page_title: Roman villas in northwestern Gaul
section_title: Roman conquest and colonization
hierarchical_section_title: Roman villas in northwestern Gaul / Roman conquest and colonization
caption_attribution_description: Gallische Hoeve te Destelbergen
context_page_description: Roman villas in northwestern Gaul functioned as colonial economic centers. Most villas did not resemble the luxurious, aristocratic country retreats of the Mediterranean region. Their owners were absentee investors, managed by local Gauls whose families were rewarded after the Gallo-Roman wars.
  It is difficult for archeologists to define a villa; the recovered residences varied in size and style. However, all sites designated as "villas" contain Roman architectural elements found in homes.
  At first the new Roman masters physically changed very little in Gaul, simply refining the rural economic system in an already intensely farmed landscape. These refinements took the form of technological improvements and enhancing the economic structure.
context_section_description: Julius Caesar and his Roman legions succeeded in their conquest of Gaul from 57 to 52 BCE at the invitation of Gauls in Marseille, who asked the Romans to come to their defense.
  The Romans occupied and managed their empire with a minimum of administrators, no police force and an army primarily located on the frontiers (much like the French colonial empire of the 17th and 18th centuries. A few Roman natives lived in major towns, but most governmental and economic functions were carried out by local Gauls. This "minimalist empire" left most people and institutions untouched. New Roman settlements were relatively few; if one paid their taxes and kept the peace, life did not change much during the early centuries of occupation.
  The primary early-Roman modifications were technological improvements and links to a market economy, which often meant new Roman roads and supplies for the Roman army. The major technological addition was a bigger plough (possibly invented in Gaul), which could break up the heavier soil. This new plough cut deeper into the soil, and the ploughman could regulate its depth. It was usually pulled by four to eight oxen, and had three parts:
  Coulter: Knife-like vertical iron blade
  Ploughshare: Blade which cut horizontally through grass roots
  Mouldboard: Turned the soil to one side
  The results of these innovations were longer fields (suitable for large estates) and population growth (with the additional food produced).
  Roman investors (possibly living in North Africa) bought and sold land, using local Gallic lords to manage the new villa system. These managers built the villas we find today, which historians call a romanitas (Romanized Gallic villa). These Gauls created a wide variety of homes, from two-room cottages to palaces more in keeping with the Roman ideal of life (evidenced in mosaics, columns and other typically Roman features). This romanitas was the passport to a new world of consumer goods, prestige and advancement: urban luxury in the countryside.
caption: Pre-Roman Gaul home
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "CAMERA", "Image Model": "DC3A30", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:02:23 21:55:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "248", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "858", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5436", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/91", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "70", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:02:17 15:30:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:02:17 15:30:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "13/2", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "57/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "732", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "37", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Night", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}