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00:00today we take for granted the motorways a roads and city streets over 2,000 miles of them that
00:10form the skeleton roadmap of Britain and all because of the Romans with their ingenuity and
00:18dogged determination to conquer everything in their path I'm Dan Jones I'm gonna retrace the
00:24story of our Roman past along six of their most iconic roads each road tells a story of our Roman
00:32legacy and its rich history from their very first road across Kent which powered their invasion to
00:40the vital routes which helped them conquer most of Britain before being beaten into retreat by the
00:45Scots in nearly 400 years of occupation the Romans changed Britain forever by bringing their armies
00:53ideas buildings and religion but the Romans couldn't have done any of it without one thing their roads
01:06this time I'm walking along ermine way it's a road that cuts into the heart of industrial Roman Britain
01:18through the mines and fields that kept the engines of Empire firing ermine way stretches for around 75
01:26miles and was effectively the M4 of its day it starts in Silchester near Reading and runs west through
01:34the Cotswolds towards Sirencester and Gloucester from there it links to the road system built by the Romans
01:40in Wales to exploit the valuable mineral resources there ermine way has a similar name to that other
01:47major Roman road ermine street which runs from London to York but they're totally different we
01:54don't know how the Romans referred to them because they acquired their current names centuries later
02:00ermine way is arguably the most industrial of all our Roman roads and reveals how the Roman conquest of
02:06Britain wasn't just about military glory our land had resources in abundance iron lead clay wood and manpower
02:16the Romans gave us the impetus to exploit them on an industrial scale for the first time and showed us the
02:22skills to transform them into valuable goods the Romans weren't just here to rule they were here to industrialize the
02:29natives for the good of the Empire and line their own pockets people often ask what did the Romans ever do for us but I
02:37want to find out what did we ever do for the Romans my journey starts at Silchester or to call it by its Roman name
02:47Caleva just 10 miles from Reading it's been called the British equivalent of Pompeii when the Romans left
02:55Britain no town sprang up on top of it which means Caleva is very well preserved under the soil archaeologists have
03:03been excavating it for more than a hundred years the city would once have covered 99 acres surrounded by a
03:12defensive wall one of the few Roman remains visible above ground today professor Michael Fulford has been
03:20studying Caleva for 20 years I'm hoping he'll tell me how the road network helped make this prosperous and
03:27well defended settlement possible tell me about these walls I mean this enormous may go on for a mile and
03:38a half why were they built at such scale they are they are fantastic and also a tribute to to the road
03:44system because the stones which are used for these leveling courses these come from literally all points
03:50of the compass so you've got stone coming in from the direction of Swindon along the roads from there
03:55you've got stone coming in from the north from Oxford Farrington that area from the southeast from the
04:03the western wheel sort of sort of the Hampshire Surrey border the nearest material is the Flint here the
04:09nearest source is what six or seven miles down south towards Basingstoke so it's a tremendous tribute to
04:14the effectiveness of the road system that this wall is here at all so I suppose when they decided they
04:18wanted to build this wall it was a call in all directions first and wherever we can find it yes yes and then
04:23the carts to carry because we're talking about tens of thousands of cart loads to bring the material
04:29for a wall which is at the base it's it's ten Roman feet thick at the base and it narrows a bit as you
04:35come up towards the top how did the road network help with Siltress's prosperity and which roads came into
04:43the town well you've got the main road coming out of London coming through here and that's the road
04:47basically which takes all traffic to South Wales and all traffic down the southwest right through down
04:54to Exeter so Siltress was very well linked to other towns in Roman Britain yes and was that part of
04:59Siltress's prosperity I think so yes very much so it drew on its hinterland for agriculture the people
05:06with the wealthy townhouses presumably had estates out in the country and that was part of their their wealth
05:13but yes the traffic going to and from must have been a really important part of Siltress's life
05:22the town of Kaleva sat on an important crossroads a road now known as the Devil's Highway connected it
05:29with the provincial capital Londinium from here it divided into other roads heading west to Devon and
05:35Cornwall important production centers for food and tin when the Romans abandoned Britain in the 5th
05:42century AD their buildings were not maintained by the population left behind the native Britons
05:49cannibalized the stonework to use on their own more modest buildings Michael's 20 years of studies to
05:56uncover the Roman town here have mixed traditional excavation techniques with modern technology geophysical soil
06:04surveys have revealed the layout and treasures on the site many of which are still undiscovered beneath
06:10the surface we're looking over there looking towards the north side of the town on the north gate more
06:17or less directly opposite us now and roughly in the middle and the dominating the town is the foreign
06:24basilica the main administrative building of the town down here close to us where the ground is at its lowest
06:31where the public bars were located the water being sourced quite locally and then in front of us you've
06:38got a range of houses all sizes just over to our left is this big building for the imperial postal courier
06:46system the cursus publicus that's just here I mean the great thing about this town wall and the wall is you get a
06:53sense of how big the kind of average Roman town was so yeah everything encompassed and then running across
07:00it you've got the big main highway the road running out west one of the great treasures of Silchester is
07:07its amphitheatre during its heyday 1700 years ago it's thought to be one of the most impressive in Britain
07:14with a capacity of up to 9,000 were there really things you know gladiators here in little old Britain
