The basic design
The forum consisted of an open piazza surrounded on three sides by a covered portico, behind which were commercial buildings. The fourth side was formed by the basilica, the most imposing building in Roman-Britain [131]. The basilica had a central nave flanked by one or two aisles, and occasionally an external portico. At one end, a raised dais provided an area for public pronouncements and hearings. The curia, one of the rooms flanking the outer aisle, hosted meetings of the town council, and other rooms stored census and taxation archives, and records of judicial decisions. The basic design was later adapted for use in Christian churches.
Reconstruction painting of the forum-basilica at Viroconium Cornoviorum. The complex, dedicated c. 129-30 under Hadrian, was one of the last major public building projects in Britain and replaced an uncompleted baths. The forum was destroyed by fire c. 165-85, but was rebuilt. By the end of the third century, the complex had been destroyed, and commercial activity seems to have removed to the adjacent derelict baths site.
Surviving fragments show that Silchester’s basilica had Tuscan features carved in Bath stone, while Caerwent’s had Corinthian ornamentation. A bronze eagle found at Silchester must once have formed part of a statue group, perhaps depicting an imperial figure or deity. The bronze bust of Hadrian (see [ 133]) probably came from a fullsized statue that was originally displayed in London’s
Forum. A third-century statue base from Caerwent has an inscription commemorating the legionary legate at nearby Caerleon, and probably once stood in the forum piazza or basilica.
Size
The range of sizes is considerable; each building was usually in proportion to the size of the town it served. Caerwent’s piazza was one of the smallest at 1,023 sq m (11,011 sq ft), whereas London’s complex was monumental at 27,772 sq m (298,937 sq ft). Its basilica was the largest building in Roman Britain, and towered some 28 m (92 ft) above the ground. Silchester’s piazza, at 1,720 sq m (18,514 sq ft), was more typical.
Date
Two forum-basilica inscriptions have survived. St Albans’ inscription records a dedication from c. 79, during the governorship of Agricola, and Wroxeter’s commemorates the dedication under Hadrian in the name of the civitas Cornoviorum. Between them, the pair span most of the period in which all Romano-British forum-basilicas were built. However, Silchester had an earlier timber version, later covered in stone. London had a forum and basilica by 7585, which was demolished when a much larger version was built around it. Erecting these structures was expensive and onerous, as London’s second complex shows. Work began c. 100 and lasted at least 25 years, with clear evidence of running repairs and cessation of labour. A fragment from an Antonine inscription found in Winchester may be from a basilica. If so, this may Extend the period of forum and basilica building in Britain (see Chapter 3, ‘Settling the north’).
Later history
Despite their essential role in the administration of Romano-British towns, the later fate of the forum-basilicas was very different. London’s Hadrianic complex, possibly never finished, was demolished by c. 300. By the mid-third century, Silchester’s forum was being used by metalworkers and other industries, as was Caerwent’s before being demolished c. 390. Cirencester’s remained in use, as did Exeter’s, where the basilica was given a new floor after c. 378, though it, too, had been demolished within a generation.
Seeing basilicas and fora
Today the best-preserved basilica and forum is at Caerwent, where the remains have been exposed to public view [ 132]. Part of the rear wall of Lincoln’s basilica has survived and is known as ‘the Mint Wall’. However, the best impression of a Romano-British basilica can be gained by visiting the late Roman churches in Italy, especially in Rome or Ravenna.
132. Caerwent (Monmouthshire).
Remains of the forum and basilica at the civitas capital of Caerwent (Venta Silurum), the only such complex visible in Britain today. Despite Caerwent’s very small size it still had the key administrative features of a Roman town.
URBAN GOVERNMENT
Towns functioned as organs of Roman local government and administration, each varying slightly according to local traditions, precedents and laws, but all modelled on Rome. The town senate, or council (ordo), was made up of 100 representatives drawn from the local community, each of whom had to satisfy a property qualification to serve as a decurion. In colonies, this was fairly straightforward. In the civitas capitals, it was less so. Since conquest had by definition removed from everyone any right to property, the only way of including members of the local tribal elite was to return it. Togidubnus, as a reward for his loyalty, had ‘certain states’ handed over to him in his capacity as client king. Small-scale awards of this kind must have made sure that local councils were packed with the right people. As so often in Roman Britain, what we know about local government officials comes from the military north, in this case the colonies. Thus we have Flavius Bellator, the York decurion, and Aurelius Senecio, the Lincoln decurion. Another is known from Gloucester, so all were probably military veterans.13 The decuriones of the civitas capitals further south are unknown to us, largely because of the failure of the indigenous population to produce surviving inscriptions.
