Roman villas in northwestern Gaul

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Roman villas in northwestern Gaul (modern France) functioned as colonial economic centers. Most villas did not resemble the luxurious, aristocratic country retreats of the Mediterranean region. Their owners were absentee investors (or the emperor himself), managed by local Gauls whose families were rewarded after the Gallo-Roman wars.

It is difficult for archeologists to define a villa; the recovered residences varied in size and style (often determined by economic function). However, all sites designated as "villas" contain Roman architectural elements found in homes (such as mosaics, porticos, columns and square grounds plans).

At first the new Roman masters physically changed very little in Gaul, simply refining the rural economic system in an already intensely farmed landscape. These refinements took the form of technological improvements and enhancing the economic structure (which included the transport of goods and raw materials to larger markets).

Gauls (Celts)

The Gauls (Celts who lived in Gaul) were a culture rather than a race, nation or empire. They were skilled in metalworking and cattle-raising. The culture began to dominate France around 800 BCE, replacing the existing culture (but not the people).

Map of Europe, in two shades of green
Celts in the third century BC

The Celtic landscape resembled a countryside, with open fields instead of woods; however, Celtic fields were smaller (often square). More fields were used for pasture than for crops because of the need for cattle, sheep and forage. The Gauls intensely managed the forest for wood and forest products; the Romans enhanced the system without dramatically altering it.[1]

hamlets were denser in the countryside during the Roman period; the population (equal to that at the time of Louis XIV) was about 20 million.[2] At this time, Roman Britain's population of four to six million equaled later-medieval numbers.[3] Homes were better constructed than most houses built during the Middle Ages; they were built with local materials: timber uprights with plaited wicker, coated with clay, straw, and animal hair.[4]

Roman conquest and colonization

conquest of Gaul from 57 to 52 BCE at the invitation of Gauls in Marseille, who asked the Romans to come to their defense.[5]

Small house with large, overhanging pitched roof
Pre-Roman Gaul home

The Romans occupied and managed their empire with a minimum of administrators, no

taxes and kept the peace, life did not change much during the early centuries of occupation.[6]

The primary early-Roman modifications were technological improvements and links to a

oxen
, and had three parts:

  • Coulter: Knife-like vertical iron blade
  • Ploughshare
    : Blade which cut horizontally through grass roots
  • Mouldboard
    : Turned the soil to one side

The results of these innovations were longer fields (suitable for large estates) and population growth (with the additional food produced).[7]

Drawing of simple, two-wheeled plow
Wheeled plough from the Roman Empire

Roman investors (possibly living in

columns and other typically Roman features). This romanitas was the passport to a new world of consumer goods, prestige and advancement: urban luxury in the countryside.[8]

Locations

Originally, historians believed Roman villas to be primarily near urban centers and major roads; their view of the villas stressed their economic autonomy, since transport over land was expensive and slow (even with the improvement of Roman roads throughout Gaul).

Today, scholars believe that the villas were linked to a broader empire economy through a system of secondary (and tertiary) Roman roads. These roads were sometimes built (or maintained) by villa owners, especially if the road crossed an owner's land. Owners often hired

labourers for the work.[9]

Villa sites were places of previous occupation over hundreds (and possibly thousands) of years to reuse stone, water sources, raw materials and transportation links (roads and

waterways).[10] In pre-Roman Gaul, tribal areas were divided into parcels approximately the size of a parish (pagi). Each pagus usually had a village at its center, and sometimes Iron Age settlements relocated closer to a Roman road.[11]

An adequate water source was the primary site-location factor for a villa. Deep

watermills and (eventually) baths, the Roman indicator of a fully civilized life.[12]

Types

Archaeologists have had difficulties defining villas, since there were a number of local, regional and functional variations. Villa sizes ranged from two rooms to several acres (for rambling houses). The word "villa" sometimes refers to an architectural style with residential, urban Roman features such as porticos and columns.[13][14]

Most villas were food-production operations made up of cultivated fields,

amphorae and delicate ceramics were carried across North Africa (causing archeologists to reconsider ancient logistics).[17]

Although Romans used

Rhone River, it is unknown if the same system was used on the smaller rivers of Lower Normandy. Right-of-way would need to be secured by the state, and a clear riverside track would need to be maintained.[18]

Some Roman villas engaged in industrial production in addition to food and other essentials. These included:[19]

All villas paid predetermined income and inheritance taxes (tributum) in cash. Materials sold to the army (most commonly leather and corn), were processed on-site. The results were then sent through the empire's posting stations (mansion) to the northern frontier.[22] All industrial villas bought food, iron for tools, wood and other materials locally, hiring local labor.[22]

Labor

tenant farmers working for villas were common as well.[23] The primary source of slaves was war, but abandoned-property owners were also rounded up and treated as slaves.[24]

Slaves were considered expensive assets, and treated accordingly. Sometimes several hundred slaves served a medium-sized villa. They were treated as thinking, self-motivated “instruments” with a variety of skills. Owners were firm but tolerant, admonishing and encouraging with small rewards. Women specialized in a number of jobs:

weavers and laundresses.[25]

Relief wall sculpture of three slaves collared together
Roman slaves and free laborers were used on villa estates.

