Lesson video

Hello, welcome to lesson seven of the Roman Britain unit.

I hope you're doing really well today.

In today's lesson we're going to be looking at what did the Romans believe? And by that I mean, what did they believe about their religion? Let's have a look at the agenda now.

Here's our agenda for today.

The first thing that we're going to look at is what the Romans and Celts believe? So in doing that we will compare what were similar and what was different about the Romans and Celts beliefs.

Secondly, we'll explore what was the Imperial Cult and then lastly, we're going to look at a very fascinating story about how did Christianity spread across Roman England? As per usual, there are three key things that you'll need for this lesson.

An exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen and a brain.

Pause now to collect those things and then resume once you're ready to get started.

So the first thing that we're going to do now is explore what did the Romans and Celts believe.

But before we do that, I just want to take us back to our favourite timeline.

So remember, this timeline shows us human history, approximately where we are now and where the Roman Empire fits into that history and then once again, we're going to zoom in.

Tada, to the period of Roman Britain.

So in this lesson, we are approximately looking at Roman beliefs throughout the entire period of Roman history.

But you can see we're going to look at a very specific moment later on when the Roman Emperor converts to Christianity.

But let's go back now to Roman beliefs and the first thing that we're going to start off with is what was similar between Roman beliefs and Celtic beliefs.

Well the first similarity is that both the Romans and the Celtic people, or the Britons, that's another way of talking about them.

Both those groups believed in multiple gods or lots of different gods.

And when there is a religion, that believes in not one God but multiple gods, we call that polytheism.

So both the Romans and the Britons were polytheistic religions.

The Romans had many of their own gods and those gods, a lot of them were based on the gods in Ancient Greece.

The Britons, or the Celts, they were pagans and they had lots of their own gods that were connected with nature.

One difference between the Romans and the Celts or the Britons was in their, where they worshipped or their places of worship.

The Romans, as we remember from a previous lesson, they built temples to worship their gods, because they believed in lots of different gods, they would build lots of different temples in order to worship the different gods.

The Britons, they worshipped in places that were considered special.

Such as rivers or significant trees.

Now the longer that the Romans were in Britain, the more likely it was that their religions were going to become mixed up a bit and eventually, some of the Roman gods combined with some of the Britons' gods.

So for example, when Romans would make an agreement with the people in Britain, they would promise on their god's name to keep that agreement.

So say they promised to pay a certain amount of money, they would say oh I promise on Jupiter's name that we will do this.

As a result, because the Britons believed in different gods and they would think well, you've promised on your god, that's not my god.

Eventually the gods sort of got mixed together.

For example, the British had a god who was called Sulis and the Romans had a god who was called Minerva and over time those two gods eventually mixed together in the minds of the Romans and the British and became one shared god.

What do you think they were called? They were called Sulis Minerva.

So to sum up, both the Romans and the Britons, they had multiple gods.

They were different though in where they worshipped with the Romans worshipping in temples and the British worshipping in special places like rivers or significant trees and eventually the different religions became mixed up, particularly in the name of gods.

Based on everything that we've just learnt, you're now going to complete the following task.

So read these sentences and complete them by adding the missing words.

And when you're ready to get started, pause the video to complete the task and then resume once you are finished.

Okie dokie, how did you find that? Not too challenging I hope.

It's very fascinating stuff, the Roman and Celtic beliefs.

We'll go through them together now.

So sentence A, one similarity between Roman and Celtic religions is that they both believed in, mmm something gods.

Let's have a think, did they both believe in one God? No, they didn't believe in one God.

They believed in lots of different gods and therefore it is multiple gods.

Now you might have used another word for multiple, if so that's all right.

As long as you've, as long as you have used a word which tells us that both those religions believed in lots of different gods.

Sentence B, one difference between Roman and Celtic religions was in how they, hmm.

What was different in what those religions did? Mmm, let's have a look.

Was in how they worshipped because the Romans, where did they worship? Temples you say, it was temples absolutely right and the Britons or the Celtic religions, they worshipped in special places like rivers or significant, what was it, trees nice one.

Sentence C, Roman and Celtic gods became something because Romans made agreements with Celts in their gods' name.

What did they become? Let's have a think back and the answer is mixed or you could say mixed up.

Because of those agreements they made with the Celts.

They had to come up with a shared god in order to agree on those things.

So well done on completing that task, let's move on to the second part of the lesson.

What we're going to look at now is an aspect or a part of Roman religion.

That is called the Imperial Cult.

So Roman religion is often referred to or called an Imperial Cult.

And the reason for that is that the Romans believed or many Romans believed that the Emperor and his family were gods.

They spread this idea throughout their empire to try and get as many of the different part, well the people in the different parts of the Roman Empire to also view the Emperor as a god.

Why do you think they might want to do that? Why not just let everyone worship their own gods? Have a think about that for a moment.

Well, the reason they did that was so that they could help get the loyalty of the provinces.

