“Fulford now believes that the town was at its height a century before the Roman invasion in 43AD, with...paved streets...drainage...enjoying a lifestyle in Britain that, previously, was believed to have arrived with the Romans.”
This is serious stuff, dude. It turns my whole opinion on Europe back then on its head. I had always thought that the non-Romans were simply barbarians, as far as lifestyle went (i.e., nomads in tents) - and the idea of paved streets and drainage only existed because of the Romans and then disappeared with them (for many hundreds of years) after they fell.
There was a topic or two along these lines during the past year or two; the Romans still excelled at civil engineering, able to cherry-pick the best ideas from a large number of conquered peoples. There’s another current article (I’m not going to post it, at least not this week, and something like it may have already appeared) about water engineering in Roman Palmyra.
One area that the Romans were never exactly great at was navigating the seas. They weren’t bad, in time — they turned the seven seas into pirate-free lakes for centuries — but the Roman army just didn’t like the idea of sea battles. During and after Augustus Rome got serious about standing navies and built five major naval bases, including one on the North Sea and one on the Black Sea.
Seagoing trade in Roman times was enormous, and spread out in all directions, including India (no doubt about it) and other areas outside the Empire, including Ireland, China, and the Baltic. But that was not due to some kind of official merchant marine, it was the free market at work.
Roman engineering resulted in some of, if not *the*, largest wooden seagoing vessels ever made. Those Egyptian obelisks in Rome were moved — each in one piece — from Egypt during the Roman Empire, and those weigh 200+ tons, some perhaps 300 tons. The columns for some of the temples on the forum were quarried — each in one piece — in Egypt and transported by sea to Rome.
OTOH, the British Isles have been inhabited for many thousands of years, and the big break with the continent was a long time ago. Since then, no one has gotten there by walking overland. :’)
A little further in:
It is my opinion that the alleged Roman achievements are largely a myth; and I feel it is time for this myth to be debunked a little. What the Romans excelled in was bullying, bludgeoning, butchering and blood baths. Like the Soviet Empire, the Roman Empire enslaved peoples whose cultural level was far above their own. They not only ruthlessly vandalized their countries, but they also looted them, stealing their art treasures, abducting their scientists and copying their technical know-how, which the Romans' barren society was rarely able to improve on. No wonder, then, that Rome was filled with great works of art. But the light of culture which Rome is supposed to have emanated was a borrowed light: borrowed from the Greeks and the other peoples that the Roman militarists had enslaved.
This poorly written piece of crap is so full of misinformation as to be unbelievable. Julius Caesar invaded Brittan in 55BC.
I’m sure the Romans didn’t just one day “show up.”
As Cicero said - by defending our allies, we have become master of the whole world.