Why couldn't the Romans conquer Ireland?

Why didn't Rome

conquer

Ireland at its peak? The Roman Empire occupied most of Europe from the Atlantic coast to the Caspian Sea, but it never took the island of Hiberia or, as you may know it, Ireland, much of Rome's territorial conquests fell short. the time when it was an Empire but when it was the Republic and the expansion of this Republic throughout Western Europe happened quite quickly before the Punic Wars 264 to 146 BC. Rome had given little thought to expansion outside the Italian Peninsula and had not even fully

conquer

ed that by repeatedly defeating Carthage, Rome gained more territory, first the island of Sicily, then Corsica and Sardinia, then parts of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula in 146 BC.

In addition to the territories taken from Carthage, Rome also controlled Greece and Macedonia and had made incursions into the Middle East after the war ended, establishing the first Roman province of the GAC in 121 BC. C. in the area known as provance. Within a couple of decades, the Roman army was involved in a war to aid its Gallic allies against the Germanic tribes of the Tuttons and Ambron's trade expanded here, but the Romans were too distracted by internal politics to consider invade this territory that would one day become France. This changed in 59 BC. C. when Julius Caesar finished his consulship and arranged to be named general in charge of conquering Gaul.

The Gallic Wars began, which at the end of the decade put Gaul under Roman rule. Caesar had the opportunity to advance further across the English Channel to Britain. He made two invasions, the first in the late summer of 55 BC. C. and the second the following year. He was largely unsuccessful, storms wrecked some of his ships and large groups of British prevented the remaining ones from landing easily. The second invasion was informed by the first. The most important lessons were starting with a larger force and regularly scheduling supply shipments. Much earlier in the summer, in response, the British rallied under the command of the warlord Calanis, who led them in guerrilla tactics harassing Caesar's men knowing they could not defeat them in a pitched battle, yet the army Roman advanced towards the Temps river which they found fortified with submarines. stakes and Calus's men on the other side had done their best, but the Britons were no match for the Roman archers and soon retreated.

Caesar found an ally in another tribe of Britons, the Tranes, who had recently been fighting Calanus with this local help. The British were forced to surrender. Caesar made arrangements for the payment of tributes, but left no soldiers to impose them. He did not intend to completely conquer Britain with this venture, but rather to cut off potential support for the GS and show the British what they could expect if they decided to do so. cross the channel and become involved in war Wars against Rome When Caesar returned to Rome from his Gallic conquests, a Civil War was brewing at the end of the Roman Republic had given way to the Roman Empire now under the leadership of an Emperor rather than the Senate and town We had to wait until mid-30 AD. so that the Romans would seriously consider returning to Britannia.

Emperor Caligula led an expedition in 40 AD, but Neptune stopped him because he believed they had argued and the sea god had refused. Allowing his men to cross Caligula ordered his soldiers to go into the water and attack it until he declared that Neptune was retreating and that they had won, the emperor then called off the invasion and instead had his men collect pretty seashells. and rocks from the shore as their Spoils of War Despite the failure of this attempt, the military leadership had made good plans for the invasion and subjugation of the island that could be used by the next Emperor Claudius along with some of their own creation to finally putting Britannia completely under Roman control. of the warlord Katakis in 43 AD. and making Britain a Roman province was the greatest achievement of Emperor Claudius's reign, it would not have been unreasonable for the Romans to have continued AC Cross to take the rest of the British Isles, but this was not the case there. are some of the reasons why Rome never conquered Ireland First the British did not bow to Roman control quickly or docilely the early governors of the province spent most of their time putting down rebellions, especially the one led by Budika, queen of the II in the year 61 AD. ironically, these rebellions were a reason to invade Ireland, as it could be used as a stronghold against the Romans in Britain, as Caesar had feared would be done in Britain for the GS.

Imperial politics also played an important role. The Julius Claudius dynasty collapsed under Claudius's successor, Nero. whose suicide sparked an 18-month period in which four men successively took control and three lost it. Once the government was stable again under the first of the Flavian emperors, Vespasian some attention could be paid to the British Isles. Vespasian and his successors largely chose good men to rule Britannia and let them do their job, the best known of them being Nias Julius Agricola, best known partly for his achievements, but probably more due to the fact that his son-in-law Publius Cornelius tacitus is one of the most important sources for Roman history of this period, if Rome was ever going to conquer Ireland, it would have been by Agricola leading his legions at the time of his rule from 78 to 85 CE, the British had some generations of Roman rule and while they were there There were still some small rebellions that the Romans sought to expand beyond their few settlements in the south-west of England, they had pushed into Wales under Aus plaus and also moved to the north-west.

Agricola spent much of his time as governor expanding into Caledonia while undertaking one of these expeditions. If he met an exiled Irish king and both hoped to use the other for their own purposes, Agricola saw an opportunity to help him regain his throne, thus creating an ally and eliminating Ireland as a haven for anti-Roman sentiment, the king would probably have been happy. . to have Roman help even if it meant they would demand tribute Tus does not tell us the name of the Irish king, but many believe that it was the legendary king Tuala Techmar who was overthrown and exiled around this time.

Agricola's knowledge of the island, apart from anything else. the king told him that he would have relied on coastal surveys and information from merchants and merchants. Whatever they told him, he wasn't very impressed. He told his son-in-law that a single legion with some auxiliaries could conquer and occupy Ireland. I have also read the work of Pomponius Mela, who said that the island was of little use for growing grain but was excellent for livestock. It is so lush with grass not only plentiful but also sweet that the cattle gorge themselves in a fraction of the day and unless kept. of the grass burst from feeding too long for everything that Mela found the grass worthy of Praise did not extend any to the inhabitants of the Island whom he described as undisciplined and ignorant of all virtue to a greater degree than any other nation and they are very Given all this , an invasion of Ireland made sense to the Romans, they hoped it would require little effort and they would be rewarded with the elimination of a potential rebel sanctuary and a place that could produce abundant hides for leather and parchment if not also meat and so Agrica established a camp in that part of Britain which looks towards Ireland in the hope of new conquests rather than fearing attack.

Archaeologists have confirmed this finding, evidence of fortifications in this area in addition to commercial markets. However, Agricola's opportunity was missed. to the rebellions in Scotland that demanded his full attention when he was done with them, his rule was over and he returned to Rome, so he missed the opportunity to bring Ireland into the Roman Empire, but this does not mean that there was no interaction between the Irish and Roman trade had existed between Ireland and Britain long before any foreign conquest, this continued and now included the Roman inhabitants of the island. Roman coins can be found throughout Ireland along with Roman gold and silver jewelery and the remains of an aere which contained olive trees. oils and wine, there is even a Roman-style tomb near Stonyford Co Kileny, making it seem likely that at least one Roman felt comfortable enough in Ireland to be buried there and, as always in the ancient world, There was also the slave trade both to and from Ireland.

However, the most important element of these commercial ties was not the goods they bought and sold, but the information they transmitted. As the Romans and Romanized Britons interacted with the Irish, they exchanged cultural elements and just as the power of Rome began to weaken in the British Isles, a relatively new belief system was becoming an important part of Roman Christianity. . The Romans may have left Britain in the late 4th century, but they left Roman Catholicism behind and, at the time of writing, almost 70% of Irish people identify as Catholic. We could say that, after all, Rome conquered Ireland not with swords but with ideas.