07:21the fringes of the Empire I'm sure that tradition carried on right to the limits of empire I mean this
07:27amphitheatre was rebuilt on several occasions and this last occasion when they rebuilt the walls in stone as
07:34opposed to wood I mean that might have coincided with a visit of an emperor and empress did come hadrian
07:39came to Britain Septimius Severus came to Britain and you would think that this would be the place
07:45where the emperor might be entertained with the British version of well I don't mean to be quite a
07:51poor version I think but the local version of what happened back in Rome from here ermine way heads west
07:58past Newbury and over the North Wessex Downs similar to the route of the modern M4 motorway it wasn't just
08:05soldiers who drove the Roman expansion through Britain it was also industry and the money it
08:11generated near where I'm heading next Sirencester there's an amazing discovery that shows just how
08:17much cash Britain could make for the Romans
08:20I'm traveling the Roman road of ermine way to find out how the Empire relied on its transport network to
08:33exploit the resources of its newest province Britain but I'm taking a slight detour ten miles south of
08:40ermine way to the museum at devises in Wiltshire now I've heard that in this museum there's an amazing
08:47artifact found just off ermine way that'll help shed light on how the economy of Roman Britain
08:52operated museum director David Dawson has evidence that the Romans weren't just quarrying stones and
09:00minerals to trade and export they were literally mining resources to mint money so not far from where
09:06we are today there was a pretty important find of Roman coins wasn't there tell me about it yeah that's
09:10right it's at the Roman town of Canetio which is on the road and there were 55,000 coins found it's
09:17the largest ever a cohort of Roman coins found in Britain 55,000 55,000 how much was 55,000 Roman
09:26coins worth or how much would it be today each of these would have been worth in today's money about a
09:32pound okay 55 grand under the ground that's it that's quite considerable amount of money you
09:38wouldn't want to lose that in a hurry why would anyone put 55,000 coins under the ground it's
09:45insane isn't it it's always assumed that the reason for that is that erm you want to keep it safe so
09:51maybe you're a banker you know you're lending money to people or you're scared that someone's going to
09:56take it off you today we put coins into a well for good luck yeah and the Romans
10:02would have done the same so it may have been for luck it might have been sort of like superstition
10:07or it might have been actually a formal offering to the gods when did the latest
10:12type of coins in the Horde date from the latest ones around about 275 AD okay third century
10:19so the Romans are still in Britain they've been here a while very much so
10:23Julius Caesar was the first person to show his face on a Roman coin in 44 BC later emperors
10:30followed suit usually projecting a stern austere image as on this coin showing the authoritarian
10:36Emperor Domitian in around 90 AD how useful are Roman coins when we're trying to put together
10:42a picture of what happened in Roman Britain well as archaeologists they're absolutely vital
10:48because this coin we know was struck in AD 275 so if you have a wall and you find the coin under the wall
10:58it means it gives you the date it was built so absolutely essential but also the pattern of the coins
11:03within how many are found and where so that if you're looking at a site like Cunetio and you pick up coins from the surface
11:10it gives you the dates in which that the the town was in use so really useful but also it gives you an idea of the economic activity
11:19so in from about this time about 275 onwards you start to see a large number of coins in this part of the world
11:28and we think that very much is related to the increase in economic activity
11:32how did the Roman withdrawal from Britain affect the amount of coins in circulation
11:37what what were the consequences the coins are being used to pay the troops
11:41so when the when Rome says we're not going to pay the troops anymore
11:46the troops have a choice do they do they stay with their army allegiances and go with withdrawal of troops to the rest of the Empire to defend Rome
11:57or do they say I'm going to stay put but I'm not going to get paid anymore as to be a soldier
12:03so they have to become ordinary people they have to become their farmers traders whatever
12:09so things change from an army defending the people to the people defending themselves
12:15but using the expertise that was built up from the Roman army
12:19it's amazing how the concept and the basic design of the coin has remained the same from Roman times all the way through today
12:26you know you've got a ruler on one side and you've got a pretty picture on the other and a few words around it
12:30I mean it's it's the same thing
12:32exactly the same
12:34in the first and second centuries AD coins were minted in Rome and imported here
12:38but from around 270 AD provincial mints were established in London and Colchester
12:44the coins were the Greece that oiled the wheels of the burgeoning commercial world in Britain
12:49and the road network helped the wealth to spread all over the province
12:53pottery was also essential to Roman life and it too was traded along the road network
12:59production centers have been found all over the country
13:02including a major one 20 miles south of ermine way in Wiltshire
13:06metal containers were expensive so ceramics were vital for everything from large storage vessels to lamps and tableware
13:14the native Britons were familiar with basic pottery but it was the Romans who introduced industrial techniques
13:20ceramics historian Graham Taylor is using a method barely changed since Roman times
13:26throwing clay on a disc that's kept spinning by hand
13:29this is a technique that's been used by potters since probably wheels were first invented around about
13:353000 BC something like that
13:37and as we say it didn't come to Britain until the Romans
13:40look at that
13:41but once you've got this machine
13:43all of a sudden you go from a situation where pots are made over a period of hours
13:49to pots being made under a period of minutes
13:52that's really amazing the way it's just sort of emerging from that ball of clay
13:56it is a marvel of Roman engineering but it's a very simple marvel of Roman engineering
14:00where does the clay come from?
