including headings Celtic tribes and Caesar, Celtic Britain, Roman conquest of Britain, Boudicca and the Iceni, Campaigns of Agricola, ...
Four Roman legions land in Kent in AD 43. The two sons of Cymbeline attempt to hold them at the Medway but are defeated (an engagement in which Togodumnus is killed, leaving Caractacus in sole command of the British forc...
Hadrian's Wall, established from the 2nd century AD as the frontier of Roman rule in the British Isles, enables England and Wales (as they will later become) to settle down together as Britannia, the most northerly Roman...
The decline of Roman Britain is like the withering of a limb at the extremity of an ailing body. In unsettled times, in the late 4th century, western emperors withdraw legions from Britain for their own local purposes. O...
The threat to the Roman empire from Germanic tribes, in the 5th century, leaves the Romanized Celts dangerously exposed to barbarian aggression. Gaul is overwhelmed by Visigoths, Burgundians and Franks. In Britain, after...
Water has until now provided the natural boundaries of the Roman empire in Europe - the Atlantic, the Rhine and the Danube. With the invasion of Britain, followed by the failure to conquer the whole island, another form...
Little progress is made in pacifying Wales until the arrival in Britain of Agricola. More is known of Agricola than of any other Roman general of comparable stature, because he takes the wise precaution of having a histo...
The only major threat to Roman dominance of southern Britain derives from their own heavy-handedness. The Iceni, a tribe of Celts occupying what is now Norfolk, have been allies of the Romans. Their king, Prasut...
With Gaul in the hands of Germanic chieftains, and the Roman legions withdrawn from Britain, land-hungry tribes are tempted by the short step across the English Channel. Among those who take this step, invading the easte...
Aristocrats all over Britain soon follow the fashion, providing themselves with Palladian or neoclassical mansions in which they can enjoy their surrounding estates. Country seats spring up with pillared porticos to impr...
Caesar's campaigns into Germany and Britain suggest that he considers Gaul itself secure. The year 52 BC proves him wrong. The Celts find an inspiring leader in Vercingetorix, a young chieftain of the Averni. His early s...
The wayward and tyrannical behaviour of Roman emperors during the 1st century AD provides a lively subject for historians. Two seize the opportunity - Tacitus, who views the scene with the analytical eye of the historian...
Vespasian is unusual in the line of Roman emperors to this date in being an experienced and hard-bitten old general, non-patrician in his background and already sixty when he comes to power. He has distinguished himself...
