How often do you think about the Roman Empire?
If social media is anything to go by, it sounds like we鈥檙e all thinking about it quite a lot.
But so much of how we imagine life back then has been shaped by the big screen, videogames and books. What鈥檚 fact and what鈥檚 fiction?
We鈥檝e looked at the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD and debunked some common myths about that era, for those times you just can鈥檛 think of anything else.
1. It was mainly for show
Why invade Britain? Rome鈥檚 rulers were already among the richest men in history and had a huge empire, and Britain wasn鈥檛 any real threat.
It turns out Rome had a new emperor who just wanted to show off a bit.
Emperor Claudius had taken the throne after the assassination of Caligula and needed to show his power to the Senate.
The Romans had to invade somewhere, so why not Iron Age Britain!
2. They had two goes at it
The Celts didn鈥檛 make it easy. The Romans may have finally beaten them in 43AD, but this wasn鈥檛 the first time they had tried.
A century earlier, in 55 and 54BC, Julius Caesar also had a decent attempt at a British invasion - and he even instated his mate and Rome-friendly king Mandubracius to help.
But the Celts wouldn鈥檛 give up without a decent fight. Determined tribes battled fiercely with Caesar's army, but it was only thanks to an uprising in Gaul (modern-day France), that they decided to turn back - to go and fight them.
So it was left to Claudius to finish the job, and a century later he sent an army of 40,000 professional soldiers under the command of Aulus Plautius back to British shores.
This time the Romans won and stayed put for over 360 years.
3. The Romans invaded... but not many of them moved over
The Romans brought lots of new ideas and ways of living to Britain - everything from towns and roads to reading and counting - but there wasn鈥檛 a mass migration of Roman people to the country.
There were about three million people living Britain at that time, and the Roman army only added a few percent - but they still managed to blend the Iron Age way of life with a distinctly Roman one.
The local people adopted the Roman way of doing things, and some wealthy locals built Roman-style towns and villas.
And by 300AD almost everyone in Britain was considered both culturally and legally Roman - even if they still spoke their own language.
4. Not all of their roads were straight
Before the Romans came, Britain鈥檚 roads were mainly unpaved, often muddy, tracks.
So when the Romans arrived they decided to 'sort it out', and built over 10,000 miles of new roads.
The Romans knew the shortest distance from one place to another was a straight line, so they made all their roads as straight as possible to get around quickly.
But, while the myth suggests they just drew straight lines across the landscape, they actually aimed for the high ground to reduce risk of ambushes and to help with drainage - and they did weave around large obstacles, such as mountains and rivers.
And if you鈥檝e ever driven along the A1, you can thank the Romans for the quick-ish journey, as they first built this direct route between London, Lincoln and York.
5. The Celts were not just one group
When the Romans invaded Britain the country was a made up of different Iron Age tribes known collectively as the Celts.
They shared common culture and heritage - but also liked to fight each other. That changed when the Romans arrive, as they now had a common enemy to fight.
The most famous Celt is probably Boudicca, the ancient British queen of the Iceni tribe who led a revolt against the Romans.
Boudicca鈥檚 name means different things to different people. Some saw her as a brave warrior, Celtic superwoman and, to use a modern phrase, a feminist icon. But when she rose against Roman rule, she also killed thousands of innocent people and led her army into a bloody massacre.
After she lost, she died soon after, with some accounts saying she poisoned herself. Whatever the truth, her statue stands outside Parliament and she is immortalised as one of Britain鈥檚 first heroic patriots.
This article was published in July 2019 and last updated in September 2023
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