14:02Romans would have been digging clay wherever they were
14:04in places like Oxfordshire they find really good supplies of clay
14:08and those good supplies of clay mean that industries grow up around them
14:12what would a potters workshop have looked like?
14:14you'd have had just this? one man band?
14:16there would have been quite big workshops
14:18probably thousands of potters working in the same area
14:21exploiting a really really good source of clay
14:24what sort of people were coming and buying pots?
14:26I mean why do they need so many of them?
14:28well we know that if you basically if you excavate a Roman fort or a Roman settlement
14:34what you find is a heck of a lot of pottery
14:37it seems to have been considered relatively disposable
14:40so the cooking pots and things would have cracked after a certain amount of use
14:45and they would chuck them out and they'd go and get another one
14:47we don't know how much it was but it must have been relatively cheap
14:50how did these sort of new mass-produced pots change the lives of people once the Romans arrived?
14:56you start to see pottery industries growing up very quickly
14:59and you start to see those pottery industries expanding outwards
15:03interestingly towards the end of Roman rule
15:07once the Romans abandoned Britain
15:09probably within 50 years of the end of Roman rule
15:12potters wheels almost completely disappeared again
15:14how many could these could they churn out a day?
15:16well I mean a jar like this it would be pretty easy for a potter to be knocking out a hundred a day
15:20something like that
15:21a hundred a day?
15:22yeah and there you go
15:23that's your potter
15:24and as you can see at this stage it's quite soft
15:28you made this look easy
15:29it is easy after the first 10,000
15:31by the second century AD a domestic industry had grown that could compete with the continent
15:39kitchenware made in Dorset has been found at the Empire's northern border in Germany
15:44Graham makes pottery look easy
15:46so I'd like to try my hand at this ancient Roman craft
15:50so get that lump of clay and stick it in the middle of the wheel first
15:52ooh, clay first
15:54whop that
15:55whop it
15:56technical turn?
15:57yeah yeah
15:58technical turn
15:59that should do it
16:00don't let that stick get too deep
16:01because there are trip hazards down there
16:03okay
16:04and then you put the stick down
16:05water onto the clay
16:07a scoop of water
16:09pass me that stick
16:10I'm going to give you the masters high speed spin here
16:12so hands out the way
16:13yep
16:14and I mean seriously keep the hands out the way
16:16because people sometimes try and reach for the clay while I'm doing this
16:19which is unwise
16:20that would be a broken wrist
16:21yeah that would be
16:22right there we go
16:23you've got speed
16:24squeeze that clay as if you're trying to force the whole thing into the middle
16:27wrap your thumbs over the top so as you stop the top going too far
16:30right
16:31squeezing it into the middle
16:32more water on it maybe
16:33a little bit more water on your hands
16:34get your hands really wet
16:35soak it
16:36that's it
16:37that's it
16:38now you can start to put a hole down the middle of that maybe
16:39yeah
16:40there you go
16:41sort of bore down as if you're heading for the wheel head
16:43yeah
16:44so that's it
16:45that's good
16:46excellent
16:47okay now once you think you're far enough down
16:49left hand still inside
16:50right hand on the outside
16:51pressing against one another
16:53yeah
16:54so they're pressing out and start to draw the clay upwards
16:57oh come on
16:58hey
16:59you've made a start
17:01I've made a start and I've even arguably made a pop
17:05you haven't made a pop
17:06you haven't made a pop
17:07just not a great pot
17:08I mean it's sturdy
17:12so far Ermin Way has crossed 60 miles from Silchester across the North Wessex Downs
17:18next it follows the route of the modern A419 to the market town of Sirencester
17:23at its height the second largest town in Roman Britain known as Carinian Dubonorum
17:30standing at the junction with another major Roman road Foss Way the town saw a lucrative trade in wool and metalwork and used resources from across the country
17:40it became a thriving economic hub
17:43the Romans invaded Britain at least in part because of its valuable mineral resources
17:47but just as important was its fertile agricultural land
17:51and it wasn't long before Britain was known as the bread basket of the Northern Empire
17:57seventeen miles from Sirencester Ermin Way is referred to as Ermin Street
18:02but it has nothing to do with that great road north from London to York
18:06close by stand the ruins of Great Whitcomb Villa
18:10one of the largest Roman houses in Britain
18:12it's part of a cluster of very wealthy villas in the highly fertile Cotswold area
18:19the great Roman historian Tacitus
18:21describing the conquest of Britain by his father-in-law Agricola
18:25described Britain's soils
18:27and he wrote they are productive of crops except for olives grapes and other natives of warmer climes
18:33and rich in cattle
18:35crops are slow to ripen but quick to grow
18:38both facts due to one and the same cause
18:40the abundant nature of the land and sky
18:47I'm meeting Susan Greeney
18:49one of the historians involved in looking after Great Whitcomb Villa
18:52I'm particularly interested in Roman Britain's agricultural past
18:58so tell me what we're looking at here
19:00so this is the remains of Great Whitcomb Roman Villa
19:03and it was built around the end of the 2nd century AD
19:06and it's one of the largest villas here in the Cotswold
19:09so it's the home of a really rich and wealthy and well-connected family
19:13how important was the road network to getting this kind of agricultural wealth?
