But Roman civilization rested mainly on city life, and in Britain as elsewhere the city was thoroughly Roman.

In towns such as Lincoln or York, governed by their own municipal officers, guarded by massive walls, and linked together by a network of magnificent roads which reached from one end of the island to the other, manners, language, political life, all were of Rome.
For three hundred years the Roman sword secured order and peace without Britain and within, and with peace and order came a wide and rapid prosperity.

Commerce sprang up in ports amongst which London held the first rank; agriculture flourished till Britain became one of the corn-exporting countries of the world; the mineral resources of the province were explored in the tin mines of Cornwall, the lead mines of Somerset or Northumberland, and the iron mines of the Forest of Dean.

But evils which sapped the strength of the whole Empire told at last on the province of Britain.

Wealth and population alike declined under a crushing system of taxation, under restrictions which fettered industry, under a despotism which crushed out all local independence.