NARRATOR Over 2,000 years, they will forge a nation,
dominate the globe,
and invent the modern world.
This is the story of how a small group of islands
becomes a superpower.
The British.
This is our story.
AD 58.
A foraging party of Romans advance through the British woodland.
After 1 5 years of struggle,
the world's most powerful army is bogged down on the border of modern-day Wales.
A war with no sign of an end.
The Romans have stirred up a ferocious foe...
our ancestors.
(SHOUTS ORDER)
(YELLING)
(GRUNTS)
The Romans consider Britain a land of barbarians.
(SCREAMING IN THE DISTANCE)
I think there's a great deal of savagery in the British character.
There is an undercurrent, I think, of great potential for violence.
NARRATOR Theirs is one of many invasions that will shape who we are.
If you look at the history of Britain,
it's been infused with other influences and cultures
from very, very early on in its history.
(CROWD ROARING)
We British are mongrels.
You know, we're Celtic, and Saxon, and Viking, and Norman.
The island's nature is terribly important.
The questing beyond the ocean has given us a wonderful reputation for discovery.
(SIRENS)
There's this island that is tiny, in geographic terms,
and punches, and has punched, and still punches way above its weight.
RUSSELL BRAND There's something riotous in our spirit.
There's something anti-authoritarian.
The British are proud, tenacious people.
NARRATOR 2,000 years of history and struggle
begins here.
1n the mud, fighting the mighty Roman army.
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
After nearly two decades of resistance,
Rome's patience finally snaps.
1n AD 58,
one of Rome's most feared generals lands on British soil.
General Suetonius Paulinus.
A man with a reputation for crushing insurgency.
Rome controls much of south-eastern Britain,
but the north and west remain beyond its grasp.
This is a land worth conquering.
Some of the most geologically rich islands in the world.
Cornish tin has been traded across Europe for centuries.
1ron in Kent and Sussex will make Roman weapons,
and one day arm the world's most powerful naval force.
Reserves of copper,
silver,
and even gold.
A fertile land
kept warm and wet by the Gulf Stream.
And transformed into one of the most productive lands in Europe.
An ancient society wealthy enough to build Europe's most sophisticated
Stone Age monument.
Stonehenge
is as ancient as Egypt's pyramids.
1 60 vast sacred stones,
many somehow hauled 1 25 miles
from the Preseli Hills of Wales.
Aligned to the sun,
renowned across Europe.
But now, in AD 60,
Britons are fighting for their lives.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
1n North Wales, on the island of Anglesey,
Celtic resistance thrives.
The island is a stronghold of the Druids,
the religious leaders of Celtic society.
Druids are said to train for 20 years to become judges, advisers, and priests.
For them, Anglesey is one of the most sacred corners of Britain.
The Romans take a darker view.
The Romans certainly view
the main centre of Druidism in Britain on the island of Anglesey
as, effectively, a kind of terrorist training camp for military operations.
(MUTTERING)
The number one enemy the Romans faced, of course, were the Druids.
And the Romans were fully aware of how powerful the Druids were.
Their influence was the only really unifying feature in Britain.
NARRATOR The Druids ferment resistance to the Roman invasion.
Now, 1 0,000 Roman soldiers march hundreds of miles across Britain
to Anglesey.
1n charge, General Paulinus.
Paulinus has made his name as a mountain warfare expert,
perfectly equipped for the fight across North Wales.
But his reputation for brutality will provoke complaints from senators
back in Rome.
The Roman historian, Tacitus, writes...
MAN ''He proceeds against the vanquished,
''even after they have surrendered, with excessive vigour. ''
NARRATOR 1n Anglesey, Celtic fighters are preparing.
The Romans have learned to respect the warrior Britons.
Across Europe, Celtic warriors have a reputation
as skilled horsemen and headhunters.
The decapitated heads of their enemies are prized war trophies,
cut off and displayed after battle.
Ha!
