An innovative, informative, and entertaining history of Roman Britain
told through the lives of individuals in all walks of life
The Britain of the Roman Occupation is, in a way, an age that is dark to
us. While the main events from 55 BC to AD 410 are little disputed, and
the archaeological remains of villas, forts, walls, and cities explain a
great deal, we lack a clear sense of individual lives. This book is the
first to infuse the story of Britannia with a beating heart, the first
to describe in detail who its inhabitants were and their place in our
history.
A lifelong specialist in Romano-British history, Guy de la Bédoyère is
the first to recover the period exclusively as a human experience. He
focuses not on military campaigns and imperial politics but on
individual, personal stories. Roman Britain is revealed as a place where
the ambitious scramble for power and prestige, the devout seek solace
and security through religion, men and women eke out existences in a
provincial frontier land. De la Bédoyère introduces Fortunata the slave
girl, Emeritus the frustrated centurion, the grieving father Quintus
Corellius Fortis, and the brilliant metal worker Boduogenus, among
numerous others. Through a wide array of records and artifacts, the
author introduces the colorful cast of immigrants who arrived during the
Roman era while offering an unusual glimpse of indigenous Britons, until
now nearly invisible in histories of Roman Britain.
