The Real Lives of Roman Britain

by Guy de la Bédoyère

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 colourful 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Roman Britain, British Literature, Ancient, Research

242 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2015

About the author

Guy de la Bédoyère is author of a widely admired series of books on Roman history. He appeared regularly on the UK’s Channel 4 archaeology series Time Team and is well known in the United States for his volume The Romans for Dummies. His latest books are Gladius. Living, Fighting, and Dying in the Roman Army (2020), and Pharaohs of the Sun. How Egypt's Despots and Dreamers Drove the Rise and Fall of Tutankhamun's Dynasty (2022). He lives in Grantham, Lincolnshire, UK.

Reviews

[Steve]

1st Century Roman mosaic in the Roman palace at Fishbourne, Chichester


Though Britons in the Southeast had commercial dealings with the Roman Empire and tribal leaders had been displaying their status by bringing prestige items across the Channel for quite some time, they didn't feel the weight of the Empire until Julius Caesar's adventures on the scepter'd isle in the summers of 55 and 54 BCE. But Caesar had other matters on his plate and left, taking his army with him. Subsequent invasions were planned by Augustus and Caligula, but it was Emperor Claudius who sent four legions to occupy the island in 43 CE. The Roman army would remain until approximately the year 410 - the aftereffects of Roman civilization would remain significantly longer.

As Guy de la Bédoyère warns, The Real Lives of Roman Britain (2015) is not a history of Roman Britain, it is a glimpse into what can be retrieved about the lives of the people who lived there and then. Some history is related for context, of course, but the focus is on culture with a small "c" and "normal" life as evidenced by archaeological digs, numismatics, funerary and other inscriptions, the Vindolanda tablets(*) and the like.

For the most part, this is done very soberly. Along with explicitly declining to pass a value judgment on the occupation, de la Bédoyère doesn't choose to tell the most colorful versions of his tales. For example, instead of playing all the registers of the well known story of Boudica as embellished by later fabulists for various purposes, de la Bédoyère explains what little one really can know and what motivated Tacitus and Cassius Dio to set the legend in motion in the first place. So, this is not a popularization of the egregious sort one might be led to expect by the title. (The fact that the book is published by the Yale University Press is also a hint.) On the other hand, it is also no dry-as-dust academic monograph of the sort I have been reading lately (and learning a great deal from). The roughly chronological organizing principle suggested on the level of chapters is constantly violated in the very digressive paragraphs, as is seemingly any other likely form of organization.

Though the famous make their cameo appearances, the author draws our attention to the Thracian trooper, Longinus Sdapeze, who died at forty after fifteen years in the saddle on Rome's behalf - before he had reached the magic number of 25, at which he would have become a Roman citizen; and Saturninus Gabinius, the "most idiosyncratic" of the water nymph Coventina's adherents, who fabricated from clay two curious incense burners and proudly inscribed them with his name; and the Gaulish import/export businessman, Lucius Viducius Placidus, who was so successful that he made a dedication to a local goddess in what is now Holland and paid for a gate and arch in a temple precinct in York; and the Briton, Verecunda, daughter of the Dobunni tribe who married a Romanized Gaul, Excingus, and died at thirty-five to be buried in the Roman manner and marked with a Roman tombstone inscribed in Latin. To mention only a few of many. Although each individual emerges out of the shadows of time to wave briefly and then recede, de la Bédoyère uses them to exemplify the general facts about ordinary life in Roman Britain that he weaves into the discussion.

And so we have here a Sammelsurium of the activities, customs and beliefs of Roman Britons, as can yet be reconstructed from their traces. (And what a difference there is between the nature and quantity of the pre-Roman traces and the post-Roman!) One finishes the book with the feeling of having glimpsed the ordinary life of the place and time, something that is generally not vouchsafed to the curious by those who write histories.




Model of the Fishbourne palace, built some 30 years after the Claudian invasion


(*) The Vindolanda tablets consist of correspondence and records written on thin sheets of wood that were found in the ruins of a Roman fort on the northern frontier of Roman Britannia. They provide direct insight into the day to day life of the people living and working there around 100 CE. An Oxford website dedicated to these tablets may be found here:

http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk

It appears that as a young man the poet Juvenal was posted at Alauna, one of those northernmost forts.



