The Roman Occupation of Britain transformed people’s health. How far do you agree?

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.