(BOTH GRUNTING)
Britain is known for its warrior queens
and the freedoms of its women.
Evidence suggests they could inherit both power and land.
The warrior woman, Mother Courage if you like, I think
has always been a part of being a woman.
The fierceness, the extreme
passion, or anger, or fear that would make you
defend your house and home, and family.
NARRATOR The Celts wait for their final stand,
a fight that will shape the future of the British 1sles.
Paulinus' troops arrive in North Wales.
Each legionary carries a gladius,
a short sword for close-quarter stabbing,
a metal-edged shield that also serves as a weapon,
and a javelin,
designed to pierce through a Celtic shield.
The Roman army was the finest army the world has ever seen,
a fully paid professional force.
Trained to perfection, tremendous morale,
huge amount of combat experience,
soldiers serving for 25 years,
others even longer.
On the whole, it was almost impossible to defeat,
because even when you did defeat it,
it just came back for more. It defeated all comers.
NARRATOR An enemy that perhaps only the supernatural can help defeat.
Nearly 2,000 years later,
a gruesome relic will be found in a Cheshire peat bog,
Lindow Man.
The way he died - killed three times over,
clubbed,
strangled,
and his throat cut,
suggests he may have been a ritual sacrifice.
Carbon dating puts his death in the first century,
the time of the Roman invasion.
Evidence, some believe, of a last ditch appeal to the gods
to halt the Roman advance.
1n summer AD 60,
the Roman army arrives in Anglesey.
It makes me incredibly proud, as a son of Wales, to think
of that final moment when you're standing there with
the Roman legions against you.
Of course, you've got the terrain of Wales on your side,
and yet, nevertheless, you're up against the most formidable military foe
arguably, in history.
(SCREAMING IN THE DISTANCE)
NARRATOR The writer Tacitus describes their first sight of the Britons.
MAN ''Women were seen running through the ranks in wild disorder.
''Their hair loose to the wind, their whole appearance resembling
''the frantic rage of the furious. ''
HELEN MIRREN 1t's a fantastic notion, isn't it?
The thought of those women standing there,
confronting their invaders,
and prepared to die
in defence of their land.
NARRATOR Tacitus continues...
MAN ''The Druids were ranged in order,
''with hands uplifted, invoking the gods and pouring forth horrible curses.
''The novelty of the sight paralysed the Romans with awe and terror. ''
I think one of the great characteristics of the British,
which we don't like to recognise very much,
is we are incredibly fierce, incredibly combative.
NARRATOR Paulinus' strategy is simple,
fire and sword.
Kill every Druid.
Destroy their culture.
(ALL SHOUTING)
(HORSE NEIGHS)
(INAUDIBLE)
(ALL SHOUTING)
The Britons' tactic is to smash the enemies' ordered lines apart
and engage in single combat.
Welsh people, we have this thing we call the hwyl, right?
And it's that thing that unifies us as much.
We will fight until the end for a cause that we truly believe in.
NARRATOR The Romans cut down all before them.
(GROANS)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(PANTING)
No one records how long the battle lasts.
The sacred isle is desecrated.
The massacre of the Druids is one of the great turning points
in the story of Britain.
Their political power is broken.
Their ancient religion, driven underground.
(SLICES)
Some will find sanctuary in Scotland and across the sea in 1reland,
where their religion will survive for over 500 years.
(SLICES)
The butchery of the Druids in Anglesey is an absolute sign
that the Romans are serious, that they're here to stay,
and that our religious leaders,
people we would have looked up to, are expendable.
NARRATOR Despite his success,
Paulinus is soon recalled to Rome by Emperor Nero
for being too brutal, even for him.
But due to his influence,
life in Britain will never be the same again.
Britain is transformed.
New roads are built by advancing Roman legions.
1n the next 300 years,
the Romans construct over 1 0,000 miles of roads,
four times the length of our modern motorway system.
