Julius Caesar came to Britain in 54

Julius Caesar came to Britain in 54 BC. A hundred years later the Romans came again, and this time they stayed for four hundred years (43 AD until 410 AD).
When the Romans came to Britain, they found it a land of forest and swamp. In order to move their troops rapidly, they made roads. Camps for soldiers were constructed at road junc­ tions. These sites of old Roman camps became centres of trade. Their houses and roads, castles and theatres can still be seen. f
There are many examples of Roman influence, it is evident in names of towns ending with: -caster,-chister,because “castrum” in Latin denoted a fort, and “castra” — a camp. The Romans were fond of warm water baths, and the city of Bath owes its origin to the possession of naturally warmed spring.
The Romans didn’t need carpets — they had central heat­ ing under the floors of their houses. So they decorated their floors with mosaics. The mosaic of a dancing girl was found in a Roman villa in Susses. It is over 1,700 years old.
One of the oldest buildings of the Roman period is the lighthouse, or Pharos, at Dover.
When the Romans had departed (in 410 BC) the English swept over the country and destroyed almost all the civilization which Rome had established. The Anglo-Saxons disliked liv­ ing in towns. They lived in small agricultural villages, and in houses mainly built of wood.
In the 11th century England was invaded by the Normans. This was the fifth and the last invasion of England. The Norman invasion changed both the history and the language of Britain.
When King Edward the Confessor* of England died, he had no sons, and the Anglo-SaxonEarl, Harold was chosen to the throne. William, the Duke of Normandy who was a distant relative of the late king also claimed the English throne. In 1066 he began to gather an army to invade Britain. At the end of September William’s army set up a camp at Hastings. He promised land to all who would support him and many Englishmen joined his army. William also asked the Roman Pope forhis support promising to strengthen his power over England. And the Pope gave his support.
The battle between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxonstook place on the 11th of October 1066 at Hastings. The Normans outnumbered theAnglo-Saxonforces and were bet­ ter armed. TheAnglo-Saxonhad a small cavalry mainly Harold’s bodyguard, and were poorly armed.
The battle lasted all day. The English fought hard but by late afternoon the Normans were winning. Harold’s two brothers died fighting and then Harold was killed. The battle ended, the English forces withdrew. William became King of England, and because he conquered England he is called William the Conqueror.
The Norman invaders brought with them Norman archi­ tecture (you can still see a number of Norman churches and castles), and the Norman-Frenchlanguage, which over the years mixed withAnglo-Saxonto form the modem English language.Two thousand years before the Romans came to Britain the ancient inhabitants started building Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The newest parts of it werebuilt in about 1400 BC — more than three thousand years ago. It is the oldest of Britain’s famous monuments. Nobody knows exactly what it was, or who built it, but it must have taken them a very long time. Huge stones weighing up to 30 tons were brought from hills 20 miles away and the smaller ones 200 miles from Wales. Archaeologists used to think that Stonehenge was just a temple for religious ceremonies. Some people say it was a kind of clock, or calendar for working out the movements of the sun and the moon.
If Stonehenge and the many smaller stone circles in Britain and France really are calendars, we have to change our ideas about ancient people. They weren’t primitive or ignorant as it is sometimes assumed