Because if everyone across the empire had a shared god and that god being the Emperor, it would be more likely that the Roman world was unified because in doing that, even though people were in lots of different random corners of the empire, so they might have very different cultures or ways of living.

They would share something in common and that thing in common was that the Emperor was a god to them.

And that's why the Romans tried to spread this idea of the imperial cult as far across their empire as possible.

A nice quick task for you based on what we've just learnt about the imperial cult.

What you need to do is answer these questions below in nice, neat, full sentences.

When you're ready to get started, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you are finished.

And if you're wondering, hmm Mr. Barber how do I get started on these questions? Here are some sentence starters to help you out.

Okay, let's go through those questions about the fascinating idea of an imperial cult.

So question A, what did many Romans believe about the Emperor and his family members? What did they think about the Emperor and his family members? Well, as I recall, many Romans believed that the Emperor and his family members were gods.

So if you got something similar to that, I understand you might have phrased it slightly differently but as long as you've made it clear that they saw the Emperor and his family members as gods you've absolutely nailed that question, well done.

Question B, how did the Imperial Cult help unify the Roman world? Let's have a think.

The Imperial Cult helped unify the Roman world because people were worshipping the same god, absolutely right.

Of course if people have got something in common, they are more likely to be unified.

For example, if you meet someone and say your hobby is playing football and they also like playing football, then you've got something in common, you're more likely to be unified.

So well done on completing that task, let's move on to the final part of this lesson.

In this final part of the lesson, we are going to be looking at how did Christianity spread across Roman England? And I tell you what, this is a very fascinating story.

So let's find out how that happened now.

So Christianity first started arriving into Britain in the second century and the Romans were not particularly happy about this at first.

The reasons why they weren't very happy is because when people became Christian, that meant they refused to worship the Emperor as a god.

What do we call it when they worship the Emperor as a god? Imperial Cult, absolutely right.

So the Romans, they don't like it that people aren't worshipping the Emperor as god anymore so they actually banned Christianity.

They wanted to continue to have people loyal to the Emperor and to the empire but things changed quite dramatically in the year 312 CE.

At that time, the empire had become so big that they decided to split it into two.

One half would be the Western Roman Empire and one half would be the Eastern Roman Empire.

Emperor Constantine who is this guy, this statue of him is here.

He was the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

And one evening, he was getting ready for battle, a very significant battle which would be fought the next day.

While he was asleep, he had a dream and in that dream an angel visited him.

And showed him a cross, a cross that Jesus was crucified on and then the angel told him that he should get his soldiers to draw crosses onto their shields before they go into battle.

So the next day Constantine wakes up, probably thinking wow I've had quite a crazy dream and what do you think he did next? He actually did ask his soldiers to draw crosses on their shields and then they go into battle and then they have a glorious victory.

They defeat their enemies and it is a huge victory for Constantine.

As a result of this, Constantine's views of Christianity, they change a lot.

And in the year 313 CE he allows Christianity to be worshipped across the Roman Empire.

And then by 391 CE Christianity actually becomes the official religion, or the main religion of the Roman Empire.

So they no longer worship multiple gods, what do you call it when you worship multiple gods by the way? Polytheism, nice one.

So they no longer worship multiple gods, Christianity is the main religion.

And that happens in Britain of course 'cause it's part of the Roman Empire but not everyone in Britain immediately becomes Christian.

Some of the Britons continue to follow their pagan religion.

Based on that very fascinating story, we are going to complete the following task.

Which of these sentences are true or false? So carefully read the sentences and decide based on your historical knowledge which is fantastic by now, decide whether they are true or false.

And when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay, how did you find that? I'm sure you've absolutely smashed this task or absolutely done a really good job.

Let's go through it together.

Sentence A, Christianity arrived in Britain in the first century.

Hmm, were you listening when I said what year it arrived or what century it arrived, let's find out.

This sentence is false.

Christianity actually arrived, when did it actually arrive? It was the second century it arrived in Britain.

Sentence B, Constantine told his soldiers to draw a cross on their shields.

Well, I remember right Constantine had a dream and someone told him to draw crosses on their shields or told him to tell his soldiers to put crosses on their shields.

Did he actually go through with it? The answer is yes of course he did and that's why that sentence is true and then sentence C, everyone in Britain began to follow Christianity.

I seem to recall Mr. Barber saying something about not all Britons followed Christianity so therefore that sentence, it's false.

Not all Britons followed Christianity, some continued to follow their pagan beliefs.

So well done on completing that task.

Well done on all the fantastic learning that you've done in this lesson.

I've really enjoyed that lesson and I hope you have too.

Just two things that you need to do now.

Remember to write down the three most memorable things that you learnt from this lesson and lastly, don't forget to complete the final exit quiz.

That's going to enable you to see how much fantastic progress you've made in learning about Roman Britain.

Have a great day and I look forward to teaching you again soon.