THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN 



additional protection. No doubt the houses had a fairly 

 large number of rooms, in some cases they had two sets of 

 apartments, for summer and winter respectively. The 

 floors of the rooms were often handsomely decorated with 

 well blended mosaics, no doubt they resembled those found 

 at Pompeii. Many very beautiful patterns have been 

 found at Silchester, Woodchester and the Isle of Wight. 

 There are traces of extensive iron works in Gloucester- 

 shire and Herefordshire, also mines of tin, lead and copper 

 in Somersetshire, Northumberland, Worcestershire and 

 Essex. 



The importance of religion is very apparent. The 

 worship of Caesar was regarded politically as the bond of 

 imperial unity. The Romans were very, very tolerant of 

 the different forms of religion. The reason that 

 Christianity came into conflict with the Romans was that 

 they would not pay tribute to the Roman Emperor. 

 While Druidism as an institution had died out some time 

 before, it would seem that some local worship remained, 

 and there were other forms of worship — the worship of 

 gods and goddesses, and the mysticism of the eastern 

 religion — a kind of purified sun-worship which took its 

 origin in Persia, it really proved a rival to Christianity. 

 Christianity was probably introduced from France or Gaul 

 during the third centur}^. The ofiicial class was the very 

 last to accept Christianity. Distinctly Christian symbols 

 have been found inscribed on tablets in churches, and 

 sometimes in the stone work of buildings. Remains of 

 Roman- British Christianity are supposed to be seen in the 

 bricks built into St. Martin's Church, Canterbury, also in 

 a church at Dover, and again at Brix worth. In all 

 probability the early civilization showed considerable 

 material prosperity and a fairly high level of culture and 

 refinement, but Britain never reached the level of some of 

 the other Roman provinces. 



