During the Roman occupation of Britain, the Romans built
many Public Health related structures, in order to maintain a healthy army and
population. The increased the opportunities for sanitation which in Celtic
Britain did not exist. However, these Public Health structures where more for
the use of the Roman army, the upper classes and the inhabitants of large
towns; therefore, I believe that in the bigger picture the Romans did not make
much of a difference for the average Briton.
Nevertheless, the Romans did help to transform town life,
along with looking after their armies posted in Britain and of course the rich
upper classes. They did this through building structures like, baths,
aqueducts, public toilets and sewers. This helped transform the mentality of
uncleanliness, and encouraged people to take regular washes, drink from safer
water supplies and dispose of sewage in a more effective way, than the previous
method of burying the excrements or throwing it into the river which was also
the main source of drinking water during the Celtic period. Each major town had
stone sewers, public baths, toilets and water supplies along with doctors who
were trained in Hippocratic and Galenic medicine who were employed to treat
town’s people, the rich and soldiers. The Romans also brought with them the
cult of Asclepius, and built Asclepions in major towns. Although these did rely
on spiritual medicine it was a place where people could exercise and also be
healed with new medicinal herbs, like belladonna, which were brought in from
across the empire. The rich also had the advantage of having their own toilets
and water supplies directly into their house which meant that they didn’t have
to use public drinking fountains or public toilets.
However, these transformations only really affected better
off town’s people, the rich and soldiers, as for most doctors and herbal
remedies you had to pay. These changes also did not affect people who were
still living in minor towns and villages as the priorities for public health
was towns and specifically forts which even had hospitals to treat wounded
soldiers. The Public health measures were also not 100% effective as in some
towns there were open or timber sewers which encouraged the spread of diseases,
along with the fact that not all houses had toilets so waste was thrown out the
window and on to the street. In addition to this, once you were ill there were
not many treatments available for a serious leg infection (where the treatment
was a painful and probably fatal amputation), or the fact that people still
prayed to the gods in Asclepions to help them cure their ailments. In
Gloucester, there is evidence of a mass grave which was used to bury the
victims of Galen’s plague despite public health measures and doctors trained in
Hippocratic and Galenic medicine.
In conclusion, although the Romans had introduced many
public health related buildings, and employed doctors of Hippocratic and
Galenic medicine, these were not always 100% in preventing illness and highly
ineffective in successful treatment. On top of this everything to do with
public health was concentrated in forts, large towns and in the villas of the
rich; therefore, not transforming the access to sanitation for the majority of
Britons who still lived in villages and minor towns in the countryside. As a
result of this I believe that the Roman occupation of Briton did not transform
the average people’s public health.