For the first time, the lands of Wales and England are bound together.
Many of these roads still exist under our feet.
The A 1, originally Ermine Street and now the Great North Road,
and the A5 that links London to Wales.
Straight lines to link garrison towns
and Roman settlements that will one day become our cities.
Lincoln, York,
Chester,
Gloucester,
Bath, London.
Many Britons continue their traditional ways,
living in settlements of wattle and daub round houses.
But others decide to embrace Roman culture
and move into new towns,
built for the first time from bricks and mortar.
Garrison towns like Colchester begin to take a form we know today.
Streets and business districts are planned.
New buildings such as bath houses and temples,
constructed in the same style as Rome.
Roman civilisation comes to Britain.
Theatres,
giant open air buildings for actors, comedians and orators to entertain.
And in important cities,
the arena.
(CHEERING)
Little more than 1 00 years after the invasion,
Britain is a Roman colony
with Roman tastes and Roman distractions,
and with evidence of gladiatorial games.
MARK CORBY Though 80% of the population still remained
out there in the dung covered fields,
a small minority, perhaps 1 5%,
would have been introduced to the supreme achievement of Roman life,
life in the city.
NARRATOR One gladiator's story will be recorded forever.
His name is Memnon,
a champion,
winner of eight previous clashes.
Though he has not chosen to take part in any.
A vase commemorating Memnon's fight is dug up in Colchester
nearly 2,000 years later,
suggesting it may have taken place in a British arena.
Slaves like Memnon are forced to fight in every corner of the Roman empire.
North Africa, the Middle East, Europe.
Memnon's name suggests he's Greek.
Gladiatorial games introduce their own exotic habits.
Slaves used bronze strigils to scrape the body clean of oil and sweat.
There's even a market for it.
These are men who command a loyal following.
Gladiators like Memnon are celebrity sportsmen.
They are like the David Beckhams of our own age.
The curious thing about the situation, of course,
is that that they are also men
who, every time they go into the arena, risk death.
So this is a kind of celebrity of the damned.
NARRATOR Memnon knows that despite his victories,
one day he could step into the arena and die.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Today, Memnon faces Valentinus,
the champion prize-fighter owned by Rome's 30th Legion.
LENNOX LEWIS To be a gladiator,
walking out in front of an audience of people that wanna see blood,
I would say you feel a little bit scared, you feel strong,
and I think you work off of the crowd as well.
You know, when the crowd cheers
you realise, okay, you're doing something right.
(CROWD CHEERING)
NARRATOR Roman women bid for the sweat and oil scraped from gladiators' skin,
which they use as an aphrodisiac.
But this is deadly entertainment.
(CROWD CHEERING)
An audience watches two champion gladiators
fighting it out to the death.
Entertainment for locals is sometimes subsidised
by wealthy Romano-Brits who have profited from the Roman occupation.
(GROANS)
NEIL FAULKNER They're using their own wealth
to pay for these expensive games
and to make them available free to their fellow citizens.
They're doing it because they're involved in a competition
with other members of the elite,
for rank, for status, for high office, for honour.
And for those things, they need the support of their fellow citizens.
(CHEERING)
NARRATOR For the Roman soldiers and urbanised Celts,
over a dozen amphitheatres have been built across Britain.
The English have always been a very pugnacious people.
We come from rough stock.
And maybe that's why we embraced gladiatorial combat.
NARRATOR Around the arena are souvenir sellers.
The Romans have introduced new foods.
Apples and pears are cultivated in Britain for the first time.
(CHEERING)
KWAMI KWEI-ARMAH We just have to look at modern primetime television.
There is a need for the overwhelming majority of us to be diverted,
to not think about our lot, and to lose ourself in entertainment.
MIRREN 1 think the Romans were very clever.
I think they understood entertainment was an important part
of making people quiet and live their lives
according to how the masters wanted them to live.
NARRATOR Urbanised Britons begin dressing and behaving like Romans.