A portion of Hadrian's Wall marking, for a time, the northern frontier of Roman Britannia

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The percentage of people living in Roman Britain from the Conquest in 43 AD to 410, when the Roman Army departed for good and shortly thereafter for which we have any record, was maybe 1% of the total population. But we're lucky to have at least the names of people who actually lived, and for some, more of their stories. Through the years archaeologists have uncovered inscriptions, some besides giving us names, also listed accomplishments. We have the records of both the high and the low, the latter mostly tradesmen and artisans. Interesting examples are: the incompetent Aldgate-Pulborough potter; Regina, the freed British slave of a Syrian trader--arguably the most famous woman after Boudica; various soldiers of all ranks who put up altars, fulfilling vows; a letter from the wife of the commander of one fort on Hadrian's Wall to another military commander's wife at another fort--this last was found among the Vindolanda Tablets, a treasure trove of information about the army--and many others. During the reigns of the usurpers Carausius and Allectus [during the last two decades of the 3rd century], soldiers were pulled from the Wall to fight for them and the spate of military inscriptions ceased. In the last few generations of Roman occupation, opulent villas, a pagan temple complex, and treasure troves with engraving on some of the pieces [mostly spoons] give us clues as to the Romano-Britons who may have possessed them or at least buried them.

This was a fascinating recent archaeological study where the author tried to give us a sense of Roman Britain and people who really lived although what remains of their lives to us are merely snapshots. I appreciated the numerous color plates. Recommended.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5

History seen through the fragments left by ordinary lives: what could be more fascinating? I had no idea that our knowledge about Roman Britain was simultaneously so thorough and yet so limited.

de la Bedoyere states that the British were an anomaly. While most native peoples that the Romans invaded quickly climbed the social ladder, no British native has been known to reach even equestrian status. This might be due to an incomplete record or an eager adoption of Roman names and customs, but the British are conspicuous by their absence in the historical record. The Romans portrayed many native British tribes as untamable savages, exemplified by their construction of Hadrian’s Wall.

One interesting insight I gained was the difference of female stature in the two worlds. When the Celtic leader Caratacus was taken to visit the Emperor Claudius, he also paid homage to Agrippina the Younger, possibly because women had much higher status in Britain. Female consorts held power, and women could be chieftans--and not just in the case of the somewhat mythical Boudica. When the wife of Caledonian chieftan Argentocoxus met empress Julia Domna some time around 200 AD, Julia Domna made a nasty crack about British men sharing out their women, she responded that while British women could ‘consort openly with the best men’ in public, Roman women were debauched in private.

I’ve been fascinated with Roman Britain ever since I read Ruth Downie’s Medicus series, so I was looking forward to learning about the minutiae of life in Roman Britain. (And by the way, this book taught me that the Medicus series is far more accurate than I’d thought.) While the idea of the book is excellent, the execution leaves something to be desired. I read an advanced reader copy, so hopefully things are a little smoother in the final version. However, in my copy, de la Bedoyere’s style is awkward, and the absence of important commas often forced me to read a sentence twice to understand the changes in object or subject. (Given my writing style, I know this is a pot-kettle complaint, but hey, that’s why I don’t write books.) Take a few examples:

“Cunobelinus was not to feature in the story of the Roman invasion since by 43 he was dead, but another ruler, Verica of the Atrebates, did.”

“Pliny the Younger, a senator born in the early 60s, lived on into the second century AD and despite a far-ranging career climaxing in the governorship of Bithynia and Pontus never forgot his home town of Como.”

