The Real Lives of Roman Britain

by Guy de la Bédoyère

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300223491
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 16.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Guy de la Bédoyère is author of Roman Britain: A New History and many other histories. He lives in Lincolnshire, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 Cold Contact: The Coming of Caesar, 55 BC-AD 41 1

2 Quislings and Rebels, AD 41-61 15

3 Roman Britain's Boom Years, AD 61-161 40

4 Life on the Frontier 69

5 Gods and Goddesses 94

6 Death, Disruption and Decline in the Third Century 120

7 Roman Britain's High Summer, AD 307-410 157

8 Looking Back on the World of Giants, AD 410 and After 185

Roman Names and Roman Money 197

Dates in the History of Roman Britain 200

Gazetteer 210

A Note on Sources 213

Abbreviations 216

Notes 217

Select Bibliography 226

Index 230

Picture Credits 242

Editorial Reviews

09/07/2015
In this alternately fascinating and wearisome chronicle of Roman-occupied Britain, historian de la Bédoyère (Roman Britain: A New History) offers a new angle on the period, revealing the ways that ordinary people—not just emperors and their kin—lived in these days. From 55 B.C.E. to 410 C.E., Rome ruled the majority of the island of Great Britain, bringing with it Roman styles of government, religion, and culture. To uncover Rome's influence on the lives of these individuals, de la Bédoyère examines such figures as the Romano-British poet Silvius Bonus; the Aldgate-Pulborough Potter, known only because of his production of Samian pottery; and several persons who left public records of their existence as Britons through various acts of tribute, such as making a dedication to a god or goddess at a local shrine. De la Bédoyère ranges widely over various elements of culture in Roman Britain, addressing religion, death, and architecture—such as the making and ownership of villas—as well as the eventual demise of the Roman Empire, which enabled Britain to stand outside the shadow of Rome by the early fifth century C.E. Those interested in the sometimes repetitive minutiae of Rome or Britain's history should find this volume worthwhile. (July)

Publishers Weekly

De la Bédoyère considers each bit of evidence with wit and imagination, leading the reader with him on the path of discovery.”—Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins, from Shelf Awareness for Readers

Shelf Awareness for Readers - Pamela Toler

"This is a very enjoyable book: well-organized, smartly presented and written in a lively style. A 'good read.'"—David Kennedy, author of The Roman Army in the East

David Kennedy

"De la Bédoyère is engaging and thought-provoking throughout, telling the well-worn story of Roman Britain from a compelling and deeply affecting standpoint. This is history at its best." – Miles Russell, BBC History 
 

BBC History Magazine - Miles Russell

[An] amazing, not overly-long book. . . . Mr. de la Bédoyère[,] your commentaries on the Boudican War, tribal politics, architecture, religion, the Imperial crisis of the third century, and much, much more provide a rich historical backdrop for the stories of the lives of the ordinary people who are the real stars of your book. Great read, and my hat is off to you, sir!”—Alex Johnston, UNRV.com

UNRV.com - Alex Johnston

As a short history of Roman Britain, unencumbered by the apparatus of too much military history, it is one of the best available, both up-to-date and refreshingly skeptical.”—Mary Beard, New York Review of Books

New York Review of Books - Mary Beard