Tacitus writes...
MAN ''They coveted Rome's eloquence.
''A liking sprang up for our style of dress,
''and the toga became fashionable. ''
NARRATOR 1n the early years of the arena games,
most gladiators were spared so they could fight again.
But now, when the slave Memnon and Valentinus fight,
their thirst for blood
means someone will die.
The only chance Valentinus has of survival
is to raise his finger to beg for mercy.
His fate lies in the hands of the man who paid for the fight.
(CROWD BOOING)
A raised thumb will mean death.
The vase found in Colchester shows Valentinus' surrender.
1n 2004, 80 skeletons are found in a Roman graveyard in York,
many with gauges in the bones.
One has a hip bone punctured by a wild animal,
seen as evidence they were gladiators.
(CROWD CHEERING)
No one knows Valentinus' fate.
But in Rome,
a gladiator's death sentence is carried out by a blade to the throat.
1n York, most of the skeletons are beheaded,
a mysterious echo of the Celtic tradition...
(RAPID SLICES)
...of decapitation.
(WIND BLOWING)
1n the next 200 years,
Britain is transformed into a breadbasket for the northern empire.
Britain's slow moving, navigable rivers
transport a vast surplus of food from the country and overseas.
And the profits from the farming boom are blown on a building spree
that will not be surpassed for 1,000 years.
Elaborate Roman villas,
built with Britain's first central heating system,
able to keep rooms warm, even in the British winter.
And like the villas in Rome,
the richest are adorned with fine mosaics.
Even bathrooms with proper sewers and hand basins.
A golden age of Roman Britain.
But to the north lie an unconquered people.
The Romans call them Picts, or ''Painted People''.
They're hardy and fearsome.
And their bodies are covered in elaborate tattoos.
They've been sealed off from the rest of Roman Britain
by a feat of engineering 75 miles long.
A symbol of imperial might. 1n places, six metres high.
From coast to coast, with a fort every mile.
Hadrian's Wall.
367 AD.
The border is under the command of the Roman general, Fullofaudes.
But an event on his watch is about to signal the end of Roman Britain.
For 300 years, the people of today's Scotland have remained free.
As the legendary chief Calgacus is said to have boasted...
MAN ''We, the most distant dwellers upon the earth,
''the last of the free, have been shielded by our remoteness
''and by the obscurity that has shrouded our name.
''Beyond us lies no nation, nothing but waves and rocks. ''
The Scots were an incredible, ferocious, fighting force,
you know, going back to the Picts.
We have a history of being very proud and ferocious in defending our country.
The Picts are resolutely unwilling to sacrifice their independence
and sense of self and buy into the Roman experiment.
They want to maintain their own culture and their own values.
They don't want to take on Roman ways.
NARRATOR Hadrian's Wall is constantly fought over
in the final few decades of Roman Britain.
But the Scottish lands will never lose their independence.
(SLICES)
(SHOUTING)
1t's a slow death,
but Roman authority in Britain is collapsing.
(URINATING)
(SOUNDS OF SWORDS)
(LOUD THUD)
An event that marks a change for Roman rule.
Across the empire, Rome's authority has started to be challenged.
The entire Roman empire is under attack.
From what is now Germany, the Visigoths storm Rome.
For the first time in 800 years, the city falls.
Britain, too, is in chaos.
1ndustries like ceramics grind to a halt.
From 406 AD, no new coins are sent to Britain.
The effects send shockwaves across Roman Britain.
Forts across the country are abandoned and left to ruin.
1n 4 1 0 AD, the Emperor Honorius
tells the British that Rome can no longer police the country.
FAULKNER With the withdrawal of the Roman army
and the break-up of the Roman administration,
we get local warlords setting themselves up
in control of chunks of territory.
NARRATOR Hadrian's Wall, the great barrier
protecting Rome's northern border, is abandoned.