The ungainly prose wasn’t assisted by the paragraph length, which often made the pages feel like walls of text. The paragraphs themselves were less than coherent, typically containing multiple subjects tenuously connected by awkward segues. While many images were referenced in the text, my advanced reader copy was devoid of all pictures except for the peculiar cartoon sketches of artefacts that appeared at the beginning of each chapter. The book’s final form will have images scattered throughout the book, which will likely assist with the text density issue. And despite the issues in execution, many of de la Bedoyere’s characters did come to life.

de la Bedoyere’s narrative spans from the beginning of Roman conquest to its slow dissolution. He uses coins, pottery, tombs, inscriptions, and ruins to try to piece together the lives of ordinary citizens. I think it’s the absurdity that brings these characters to life. Take Docimedis, who submitted a “curse tablet” requesting that the man who stole his gloves to “lose his minds and eyes” and that the man who stole his cloak to never sleep again or have children until he returned the cloak. And then there’s Gaius Severius Emeritus, a centurion in charge of civil policing in what would become the city of Bath. We know his name because of an inscription he left behind detailing the work he had done to restore all that had been “wrecked by the insolent.” He sounds so much like the jaded, exasperated cop from a police procedural that I’m just waiting for someone to turn him into a hardboiled detective novel.

It’s the little details, the mundanity and the absurdity, that brings a culture to life. Although the text is rather rough, I think that de la Bedoyere succeeds in providing a glimpse of the colorful, vibrant world of Roman Britain.

~~I received an advanced reader copy of this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Yale University Press.~~

Cross-posted on BookLikes.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a background in Roman archaeology and was fascinated to read this. It did not disappoint, despite its lesson that so little survives to tell us about the individuals who lived in Roman Britain. The author uses what there is to evoke past lives very well indeed, although these intriguing snippets did make me wish that there was more.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the grey mists of time and fantasy, floated a mythical island populated by wise Druidic priests and beautiful Celtic warrior princesses. Sometime after the birth of a carpenter in a far off land, this idyll was destroyed by the arrival of the evil Julius Caesar and his marauding soldiers. Truth or Fantasy? Many people claim to believe in this mythologised Britain, but the real truth is that we don’t know; and for all intents and purposes we cannot know.

As far as we do know, the Druids and Celts were not a literate, record-keeping people, so there are virtually no records of what life was like before the coming of the Romans. Any readily accessible information comes to us via the writings of historians like the infamous Julius Caesar, or Cassius Dio, whose 80 volume Roman History includes several chapters on Roman Britain. The noted historian, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus was the son-in-law of Gaius Julius Agricola, and whose history not only talks about battles he observed but gives us some of the earliest descriptions of native Britons. As with any histories composed by the agents of conquerors, these have to be regarded as biased.

More up front and possibly honest were the inscriptions place on monuments and tombstones. Fortunately, not only military personnel but tradesmen and artisans, as always, have put their marks and inscriptions on their work, leaving a tantalising glimpse of their lives for posterity. Guy de la Bédoyère, author of this extremely readable new book appropriately titled The Real Lives of Roman Britain, has performed an obsessive yeoman’s job of reading and translating hundreds of these artefacts. He has scrutinised everything from the Vindolanda tablets to inscriptions on coinage, building tiles, buried hoards, temples to Gods, minor, major and, synthesised Roman and Celtic. From objects deliberately left behind, like tombstones or treasure dropped, thrown or hidden and never recovered, the author has reconstructed, or posited, a picture of the ordinary people who lived under and with the occupying Romans.

We get stories of slaves freed, lovers, wives, children mourned, business disputes or hopes for success in business. Vicious inscriptions found in the vicinity of temple remains around the country attest to the particularly nasty practice of ordering lead curse tablets, and call to mind some of the ugly flame wars we find on today’s Twitter.

Places of pilgrimage, and especially healing were an important element in the Roman world. A population composed primarily of soldiers would be in particular need of medical and recuperative services. To meet this need, the Romans established religious and healing centres all over their empire. Here would gather the civilian and military sick: hypochondriacs and the genuinely ill, administrators, scribes, priests, soothsayers, inn-keepers, souvenir-makers, tourists and thieves. All required services of one kind or another and many lefty behind some token of their time at the centres. In Britain, Aquae Salis in Bath has been an especially rich source of inscribed material for the first two centuries of the Roman time.