19:19we're about a mile away from Ermine Street here
19:22it's not that far
19:23you could walk to it very quickly
19:25and that's the main road between Gloucester and Sirencester
19:28and so for the people to go to work
19:30if they've got administrative roles
19:31if they're playing a part in Roman government
19:33that's where they would need to go to work in effect
19:35but it's also where the markets were
19:37so Gloucester and Sirencester both had big markets
19:39they could take their produce that was grown here on the estate
19:42and take it very quickly to market
19:44so the road system is really key to where this villa is situated
19:47and would this have been one of those luxurious palatial villas
19:52or is it something more functional?
19:54basically yes, it was a very high-class building
19:57it had painted wall plaster, bathhouse, underfloor heating, lovely dining rooms
20:03it was like a stately home in effect
20:05but it was also the centre of industry
20:07so villas were not just homes for a family
20:10but they were also the centre of an estate
20:12and they were places where people would live as slaves
20:16and as free men working on the land
20:18there's industry happening here
20:20there's a big centre of agriculture here
20:22so it's a working place as well as a retreat
20:24what evidence has been found here to show that it had this agricultural function?
20:29one part of the villa near the kitchens is where there's a large barn structure
20:33so that we know people were storing grain probably spelt
20:37and other products from the surrounding landscape
20:40and we also know that there are many other buildings that form part of this complex down in the river valley
20:45probably more barns, buyers for animals, working platforms where people had industry
20:50so there's a whole complex of activity happening here
20:53and the barn and the other buildings tell us that these people were producing much more than they needed just for their own family
20:59they were producing to export as well
21:01what's so good about this particular bit of landscape?
21:04what makes it so suitable for farming?
21:06well you might be able to hear there's a spring running behind us
21:09we have fresh water here which is a brilliant thing that you need for any home
21:12you're also in this beautiful secluded valley on the edge of the Cotswad Scarp
21:16so we can see right down across what is now pasture
21:19and that would probably have been pasture for cattle and for sheep in the Roman period as well
21:24and then down in the valley you've just got incredibly fertile valley system
21:27where you've got lots and lots of nutrient rich fields
21:30where perfect for growing the wheat and the grain that was needed
21:33grain was the fuel that kept the empire running
21:36spelt, barley and emmer wheat for bread had all been grown here before the Romans arrived
21:42but never on such a grand scale
21:44and the demand was high for these crops
21:46it's estimated that at the peak of the Roman occupation
21:49the soldiers in Britain alone were consuming 33 and a half tons of grain each day
21:56so Britain had this reputation of being the bread basket of the northern part of the empire
22:01was a lot of the produce from here going abroad or did it stay for the domestic market?
22:06some of it would just have been for the family and their hangers-on here as it were
22:09but a large proportion of it would have been taken down to the markets down Ermine Way
22:14to Sirencester and to Gloucester where there would have been markets to trade the produce
22:18and there people would have purchased it for use in those towns
22:23but also it would have been taken by the Roman army and by Roman administration off
22:27and perhaps exported to other parts of the empire
22:29so did the broader Roman road network across the whole of southern Britain
22:34help that trade of grain and agricultural produce going out and money coming in?
22:40yeah exactly and at that time they're also using a new type of wheat, spelt wheat
22:45which is particularly hardy but also can be grown twice a year
22:48you can harvest it twice a year
22:49so the amount you can produce is doubled in effect
22:52so people are producing far more than they need to actually consume here in Britain
22:56after the Romans left at the beginning of the 5th century AD
22:59did other people move in here or did it sort of fall into rack and ruin?
