Preface

Summary

Many years ago I saw a production of Shakespeare's play Cymbeline set in Britain shortly before Britain was invaded by the Claudian Legions. The British court was filled with Roman officials, British princes travelled to and from Rome, and even the British soothsayer at the end had a vision of the Roman god Jupiter in his sleep instead of an ethereal Celtic deity. All of this jarred with the image of Late Iron Age Britain I had grown up with, where Caesar's conquest of 55/54 BC was but a sham. The Britons might have been beaten, but unlike the Gauls they soon stopped paying their tribute to Rome and a further century had to pass until the Emperor Claudius invaded and Britain finally fell under Roman dominion. Now I am not so sure. I think Shakespeare was right, I think the British court was probably riddled with Romans and I think Cunobelin probably did worship Roman gods. In this book I set out to explain why.

I began to write this book with a number of clear aims and values. First, I wanted to write a positive work of synthesis, not something which simply attacked and deconstructed the work of previous generations. Second, I believed that in this period where prehistory met history, the work had to be thoroughly interdisciplinary, combining the best of archaeological, historical and numismatic research.