After periods of political upheaval, a father's job legally bound his son to the same work.

tutors and rent them out. The emperor's slaves were insiders in the wealth system, and could become wealthy themselves.[26]

By the end of the second century BCE, 80 percent of the population consisted of emancipated slaves or their descendants. After the wars of expansion, as the slave pool dried up villas converted to tenant or employed laborers. By the end of the empire most slaves worked in domestic service as the owners’ private staff, rather than as laborers on the estates.[26]

Architecture

Over five centuries, the villa took on many forms. It sometimes began as a simple cottage, which became embedded in a complex of additions; large investor colonial villas were also designed and built, fully formed. Near the empire's end, villas became smaller and more numerous.[27]

The classic great villa consisted of a main house with a

attics for storage.[28]

Although

hypocausts (under-floor hot air from fires beneath the house). The venting ran up the walls of the villa, emptying under the roof eaves. This source of venting made the home appear to be on fire because of the smoke billowing from the roof edges and walls.[29]

refractory brick, which allowed heat to be gradually released into an adjoining room (a library, study or storage room for drying split wood or wine being artificially aged). Kitchen ceilings were high, again to reduce the fire risk.[30][31]

)

Lavatories were used in towns, but not at villas since trees provided privacy. Rubbish was discarded out the window or into pits.[30] Walls (interior and exterior) and columns might be painted in bright colors, such as red, purple, brown or white. Roof tiles could be a bright sky-blue from the clay-baking process. Painted wall murals rarely survive, but were popular.[32]

At least one

Furniture was sparse by modern standards: a cupboard, sideboard and an occasional table were set along the walls, and brought out when needed. Beds were simple frames. During the late empire, dining was on reclining couches set in threes. Most rooms were square, with chairs and a small table.[32] Increased wealth was spent not on more furniture, but better-quality pieces.[33]

The most distinct structure at the villa was the

oil lamps. Some lamps had multiple wicks, providing more light but consuming more olive oil. An oil lamp was capable of burning for 40 to 50 hours.[33]

On the outside of the villa, hinged wooden shutters protected windows. Walls were rendered or exposed timber and frame. Roofs were made from

Most villas had an aisled barn (rarely two), storing equipment and produce rather than animals. Archeologists have found evidence in these barns of corn drying, metalwork and communal kitchens. The barns may have been partitioned, since workers often slept where they worked.[38]

Religion

Roman villas illustrate the Christianization of Europe, since the country villa served as "pieces of cities broken off" and Christianity originated as an urban religion.[39] The Galois aristocrats benefited from conversion by closer ties to Rome (and the emperor's family) after Constantine's conversion. Roman culture was flexible, so a multicultural blend (or sympathetic intermingling) was usually the result with many villas religiously ambiguous.[40] The local peasants (and their pagan traditions) were ignored; pre-Roman religious sites evolved into Roman cult sites and (later) Christian pilgrimage destinations.[41] Because the church kept all records throughout the fall of Rome and the Middle Ages, historians have little information about local non-Christian beliefs.[41]

Since historians only know in general terms about

nature gods and goddesses for war, thunder, trees and youth. Earth goddesses were Divona (water), Onuava (earth) and Epona (horses and fertility).[43]

Villa managers and owners were dependent on local labor. The aristocrats paid lip service to country life with its sturdy virtues, health and innocent pleasures; however, they also felt disdain (mingled with fear) for

pagan temples in high-villa-density areas by their distinctive square shape (with over 40 in Picardy alone).[45]

Evolution and decline

As the central empire declined, villas became more self-sufficient and less part of a larger market economy. At the same time, a greater number of smaller villas appeared, exhibiting Roman culture and values. As Rome waned, the provinces waxed at first.[46][47]

From 235 AD (the death of Emperor

barbarian invasions pillaging the countryside. These outsiders sensed the disorganization of the Imperial armies on the frontier, and took advantage of the power vacuum:[48]

The whole region between the Alps and the Pyrenees, the ocean and the Rhine was devastated.
The Quadi, the Vandals, the Sarmati, the Alani, the Gepidae, the Herul, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Alemanni and Pannonians.
O wretched Empire.

