Roman Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Roman Britain - Essay Example Others historians evidence the long-term effect of the Roman presence in Britain for three and a half centuries. Client kingdoms were established to speed up the process of Romanisation, whilst units of the army (legions and auxiliaries) were put in place at intervals to defend the frontiers from outside attack and to look inwards as ‘police forces’ and to act in the role of a ‘pioneer corps’ 2. Caesar’s incursions and Claudius’ invasion saw many successful changes in the relationship between Rome and the British tribes, which were largely based upon the inescapable fact that neither side could afford to ignore the other. Rome wanted at least a balance of pro- and anti-Roman forces in southern Britain, if for no other reason than to sustain conditions which would allow unimpeded progress towards Romanisation. Client kings were appointed or dismissed at the whim of the current emperor. The institution provides a good illustration of Rome’s traditional readiness to adapt to circumstances. Usually the king’s task was to form a buffer between Roman territory and potential enemies; within the borders of the imperial, however, he might be appointed to rule areas whose terrain made them difficult to police, as in Cilicia in Asia Minor, where a mountainous area known as Rough Cilicia seems to have been administered by client-kings through most of the Julio-Claudian period 3. Rome’s interest in these outer barbarian lands was confined at this time to the safety of their new province. The practice, continued from an earlier period, had been to seek protection of frontiers through friendly states. A special arrangement under the Roman method of patronage visualised the creation or recognition of kingdoms, the rulers of which had a client relationship with the Senate and people of Rome and, after Augustus, with the Emperors. It was the primary duty of the client rulers to prevent people beyond the frontier from