Transcript Roman Invasion

Roman Invasion
Why did the Romans want to
invade our small country?
What did we have to offer?
Strabo a Roman contemporary said:
“Corn, cattle, gold, silver and iron
............... these are brought from Britain:
also hides, slaves, and clever hunting
dogs.”
What else did we have to
offer?
Lead
Pearls
Wool
Pottery
Tin
Timber
Why corn?
The Roman Empire was growing bigger and
bigger and the demand for food was growing all
the time.
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 As
more people moved to the large towns and
cities they could not grow the food they needed
and had to buy it.
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Farmers had to grow the corn and send it to
the cities.
Why silver?
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Roman coins were made of silver at the time
and more coins were needed as the Roman
Empire expanded .
The Romans knew the Britons had silver mines
as they were already exporting it to them.
Rich Romans used silver for plates and cups and
people in the new provinces wanted the same to
show that they were civilised too.
Why gold? Why tin?
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The Romans used gold for jewellery, for money.
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They needed it to trade for goods elsewhere.
There was not a lot of gold to be mined elsewhere
in Europe.
The middle class Romans used pewter for cups and
bowls/plates.
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Tin was also mixed with other metals to make
strong, hard metals.
Why lead?
Silver could be refined from lead. As the
demand for silver grew so did the demands for
lead.
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The Romans also used lead in their plumbing;
water pipes were made from lead and water tanks
were lined with lead to keep them waterproof.
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The Romans used lead coffins.
Why slaves?
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A newly conquered country would give Rome lots
of slaves.
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People captured in battle.
People who rebelled against them.
People from beyond the newly conquered
territory.
As the Romans ‘romanised’ countries, more
people wanted to live like Romans and bought
slaves.

Why wool? Why leather?
The
Romans wore woollen
togas and woollen tunics.
They used wool for stuffing
mattresses.
The
Romans used leather in
buckets, in army tents,
soldiers’ cloaks and shields.
They used leather for hinges,
for their horses’ bridles.
The Romans
“Remember you are a Roman. It will be
your job to rule over other countries, so that
the world becomes peaceful and everyone
obeys the law.”

written by Virgil in about 20 BC/BCE
Power!
 The Romans were an extremely powerful race.
 They knew they were the most powerful force in
Europe.
 They wanted to show how powerful they were by
conquering more countries.
 They wanted to impose their civilisation on the
barbarians who were not yet part of their empire
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar was only a general, but he was
the most powerful general in the Roman army.
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He wanted to be the most powerful person in
Rome and knew that the more victories he won
the more powerful he would become.
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Revenge!
The Britons had sent over many warriors to
help the Gauls fight against Caesar.
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Caesar wanted to show the
Gauls and Britons that he
would not let tribes support
each other against him.
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Caesar wanted to make an
example of them so that they
would never try it again.
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