(At Portchester Castle)

Beauport Park was one of the engine rooms of Roman Britain - hard as that might be to believe today. And the first and second centuries were a golden age for many people across the province, enjoying the fruits of Roman occupation.

But by the third century the mood changed, not just in Britain but right across the Roman World. The Empire was increasingly under threat from beyond its borders. The cities began to crumble, defences went up along the coast, and the wealthy began to retreat from the cities into the countryside.

The English Channel is the key to all of Britain's history. To the Romans it made Britain exotic, remote, a great conquest - only the mighty Roman Empire could tame that wild animal across the water. Once Britain was conquered, the sea became a highway to the rest of the known world. Out went Britain's produce. In came the luxury goods that the rest of the Empire made.

But times were changing. By the time Britain had been a Roman province for more than two hundred years the Empire was under siege. Barbarian pirates were sailing up and down attacking coastal settlements and towns. So they built huge forts like this one here at Porchester to protect the coast. Within, Britain was changing. In the towns the great public buildings were in decline and Britain was having to rely more and more on the things she could produce herself. But for some people the good times had only just begun.

(Travelling back to Chedworth Roman Villa)

The rich took their money in to the countryside , and villa life came increasingly into its own in places like Chedworth. The fourth century was the age of the super-rich in Roman Briain. Spectacular treasure hordes have come to light, evidence of a late flowering of Romano-British culture in the countryside.

Stashed away in the dying days of Roman occupation, these hordes show the vast wealth accumulated by a privileged few, and their extravagant lifestyles.

At Chedworth the owners continued to extend and develop their villa, splashing out on a second bath house and on mosaics - classic status symbols, epitomising the Roman high life. But mosaics like these tell us more than just how wealthy the owners were: they tell us about how they saw themselves. This one at Chedworth looks conventionally classical in design - but the figure of Winter is wearing what's called a Birrus Britannicus - a hooded woollen cloak, as archetypically British as Harris Tweed or a bowler hat is today.

The Romano British were looking both ways - to Rome, and its classical traditions, but also back to their own cultural roots.

(At the British Museum, with a bronze skillet)

This bronze pan, or skillet, was found in Cambridgeshire, and it's a completely Roman piece of equipment; the kind of thing that would have been used throughout the Roman world. It's got these Roman motifs, monsters here, a Cupid and dolphins at the other end, and all these swirling vine leaves, but the clue to its origin comes in the maker's name, which is stamped at this end: Boduogenus.

Boduogenus is a completely Celtic name, and it tells us that the person who made this was a Celtic craftsman, someone whose family origins came from this part of the world, or perhaps North Western France. But he's even used an 'f' at the end for 'fecit', a Latin word.

So he's expressing himself in Latin, and it shows us how Bodugenus and his kind have been completely absorbed into the whole Roman world. And that was the thing about the Roman world. It wasn't overwhelmingly destructive, it managed to merge with the cultures and the peoples that it came across

Roman Britain - like the rest of the Roman Empire - was a melting pot of peoples and cultures. Rome provided a sense of order and structure. But the Celtic, native traditions weren't crushed by the occupation either. And in one particular area, the Romans - for all their military muscle and sense of purpose - trod very carefully indeed.

(In St Albans Cathedral)

We always think of the Roman Empire as uncompromisingly militaristic and imposing its will on all the peoples it conquered. It was. But when it came to religion it was a completely different story. Unlike those 19th century imperialists and all their missionaries, the Roman Empire was - even by our standards - extraordinarily tolerant. And there's no better example of that than the remains of the baths and shrine of Sullis Minerva at Bath.

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