Britannia Book

I came to this as part of the Folio Society's History of England the selections of which were chosen for their value as literature. As such I was disappointed. The author assumes a substantial knowledge of Roman history generally and rarely explains terms and names.

This problem is exacerbated by the book's organization the first half is more or less the "political history" of England in the first three centuries CE. It is a parade of governor's and emperor's names and locations of forts and fortlets. Of course, there is little else that we know, there being little except archeological evidence. Still, the book would massively improved for the general reader if it contained some general time lines and a good glossary.

It would also be massively improved if the second half of the book came first. I got truly interested when Frere starts his discussion of what we know about life in Roman Britain, almost exactly half way through. His discussion of what we know and how we know it of the Roman army, towns life, the countryside, and commercial life was fascinating and the second half the book would have gotten four stars from me. But it can't make up for the first half which at least as literature was poor.