We tend to think of Britain as being part of Europe since the beginning of history, but actually this isn’t so. It wasn’t until the first century B.C., when the Romans invaded Britain, that anyone in Europe knew anything at all about Britain. Its history before that is something we know very little about.

At the time of the first invasion, the inhabitants were called Britons. They spoke various Celtic dialects, practiced some agriculture, raised cattle and horses, and used iron for their tools and weapons. Most of them lived in thatch-roofed huts in small villages. It was the Romans who built cities there and connected them with roads.