Some of my favourite quotes from within the academia:

For Francis Pryor the Roman invasion, rather than bringing civilisation, destroyed a flourishing and resourceful native culture.  I have never been particularly proud of the British empire, but I am proud of being British and of our culture.
I admire our tolerance, our sense of social justice, our humour and our over-arching belief in the individual. Orwell's views were shaped by his time in colonial Burma. Mine have been influenced both by the current terrible situation in Africa - problems that range from Angola to Zimbabwe - and also by my admiration for the ancient Britons and their plight when faced by the might of Rome.

I've often wondered how the ancient Britons felt as the massive Roman fleet approached the shores of Kent. Were they terrified for themselves, their families or their gods? Or all three? I cannot tell, but soon I might be able to ask people who have experienced such horrors at first hand.

In the two centuries before the Roman conquest, the Britons had taken a widespread European art style, known as 'Celtic art', and developed it in a most remarkable way. They produced a series of objects in fine pottery and metalwork that now include some of the most beautiful exhibits in the British Museum.

I'm in no doubt that the style of Celtic art that developed in Britain will prove to be its greatest contribution to world art. But the tragedy is that its headlong, free- fall development was terminated in AD 43 by the dead hand of Rome, a culture where art played second fiddle to the military. Archaeologist: Dr Francis Pryor

AD43 about the time when the Romans arrived in Britain, and if you're an Iron Age expert - spoils everything - I don't like Romans. Archaeologist Dr J.D. Hill.
        
It always amazes me how people can argue that the Roman Empire was a "Good Thing" because it gave us bath-houses and central heating. Who would argue that increases in steel output justified Stalin's labour-camps, or autobahns Hitler's final solution? Yet somehow, amphitheatres, crucifixions and massacres are alright in antiquity if in the end you get nice mosaics.  "You can have  urbanism & classical art without being conquered". Archaeologist: Dr Neil Faulkner, commenting on Vercingetorix and the Roman invasion and conquest of Gaul.

Yet the Romans had double standards; although human sacrifice had ended in Rome a century earlier, gladiatorial games and feeding people to lions were regular sport whilst many thousands of conquered Celts in Gaul were victims of Roman atrocities, such as cutting off their hands and feet and leaving them to die slowly. Accusations of human sacrifice provided the Romans with every excuse for their own unlicensed cruelty. Archaeologist: Dr Julian Richards.

“ I really don’t like the rather cuddly image the Romans have with the general public. We archaeologists are partly to blame and the idea that significant numbers of Britons wanted the invasion doesn’t help. The whole thing was incredibly brutal and was done for  the benefit of Rome not Britain. Re-enactment groups featuring first-century Roman soldiers are popular and informative – rightly so. But what would people think if they chose the Waffen SS instead! I’m not saying that the Romans were like the SS – that’s too simple and melodramatic – I’m just saying that we archaeologists need to try and put our discoveries into a human context where we can. And obviously we shouldn’t take sides either – I don’t like being branded as anti Roman. We should simply try and tell it how it was”. Quote by Dr. Phillip Crummy: The leading Colchester based archaeologist

According to the author Gibbon, "After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid - Claudius, maintained by the most dissolute - Nero, and terminated by the most timid - Domitian of all the emperors, the greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke".

A Roman view of the conquered ancient Britons:
“The following winter [AD 79] was spent in usual statecraft. To make a people which was scattered and barbarous, and therefore prone to warfare, grow accustomed to peace and quietness by way of their pleasures, Agricola used to persuade them by private exhortations and public assistance to build temples, forums, and bath houses, with praise for the eager and admonitions for the laggard”.

“The next step was towards the attraction of our vices, lounging in the colonnades, baths and refined dinner-parties. They were too ignorant to see that what they call civilisation was really a form of slavery”. (Account from the Roman historian/writer Tacitus)
 

© Sheshen Eceni

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