The council met in the curia, part of the forum-basilica complex. Here cases, pleas, petitions and other problems were heard, and decisions made on the erection of public monuments, honorific dedications, and so on. Sometimes the governor and his staff arrived to hear cases that required his judgment. This may explain the reference to a soldier on his staff at Winchester as a beneficiarius consularis.14 There was a constant stream of traffic as soldiers and civilian officials arrived, either to deal with business locally or to pass through to other places. Partly to service their needs, towns had mansiones, which functioned as inns or staging posts, where accommodation was provided for travellers on government service. The system was called the cursus publicus, and had been created by Augustus to expedite official business. A mansio (see [145]) resembled a very large house, but with extended bathing facilities and accommodation for horses. Wroxeter and Silchester have buildings that can be identified as mansiones, but all major and many minor towns had one.
Most of the decrees made in the basilica were recorded in council archives that no longer exist. Only very occasionally do the results of their decisions survive. At Caerwent, not long before 220, a decision was made to Honour the commanding officer of the II legion, Tiberius Claudius Paulinus, with a statue. Its base survives, preserving the formula of the decision: ex decreto ordinis respublica civitatis Silurum, ‘by decree of the council, the civitas administration of the Silures (set this up)’.15
The town council executed most of its decisions through a variety of magistracies, also based on those at Rome and therefore appointed in pairs to restrict the chance of any one man becoming too powerful or corrupt. The duoviri iuridicundo was the senior pair, responsible for the operation of the council, dispensing local justice and organizing religious festivals. The aediles were principally responsible for maintaining public buildings and services, and entertainments. The quaestores took care of local taxation and expenditure, using records compiled by the censitor. Various lesser officials about whom we know virtually nothing in Britain, but who must have existed because they did elsewhere in the Empire, were responsible for tasks such as repairing and maintaining public buildings.
The evidence for these magistracies in Britain is tiny, but sufficiently random to suggest that the main problem is lack of evidence. Flavius Martius was a senator in the canton of the Carvetii, at Old Penrith, in a remote pocket of civilian administration in the military north. His tombstone says that he took this position ‘after a quaestorship. He is the only example of a quaestor from Roman Britain. Marcus Ulpius Januarius from Brough-on-Humber is the only instance of an aedile serving in a town which may have been a cantonal capital. Appropriately to his position, he had between 140 and 161 dedicated a new stage for the town theatre, which is not otherwise attested [138] .16
Inscription from Petuaria dedicating a new stage (proscaenium) for the theatre, provided by the aedile, Marcus Ulpius Januarius, sometime between 140 and 161. No trace of the building has ever been found.
Civic elections were held for all these offices. Towns were divided into wards, in which ballots were held, supervised by men drawn from other wards who had taken oaths that they would officiate with honesty. Candidates had to be 25 years of age or over, and in the case of a duovir could not have held the post for five years. Office holders in towns of provincial status, like cantonal capitals or municipia, could sometimes be rewarded with Roman citizenship at the end of their tenure. This was clearly offered as a device to encourage integration into the Roman system.
Elsewhere in the Empire, wealthy men, or men who wished to become wealthier and more popular, commonly endowed their communities with facilities like theatres, temples and entertainments, and recorded their generosity on dedicatory inscriptions. These are common finds around the Mediterranean countries. They show how individuals and their families could dominate local politics and offices. Britain, along with several other northwest provinces, is remarkable for the conspicuous shortage of such evidence. The inscriptions might simply not have survived, but this is difficult to accept. Britain’s inscriptions are so biased to the military zone
That it seems the indigenous and civilian population did not commission honorific inscriptions. Towns without a military presence, like St Albans, have produced almost no inscriptions of any sort. Conversely, London, York and Lincoln, with large military and veteran populations, have produced inscriptions in relative abundance. Even in these towns, civilian examples, such as Brough’s Marcus Ulpius Januarius, are few or non-existent, making him extremely unusual, although his name and location suggest that he was a military veteran or the freedman of a soldier. Perhaps in Britain the resources did not exist for individuals to be quite so generous, and the state had to step in. No member of the indigenous Romano-British population is ever recorded as having accumulated enough wealth to reach senatorial or equestrian status at Rome, even though many Gauls reached this position. However, Britons seem rarely to have commissioned inscriptions for any purpose, even those who lived in other provinces. This either means they rarely held office or, if they did, few of them were inclined to record that fact.
In the fourth century, urban public building had ended, apart from defensive works. At the same time, some of the rural villas had entered a period of extravagant investment in extensions, elaborate baths, expensive mosaics and other embellishments [ 139]. Assuming that villas were lived in by the decurial classes, it seems that the urban elite had turned their backs on the towns, ceasing to contribute to public buildings or any other urban improvements (if they ever had), instead spending their money on townhouses and private country estates. The houses testify to the availability of funds. Alternatively, perhaps the decurial class now controlled urban and cantonal affairs from their townhouses and villas, where ostentatious decoration and facilities provided a suitable backdrop for a new type of local government, based on individual prestige and influence.
Fourth-century mosaic from the villa at Bignor, possibly depicting Venus. Villa owners invested heavily in their rural seats, but seem to have spent little or nothing on public works.
World History
