The First Century Historians of Roman Britain

The 'stratigraphy' of literary sources is a matter that archaeologists need to bear in mind if or when they attempt to employ them in supplementing or interpreting archaeological material. The work of earlier historians is 'redeposited' in that of later writers in a great variety of ways and in a variable state of completeness. This can be seen in the different treatments by Tacitus and Dio Cassius of the Boudican rebellion, and their use of earlier material revealed in this comparison should alert us to the need for extreme care in assessing events for which only one literary source exists such as the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43.     

Roman Britain Since Gollingwood

PETER SALWAY. Roman Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Pp. xxi, 824. $49.95 (US).