Pelican History of England Volume 1 : Roman Britain

Harmondsworth Middlesex: Penguin, 1955 Book. Very Good. Pbk. First Pbk.Ed... Original Vintage Penguin # A315. Roman Britain is the first volume of a series planned to form an intelligent and consecutive guide to the development of English Society in all its aspects from the Roman invasion to the outbreak of the First World War. Each volume has been written by a specialist, and each author has been left to decide what he himself considers significant and interesting in the period with which he deals, and to make his own balance between the claims of the sub-divisions of his general thesis, politics, economics, culture, religion, social life, colonial expansion, foreign relations. All have sought to emphasize the sense of period, and while some parallels are inevitable, the business of discovering comparison and conclusion, and of adapting the lessons of history to our times, is left, for the most part, to the reader . This book provides a general picture of the Roman province of Britain during the period from A.D. 43 until the fifth century. It does not attempt to furnish a continuous historical account, for which neither the written sources nor the archaeological material can provide enough evidence. The nearest approach to this is in the description of the military subjugation and organization of the province, dealt with here in considerable detail in an attempt to relate it to general policy, and to give a closer account of its changes than is usually attempted. The towns are considered analytically, with emphasis on their social function in the several communities of which they were the centres, and upon their connexions both with the Roman state and the native tribe, and attention is given to the smaller centres both in civil and military areas. Religious cults, their buildings, and their artistic expression are brought into relation with the provincial social order. Commerce and the countryside are the themes of other chapters, and the development of provincial resources in agriculture and raw products is described. 240p. illus. bibliography, index . Clean neat unmarked text, paper age toned.