23:04there's some evidence from late on in the 4th century that they're demolishing parts of the buildings
23:08they're reorganising how the villa works
23:11they're building things like industrial corn dryers inside buildings
23:14which otherwise would have been living spaces
23:17and really after the, probably the mid 5th century
23:20there doesn't seem to be any occupation here
23:22people are not living on this site any longer
23:25Great Wickham Villa is one of more than 450 Roman villas uncovered all across Britain
23:31south of Hadrian's Wall
23:33it shows that Roman agricultural expertise reshaped the British landscape
23:38and industrialised farming for the good of the empire
23:41and generated enough income for the occupiers to live in style
23:45the Romans brought great knowledge and skill to Britain
23:48but it wasn't a one way street
23:50next I'll find out about the skills and trades that they gleaned from the native Britons
23:55I'm travelling the route of Ermine Way, the Roman equivalent of the M4
24:06it starts at the historic remains of Silchester
24:09and crosses the North Wessex Downs into Gloucestershire
24:12the journey has shown me how the Romans used their roads to bring industry to Britain
24:18and export our resources back to the larger empire
24:22those mineral and agricultural resources generated a vast amount of income for the occupying Romans
24:28in turn they needed things to spend that money on
24:32there were crafts that existed before the Romans arrived
24:35that the native Britons excelled at and the Romans wanted to buy
24:39not far from Ermine Way I've come to Tetbury in Gloucestershire
24:43to meet Tim Blades, an expert in Roman-era metalworking
24:47what are you up to?
24:53er, I'm making a copy of this Roman brooch
24:56this is a Roman brooch?
24:57this is a bronze Roman brooch
24:59and I've made a mould of it and I'm going to cast a pewter one
25:02how do you go about doing it?
25:04well, it's a very simple process really
25:06you have this fine oily sand and you press the pattern into it, both sides
25:12er, open the mould, take the pattern out
25:16put the mould back together, melt pewter and pour it in
25:21how important was metalworking in Roman Britain?
25:23well, they think possibly that was one of the reasons they came over here
25:28because they mined copper and lead and silver in Wales
25:31er, tin from Cornwall
25:33tin is a crucial ingredient in bronze
25:36which metal are you going to work today?
25:38this is pewter, this is mostly tin
25:42it has er, a few little bits of other metals in it
25:45but er, it's pretty much what you would dig out of the ground in Cornwall
25:50so this, this was the sort of metal that would be mined in Roman Britain?
25:53yes
25:54how do you turn that into that?
25:56well, I will put this into this cast iron ladle, heat it up
26:01now you're burning propane here, what sort of temperature does this burn at?
26:04this goes up to over a thousand centigrade
26:07but the metal will melt and be usable at about 375
26:12so in Roman times what were they using, charcoal?
26:15charcoal, yes, little charcoal burners
26:18how do we know so much about Roman metalwork?
26:24well, they dig it up all over the place
26:26things got lost, er, you know, your house burns down and bits drop into the ashes and aren't found
26:30so you can see it's molten now
26:37wow, so it looks just like soup
26:40you wouldn't want to drink it obviously
26:42you wouldn't want to drink it, no
26:43moment of truth
26:44let's see
26:47gone
26:48that's it
26:49now how long does it take to cool?
26:50er, I can see in there that the top of it is just setting now
26:56so this is pretty quick manufacturing, if you know what you're doing
26:59making the mould is what takes the time
27:01actually pouring the metal is quite quick
27:04the Romans didn't have buttons or zips
27:06so brooches had a simple but important function
27:09to hold clothing together
27:11but they also served as a decoration
27:13the more elaborate the brooch, the more affluent the wearer
27:16does it always work?
27:17mostly
27:21wow
27:22there we have it
27:24so this is still a bit hot to handle
27:26this is still a bit hot to handle
27:27yes, I don't want to burn my hand
27:29so
27:30there we go
27:31you can see, not very hot
27:32no, there was no steam or anything like that coming off there, was there?
27:35rub the sand off it
27:40how amazing
27:41god, look at the intricacy
27:43it picks up all the detail
27:45when you see a really good piece of Roman jewellery
27:48I mean, do you get
27:49do you sort of get this appreciation for the hand that made it?
27:52yes, they're beautiful, they did lovely work
27:55so this was actually, you know, a very necessary part of society in Roman Britain
28:01I think they'd have been fairly high status people
28:04it was quite a skill
28:06and it's the sort of thing you would want to pass on
28:09they would have had apprentices and taught them how to do the finer points of it
28:14okay, there we are, yours to keep
28:16really?
