The Roman legions were recruited originally from Roman citizens, but as the Empire expanded, additional troops, both auxiliaries and legionaries, were raised in the imperial provinces. Many auxiliaries were specialists recruited for their native fighting skills, like the Syrian archers who served in northern Britain. The Roman army that invaded Britain in the 1st century AD contained auxiliary cohorts (regiments) from Gaul and Thrace (in south-eastern Europe).

When provincial auxiliaries had served for 25 years, they were granted Roman citizenship together with citizens’ legal rights and often a grant of land. Many of the soldiers who fought in Britain settled there and have left records of their lives on their tombstones. Inscriptions from Eboracum (York) include those of people from France, Germany, Sardinia, Spain and North Africa.

The Roman army kept the famous ‘Roman Peace’ throughout the Empire, and the Roman navy helped to clear the seas of pirates. This meant that trade flourished and foreign seamen and merchants followed the Roman armies. As the country became more ‘Romanised’, and with the development of town life and country villas, luxury goods and foreign craftsmen, like mosaic makers, were imported into Britain from the rest of the Empire.