strabo noted.
    The oppida may have been the centers of this new tribal power,
    and their extensive network of dikes and earthen berms suggests a
    shift from communal to private land ownership. Furthermore, much
    of the coinage minted at these sites carried tribal names and bore
    portraits of British kings in local and Roman garb. Taken as a whole,
    this evidence suggests an increasingly stratifi ed social order where a
    warrior elite, with an appetite for Roman goods, exercised authority
    over peasants, artisans, and slaves through patronage and the threat
    of violence.
    Roman
    Britain 43
    The Romans were only dimly aware of these realities when Caesar invaded Britain in 56 and 54 b.c. But the fairly extensive crosschannel trade probably brought the growing prosperity of southeast
    England to his attention. British support for an anti-Roman revolt
    in Brittany was Caesar’s casus belli , but it is unclear whether southern Britons sympathized with the Gauls or were simply continuing
    long-established commercial and diplomatic ties. Moreover, Caesar
    received delegations from several British leaders offering hostages
    and submission to Rome, which suggests that the Romans were
    already embroiled in the island’s domestic politics. Unrest in Germany and storms over the channel delayed the relatively small tenthousand-man expeditionary force, and British