As the Romans withdraw,
a rich Romano-Britain decides to protect his future.
There are no banks, no vaults to protect his wealth.
(HORSES APPROACHING)
Just a discreet hole on some Suffolk farmland.
Over 1 5,000 gold and silver coins are buried,
along with jewellery
and fine silver bowls decorated with Christian symbols.
1nscriptions on the silverware suggest he's called Aurelius Ursicinus.
He plans to recover his treasures when the army returns to Britain.
But that will never happen.
The Roman empire is dying.
1,600 years later, in November 1 992,
the hoard is found near the village of Hoxne
by a farmer with a metal detector looking for a lost hammer.
(COINS CLANKING)
The richest cash of Roman treasure ever found on our shores.
A symbol of the death of Romano-Britain.
CORBY Mid-5th century Britain, absolute disaster.
The lights have gone out, civilisation has fled.
The country has imploded. Everything is closing down.
This is the end of the world as they know it.
NARRATOR But one legacy of Roman rule will survive.
70 years before the fall of Rome, the Emperor Constantine falls ill.
His dying wish, to be baptised.
Christianity was once a mere cult, and its followers hunted down.
Constantine's conversion turned Rome into a Christian empire.
As the Romans withdraw,
the Christianity they introduced to these shores survives
in small pockets across the country,
especially among the Romanised elite.
Living just outside a small west coast town
is a family of these Romanised Britons.
Head of the family, Calpurnius.
(MUTTERING)
His son, Patrick, is about to change
the religious landscape of Britain and 1reland forever.
But first, his life will be torn apart.
The Roman withdrawal leaves Britain with few defences.
1rish pirates start making raiding trips,
not for gold or silver, but for the Britons themselves.
(SHOUTING)
They are slave hunters.
Patrick is taken hostage.
Anarchy rules.
Britain is an island of warring factions.
Dragged to 1reland, Patrick will survive his ordeal.
And it only strengthens his Christian faith.
A faith shaped by his Celtic roots.
When he eventually escapes from slavery, he embarks on a mission.
Preaching in the local language rather than Roman Latin,
he begins to spread Christianity beyond the elite
to normal 1rish Celts.
Patrick's approach to the conversion
is to embrace the existing Celtic culture of the people.
So he's packaging the Christian message
in a way that makes it highly accessible to the ordinary people of 1reland.
And in a way that a top Roman cleric couldn't possibly have done.
NARRATOR 1n 1reland, Patrick's Christian teachings
embrace the traditions of a pagan world,
one that has survived the Roman conquest of England and Wales.
He will become known as Saint Patrick.
SAUL DAVID 1 think there were two reasons why Saint Patrick
succeeds in establishing religion where the Romans failed.
One, because he's a Brit,
and two, because these early Christians were incredibly brave.
And I think that struck a particular chord
in the Celts and the Britons, generally,
that this religion was something to be taken seriously.
That there was something in it.
NARRATOR The symbol of their religion, the Celtic Cross.
Around its heart, a circle, the Celtic symbol of the sun.
An amalgamation of two cultures,
the Roman Christian and the Ancient Celtic.
Patrick and his followers spread the faith
across Scotland and the north of England.
During the so-called Dark Ages,
Britain is in the forefront of learning, of philosophy, of religion.
And it really makes a fantastic contribution
to the intellectual wealth of the world.
The monks of Ireland kept Christian culture,
Christian writing, alive during the Dark Ages in Europe.
1rish Christianity played a major role.
And I suppose we owe it all to Saint Patrick.
NARRATOR Through a network of monasteries,
this new Celtic Christianity,
humble and accessible to all, begins to define the British 1sles.
1n the next 1,000 years,
it will play a crucial part in shaping Britain's destiny.
(BATTLE SOUNDS)
But in the next millennium,
another invasion will change the course of our history.
A series of epic catastrophes will transform the land and its people.
Yet these struggles will lay the foundations
of the nation we know today.