28:17yes
28:18my very own Roman brooch
28:19it's just beautiful
28:20I think, you know, just looking at this
28:22and the really fine detail
28:23and it makes you understand why the Romans wanted to come to Britain
28:26if this was the sort of thing that was easily produced here
28:29but also just tells you so much about
28:32the real craftsmanship of the age
28:35you know, how sophisticated
28:36these people were
28:38they were very skilled
28:40they were as skilled as we are
28:41they just didn't have the technology to do the more advanced things
28:45no blow torches
28:46that's the only difference
28:47wow
28:48native British metalworking was a truly valuable skill
28:53you can see why the Romans were so keen to have Britain in their empire
28:57my next stop along Ermine Way is at a former Roman fortress
29:09Gloucester, or Gleaveham
29:11was established near a major crossing of the River Severn
29:14and another important Roman road, Fosse Way
29:17it developed into the sort of town known as a colonia
29:20where army veterans were given parcels of land as a retirement present
29:24and it's the perfect place to explore the Romans' extensive limestone quarrying in Britain
29:32to find out more about that quarrying tradition
29:34I've come to a location that may at first seem unlikely
29:37the city's Kingsway shopping centre
29:40archaeologist Andrew Armstrong has promised to show me a treasure trove of Roman history
29:45intrigued to see what's down here?
29:47absolutely
29:48just a few metres under the feet of the shoppers above
29:51lie the remains of something truly remarkable
29:54a part of Gloucester that's around 1700 years old
29:58wow
29:59pretty something isn't it?
30:00they're standing about nine foot high over at the far end
30:03that's amazing
30:04Andy, what are we looking at here?
30:06we're looking at the remains of the Roman city walls of Gloucester
30:09where did they get the stone to build the walls?
30:11Gloucester's built on gravel and clay
30:13so there's no natural stone in the surrounding area
30:15which is a bit of a problem if you're trying to found a Roman city
30:18but the really large blocks here
30:20hopefully you can see some of these really massive blocks
30:22are made from Ulytic limestone from the Cotswolds
30:25and the nearest source of that is somewhere like Painswick
30:27which is about eight kilometres away
30:29and how would they have transported blocks like this?
30:31one assumes they're simply putting a stone on a cart
30:34and bringing it to Gloucester and then repeating the process
30:37so was the Roman road potentially quite important in being able to build walls like this?
30:42oh yes, absolutely, absolutely
30:44the quarry at Painswick is fairly near the Roman road
30:47so one assumes they're using it very much
30:49was quarrying a big industry in Roman Britain?
30:52when you think what the early Roman cities are doing in this part of the world
30:57they are building temples, forum basilicas, big public buildings
31:02in which people cast their votes and assemble for tax assessment
31:06they're building city walls, they're building townhouses, they're building villas
31:10you need stone, stone, stone for that
31:12so in areas around Bath and around Sire Ancestor, around Gloucester
31:16it must have been a massive industry
31:18how did the development of Gloucester as a settlement affect the route of Ermine Way?
31:23so the original line of Ermine Way runs straight up to the original fortress in Gloucester
31:28which is not in the city centre at all, it's further north at a place called Kingshorn
31:31later on about a decade after that fortress was built
31:34the Romans created a new fortress, a larger fortress in Gloucester itself
31:38and then they redirect Ermine Way towards Gloucester
31:41and what that's left is effectively a triangle of Roman roads
31:45which still survive today in the street layout of the city
31:47as we know the Romans survived the crisis of the third century
31:51but by the fifth century they'd abandoned Britain militarily
31:55did the walls survive?
31:57the walls were still standing and used defensively in Gloucester in the English Civil War in 1643
32:04that's amazing, that's more than a thousand years
32:06so yep, they were still standing, they were still being shot out with cannon by royalist cannon at that time
32:11and they held up very well
32:12the Romans are brilliant, aren't they? I mean this is most wonderfully what made structure
32:17it's massive stonework, gives it great stability and it's just endured excellently
32:22the walls served a defensive function long after the Romans left
32:26but four centuries of building on top of the remains since the English Civil War
32:30means they're now buried under modern Gloucester
32:34well those city walls were pretty amazing
32:36and clearly with its limestone deposits, its iron and its lead
32:40Britain was bountiful territory for raw materials
32:43while Gloucester marks the end of Ermine Way
32:46the Romans hadn't reached the end of the road in Britain
32:49the city is their launching pad for a whole further network
32:53that stretches west into the territory we now know as Wales
32:58as well as the mineral riches in the Welsh mountains
33:01the forests were a valuable resource too
33:03timber was fundamental to the Roman occupation
33:06and vast amounts were needed for building
33:09and as fuel for heating and cooking
33:11it's estimated at least 1400 acres of trees in the forest of Dean were cut down
33:16other than the timber the local land has also been known for its exceptional grazing potential
33:23even in Roman times
33:25and the wool from sheep and the cloth woven from it was highly valued across the empire
33:30much of it went to make the most iconic piece of clothing for high status Romans, the toga
33:36Hi Ursula
33:39Hello
33:40Dr Ursula Roth is an expert in Roman dress
33:43Why would a Roman have worn this?
33:47What's the thinking? Or is this just what you wear everyday?
