h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Romans in Britain: Towns and Villas - A3012409
Author: Elentari - U202814

This is one of a series of entries I'm doing on Roman Britain, which in the long run, I hope to have edited as a series like Atlantic Cable's Sci fi entries (A1132057).

The complete list of my series is:
A Brief history: A2137565
Minerals: A3008666
Pottery: A3012283
Trade and Travel: A3012337
Agriculture: A3012355
Art: A3012364
Towns and Villas: A3012409
Army: A3012481
Forts and Fortresses: A3012517

in case you facy looking at the rest!

I know they may be a bit dry in parts, though I've tried to get rid of the bits that are only of interest to scholars, to make them more readable.

Let me know what you think!

There were more concepts in this part that I had trouble connecting with, perhaps some areas need more explanation.

--Don't need introduction header.
--At a typical bathouses >> At a typical bathouse
--most of them had vaulted roofs as timber would not last long in the wet atmosphere >> Can you explain what you mean by vaulted? I'm not understanding this
--a roof supported by vaults or beams. >> Again, I think there's something lost in translation. To me a vault is a large, walk-in safe like you would find in a bank, and a vaulted roof would be peaked instead of parallel to the floor, so I'm not understanding the concept as you are trying to put it across (could just be me being thick...)
--rebuilt in stone at a later. >> at a later time?
--These were almost always semicircular in construction and were used for plays and religious festivals displays, including acting out religious myths and performing festivals and were found in major towns. >> Huh?
--deities such as Nemesis >> I had no idea Nemesis was a deity! I just thought a nemesis was an adversary, which seems odd if Nemesis was a god of Fate... See, I told you I was still learning stuff
--Access was threw one room to the next >> I'm not sure what this means, but threw should be through.
--may have been use >> may have been used
--rectangular shaped housed >> rectangular-shaped house


Nearly finished! But it's lunchtime, so I'm taking a break

I like this one too.

(Sorry if comments are brief sometimes, but it helps me keep track of them all when there's so many on similar themes)

Hi!

Reading through your series with interest - not found anything that hasn't been mentioned yet until this one.

bathouse >> bathhouse

'Unfortunately, no bath complex survives that is complete enough for us to judge what they looked like, what decoration they had and so on, but we do know that most of them had vaulted roofs as timber would not last long in the wet atmosphere ? this was probably then covered by a tiled roof.'
There is a nearly complete one somewhere in Sussex/Kent - also, because they were fairly standard as to the arrangement, it is fairly reasonable to assume that the ones in Britain looked like and had similar decoration to ones in the rest of the Roman Empire - mosaic or marble floors, painted plaster walls. So I think we have a good idea of what they probably looked like!

A vaulted roof is made with arched ribs of stone to support the stone infill. Most UK cathedrals and some old churches have vaulted stone ceilings for the researcher who can't imagine one.

Temples - The Forum would have a temple.
Even the larger villas would have a temple - or perhaps a shrine.

The large villas were almost self-sufficient (latifundi), and as well as the villa itself there could be many buildings and even a small 'industrial' complex that exploited a particular feature of the area - smelting, pottery, glass-making, (olive-presses - but not in Britain!).
There was one I helped to excavate, near Luton, which had a large swimming pool - if I remember rightly the archaeologist in charge thought it might have been an Inn - the pool was not heated though!


Watermusic

Arghh!

BATHHOUSES - Bath!, of course, Aqua Sulis!!! - there is an entry on Bath somewhere. Don't know what a Roman town bathhouse looked like? - visit Bath - columns, statues, marble basins. The basics are there within the Georgian facades.

Ah! Thanks for the vaulted roof explanation. Same concept, I just don't associate them with being exclusively made of stone (the one in my house certainly isn't - though it's only vaulted about 2 feet). Perhaps it would be worth mentioning that they were vaulted stone roofs to make the advantage over timber more clear .

Thanks again guys. I'm starting to rely on you to spot my mistakes and when things just aren't clear. I shouldn't be but I am!

Phrasing:

were used mainly for gladiator fights (although there is no evidence of gladiator fights in Britain)

This sounds odd. If there is no evidence, how can you state that this is what they were used for?

It would be better as:

were probably used for gladiator fights (although there is no evidence of these in Britain)

h2g2 Style:

AD 100 --> 100 AD

Typos:

At a typical bathouses --> At a typical bathhouse
religious festivals displays --> religious festival displays
is the undoubtedly the --> is undoubtedly the
Neolithic hedge-type monument --> Neolithic henge-type monument
Access was threw one room --> Access was through one room
rectangular shaped housed --> rectangular shaped house

I'm unsure whether it should be Coliseum or Colosseum.

Actually, I think it should probably be "bath-house".

Ok, done. I'm getting there, think I've made the changs on most of them now.

Ok, but I think temples should be mentioned. They would have been as much a feature as a church in a village, especially in a town. Also a town would have a cemetery.

Missed one

--then rebuilt in stone at a later. >> time? Or just later rebuilt in stone?

Hopefully I will be able to get to these changes soon.

Glad you're still working on this!

Jules

OK done. I've made a brief reference to temples and cemetaries in the intro.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratters

Watermusic

This is all going rather well.