The Countryside in the third century
With all the political turmoil and wall-building going on, it makes sense that the open countryside would be unsafe and so people would abandon it.
Well, that's not quite what the archaeology tells us. In actual fact some thumping huge rural retreats were created in this time of strife, containing every last word in luxury and sparing no detail. Even distant, rainy Britain had its share of millionaires who lavished their resources on mosaic floors designed in the eastern Mediterranean, not one but often several bathing suites with hot rooms, cold rooms and plunge pools, with elaborate garden temples or 'nyphaea' (I think that's the correct plural of nyphaeum) and huge service wings for the help.
All of which implies massive resources being available - not just cash, but kilns, quarries, fields of grain, herds of livestock, lead mines, silver mines, quarries, stables of horses and fleets for carrying bulk items. Villas were huge productive estates and the evidence suggests that despite inflation, coups and poverty, one section of society was doing very well.
Have a look at this site showing Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire
Which looks rather small compared to the Villa Romana del Casale in Italy, with its famous scenes of bikini-clad girls
Well, that's not quite what the archaeology tells us. In actual fact some thumping huge rural retreats were created in this time of strife, containing every last word in luxury and sparing no detail. Even distant, rainy Britain had its share of millionaires who lavished their resources on mosaic floors designed in the eastern Mediterranean, not one but often several bathing suites with hot rooms, cold rooms and plunge pools, with elaborate garden temples or 'nyphaea' (I think that's the correct plural of nyphaeum) and huge service wings for the help.
All of which implies massive resources being available - not just cash, but kilns, quarries, fields of grain, herds of livestock, lead mines, silver mines, quarries, stables of horses and fleets for carrying bulk items. Villas were huge productive estates and the evidence suggests that despite inflation, coups and poverty, one section of society was doing very well.
Have a look at this site showing Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire
Which looks rather small compared to the Villa Romana del Casale in Italy, with its famous scenes of bikini-clad girls