Product Description

Britain was within the orbit of Graeco-Roman civilization for at least half a millennium, and for over 350 years part of the political union created by the Roman Empire that encompassed most of Europe and all the countries of the Mediterranean. First published as part of the best-selling Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Peter Salway's Very Short Introduction to Roman Britain weaves together the results of archaeological investigation and historical scholarship in a rounded and highly readable concise account. He charts life in Roman Britain from the first Roman invasion under Julius Caesar to the final collapse of the Roman Empire in the West around AD 500.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98460 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-10
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 88 pages

About the Author
Peter Salway, formerly a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and subsequently of All Souls College, Oxford, is an Emeritus Professor of the Open University and Chairman of the Oxford Archaeological Unit. His publications include The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain, published by OUP in 1993 (reissued in paperback by OUP in 1997 as A History of Roman Britain). He has served as a Member of Council of the National Trust (appointed by the Society of
Antiquaries), and was one of the editors of The Remains of Distant Times: Archaeology and the National Trust (Boydell, 1996). He has also published a substantial number of articles and reviews in learned journals and publications for the general reader, mostly on Roman Britain and Classical Antiquity in general, a few on medieval and later British archaeology and architectural history.

Customer Reviews

No wasted words !
This review of Britain over the five centuries of Roman influence and/or rule is concise and superbly well informed. It's a bonsai it's true, but a very well and wisely pruned one. No book could give a better global view of the subject than this and it makes the most of the archeological sources which have updated our understanding of, for example, the villa culture, the spread of Christianity and the nature of Roman military control of the various parts of the island.

Britain's Classical roots
For their entries on British history in this excellent series, OUP have extracted 8 sections from their Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Roman Britain is the first. I recommend that you actually make it a 9-part history and start with The Celts: A Very Short Introduction, because that gives a useful background to this present volume.

Because of its provenance, this book is more conventional and less quirky than other Very Short Introductions. It is a solid, readable and engrossing introductory survey of four centuries of Roman rule. Salway provides enough information about events in other parts of the empire, including Rome itself, to provide the necessary context. It has plenty of surprising facts (to me at least) such as the population of Roman Britain being much larger than it was in the next few centuries, and that Claudius entered Colchester complete with elephants (can that really be true?). The illustrations are well chosen and there is a very useful chronology at the end.

Reliable starter
A quick glance at the two ends of this book suggests a potential weakness - it was first published in 1984 and its index makes no mention of Vindolanda, a site which has recently become as important as Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, for its letters documenting ordinary, Roman lives. However, as early as page two Salway refers to 'a small but growing number of personal letters discovered in excavations'. So this Very Short Intro doesn't need a drastic re-write after all.

In fact, the book does an excellent job of summarising the impact of the Roman Conquest upon the indigenous tribal populations of Britain. Initially hostile, Roman Britain became one of the most stable parts of the Empire during the upheavals of its declining years and, something of a surprise, wealthy, elite individuals from continental provinces would acquire a villa somewhere in Britain to act as a safe refuge!

Salway notes the great success of Romanisation - the transmission of Rome's core values upon disparate parts of the Empire. But two things are made clear as well: firstly, that 'Rome' is a relative term - many of the troops representing Roman rule were from other, non-Italian provinces (like Thrace and Batavia). Secondly, a native influence upon 'Rome' is also apparent - witness the readiness of Roman soldiers to worship local cults.

Whether for the general reader, in need of a brief introduction to the topic, or for students wanting an overview (perhaps as a revision aid) this is yet another excellent VSI, and is one that has firmly stood the test of time.