The Roman Invasion(s) Before you started reading this chapter,
you may have thought that Latin existed in English only in
phrases like carpe diem and habeas corpus. There are many little
phrases and abbreviations like that, but Latin's contribution to
our language is far more than legal terms and mottos. In fact,
Latin crashed on the shores of England in three successive
waves. The Romans were in Britain for a few centuries, but not
too many Latin words survived into English from that time.
Julius Caesar made a couple of visits there in 55 and 54 B.C.E.,
but it wasn't until Claudius annexed it as a province in the 40s
C.E. that there was a constant Roman presence. Latin was a very
foreign language to them. Much of the contact between the two
peoples came at Roman military camps (castra) and plantations
(villae). Locals came to trade so frequently with these
newcomers that towns grew up beside the Roman establishments.
These settlements by locals often distinguished themselves by
having names ending in — chest