# How Did the Ancient Romans Regards Britain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 9, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305 "2007-03-09T20:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/21 "2007-03-10T10:54:00Z")
Historian humor I supposed. Here we have a centuries old letter, perfectly preserved, and It’s a “gimme”-letter to mommy, asking for warm wooly socks. …ok, not so funny as my slip-up made it, I’ll admit. We can pretend it was just one sock if you like. **Queen Bruin** , the only place I’ve seen the actual text of the letter was on a lecturers slide. I’ll dig around, see if I can find it for you. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/22 "2007-03-10T11:19:36Z")
[Vindolanda letter](http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLink2/4DACTION/WebRequestQuery?searchTerm=346&searchType=number&searchField=TVII&thisListPosition=1&thisPageNum=0) about socks. There is another reference to socks in the database, but it gives me a parsing error. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/23 "2007-03-10T13:23:07Z")
Why would an ancient Roman have needed a fake identity for message boards? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/24 "2007-03-10T13:26:58Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Why would an ancient Roman have needed a fake identity for message boards? [/QUOTE] In case he ran into \*, I’d say. Thank you, I’m here all week- try the veal! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/25 "2007-03-10T13:34:44Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] Cold, violent, and always rebelling. [/QUOTE] Ooooohh…_Arsenal fans_, then? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/26 "2007-03-10T13:50:30Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Why would an ancient Roman have needed a fake identity for message boards? [/QUOTE] Because Cato the Younger moderated the Roman Forum with an Iron Fist! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/27 "2007-03-10T16:01:54Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Why would an ancient Roman have needed a fake identity for message boards? [/QUOTE] [KIRK]Why would the Roman gods need a space ship?[/KIRK] Didn’t Constantine (I/ the Great) have a British connection? IIRC his father was stationed there during his childhood. I would think there’d be some primary source material from that era due to this. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/28 "2007-03-11T00:46:53Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] At least one more. [/QUOTE] Why does everyone assume he was wearing the sock on his foot? ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/29 "2007-03-11T01:15:21Z")
Thanks, \*\*WotNot \*\*and **Septima**. I might actually get time to read this stuff after finals are over! ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/30 "2007-03-11T02:41:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] [KIRK]Why would the Roman gods need a space ship?[/KIRK] Didn’t Constantine (I/ the Great) have a British connection? IIRC his father was stationed there during his childhood. I would think there’d be some primary source material from that era due to this. [/QUOTE] Evelyn Waugh wrote a book about that. Helena > **[Helena (Loyola Classics): Waugh, Evelyn, George Weigel, Welborn, Amy, Weigel,...](https://www.amazon.com/Helena-Loyola-Classics-Evelyn-Waugh/dp/082942122X)** > > Helena (Loyola Classics) \[Waugh, Evelyn, George Weigel, Welborn, Amy, Weigel, George\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Helena (Loyola Classics) > [@](#): > > Book Description > Helena is the intelligent, horse-mad daughter of a British chieftan who is suddenly betrothed to the warrior who becomes the Roman emperor Constantius. She spends her life seeking truth in the religions, mythologies, and philosophies of the declining ancient world. This she eventually finds in Christianityóand literally in the Cross of Christ. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/31 "2007-03-11T03:04:44Z")
There’s a tradition that the Empress Helena was born in Britain, but it’s much more likely she was born in Bithynia. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/32 "2007-03-11T17:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] See also Edward Rutherford’s [_Sarum_](http://www.amazon.com/Sarum-Novel-England-Edward-Rutherfurd/dp/0517223546/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-6174405-6389541?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173484638&sr=8-1) and [_London_](http://www.amazon.com/London-Novel-Edward-Rutherfurd/dp/0345455681/ref=sr_1_3/104-6174405-6389541?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173484681&sr=1-3) – the stories span millennia, Michener-style, but each has a good segment on Roman Britain. [/QUOTE] See also [this](http://www.solaris-books.co.uk/Roberts/dboat.htm). The last few chapters are set in Britain as the Roman Empire falls apart. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/33 "2007-03-11T20:21:03Z")
[QUOTE=Boulter’s Canary] See also [this](http://www.solaris-books.co.uk/Roberts/dboat.htm). The last few chapters are set in Britain as the Roman Empire falls apart. [/QUOTE] Alfred Duggan is also rather diverting - that looks derivative - 1971 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/34 "2007-03-11T23:02:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] A great place to get tin (the main export item). Also, unlike the Continent, a great place to get a farm if you’re a veteran. Otherwise, as said, a rainy gloomy backwater, but like most rainy backwaters you could have a good life with enough money. Of course by this time there were Roman families in Britain that were CENTURIES old. I wish I could find a good web page on it, but there was a really interesting documentary about the excavation of a medieval cemetery (Plague era) in Spitalfield. During the excavation they realized the medieval cemetery was built atop a Roman era cemetery, and one of the finds was a lead coffin that baffled archaeologists. It’s not known who the woman was, but DAMN she was somebody- the coffin was decorated with shells while the lead was still cooling, silver burial goods, etc., but with enough Romano-pagan imagery that they’re pretty sure she was from not just a Roman family but an incredibly rich Roman family. (Her burial gown alone- long long decomposed but enough fragments left that you can tell what it was made of- was jeweled and gold thread embroidered silk (consider the trek from Asia to Britain with 3rd century shipping and you’ll get an idea of how much it must have cost), and she seems to have been buried on a bed of leaves. It’s a major find and a major mystery because it fits nothing known of Roman funerary rites at the time (around the 3rd century IIRC). You can google lots of articles that mention this but none that go into much depth. [/QUOTE] Is there any indication of how large the trade in tin was? I guess the primary metal of Rome being bronze, tin was pretty important. Also, I recall reading that another important export was fresh-water pearls 9from British lakes). At any rate, Brttania must have been (economically) pretty importants to Rome, otherwise they wouldn’t have invested so mush money in roads and forts, walls, etc. to defend it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/35 "2007-03-12T00:53:15Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Why does everyone assume he was wearing the sock on his foot? [/QUOTE] Heh. Hearken back with me to junior high… "_In days of old When Knights were bold And rubbers weren’t invented They slipped a sock Around their cock And babies were prevented."_ ::: bows ::: ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/36 "2007-03-12T01:05:34Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Oh. I thought that was the joke. I thought the joke was, he asked for her to send more socks, because she had only sent one sock. I mean, that’s… that’s really kind of funny. Wasn’t that the joke? It wasn’t? Oh. Damn. It should have been. -FrL- (Okay, so, what was supposed to be “funny as hell” about the letter, then?) [/QUOTE] I thought the joke was that it was so bad that he appreciated one sock, but it would be even better if she sent the second. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305/37 "2007-03-12T18:15:28Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] …Thank you, I’m here all week- try the veal! 😃 [/QUOTE] Broiled in garum, I suppose? Away with your imperialist tidbits! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-ancient-romans-regards-britain/395305.md?page=1)