For the Romans, Britannia lay beyond the comfortable confines of
the Mediterranean world around which classical civilisation had
flourished. Britannia was felt to be at the outermost edge of the
world itself, lending the island an air of dangerous mystique. To
the soldiers crossing the Oceanus Britannicus in the late summer of
AD 43, the prospect of invading an island believed to be on its
periphery must have meant a mixture of panic and promise. These men
were part of a formidable army of four veteran legions (II Augusta,
VIIII Hispana, XIIII Gemina, XX Valeria), which had been assembled
under the overall command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. Under him
were, significantly, first-rate legionary commanders, including the
future emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. With the auxiliary units,
the total invasion force probably mounted to around 40,000 men, but
having assembled at Gessoriacum (Boulogne) they refused to embark.
Eventually, the mutinous atmosphere was dispelled, and the invasion
fleet sailed in three contingents. So, ninety-seven years after
Caius Iulius Caesar, the Roman army landed in south-eastern
Britannia. After a brisk summer campaign, a province was
established behind a frontier zone running from what is now Lyme
Bay on the Dorset coast to the Humber estuary. Though the territory
overrun during the first campaign season was undoubtedly small, it
laid the foundations for the Roman conquest which would soon begin
to sweep across Britannia. In this highly illustrated and detailed
title, Nic Fields tells the full story of the invasion which
established the Romans in Britain, explaining how and why the
initial Claudian invasion succeeded and what this meant for the
future of Britain.
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