ABSTRACT
Colonial powers by their very nature encourage this sort of response and, as will be made clear later in this chapter, some of the works of art and of architecture
set up in Roman Britain were those of an occupying power. Tacitus again finds the right words: the Temple of Divus Claudius at Colchester was Arx Aeternae Dominationis, ‘the Citadel of Eternal Servitude’ (Annals, xiv, 31). But even here there is another point of view. Tacitus belonged to the ruling class; his fatherin-law was Agricola, whose achievements in Britain certainly shed lustre on his family. Under such circumstances it says much for his sensitivity, a sensitivity not rare among educated Romans, that he could look with sympathy at the defeated Britons. Had not the Emperor Claudius been similarly compassionate when he had spared the life of Caratacus (Annals, xii, 36 and 37)?
