Jack的小留学生日记 l 英国历史

智澳教育是英国克利夫顿学院特许认可的

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这期想跟大家聊聊罗马的那些事儿——

 

公元68年，罗马帝国爆发危机：当时在位的帝国皇帝尼禄（Nero）因残暴嗜杀，罔顾国政，被视为“国家公敌”，宫中元老贵族判了他的死刑，导致了他在逃亡途中自杀。他的死亡让罗马出现了权力真空，之后一年内（公元69年）相继产生了四位皇帝，这一年也被称为四帝之年。这段时期的罗马帝国政局动荡，民不聊生，罗马不列颠北部边界遭受外部入侵。维斯帕先（Vespasian，统治罗马期间为69年—79年）作为四帝之年的最后一位皇帝赢得了内战并重新巩固了帝国政权，稳定了混乱局势。公元78年担任不列颠总督的阿格里科拉（公元40—93年的罗马将领，见下图）奉命出征，首先征服了威尔士。

 

随后，他巧妙解决了不列颠北部布里甘特的问题（Brigantes, 现今的利物浦和曼彻斯特到诺森伯兰郡），迫使布里甘特人屈服于罗马。公元85年，他在苏格兰取得了格劳皮乌斯山战役的胜利，罗马因此得以扩大疆域并加强了对英国的控制， 这意味着几乎整个英国（除苏格兰部分地区外）都在罗马的控制之下。但是在大获全胜的第二年，阿格里科拉准备继续北上收服时，被迫卸任归家，因多疑的图密善皇帝不允许边疆总督有更大的功绩。接任的不列颠总督们发现征服苏格兰地区的付出要高于回报（因地势复杂且资源匮乏），渐渐地他们放弃了对苏格兰地区的征服。

 

想要真正让不列颠岛的人们归顺于罗马，直接武力征服不仅需要大量人力和财力，也不见得他们会真心服从。因此，罗马人通过让不列颠城市化以及本土精英对成为罗马人的渴望推动了不列颠罗马化的进程。随着罗马化的发展，罗马人在当地建立了公共浴池。有机会使用罗马浴的会被看作是文明人，否则是野蛮人。文明人可以阅读新引入的拉丁语和希腊语的文学经典作品，以炫耀自己的才智；还可以用罗马帝国其他行省运输过来的东西以炫耀自己的阶级特权，这使罗马最终能够将当地精英收入麾下。当然这些不列颠人与真正的罗马贵族并不在同一个阶层。这一点，可以由阿格里科拉的著作中看到一些端倪，他说，“在英国，我们的着装风格受到了罗马文化的影响，宽外袍（下图里人物的着装）变得时髦起来。但这些英国人是如此的愚昧无知，他们为这被奴役的文明而沾沾自喜。”

 

（现位于英格兰巴斯的古罗马浴场）

 

在新建的居住区中，罗马人建造了浴室和寺庙，所需花销几乎全部由当地人缴税来支付。居住区分四种类型：首先是Coloniae，（即今天英国的林肯郡Lincoln），这是当时的主要政治、经济活动中心，定居着威望极高的退伍军人和家境优渥的罗马公民。其次是Municipias，主要容纳非罗马公民。再其次是Civitates，指Corinium（即今天的格洛斯特郡Gloucestershire）等小型城镇，是受罗马教化的战俘聚集地。最后是Vici，这是一个很小的定居点，主要人口是商人，这些商人经常在罗马军团驻防地附近徘徊，以从与军队的交易中受益。尽管商人地位得到承认，但罗马不列颠的大多数人还是以农民的身份生活在农村地区，他们的生活并没有发生太大变化，唯一的变化是可以在邻近的大城市出售多余的农作物。

 

在征服英国后的几十年里，罗马皇帝们对英国罗马化和城市化所做出的努力简直有着天壤之别，但是哈德良皇帝（Hadrian，公元117年—138年在位）作为古罗马五贤帝之一，为促进英国发展做出了巨大贡献。他于公元122年访问英国，下令投入大量财力发展隆迪尼恩（Londinium），并尝试排干沼泽地里的水，使其利于耕种。当然，他留给历史最著名的是哈德良长城，该墙在历时六年的建造期后于公元128年完工。请注意，大家对于这堵墙可能有些误解：首先这不是现今英格兰和苏格兰之间的边界；其次，这不是一堵城墙，不是为了把所有人拒之门外，而是用于商人进入时收取税款。

