Roman Britain is usually thought of as a land full of togas, towns and
baths with Britons happily going about their Roman lives under the
benign gaze of Rome. This is, to a great extent, a myth that developed
after Roman control of Britain came to an end, in particular when the
British Empire was at its height in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. In fact, Britain was one of the least enthusiastic
elements of the Roman Empire. Many failed to acknowledge the Roman
lifestyle at all, while many others were only outwardly Romanised,
clinging to their own identities under the occupation. Even the Roman
army in Britain became chronically rebellious and a source of
instability that ultimately affected the whole Empire. As Roman power
weakened, the Britons abandoned both Rome and almost all Roman culture,
and the island became a land of warring kingdoms, as it had been before.