33:49This is what you wear everyday
33:51The toga that we're going to have a look at in a minute
33:53is basically a cloak that goes over the tunic
33:56the tunic itself is the basic garment that everyone would have worn
33:59everyone would have worn a tunic
34:01with a toga over the top or without or with another cloak
34:04What did they wear underneath?
34:05It's not sort of the kind of thing that people talk about a huge amount in Roman sources
34:09but we do think that probably they didn't wear underwear
34:14although we do have a reference to underwear in the Vindolanda tablets
34:18Well fortunately for us all I am wearing underpants
34:22What else do I need?
34:23Well you need a belt
34:25Romans always wore a belt with their tunic
34:30Really?
34:31Yes
34:32Why?
34:33A tunic without a belt was a bit too sort of loose and sort of a bit too relaxed
34:37Why did Romans wear togas?
34:40Well the toga as you'll see in a minute
34:43not all Romans did wear a toga
34:45but toga is a very distinctive garment
34:47it's semi-circular in shape
34:50Right
34:51which sets it apart from pretty much all the other cloaks of antiquity
34:55it was a symbol of Roman identity
35:00and Roman culture
35:02and we have reason to believe that only full Roman citizens
35:04people who had Roman citizenship that legal status
35:07were allowed to wear it
35:09Right, so I couldn't
35:10if I'm just a sort of pleb that's snuck in from Germania
35:13or from the north of Britannia or whatever
35:15I couldn't just put a toga on
35:17that would be a bad thing
35:18That would be a bad thing
35:19that would amount almost to fraud
35:20because it was almost like a wearable passport
35:23Is this how a normal toga went on?
35:25Yes
35:26There weren't dips or buttons or...?
35:27No, no, it was a draped garment
35:29which is why it was hard to wear
35:31it's not easy to walk in and gesticulate in properly
35:35and this is part of the grace and the importance of the toga
35:38that you had to sort of behave in a certain restrained
35:42and controlled way
35:44in order for it not to fall off essentially
35:46and so that's sort of tied up with how Roman
35:50especially elite men were expected to be
35:53as you can see
35:54it's sort of three lengths of a man's body
35:58so it's quite a large garment
36:00of course originally this would have been made out of wool
36:02Wool?
36:03Yes
36:04That's got to be hot
36:05Yes
36:06Why would they wear such a hot garment?
36:07Why do men wear suits and ties these days?
36:09Do they really enjoy us?
36:11Yes
36:12Fair point
36:13It's a status thing
36:14and obviously you can't wear this and plough a field
36:17or work in a workshop
36:19so this is a status thing as well
36:21And do we see togas in Roman Britain?
36:23British people started to take on Roman culture
36:25and their young Roman men started to wear the toga
36:27and you could see the toga everywhere
36:29So in Britain this would have looked kind of unusual
36:32because only some men would have been wearing it
36:35It would have been a sign that you were either a Roman official
36:39or that you were someone who had Roman citizenship
36:42It was all about showing your rank in your clothes in the Roman world
36:47If you were an equestrian you would have had a thin stripe
36:50If you were a senator you would have had a thick stripe
36:52You were what you wore
36:54It was all about showing who you are through your dress
36:58So Roman men were quite bitchy about what each other wore then?
37:01We have a story where Cicero having heard that Caesar had defeated Pompey in the Civil War
37:09Apparently his first words wore
37:11I can't believe that Pompey was beaten by someone who couldn't even tie his tunic properly
37:17Wow
37:18The prejudice is you uncover from clothing
37:20I know, I know
37:21Well I think I look either like a ghost or like a very very noble woman
37:29Thank you
37:30You're very welcome
37:33Wool was woven on a vertical loom into cloth
37:36Then transported across Roman Britain and out to the wider empire
37:40Along roads like Ermine Way
37:42In addition to valuable textiles
37:44There was no end to the mineral riches for the Romans to exploit
37:48All vital to the maintenance of their occupation
37:57I've been travelling the route of Ermine Way
37:59One of the most industrialised roads in Roman Britain
38:02I've travelled 75 miles to Gloucester
38:05And it's here that Ermine Way ends
38:07But spreading out beyond the city are many more Roman roads
38:11That made it possible to exploit Britain's mineral wealth
38:18Travelling into the Forest of Dean takes me to a stretch now known as Blackpool Bridge Road
38:23It reveals just how long the Roman road network here has endured
38:34Today this is a pretty nondescript bit of country road that runs under a railway bridge
38:40But if you stop and look by the side of it
38:43What you can actually see is an amazing 85 foot stretch of Roman road
38:48It's really hard to see and you can drive past very easily without knowing it's here
38:51Because we're in the middle of the Forest of Dean
38:53And as you can see it's grown over
38:56But if you pull it back a little bit
38:59You can see these amazing Roman paving slabs
39:04These were laid down nearly 2,000 years ago
39:07To connect the mines that are all over this area to local towns like Gloucester
39:12And ultimately it was built to help the Romans extract that amazing mineral wealth
39:17Which was one of the big reasons they'd come to Britain in the first place
39:22In Wales there was gold, in Cornwall tin
39:26Yorkshire and Shropshire held abundant lead deposits
39:29It's long been argued that the main reason the Romans invaded Britain
39:33Was to access its exceptional mineral wealth
39:36Gold and silver, lead, tin and iron
39:39And the reason they knew about all this was because they'd been trading with Iron Age miners
39:44In places like here the Forest of Dean for centuries
39:47And one thing's for sure
39:48As soon as the Romans did arrive
39:50They set to extracting as much as they possibly could
39:57A little deeper into the Forest of Dean
39:59Right on the Welsh border
40:00There's another example of how the Romans used local knowledge to access raw materials
40:05They needed iron ore to use in their weapons and buildings
40:09And to keep their horses on the move
40:11At Clearwell Caves near Monmouth
40:14Very close to the Roman road network
40:16The native Britons had been mining iron for 2,000 years before the Romans arrived
40:21Jonathan Wright has agreed to show me the remains of their old workings
40:26How important was the Roman road to these mines?
