Table Of ContentA HISTORY OF
ROMAN BRITAIN
Peter Salway, formerly a fellow of Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge, and subsequently of All Souls College, Oxford,
is an Emeritus Professor of the Open Univenity and
Chairman of the Oxford Archaeological Unit. His pubhca-
tions include Roman Britain in the Oxford History ofEngland.
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A HISTORY OF
ROMAN
BRITAIN
PETER SALWAY
Oxford New York
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford Uniuersity Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp
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The text of this edition first published iggj in
The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain
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PREFACE
When the volume entitled Roman Britain was published in 1981
as part of the Oxford History of England series, I thought it nec¬
essary to explain why I had chosen to treat Britain in that period
as an integral part of the Roman world, reacting in its own way
to events and trends observable across the known world, but
always within the orbit of an empire that encompassed the greater
part of it. ‘Roman Britain’ as a field of study or a leisure inter¬
est was still often regarded by its devotees—and from outside—
as a self-contained entity whose study was a traditional craft
handed down from scholar to scholar. Prehistorians (particularly
those without a background in Greek and Roman classical liter¬
ature) were incHned to find it alien. Sometimes they dismissed
the Roman centuries in the history of Britain as a transient phase
with a superficial culture imposed by a foreign occupation. They
were reinforced in this by an overall impression conveyed by
much of the scholarly work on the period following the collapse
of Roman imperial rule at the beginning of the fifth century ad.
Studies of the Celtic tradition that survived and flourished in
western and northern Britain—and most of all in Ireland, where
there had been no Roman occupation—seemed to reveal an
indigenous tribal society with apparently close social and artistic
similarities to what was known of pre-Roman Iron Age Britain.
This suggested that, even in the areas of Britain that had been
most heavily marked by the remains of Roman material culture,
the natural ‘trajectory’ of development of the native population
had been only temporarily nudged off course by the Roman pre¬
sence. The fact that these areas were also those most intensely
affected by a blanket of subsequent Anglo-Saxon settlement,
which seemed to have submerged whatever preceded it very
swiftly after the end of Roman rule, reinforced the notion that
Roman Britain had been a fragile and transient aberration in the
natural evolution of these islands. Even students of Classics them¬
selves could often go along with this picture, since Britain seemed
vi Preface
to them to be so peripheral to the essentially Mediterranean civil¬
ization that was at the centre of their interests.
In adapting for the Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain
what I wrote a decade earlier for the Oxford History of England,
it became obvious that advances in the studies of both the pre-
Roman and the post-Roman periods made it largely unneces¬
sary to restate the case for regarding the relationship between
Britain and Rome as critical to understanding the development
of the island for many centuries. That relationship was now clear¬
ly accepted as starting long before the Claudian conquest in the
middle of the first century ad, and as archaeologicaUy demon¬
strable in Britain and from the Mediterranean to the Channel.
Study of the historical sources had highlighted the remarkable
place that Britain occupied in Roman thought and pohtics from
Juhus Caesar to the last years of Roman rule and possibly beyond.
Similarly, recent scholarship was beginning to show Britain more
clearly playing an inteUigible part in the origins of modern
Europe that arose out of the fusion of Roman and barbarian in
the fifth and sixth centuries, processes always better understood
in Britain’s Continental neighbours and now themselves the sub¬
ject of important new discoveries and reappraisals on both sides
of the Channel.
In Britain itself the pace of discovery and research has not
slackened during these decades. In almost aU aspects, the effect
of recasting my 1981 text for the present book has been to sharp¬
en the view of Roman Britain and to provide depth and detail
to opinions that were tentative or part-formed. Some hypotheses
have fallen by the wayside, but fewer than I had expected. The
text is broadly based on that of the Oxford History of England,
condensed and revised to take account of the advances in know¬
ledge of the past ten years. Opportunity has been taken for sub¬
stantial rewriting, particularly in the narrative chapters. As this
book is aimed at a wider public, footnotes have been avoided.
Instead, the appendices and ancillary material follow the Oxford
Illustrated Histories in aiming to provide the general reader with
background information in a convenient form. Compiling the
section on further reading emphasized, perhaps more than any
of the other work on this book, the continuing vigour of
Romano-British studies and their central place in the under¬
standing of the early history of this country.
Peter Salway
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In a book of this sort it is impossible to acknowledge adequately
the enormous but unseen contribution of the many people who,
in conversation or in answer to specific queries, provided infor¬
mation, criticized ill-founded notions, and suggested new hnes of
enquiry. Others supphed material for the pictures that accompany
the text, with a degree of helpfulness that made the task of illus¬
tration an unexpected pleasure. I hope they will accept that I
recognize my debt to each of them. Interpretations of what they
provided—and with which they may not agree—are my respons-
ibihty, not theirs, as are any errors inadvertently introduced.
The pubhsher s support for this book has been outstanding. It
would have proceeded nowhere without the backing of Ivon
Asquith. From the time they inherited the project, Tony Morris
and Sophie MacCaUum have treated it with an enthusiasm that
is much appreciated. Sandra Assersohn deserves special thanks for
handling the complex picture research with professionalism and
good humour. It is easy for an author to overlook the contribu¬
tion of the desk-editing team; my thanks go to Peter Momt-
chdofF, and to Nicola Pike who copy-edited the text. Finally my
thanks are due to Sue Tipping for the page layout.
Peter Salway
1993
In preparing this paperback edition of the text of the Oxford
Illustrated History of Roman Britain opportunity has been taken
to make a few minor corrections and amendments. I am very
grateful to Angus Phillips and Caroline Cory-Pearce of OUP for
seeing it through the press, and particularly to the latter for over¬
seeing the choice and production of the maps with which it is
illustrated.
PS.
J997
CONTENTS
List of Maps xi
I. THE FIRST ROMAN CONTACTS
1. The British Background 3
2. The Expeditions of Caesar 20
3. From Caesar to Claudius 34
II. THE ROMAN CONQUEST
4. The Claudian Invasion 55
5. Resistance and Revolt 76
6. Recovery and Advance 91
7. Hadrianic Britain 127
8. The Antonine Frontier 147
III. IMPERIAL CRISIS AND RECOVERY
9. Marcus Aurelius and Commodus 157
10. Civil War and its Aftermath 167
11. From Caracalla to Diocletian 179
12. The Tetrarchy 207
13. Constantine the Great 233
14. The Middle of the Fourth Century 256
15. The Restoration of Order 278
IV. THE END OF ROMAN BRITAIN
16. The Collapse of Imperial Rule in Britain 307
17. Postscript to Roman Britain 332
V. BRITAIN UNDER ROMAN RULE
18. The Assimilation of Britain 359
19. The Historical Geography of Roman Britain 386
20. Town and Country 410
21. The Economy 443
22. Religion and Society 487
X Contents
Further Reading 551
Chronology 563
List of Roman Emperors 571
Index 575