 

在整个罗马时期，不列颠岛一直都有三个以上的罗马军团驻扎着，总计大概有15,000名士兵，这意味着罗马从未完全控制不列颠的英国人。公元193年，罗马再次爆发了政权危机，“五帝之年”（一年内出现了5位皇帝争夺者）的到来标志着晚期罗马帝国的开始。 

Jack

 

英文版

It’s the year 68 AD, and a crisis and emerged in the Roman Empire. The current Emperor Nero was crazy and deemed the enemy of Rome, which subsequently lead to his suicide. This left a massive power gap in Rome and the next year, known as the Year of the Four Emperors shockingly saw four emperors in the space of a year and it plunged the Empire into chaos. Whist the Empire fell into said crisis, the Brigantes territory collapsed with the northern border of Roman Britain subjected to intense raiding. This chaos was finally put to an end when Vespasian won the civil war in Rome and reunited the empire. The return of stability led to a lot of reinforcements over the holdings in Britain and in the late seventies, Rome was able to expand their control over the island in part due to Agricola the newly appointed governor of Britannia in 77 AD. He first defeated and conquered the Brigantes (the area from nowadays Liverpool and Manchester up to Northumberland) and also led several more expeditions which led to the advancements into Caledonia winning many victories, especially at the Battle of Mons Graupious in nowadays Scotland. This means that almost all of Britain is under Roman control but after Agricola was recalled back to Rome in 85 AD, Caledonia shifted broke off from Roman influence.

Because straight on conquering requires lots of manpower and capital, the Romans corporation of Britannia was achieved via urbanisation and the desire of the native elites to become Roman - Romanisation. With Romanisation, the public baths the Romans built allowed those who used them to distinguish themselves from the unwashed barbarians, from outside the empire, the newly introduced Latin and Greek literary classics could be read to show off one’s intelligence, and the new imported goods from the rest of the empire could be worn to show off wealth as well. This makes Rome finally able to incorporate the local elites into their empire, though they did not seem as equals. This can be displayed by the writer Tacitus who was Agricola’s son-in-law. In his writings, he said that within the British, a “Liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the toga became fashionable. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation when it was but a part of their servitude.”

In the newly established settlements, the Romans built the baths and temples, they were almost paid for by the native elites, not the emperor nor the Roman government. As far as these settlements go, there are four types of them. First is Coloniae, modern-day Lincoln, which were the high-status wealthy centres, which were where military veterans and Roman citizens were settled. Lower down are the Municipias, which housed primarily non-Roman citizens; and then next are Civitates which are small urban centres such as Corinium, which are romanised settlements of conquered people.

Finally, there’s the Vici, which re tiny settlements primarily made up of traders which often sprang up around Roman garrisons to benefit from trading with the army. Though granted, most of the population of Roman Britain lived in rural areas as farmers and their lives didn’t change much other that there is a bigger urban market to sell their excess crops.

The amount of effort put into Romanising and Urbanising Britain vary greatly over the decades, but one emperor who put a great deal of effort into promoting development was Hadrian, who actually visited Britain in the year 122 AD. Hadrian paid for development in Londinium with money from Rome and also attempted to drain the fens, an area of swampland, to make it more arable. But of course, what he is most famous for is the building of Hadrian’s Wall, which finished its construction in 128 AD, six years after its beginning. Note that there are a couple of misconceptions about this wall; one being that it’s not the border between modern-day England and Scotland, and secondly, it’s no a wall to keep everyone out, but collect taxes from traders when they enter.

The fact that throughout the Roman period, Britain was never home to less than three Roman legions, roughly 15,000 men shows that Rome never fully pacified Britannia’s population. However, Back in Rome, a crisis arose again in 192 AD, only two emperors after Hadrian, and came the Year of the Five Emperors, which marks the beginning of the Late Roman Empire.

Tune in next time for more!

 

Jack

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