Empires & Polities

Roman Britain

Roman Provinces

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Roman Britain." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/empires-polities/roman-britain.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Roman Britain. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/empires-polities/roman-britain

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-roman-britain,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Roman Britain},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/empires-polities/roman-britain},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Roman Britain was the province held from the invasion of 43 CE until the withdrawal of the field army early in the fifth century. Its religious record is layered: Roman cults, army cults including Mithraism attested at the London Mithraeum and along Hadrian's Wall, and local British deities worshipped under paired names such as Sulis Minerva at Bath. Christianity was present by the third century, produced the martyr Alban, and sent bishops to the Council of Arles in 314. The atlas files it as a polity rather than a region because it names a provincial administration with dates, distinct from the island of Britain and from England, which are held as regions.

Facts

Religion and State

State Religion

The cults of Rome, with the imperial cult as the public expression of loyalty. Christianity was established in the province by the third century, produced the martyr Alban, and sent three bishops to the Council of Arles in 314. 1

Religious Policy

The ordinary Roman settlement, which absorbed rather than replaced. Local divinities were identified with Roman ones and worshipped under both names, as Sulis Minerva at Bath, and the provincial imperial cult had its centre at Colchester. The practice Rome did suppress was druidry, which Roman writers described as involving human sacrifice. 1

Attributions

Associated Religion

Roman state religion and the army cults that arrived with the garrisons, British divinities worshipped under paired Roman names, the eastern cults including Mithras, and Christianity, present in the province by the third century. 1

Origins

Origin Region

The island of Britain south of the northern frontier, a province from 43 CE, governed from Londinium after an early period at Camulodunum, with the frontier fixed at Hadrian's Wall from 122. 2

Learn More

Gods with Two Names

Roman religion in Britain frequently identified a local deity with a Roman one and used both names together, and the practice tells you a good deal about how the province worked. Sulis Minerva at Bath is the best documented case: a hot spring already sacred to a British goddess acquired a Roman style temple, a bathing complex and an inscribed altar, and the goddess was addressed under the paired name.

R. S. O. Tomlin's edition of the lead tablets recovered from the spring shows what people actually brought to her. More than a hundred texts survive, most of them complaints about theft, asking the goddess to afflict whoever took a cloak, a ring, a pair of gloves or a quantity of money, sometimes listing suspects by name, sometimes assigning the stolen property to the goddess so that pursuing the thief becomes her business. They are written by ordinary people, several are in a Latin that betrays a first language elsewhere, and they are among the most direct evidence anywhere in the empire for the religion of people who left no literature. Other pairings are attested across the province, and local deities also appear on their own without a Roman equivalent attached. The pairing of names was not a compromise between two religions or a sign that either had given ground. It was how Roman religion normally absorbed a local cult, and it happened in Gaul, on the Rhine and in North Africa in the same way.

Army Cults and the First British Bishops

A province held by an army acquires the army's religion. Mithraism is attested in Britain at forts along Hadrian's Wall and by the mithraeum found beside the Walbrook in London, which fits the general pattern of a cult strong among soldiers, officers and officials. Alongside it stood the ordinary apparatus of Roman provincial religion: the imperial cult, temples to the standard gods in the towns, and the household observances of an immigrant population drawn from across the empire. Christianity was present by the third century.

Ramsay MacMullen's study of Christianisation is a reminder of how thin the evidence usually is for the early stages of that process anywhere, and Britain is no exception. What is documented is that Britain produced a martyr in Alban, whose date is disputed, and that bishops from Britain attended the Council of Arles in 314, which means that by then the province had an organised church with a recognised hierarchy. The atlas files Roman Britain as a polity rather than a region because it names a provincial administration with dates and boundaries, distinct from the island of Britain and from England, both of which are held here as regions. The province ends with the withdrawal of the field army early in the fifth century, and what happened to its religion after that is a separate and much murkier question.

Cross-Tradition Connections