Later, from the third century, as instabilities and difficulties in other parts of the empire drew attention away from Britain, the practice of erecting tombstones and monuments declined. Now the author draws his material from the host of buried treasure finds that are the beneficence of those obsessives who quarter fields with metal detectors. Composed of coins, jewellery, silver or other plate, these were buried sometime in the distant past and never recovered by their owners. Their return to the light, has allowed the author to posit a fascinating picture of life in the declining years of Roman Britain and happily many of these are collected in major museums around the country.

Using the inscriptions and writings found in these myriad of sources, so we armchair historians don’t have to undertake the intensive work of visiting all these locations, Guy de la Bédoyère has decoded massive numbers of inscriptions while making intelligent guesses about the lives of those who created or commissioned them. The result is a vivid and thought-enticing book. While by no means an academic text, it is as detailed and credible as this conscientious author can make it. This is a book that anyone interested in the history of Roman Britain can read and enjoy. I would recommend or buy this for any number of my friends. 5*****

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. The idea behind it, using archaeological evidence tied to a deep knowledge of life in Roman times (which the author certainly seems to have), is a great one.

There isn't enough archaeological evidence tied to specific people, though. A pottery shard with the maker's name on it here, a grave monument there. The author's way of indicating the resulting uncertainty is using "maybe", "perhaps", and "possibly" in every other sentence. This starts to grate very quickly.

Another thing is that he jumps from subject to subject very quickly, often without a paragraph break (this could be because I received a pre-release ebook, hopefully the formatting in the definitive copy is better). The link between one person and the next could be geographical, chronological or because of something like related jobs or social class, but this was often not made explicit, and sometimes it took a page or two to find out that we'd jumped to a different person, place, and time. (Even when you're staying in Roman Britain, there's enough places and times to do quite a bit of jumping.)

The end result is a book with lots of really very interesting glimpses into the lives of the ordinary, non-emperor people in a remote corner of the Roman empire. But the presentation is so jumbled and the writing so not my cup of tea that it is the very first book in a few years that, try as I might, I couldn't finish.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up mostly because Guy de la Bedoyere worked on Time Team, which I loved as a kid and now watch sometimes with my wife. He was their Roman expert, or one of them, so that’s a pretty good endorsement (and it amused me to notice a blurb from Tony Robinson on the front!). The problem, as ever, is that there isn’t really that much material for the “real people” of Roman Britain, because there’s no rich written record to refer to. There’s scraps — an inscription here, a letter there, an eloquent tomb — but often de la Bedoyere is pressed to make more than a paragraph or two of the material he has. It’s about real people, alright, but there’s so little we know about them, that doesn’t necessarily add to what we know.

Which is not to say it’s a bad book; it’s solidly based on the archaeology and records we have, and there are some fascinating glimpses at life in Roman Britain. But it’s less a full picture than a glance through a door that’s open just a crack.

Mind you, I’m sure de la Bedoyere feels closer to the people he writes about than we do, reading about it — he’s examined the evidence first hand, perhaps worked on the excavations. This might be more satisfying if you’re in that position, too!

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roman Britain is peculiar part of the overall Roman history, the everlasting semi civilised frontier reputation that no other frontier regions of the empire ever acquired. Yet at the same time it is over represented in the study of the Roman Empire. Partially that has to be due to Hadrians wall but for a large part that has to be due to Britain's laterfound success in the 18th century and the role of Roman history father Edward Gibbon's whose 6 part history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire still remains a staple for any informed talk about the Roman empire or at very least they way we look back at it.