Roman rulers debased the currency to pay the armies, creating enormous inflation. Arbitrary requisitions on rural population caused many to flee the anarchic conditions.[48] Beginning in the early fourth century, more villas appeared to be uninhabited; coins and datable pottery become rare in the archaeological record. The market economy survived, unpredictably, in some parts of Gaul. During this time, archaeologists have found more wooden, temporary construction on villa grounds; some villas added fortifications.[51]

A recent, nuanced view is that although massacre sites at villas have been found, most barbarian newcomers arrived with

Pollen analyses for this period found no drop in crops, indicating that the population largely remained in place and sustained itself.[52][53]
The whole region between the Alps and the Pyrenees, the ocean and the Rhine suffered considerable damage. It took some decades to recover, however Gaul even in the north recovered some of its prosperity especially in the southern half of the country where numerous massive villas are attested. The beginning of the end of Roman Gaul came as a result of the invasions of tribes in 407 who eventually went to Spain in 409. However, the failure to control or remove the Visigoths in the southwest, the Burgundians in Savoy and the Franks in Belgium resulted in the end of Roman control post 455 (the assassination of Valentinian III opened the flood gates).

In 472-475 CE, the Roman Empire lost control of its remaining provinces in southern Gaul to the Visigoths. In the north the last rulers claiming to be Roman were defeated by the Franks in 486. In 470 CE a mass migration to Brittany from Britain occurred.[54] There was continuity from the Roman villa culture and economy.[55]

Modern era

The size and shape of Roman estates did not change from Roman to Frankish occupation;

monasteries; churches often occupied villa sites in the countryside as well.[57]

The suffix "-

agglomerations in France began to acquire names. The prefix ville indicates a rural name; the suffix usually occurred in urban names (meaning the domain of a family's name). Most of this naming was done between the 10th and 11th centuries.[58]

A good way to see Roman Gaul is from the sky. Fields may be seen in a rectangular system, with walls and foundations evident. However, without an archeological dig it is often difficult to date artifacts.[59]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. ^ Yorke 2001, p. 11.
  3. ^ Yorke 2001, p.7.
  4. ^ Yorke 2001, p. 19.
  5. .
  6. .
  7. .
  8. .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. .
  12. .
  13. ^ York 2001, p. 6.
  14. ^ Dyson 2003,p.19.
  15. ^ Johnson 2004, p. 7.
  16. ^ Dyson 2003, p. 66.
  17. ^ Dyson 2003, p. 61.
  18. ^ Cowell, F.R. (1970). Everyday Life in Ancient Rome. New York City, NY: G.P.Putnam Sons. p. 114.
  19. ^ a b c d Johnston 2004, p. 29.
  20. ^ Dyson 2003, p. 50.
  21. ^ a b Dyson 2003, p. 50-52.
  22. ^ a b c Johnston 2004, p. 30.
  23. ^ Dyson 2003,p.46.
  24. ^ a b Johnston 2004,p.8.
  25. ^ Rossi 1999,p.22.
  26. ^ a b Thomas 1996,p.106.
  27. ^ Johnston 2004,p.15
  28. ^ Johnston 2004,p.17-18.
  29. ^ Johnston 2004,p.18.
  30. ^ a b Johnston 2004,p.19.
  31. ^ Rossi 1999,p.19.
  32. ^ a b c Johnston 2004,p.38.
  33. ^ a b Cowell 1970,p.26.
  34. ^ Johnston 2004,p.33.
  35. ^ Johnston 2004,p.33
  36. ^ Johnston 2004,p.35
  37. ^ a b Rossi 1999,p.12.
  38. ^ Johnston 2004,p.39.
  39. .
  40. ^ Johnson 2004, p.11.
  41. ^ a b Dyson 2003, p.79.
  42. ^ Fletcher 1998,p.6.
  43. .
  44. ^ Fletcher 1998,p.16.
  45. ^ Dyson 2003, p.81-82.
  46. .
  47. ^ Johnston 2004,p.21.
  48. ^ a b c Fletcher 1998,p. 17-18
  49. ^ Johnston 2004,p.28.
  50. .
  51. ^ Dyson 2003,p.93.
  52. ^ Dyson 2003,p.95-96
  53. ^ Johnston 2004,p.58.
  54. ^ Johnston 2004,p.52.
  55. ^ a b Thomas 1996,p.96.
  56. ^ Yorke 2001,p.10.
  57. ^ Yorke 2001,p.17.
  58. .
  59. .