40:30The road runs just in front of the mine
40:32And Roman coins have been found by workmen during the 19th century
40:38So we know that the Romans had used that road
40:42And that would have been the way they transported the iron away from the site
40:45So this must have been quite a lucrative industry, the iron industry
40:49Even before the Romans came along
40:51The ancient Britons were actually mining before the Romans invaded this particular area
40:56But they took it over and upscaled it quite dramatically
40:59Because of the needs of their empire
41:01Was the existence of mines like this one of the reasons that the Romans invaded in the first place?
41:07They were after the minerals throughout Britain really
41:10But this area was particularly rich in iron
41:13And that was why they decided to move into this area
41:17Iron was the automatic choice for use in weaponry, armour, vehicle fittings and spindles in millstones
41:25Great amounts of it were needed for the Roman war machine
41:28Britain was the perfect place to fill the need
41:31What were some of the techniques that they used to get the iron out of it?
41:36You do see pickaxe marks all over the rock wherever you look
41:40Can you see them up over there?
41:41Oh yeah I can
41:42You can see the scratches
41:44The brush ore which they would have wanted most of all
41:47Was very rich and very easy to break up
41:49And you would have just hit it with things and it would have broken into small pieces
41:53With no explosives available the technique they used involved building a fire against a hard rock face
42:00Then quenching the hot rock with water so that the thermal shock cracked the rock
42:05And allowed the minerals to be extracted
42:07What would the Romans have wanted this iron for?
42:10Horseshoes, that's a really important one
42:13Nails was also what they really wanted it for
42:17But they also wanted to make armaments and so it was used for spearheads
42:22So this area was really the powerhouse of iron production in Roman Britain?
42:26This was an important place
42:28When the Romans first came into Britain
42:31I understand that they worked the wheel first because that's near the channel
42:35But very quickly they transferred up to the Forest of Dean because the iron was so easily accessible
42:42The Roman author and historian Pliny the Elder wrote about conditions in Roman mines
42:48He said
42:49Mountains are excavated by the light of torches
42:52The duration of which forms the set times for work
42:55The workmen never seeing the light of day for many months together
43:00Not unfrequently clefts are formed on a sudden
43:04The earth sinks in and the workmen are crushed beneath
43:07So that it would really appear less rash to go in search of pearls and purples at the bottom of the sea
43:14So much more dangerous to ourselves have we made the earth than the water
43:20Ermine Way has brought me 75 miles from the thriving Roman town of Silchester
43:25Across the fertile lands of the Cotswolds
43:28And into the woods and caves close by the border with Wales
43:32Travelling along Ermine Way
43:35I've learned that Roman Britain was a hugely industrious and productive place
43:39It had road networks that stretched off into Europe
43:42Agriculture that supplied Roman troops as far away as Germany
43:46And complex cities where cottage industries abounded
43:50But when the Romans left almost all of that disappeared
43:54Not to re-emerge until centuries later
43:57That era used to be known as the Dark Ages
44:03And with few written records from the time
44:05We don't know why the native Britons forgot Roman production techniques so quickly
44:09What we do know is that 2,000 years ago
44:14The Romans didn't just come to conquer Britain
44:17They led us into an industrial revolution
44:20The Roman way
44:21The Roman way
44:28Dan's back next Wednesday at 7
44:30And the stories of our past keep on coming
44:32Brand new in an hour
44:33The power and paranoia of Henry VIII
44:36Rise of a Tyrant
44:37Before that
44:38With the lack of tourists
44:39Let's hope the ravens aren't too bored
44:41They're needed inside the Tower of London
44:43And so are Charles and Camilla
44:45As you'll see in just a moment
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