So it was a bit surprising for me to learn that all and all we know very little about individuals living in Roman Britain. Only a fragment of the people who lived and died in this corner of the world for centuries, far less then we do about other parts of the empire. On the one hand it is interesting to use individuals to tell about the time they lived in, to discuss say their diet to comment on access to certain kinds of foods or what material their house was made of or the presence of a pepper container (thus showing a segment of the society could access pepper). But Guy De La Bédoyère does regularly dig and speculate a bit too deep. I would have times preferred more attention to what the remains/artefacts tell us about society as a whole rather then what this specific person's live could have been. It is a fine line off course but for my personal taste he edged a bit to close to focusing on the persons rather then what this tells us about their society and how it changed in time.
Another issue I had was that his build-up of chapters and follow up of paragraphs is not what I prefer; sometimes he jumps between persons and other times he eases the reader into new persons to get to know. The biggest issue whit the jumping, is that it leaves out context and easy to reach tools to differentiate and understand the differences and similarities between those that are discussed.

Two things do stand out in my appreciation of this book one negative and the other positive. On the negative side, his description of would be emperor Carausius who failed to capture the purple in the late 3th century. Now I would not define myself as a big fan of would be military usurpers but Guy insists on calling him a thug and a “cartoon pirate” and presents him like he was a sort of buffoon. Why? As far as I can find he wasn’t that special, not any different from any other roman General would got carried away and got elevated by his troops. It leaves me to conclude that the author has some personal reasons to dislike this particular Would be coup leader and that should not have made it into this book. Having said that I really appreciated his analysis of 4th century enduring paganism and growing dominance of Christianity. He flat out refuses to abide to the classic one goes up and the other goes down, off course Christianity was the clear cut dominant religion narrative. In stead by zooming in on a particular few finds that have a distinctly pagan identity and emphasis syncretism and local religious dynamics that gives us more of tug of war approach on spirituality rather then a suddenly Christians ruled after Constantine the great narrative. After all When Julian the Apostate (who is underplayed as usual but I will let that pass) ruled in 363 most peoples in the roman Empire were pagan and in the western have overwhelmingly so. So it fits that in this corner of the empire in which Christianity spread and manifested in urban trade context; the rural and small towns dominated Britain was far from a Christian region. Few authors seem to really respect that reality but this man does.

In the end this book leaves with mixed feelings; on the one hand it is an overview of the history of Roman Britain that is fairly accessible but on the other hand at various points the book requires significant knowledge of the times and cultures to fully understand why and how Britain differed from the rest of the empire or how it was similar; to really be able to anchor the persons discussed. But he does indulge in the little bits of oddities that have a universal appeal to them, such as the commanders wife discussing a birthday party she wanted to attend, shoddily made pottery from aldgate pull borough that must have had a “so bad its good” appeal to in its day, a fumbled up pillar inscription found in the tyne river, the remains of a young girl found buried in the barracks of wall fort, the villa that served as a brothel for the soldiers and a graveyard of stillborns in the garden. They serve his purpose of communicating a nationalist message of all current inhabitants share some connection to this bygone age and look surly you can see the universal human aspects in these people from this time that remind you of people today?

One final thing to comment is the challenge the material poses to the author; for his story of peoples lives are for a large part (especially in the early ages) stories of non britains; soldiers, merchants, migrants, slaves and wives that at some point ended up and for a sizable chunk moved on after in the Roman Provinces of Britain. This book is for a large part a story of migrants with varying ethnicities and that does undermine the quasi nationalist message he leaves the reader with. I did find fascinating that emperor Severus agreed to one condition of a peace treaty wtih northern britains beyond the hadrain wall, meeting face to face with the tribal leader along with their wives, the interaction and cultural insults(concerning sexuality and female honour) between the two women were hilarious and a treasure of historical preservation. But most importantly, does it succeed in telling their story? Well yes and no. I would have liked more about the society as a whole (or segments of it) and less details on certain individuals, but that I guess was the point of the book. The book has left me hungry for more and I did not care for a part of what was on the menu. So you see I am conflicted and thus I will leave it at a two star scoring; it wasn’t quite what I wanted but it can be what you want.

[Catherine Boardman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roads, villas, central heating we all know what the Romans did for us but we don't actually know who they were. This excellent history delves into the history of incompetent potters, workaday soldiers and East Anglian warrior Queens to give glimpse of the people behind the archeological remains. Well written, readable and informative; what more can you ask for?

