Why didn't the Roman culture leave much trace in Britain?

Question

For example, most of the British architectures are not Roman style, and the English language is not a Latin language.

Answer 1

I don't really know, but maybe any influence was wiped out by the Saxon and Viking and other invaders who colonised Britain after the Romans had left.  Anglo-Saxon became the language in the non-Celtic areas.  There are a lot of words with Latin derivations in the English language, but I suspect they come from the later Latin as an international scholarly language rather than a direct link from the Romans.

Answer 2

they tidied up before they left

Answer 3

Well the Romans ruled much of Britain for around 350 years.

However, many areas were ruled by proxy by British tribal chiefs rather than directly by Rome, other areas such as parts of Wales, East Anglia and the North East were barely tamed.

The Romans retained close rule in places such as London, Bath, Chester etc....in places such as these there are a fair number of Roman ruins.

When the Romans left, a Romano-British culture was left in place, mainly in the towns and areas where Romans had retained close control. The rest of the country retained or reverted to its traditional Celtic culture.

Another important point is that within a hundred years of the Romans leaving, Britain was invaded by a people who had never been under Roman influence, the Anglo-Saxons.

The Brythonic Celts who were the real native Britons were gradually conquered by the English, the Brythonic Celts lost England (Llogyr in Welsh, meaning the Lost Lands),  retaining control of only Wales, Cornwall and Strathclyde.

These areas had always been among the least Latinised areas of Ancient Britain anyway, and the Romano-British culture in the big towns and cities was eaten away by the arrival of the English.

The English language arrived in Britain AFTER the Romans had left, that is why it is not heavily influenced by Latin.

The Welsh and Cornish languages, once spoken all over England, remained resistant to Latin throughout Roman occupation.

Architecturally, many buildings of the Restoration, Regency and Victorian period are Roman influenced, but this was just a trend and nothing to do with Roman influence on Britain.

Answer 4

I can answer the latin bit.  David Starky actually did a series of programmes for television about the beginnings of English culture.  He started off by looking for Arthur the supposed first king of Britian (now called Wales and England).   He never found anything to back up the story of King Arthur.

When the Romans left Britian the Saxons just walked in and settled.  There was no fighting because there was no army to fight.  The Saxons settled in the south-east of the country and the Angles settled in the east.

I can't remember the name of the Saxon King nor the time period when English was introduced.  But there was a  Saxon King who decided to drop the Latin lanuage and create an new language.  That new lanugage ended up being called English.  English is a b*****d language make up from words of other languages, orginally being a combination of Saxon, Angle and Brition.  The point to this was to give every-one who lived in Britian a common tongue with which to speak and be understood, as well as to promote peace through out the land.  Ok, so the peace bit didn't always work, still a noble idea though.  There is some Latin in the language, one word that springs to mind is Carborundum meaning to grind now used with the words paste or stone.

I am sorry I can not be more precise with this answer, I am not a student of history.  It is a case of remember that David Starky did a programme which incorporated the question you are asking.

The Romans left the country about 1450 years ago as a result there wouldn't be much of anything left over from that time period in any country, what with constant building and re-building.  It is a bit of a reck these days but a lot of Hadrian's Wall is still here.  You'll have to hope some-one from Bath answers your question.  A memory is telling me there is still a Roman spa standing in Bath, not too sure of that though.

Answer 5

there are lots of roman ruins in britian, and the language grew from latin over many years, remember it has been about 1800 years since the romans left and like the rest of western europe britian had to go through the dark ages.  lots got lost.  the english language has a lstin base with mish mash of every other language thrown in to confuse you.  There are many signs that the romans were there.

Answer 6

I agree..The Roman,s never left any trace of themselves in Scotland but they did in England...They even built 3 or 4 walls to try stop the Scots from from driving them back to Rome..The wall,s never worked. The Scot,s still laugh at Hadrians wall..I suppose they always will.LOL.

Answer 7

when the empire collapsed much of its culture was replaced by those of northern invaders who took advantage of rome's weakness.

