Names of countries and Roman Cities

When the Romans were in Britain, everything had a different Latin name.
Great Britain was called Brittania, Scotland was called Caledonia and Ireland was called Hibernia.
Cities also had different names:
Dover was called ( Portus )Dubris, Bath was called Aquae Sulis, Edinburgh was called Cramond,
London was called Londinium, Glasgow was called Clotagenium, and Manchester was called Mamucium.
About some of  these cities I will tell a bit.

Dubris was located near the river Dour, what made it an ideal port. Dubris grew into an imprtant Roman military fort, because ships could reach it easily over water.
When Caesar tried to invade Dubris, he was scared by the cliffs and sailed further until he reached an open beach. After he conquered the habitans of Dubris, he built there two lighthouses.

Cramond was a Roman fort with a natural port, because it was located at the river Almond.
The fort was build in 140 p.C., and it was used by the Romans until 170 when they retreated to Hadrian's wall.
In the river Almond near Cramond was a sculpture of a lion found, eating a man.

Clotagenium was a Roman legionary fort. It was build in 143 p.C., and had very thick walls of turf and clay, about 7.2 meter thick! Around the fort was a 10 meter long ditch, which was 1.2 meter deep.
The fort was meant to house only the ground troops, but was big enough to house the cavalry too.

Mamucium was a fort guarding the road between Chester to York. Mamucium was a Celtic name meaning
"Breast shaped Hill". Near the fort was a settlement of family and friends, which ended in a industrial activity.
The area around Mamucium changed greatly in a few centuries from a fort to a city in the Industrial Revolution.





Questions:

1. Which Roman emperor tried to invade Dubris?
2. What was found near Cramond?

City of Bath

One of the most famous remnants of the Romans in Brittain is the City of Bath, also named Aquae Sulis. It has a temple and a baths complex. The City of Bath is located a twenty kilometers from Bristol.

The temple is the temple of Sulis Minerva. This goddes is a contraction of two godesses: a British and a Roman goddes. This way the Romans kept the Celts statified. They don't forged the Celts to take over the Roman gods, they merged them together.
The City of Bath is built on a hot water spring, which constantly provides clean and hot water. Even now, after a couple of ages, it still provides warm water. The Romans often came to the baths complex, not only to take a bath, but also to sport or read. The entrance was very cheap, so they came a couple times in a week.
In the temple of Sulis Minerva, you can see a lot of beautiful mosaics. On the floor of the temple are mosaics of gods and godesses, in the dining room you can see mosaics of food and wine. That way the mosaics showed the meaning of the room.

In the garden of the temple you can see a beautiful fish pond (not with the original Roman fish) and a lot of beautiful plants and trees. All these plants are planted as they thought it looked like.

You can still visit Aquae Sulis if you like. Then you can visit the baths complex and the temple by yourself.

 

 

The questions:

  

1.  Whats the original name of the City of Bath?
2. Why is the goddes called 'Sulis Minerva'?

The Roman Town 'Londinium'

The old London is called Londinium. The name Londinium is thought to be pre-Roman. Londinium was build by the Romans during an invasion of Great Britain. Archaeologists now think that London  was an inhabited settlement on the north bank of the Thames around the year 50. A wooden drainage canal, found along the side of a Roman road, was dated to the year 47, which is probably the foundation date.
 

After the city was founded, ten years later the city was looted by queen Boudica. Excavations have shown a lot of fire damage around that time, which suggests that the city was set on fire. There were also military buildings found in the city, which proves that the Romans the city maybe used as a base against the insurgency. Boudicca destroyed everything she looked like something Roman and the Roman city of Londinium was probably as a clear symbol of Roman presence.

The insurgency of Boudicca was beaten down and they could start rebuilding. The city was rebuilt within 10 years and quickly grew further until reached its peak in terms of population around 140. With its 45,000 inhabitants Londinium was one of the largest cities outside Italy.

In 375 Londinium was a small but rich community that was protected by full defense, it was the people expected to accept responsibility for their safety.



Around 410 ended the Roman domination of Great-Brittain. After the departure of the Romans Londinium was a fortified city. The people of the surrounding area in 457 escaped to the city when they were threatened by invaders. Slowly the city fell into disrepair and the defenses were not restored. Around 510 Londinium was taken by the Saxons.

 

 

 

Questions for classmates:

 

How did they call the 'old London'?

...

Who was Boudicca and what has she done?

...

The end!

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