[Polly Krize · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing read from a highly respected author. Guy de la Bedolyere's thoroughly researched book gives us a great insight into the everyday lives of the people of Roman Britain.

[Susanne]

Good book if you've not read in this category before. Nothing particularly new if you've already read what's out there.

[Frank Minich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but depressing as to how little is actually known about Roman Britain, and how much is supposition. To extrapolate from the detritus of jewelry, coins, and tombstones indicates the few sources available.
There must have been some reasons the Romans felt compelled to go to the trouble/expense of invading and holding Britain, but this is not explored nor discussed.
That no native-born Britain ever made it big in the Roman Empire is mentioned, but no hypotheses are provided as to why this was so. Lack of ambition? Lack of exposure to warfare suitable for foreign climates/topography? As non-Italian troops were stationed in Britain, were British-born troops stationed elsewhere in the empire, and did they leave any historical materials there?
So, the text did not live up to the title. Perhaps a better title would be: "What little we know about Roman Britain"

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[Joshua Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worthwhile for a look a the underpinnings of life in Roman Britain. Like so many other books of this era doesn't take a strictly chronological historical approach (in this case deliberately so, in other cases because there seems to be the assumption that there isn't much material). As a result, however, there often seem to be allusions to events that end up going relatively unexplained or under-explained. It's excusable here because those things aren't the focus of the book, but it drives home the point that people like Boudica are often just assumed to be rather familiar to the reader.

[Nik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Popular history often gets a bad rap, which I think is incredibly unfair - especially when I get to books like this. Not only is it informative, it treats its subjects with a warmth that's missing from a lot of history books. The author breathes life into the subjects of his book - freedmen, merchants, Britons, wives of army officers - so you get a fascinating picture of life on the edge of the Empire.

[Philip Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. There is a lot covered in the book, but I don't find the layout particularly helpful. De La Bedoyere seems to jump from topic to topic with little warning, pretty much everything time he describes a new person or bit of archaeological evidence. And detailed evidence is rare, so it seems like he is jumping every paragraph.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review soon

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant just brilliant would recommend

[Phil Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly researched book - scholarly and interesting.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Received free via NetGalley as an ARC for an honest review.

As requested by the publisher, I will not post my review until within a week of the book's publication date. I just could not wait to read it though!!

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Full review to come. Last 20% of document was notes and bibliography, so ended up being finished much faster than I thought, considering.

+++++++++++++++++

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I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was hesitant at first to read this one, as the last book I read by this author started out promising, but I did not finish it due to losing interest. This could be because I was primarily reading the previous book for the section on Boudicca (the book was 'Defying Rome'). It was not the writing or any fault of the author that I did not finish that one, I have just found that my reading tastes have changed and I am less interested in Ancient Rome than I used to be. I am still, however, quite interested in Roman Britain and so this one was easier to stick with.

The book goes into as much detail as one can expect, considering Roman Britain gradually ceased to exist 1500 years ago. However, new discoveries are being made all the time - pieces of walls, old forts, shards of pottery. Unfortunately all we have are pieces. While the picture gets clearer with each discovery, I doubt we will ever have enough to make the whole picture, so to speak.

Something I appreciated as much as the actual content was the extensive resources that made up the last 20% or so of the book. There was an extensive notes and bibliography sections. There was also a section on how Roman names were created, and a timeline of events in the history of Roman Britain starting with the first contact on the island. Additionally, there was a plethora of information on museums around the country where one can see artifacts from the centuries of Roman rule. My particular favorite, is, of course Bath. In previous posts about Roman Britain I have always included a few photos from my trip to the UK in 2009 with my mom. You can see them here: http://allthebookblognamesaretaken.bl....

Overall, this is a thoroughly researched, highly informative book. There's not necessarily a TON of new information if this is a subject you are already very familiar with, but still a good read nonetheless. There are several photos prior to chapter one depicting some of the many artifacts found over the years. My only real complaint is that these photos would have better served the text by being included within the chapter they were related to. I'd like to take a look at the physical copy of this book to see some of the photos in color, as opposed to the black and white photos of my Kindle.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a complex and well-researched book (shown by the size of the index and back notes) but it reads easily as a story of ordinary people and ordinary lives through several centuries of Roman history. The author is well known from television appearances and his many excellent books on Roman history. Having visited many of the places he talks about here and seen some of the tablets discussed, the book was an immediate win for me.

