This Roman-style villa was opened to the public in 2008 near the village of Borg in Saarland, northwest Germany. Similar reconstructions have been made in Britain, for example at Wroxeter and at Butser Ancient Farm, but not on so lavish a scale, nor do they yet have the ‘terraces ornamented with vases and statuary’ and ‘spacious gardens of fruits and flowers’ mentioned by Montgomery. See Villa Borg for more pictures.
Part 1 of 2
YET the whole fabric was as hollow and false as it was splendid. Civilisation, like truth, cannot be forced on minds unwilling or unable to receive it. Least of all can it be forced by the sword’s point and the taskmaster’s lash. In order to render his victories on the continent secure, Caesar had not hesitated to butcher thousands of prisoners of war or to cut off the right hands of the entire population of a large settlement to prevent them from rising in revolt.
The policy pursued in Britain, though very different, was equally heartless and equally fatal. There was indeed an occasional ruler who endeavoured to act justly, but such cases were rare. Galgacus, a leader of the North Britons, said with truth of the Romans, ‘They give the lying name of Empire to robbery and slaughter; they make a desert and call it peace.’*
Attributed by Tacitus in ‘Agricola’ §30 to Calgacus (or Galgacus), a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy in the AD 80s. Calgacus led his men against the Romans under Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius, which took place somewhere in northern Scotland in AD 84. Despite their victory, the Romans never firmly established government so far north. Calgacus is referring to a slogan much beloved of the Roman authorities, ‘Peace and security’, which a close contemporary of his, St Paul, also regarded as empty words: see 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
Précis
American historian David Montgomery claimed that the civilisation brought to Britain by the Roman Empire was largely a facade, albeit a splendid one, because it was enforced by Government rather than willingly adopted. He quoted the words of Calgacus, the Caledonian tribal leader, who complained that the Romans dignified with the name of peace something that was merely frightened subjection. (60 / 60 words)
Part Two
These reconstructions of Iron-age farm dwellings may be found at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire. The Romans used more sophisticated building techniques and materials for their town houses and country villas, but for the average British labourer nothing much changed. As Montgomery indicates, that is what happens when prosperity trickles down from Government rather than flooding out from enterprise.
IT is true that the chief cities of Britain were exempt from oppression. They elected their own magistrates and made their own laws, but they enjoyed this liberty because their inhabitants were either Roman soldiers or their allies.
Outside these cities the great mass of the native population were bound to the soil, while a large proportion of them were absolute slaves. Their work was in the brick fields, the quarries, the mines, or in the ploughed land, or the forest. Their homes were wretched cabins plastered with mud, thatched with straw, and built on the estates of masters who paid no wages.
The masters lived in stately villas adorned with pavements of different colored marbles and beautifully painted walls. These country-houses, often as large as palaces, were warmed in winter, like our modern dwellings, with currents of heated air, while in summer they opened on terraces ornamented with vases and statuary, and on spacious gardens of fruits and flowers.*
Montgomery’s remarks continue with Rome, Ruin and Revenue.
Précis
Montgomery illustrated the deceptiveness of Roman civilisation in Britain by contrasting the country estates and surprisingly modern villas enjoyed by wealthy urban dwellers (mostly Roman military veterans and their friends) with the wattle-and-daub huts of the conquered Britons, who worked for their Continental masters for little or no pay. (49 / 60 words)
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