Cities of Roman Britain

One of the facets of life the Romans had always valued most was organization. Thus upon the routuing of the revolts against their conquest, they began to establish a organized system of colonies, administrative areas, forts, and roads between them all. On the map above is highlighted the areas that line up with modern day major cities but please note that there are many other smaller forts, towns, and centers scattered about Roman Britian. It is important to note that no matter the size of the settlement, there is a road connecting it to the rest of the established sites of the area.

Below are breif explainations as to the meaning of each type of place charted on the map.

Understanding the Purpose of Places

Civitas Capitals

The Romans loved and valued organization in their governing, both at home and in their external colonies. They developed a system of creating civitas reipublicae, or essentially counties governed that were governed at a central city, the Civitas Capital. These capitals drew much inspiration to the mrore important Roman cities in the Mediterranian, from grid based street layouts to the development of forums. In Britain, the reipublicae were created in part to keep British tribes together just in a formal and Romanized way.

Colonies

While most recognized citizens were able to live in colonies, they were made with a specific purpose. Primarially, these cities were used as a way to allocate resourses and land to soldiers as a form of payment for their service. This is to prevent a potential rise of discontent among the militarily trained as to not encourage them to take up arms against the empire. Colonies were also used as a demonstration of the Roman way of life in the areas they conquered. The first established colony in Britain was in the area of modern day Colchester.

Municipia

When a sactioned body of the Roman government deems a group or city to be of extreme importance to the empire, the city is promoted to a municipia. This promition then grants all citizens of the city signifigantly more rights, a level to which is extremely close to that of a normal Roman citizen. The only municipia we know of in Roman Britain was located near modern day St Albans. This city was given the promition to municipia due to the tribe located there being deemed as the most important tribe to the Romans.

Frontline Settlments

In the north, not too far from Hadrian's Wall, the settlements of Carlisle and Corbridge were established by the Romans. Though these settlements were in essence just small towns. They acted as military centers for soldiers on the frontline fighting the Piks in the North. These towns would act as safe havens for soldiers coming back from their duty at the forts dotting Hadrian's Wall as well as convienent places for equipment and supplies to pass through going to and from the wall.

Forts

As the Romans progressed through Britain on their campaign, they estblished many different forts along the way in key locations to continue forward. These forts not only acted as military strongholds, but also eventually would become the foundation for larger scale Roman settlements in Britain. Most colonies were either made around or in near proximity to forts.