De la Bedoyere tackles the massive history of Roman Britain by picking out individual stories – from the highest to the lowest. This works well by giving us a glimpse into the every day and the mundane and makes the stories “real”. It does also mean, however, there are lots of “perhaps” and “he/she must have”. But from a historian with such wide and grounded knowledge, the areas where he does surmise are backed up and referenced so anyone interested can see the evidence for themselves.

The book is deep and has many stories and descriptions which bring the people alive and from that point of view De la Bedoyere has succeeded in his objective of exposing the real lives of people in various parts of Roman Britain. We have birth, death in many forms and then an invitation to a birthday party. What more do you need?

Netgalley gave me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guy de la Bedoyere's The Real Lives of Roman Britain attempts to bring to light the people of Britain under Roman rule, focusing not on the country or the empire, but on the human experience. Exploring Britain from the invasions of Julius Caesar to the collapse of Roman rule in 410 CE, this is an admirable goal and potentially fascinating. However, I found this book fairly dull. Author Guy de la Bedoyere writes clearly, the topic is interesting. But the problem, I feel, was the subject matter.

By focusing on the "real lives" or the human experience, we end up with an array of individuals evidenced by mere scraps of evidence – pottery shards, burials, treasure hoards, tiles. There either isn't enough detail or enough space for de la Bedoyere to build that scrap of evidence up into something that feels alive or vivid. Instead, it often comes across as an inventory of individuals who existed in Roman Britain.

To be fair, there are individuals and evidence discussed that caught my interest, who I would love to read more about. But all too often, these were almost immediately followed by another long, dry patch where I felt my attention begin to wander...

Disclaimer: I received a free copy for review from the publishers via Netgalley.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book reviews the slightly more than three and a half centuries during which there was a Roman Britain and the history of this remote province of the Empire. However, it only provides the context for presenting chronologically and analysing the main findings discovered through archaeology, whether tombstones, dedications, treasure hoards, pottery, the unique tablets found in one of Hadrian Wall’s forts and so on. So it is trying to focus on the lives of the people living in Britain, during that time. Interesting and can be a dry read.

[nikkia neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Thanks Yale Press and netgalley for arc.

Love fiction about the Romans, so its great to be able to put all the facts straight.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! My historian friends will love it ,

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

My ARC courtesy of Yale University Press/Net Galley - much thanks!

[Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this fascinating read, de la Bédoyère chronologically retells the story of the four centuries of Roman rule in Britain through assortments of stories of archaeological finds relating to individual residents - temporary and permanent - of the country.

The book delightfully peels away at how much and how little we know of the non-elite masses during the epoch. De la Bédoyère provides entertaining insights into opposing interpretations of the era's remains, which skilfully move us to empathise with the difficulties in asserting any conclusive knowledge regarding individual residents. The vast array of sources and archaeological items referenced to compile the book is also used masterfully to show how Roman tradition in Britain seems to have progressed and changed from the nature of the archaeological finds. We are constantly reminded of the reflections of Roman Britons in our own everyday society.

At times, passages are challenging to follow and it seems easily to feel inundated with details of Roman names, sometimes seemingly of little relevance to the wider passage itself. It is also sometimes hard to move from one passage to the next: the chapters, apparently intending to draw on one particular theme of life in Roman Britain, are in places frustrated with considerable digressions which exacerbate the challenge in following the reading. Perhaps this is because de la Bédoyère simultaneously attempts to chronologically retell the story of Roman Britain, from AD 43 to AD 410, and yet he organises the book into themes. This can sometimes make for concentrated readings.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and its unique insights into Roman Britain. It presents a novel way of seeing the past and its focus on individual Britons, rather than household names of our country's ancient heroes, is both commendable and refreshing.