Answer 8

Britain Below Hadrian's wall was conquered fairly late in the life span of the Roman Empire.  The Romans seem to have disliked the weather--the Roman name for Ireland was Hybernea which seem to mean wintry or cold land. So there was never a huge Roman population.  It was more or less considered an outpost in the back of beyond.  Lastly and to some most important and obvious the Britons have never taken to being ruled by anyone very easily. (That last part might not actually be "The most important".

Answer 9

It left some traces, such as roads, the layout and names of some towns, the remains of Roman villas and Hadrian's Wall. However before the Roman occupation finished there were relatively few Romans in the country to maintain Roman culture. Then other groups from Northern Europe settled in the UK over many centuries, bringing different influences such as Germanic languages. For some time there was no single government, even just in England: Roman law disappeared.

Answer 10

well thats somewhat debatable. I do not live in England but I have visited twice. There are lots architectural reminders. Some examples  Bath, In York the Minster there still has roman aquaducts which work. There are remains of walls the Romans built.  The last time I was there  I was at this little historical villiage, in the eastern part of the country near a small towns of Wheeting and Thetford, anyway the historian there talked about trhe Roman army and how much of it was comprised of non romans, and it got me thinking, with all of thise occupying troops, comprised if nationalities from all over Europe, many of them must have married locals and had kids etc. Hence, and the Historian agreed with me that Great Britian is really one of the first melting pots of the world, as not only the roman influence, Viking invasions, anglo saxon invasion, many of them perhaps stayed in England and had famlies too. Hence a portion of Englands populaton came from outsiders  who settled in England for whatever reason.  Anyway the traces are there, though not being an expert in English history, I can not list them, I am sure others can, suffice to say if you look aroud you will find traces of roman influence culturally architecturally or otherwise.

Answer 11

The Roman influence is probably most significantly one of road engineering Buildings decay but roads are improved as traffic increases The Romans built straight and the lines they took are still those of present highways in many parts of the country from the south of England to the Gask Ridge ( the oldest roman frontier in Europe ) in Perthshire .

Answer 12

Because England was overrun by Saxons as soon as the Romans went, who brought their own language and culture, and have remained dominant ethnically, if not always politically, ever since.

Answer 13

With all due respect - the Romans had a huge impact on Great Britain.

They laid down most of our main highways -they founded fortified castra - chesters - as in Chester, Manchester, Cirencester, Winchester, Colchester, etc.

And language wise - the essence of any culture - I learnt English in a backwards sort of way - when I was taught Latin.

Many of our words derive from Latin - which became a 'dead language' (apart from stuff mumbled in Catholic cathedrals - and understood by few) because it was too rigorously defined - too straight- lined - like their roads .

English is much more adaptable, flexible - and like magpies, we beg borrow steal words from anywhere we roam. But we owe much to the Romans.

I live in Colchester - site of the largest Norman castle ever built in Europe (11th century) - on the foundations of the huge Temple for Emperor Claudius (who passed

our way a 1,000 years earlier).  Roman brickwork can still be seen in the tower of a Saxon church - and in various levels of the medieval walls.

Emperor Constantine did a spell of duty here - before getting fed up with the bad weather (it rains a lot) - and pushing off to split the Roman Empire east/west - founding Constantinople (now known as Istanbul.)

Converted to the Roman Catholic faith - he made it the official Roman Empire religion - and declared his mother was a Saint.  Thus, our town hall has a statue of St Helena atop-

we have a St Helena School and a St Helena Hospice.

Roman remnants are pretty common around here.  And building developments on the garrison site have just uncovered a chariot racing stadium - buried and forgotten for some 1700 years.

And so it goes on - we learn something new every day.

Answer 14

The Romans began to withdraw from Britain in the early 5th century AD.  Then the successive migrations of settlement/waves of invasion by the Anglo-Saxons over the next two hundred years (400-600 AD) pushed the Romano-Britains to the Southwest (Cornwall), West (Wales), and North (Scotland).

The Angles and Saxons spoke a Germanic language, hence, English in structure and syntax is Germanic not a Romance language (derived from Latin).  English, however, does have many words derived from Greek, Latin, and Old French.  Also, some words derived from Old Norse (the language of the Vikings) as a result of Norse invasions and settlements (800-1066 AD).

Answer 15

noone really liked the romans, so they came, enslaved us, left and we carried on as were going before they arrived