Some parts of Britain already had strong trading links with the Roman Empire before Julius Caesar visited Britain in 55BC. The Romans bought cattle, hides, grain, tin, lead, gold and silver while wine and olive oil were coming into Britain.
Veni vidi vici.
In fact Julius Caesar’s ‘conquest’ of Britain was short-lived. It was the Emperor Claudius who began 367 years of Roman rule.
The Romans invaded in 43AD and we rely on their writers to tell us what went on. They mention the Catevellauni people who lived in East Anglia and the southern Midlands which probably included Shillington. They depicted them unfairly as uncivilised and uncouth much as later British explorers would disparage the natives that they met in foreign lands.
The Roman takeover met resistance in places. In 60 AD, Boudicca, leader of the local Iceni tribe in Norfolk, raised an army to fight them, initially with great success, before being defeated with 10,000 of her followers slaughtered.
Striking gold….
Archaeological finds provide more information about this period and some of them from Pegsdon Common Farm are spectacular! In 1998, metal detectorists discovered two separate hoards of Roman coins.
The first was 127 gold aurei, the most ever found in this country. Minted between 36AD and 79AD, they show the heads of emperors from Tiberius to Vespasian and were extremely valuable. It’s possible that a wealthy individual owned them and decided to hide them when trouble brewed. If so, he never retrieved them. However, people also made votive offerings to the Gods at this time and this is another possibility.
….and silver!
The coins in the hoard of less-valuable silver denarii were more worn and covered a longer period. The earliest was minted in about 31BC and the latest during Hadrian’s reign (117 – 138AD). Like the gold coins, they were photographed in a display at Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton.
A later search revealed many pieces of tile, sherds of pottery and other items across a large part of the field indicating that people lived there. There may still be a lot more to find out about this area.
Download this pdf file to find out more about what the Romans did for us.