The Impact of the Frontier Zone in Roman Britain: Its Economic Aspect

Abstract

This thesis examines the economic position of the frontier zone in Roman Britain. This zone, the militarised area around Hadrian’s Wall (and, separately, the Antonine Wall), not only consisted of soldiers, but also of their families, craftsmen, traders, natives and so on. The principal economic actors here were the soldiers, who both developed their own economic communities, supplying goods for themselves, and also provided the spending money to develop other economic communities, the military vici. The vicani supplemented the soldiers’ consumption, supplying some useful goods and services. Compared with that symbiotic relationship, the natives Britons here were economically peripheral, although various exactions were still made against them. Aside from the economic activity within the frontier zone, those within it interacted with the Caledonians beyond the frontier and they also interacted with the rest of the Empire further south. Among interactions with the Caledonians, trade, strictly construed, was limited, while predation, including taxation, tribute, conscription and raiding, was more significant. England, that area south of the frontier zone, enjoyed a certain peace away from the militarised frontier and served both to supply goods produced locally to the frontier and also to tranship goods to the frontier, having arrived from the Continent. From the rest of the Empire, in addition to goods, also came immigrant populations, including some enterprising traders. This thesis focusses on these three areas of economic interactions: those within the frontier zone itself; those between the zone and beyond it; and those between the zone and the rest of the Empire. Furthermore, this thesis, a case study of Roman Britain’s frontier is situated within the other frontier zones of the Empire, including with a comparison to the German frontier zone, as well as within an economic model for the Roman Empire.