A highly illustrated account of how the Roman legions crossed the sea
to conquer Britannia in AD 43.
For the Romans, Britannia lay beyond the comfortable confines of the
Mediterranean world around which classical civilization had flourished.
Britannia was felt to be at the outermost edge of the world itself,
lending the island an air of dangerous mystique.
To the soldiers crossing the Oceanus Britannicus in the late summer of
AD 43, the prospect of invading an island believed to be on its
periphery must have meant a mixture of panic and promise. These men were
part of a formidable army of four veteran legions (II Augusta, VIIII
Hispana, XIIII Gemina, XX Valeria), which had been assembled under
the overall command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. Under him were,
significantly, first-rate legionary commanders, including the future
emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. With the auxiliary units, the total
invasion force probably amounted to around 40,000 men, but having
assembled at Gessoriacum (Boulogne) they refused to embark. Eventually,
the mutinous atmosphere was dispelled, and the invasion fleet sailed in
three contingents.
So, ninety-seven years after Caius Iulius Caesar, the Roman army landed
in south-eastern Britannia. After a brisk summer campaign, a province
was established behind a frontier zone running from what is now Lyme Bay
on the Dorset coast to the Humber estuary. Though the territory overrun
during the first campaign season was undoubtedly small, it laid the
foundations for the Roman conquest which would soon begin to sweep
across Britannia.
In this highly illustrated and detailed title, Nic Fields tells the full
story of the invasion which established the Romans in Britain,
explaining how and why the initial Claudian invasion succeeded and what
this meant for the future of Britain.
