by Drs. N.

Before the arrival of the Romans, during the late Iron Age, several tribes of Durotriges lived in round plague huts and with a mixed agricultural economy (Redfern & Roberts, 2005). A reconstruction of these round plague huts shows that if the heating material used to heat it is not burned enough, small particles can form which irritate the lungs and cause cough that can spread tuberculosis (Redfern, 2008).
These round huts and the possible 'outbreaks' that they were probably continued to exist in the Roman city of Durnovaria, founded around 65 AD (now Dorchester; Redfern & DeWitte, 2011), with the result that the new inhabitants of this city, i.e. immigrants, faced with this (Redfern & Roberts, 2005). This in itself is not a consequence of the urban facilities of the Romans, because it was due to existing dwellings.
However, what was a clear consequence of Roman urbanization is that according to Redfern and DeWitte (2011) diseases were able to spread faster due to the increased population density created in a Roman urban settlement. Mitchell (2017) also believes that larger populations maintain infectious diseases better than smaller populations. For example, with a larger population density, more (long-term) social contacts could arise, which could have increased the chance of contracting diseases (Redfern, 2008).
An additional consequence is that after the conquest people from all over the empire lived in Britain, with the result that they were exposed to environments and conditions, such as a new city with already present round plague huts, with which they were never in contact before (Mitchell, 2017). The immune system of local residents could not have been able to withstand germs from all over the empire (Mitchell, 2017). Modern anthropological and clinical research shows that the disease rate is higher in cities especially for immigrants from rural areas (Harrison, in Redfern & Roberts, 2005). However, it is not known whether the immigrants in Durnovaria were all from rural areas, but it is known that after the arrival of the Romans, the population was more heterogeneous than before and infections were a danger.

The health of a population or individual is directly related to some factors such as culture, social status and habitat of which the habitat (2) is the most important (Redfern, 2008). It is therefore not surprising that life in a completely different environment (3), such as a city like Durnovaria during the Roman conquest of Britain, had health effects.

Urban situation in Dorset and Dorchester
In addition to a higher population density than in the settlements of the Durotriges, the new Roman city received, among other things, a public bathhouse and an aqueduct that led water to the city.
The wooden and/or stone houses in the city were built in an L-shape with a courtyard, which included springs, cesspools or separate buildings with a latrine (Redfern 2008).
In general, facilities such as bathhouses and cesspools could pose major health risks.
In addition, during the Roman rule, the agricultural economy, which was already there at the time of the Durotriges, expanded. The Romans (perhaps like the Durotriges) used to using human excrements as manure, so that bacteria and viruses could infect the grown vegetables.
The higher population density was able to cause existing diseases caused by bathhouses, cesspools and human excrements to spread more and more rapidly, thereby worsening public health.
A good measure of public health is the skeletons of non-adults. Indeed, the ability to keep the most vulnerable people healthy demonstrates the ability to adapt to the environment of society (Lewis, 2010).
Lewis (2010) found children's skeletons in Dorchester that the children lived in very poor health.
Schell (in Redfern & Roberts, 2005) shows that: '... during the gestational period and for newcomers these areas. the urban environment can create stressors which culture cannot buffer against. These include materials which create challenges to survival and adaptation, as well as exposure to toxic materials and infectious agents. For instance, the new buildings, resources and employment provided by the Romanization of Britain would likely have affected the parents of these children”
Schell therefore thinks that, among other things, new buildings that emerged from the romanisation of Britain could have infected the parents of these children. For example, the aforementioned bathhouse that was present in Durnovaria may well have been the cause of such infections that children according to Lewis (2010) were susceptible to.
Finally, Redfern (in Redfern and DeWitte, 2011) argues that statistics show that the new types of settlements have led to a higher risk of mortality because, for comparison, there was much less disease and a lower risk of mortality in adults in the late iron age.
The hypothesis that the introduction of cities was indeed one of the factors that caused damage to public health is supported by finds in Poundbury Camp.
This is an iron age fortress that overlooks Dorchester and where the high population density and poor living conditions explain the occurrence of tuberculosis (Lewis, 2010). Since these two aspects also played a role in the urban settlement of Dorchester and in the Dorset region, it is likely that a similar situation has affected Dorchester.

Conclusion
It has been described how the presence of streets and bathhouses and the absence of proper sewerage allowed to create unsanitary conditions.
In the particular case of Dorchester, diseases, combined with the more heterogeneous population that emerged after the Roman conquest, could spread much faster because immigrants were exposed to environments and diseases with which they had never been in contact. Nor could the immune system of the local inhabitants have been able to withstand germs from all over the empire. Furthermore, higher population density (compared to rural areas) led to a faster spread of diseases. And a bathhouse, in addition to the remaining round huts of the Durotriges, could have been a disease source. After the arrival of the Romans, people from all over the empire came to the densely populated city of Durnovaria (Redfern, 2008).
Of course, the emergence of diseases, like Romanization, cannot be understood in a simple model and there will always be a complex combination of factors.
According to Lewis (2010), more research is needed into other Roman environments such as army camps to know if it really was the urban environment that caused the poor health of the children in his research.
However, because the environment has a direct link to health, it is likely that the change in question, namely the introduction of urban settlements, was an important factor in the development of diseases. This article looked for causes of the high mortality rate found by Redfern and DeWitte (2011). The facilities and buildings discussed here are possible urban causes and could or may not be identified in follow-up research.
In this article, changes in the environment have been treated as part of 'romanisation' and this underlines the inaccuracy of the assumption discussed in the introduction behind the term 'romanisation' that Rome was a transition to a 'better' or 'higher' form of society. At a high mortality rate, a culture dies out and that is not a step in a progressive development, as the assumption behind Romanization assumed. This conclusion constitutes a nuance of the term 'romanisation'.

2. Living environment means: the urban or rural environment in which one spends daily life.

3. A living environment that was much densely populated than was previously the case.

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