Britannia 

About: Britannia is an academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Roman Empire & Pottery. It has an ISSN identifier of 0068-113X. Over the lifetime, 1437 publications have been published receiving 14727 citations.

Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul. By G. Woolf. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge1998/2000. Pp. xv + 296, figs 20. Price: £40.00 (bound); £15.95 (paper). ISBN 0 521 414456 (bound); 0 521 789826 (paper).

Abstract: 1. On Romanization 2. Roman power and the Gauls 3. The civilising ethos 4. Mapping cultural change 5. Urbanising the Gauls 6. The culture of the countryside 7. Consuming Rome 8. Keeping faith? 9. Being Roman in Gaul.

Emperors, Frontiers and Foreign Relations, 31 b.c. to a.d. 378*

Abstract: Severus…. was in the habit of saying that he had gained a large additional territory and made it a bulwark for Syria. But the facts themselves show that it is a source of continual wars for us, and of great expenses. For it provides very little revenue and involves very great expenditure; and having extended our frontiers to the neighbours of the Medes and Parthians, we are constantly so to speak at war in their defence.’ So writes Cassius Dio about the extension of the Eastern frontier in the 190s and the creation of the provinces of Mesopotamia and Osrhoene. The significance of the passage however, extends beyond the question of the Eastern frontier itself at that moment. Written by an ex-consul, and former assessor of Severus, it reveals two types of justification for conquest uttered by the Emperor himself - one straightforwardly imperialistic, the other strategic; and a critique of this from two points of view, the balance of income and expenditure, and the wider strategic commitments incurred. Whether Dio had formulated such views already in Severus’ reign we cannot know; this section of his History will have been written at the earliest towards 220, and probably later. If he had, we have no reason to think that he expressed them to Severus. If he did, it can only have been after the event, for his own narrative at this point makes clear that the new province of Mesopotamia was entrusted to an eques, and an ‘honour’ (the status of colonia) given to Nisibis, either after the campaign of 195, or (less probably) after that of 198, in neither of which Dio himself took part. None the less, the fact that the passage retails both the authentic views of an Emperor and a critique of them by a consularis may encourage us to ask some general questions: how, by whom and within what conceptual frameworks were the foreign and frontier ‘policies’ of the Empire formulated?

Roman imperialism : post-colonial perspectives

Abstract: This document contains the introductory pages of this monograph including: Contents, Contributors and Acknowledgements.

The Roman Military Diet

Abstract: times. The task of providing a constant and sufficient supply of food was by no means the least important part of the work involved in the day to day running of the Roman army.' In time of war the troops would forage from enemy countryside, requisition supplies from defeated tribes or towns, and receive them from allies.2 According to Josephus the legionaries carried with them as part of their equipment sickles to reap the crops and also rations for three days.3 A scene on Trajan's Column depicts the legionaries carrying their kit on a stake; this consisted in part of a string-bag for forage, a metal cookingpot and a mess-tin, examples of which have been discovered in most parts of the Empire.4 When an army was not on active service, the arrangements to supply food for men and animals were extensive and complex. The magnitude of the food requirements of the Roman army has generally not been realized. According to Tacitus every Roman fort in Britain, when * The evidence collected in this paper is not meant to be exhaustive, but is a representative selection. The period under study is that of the Principate. The evidence for the consumption of meat in the armies of the Later Republic, Caesar, and Early Principate is studied in detail in an appendix. The evidence for items provided mainly or exclusively for fodder is not here studied, but may on occasion be mentioned in passing. Some of the analyses were made fifty or even one hundred years ago; consequently, more modern methods and further excavation provide a better picture. Some of the analyses were restricted; thus oyster and mussel shells and chicken bones are often not mentioned, because the analysis was concerned exclusively with animal bones, but they are frequently found, as, for example, at Corbridge. Part I of the analysis of the Corbridge bones by Meek and Gray was published in I9I I1; Part II has never been published. Some earlier studies will be found in: J. Lesquier, L'armle romaine d'Agypte d'Auguste a Diocldtien (1918) 347-68; R. Cagnat, L'armie romaine d'Afrique et l'occupation militaire de l'Afrique sous les empereurs (second edition, 1913) 311-26; both authors at times use passages of the SHA, for which nowadays more care is required. For the Later Roman Empire, see: D. van Berchem, L'annone militaire dans l'empire romain au IIIhme sizcle (0937); A. H. M. Jones, Later Roman Empire (1964) 628-9, and note 44. This is the only period for which regulation amounts are known; presumably those of A.D. 360 are not dissimilar in quantity from those of the Principate: 3 pounds of bread, 2 pounds of meat, 2 pints of wine, I/8 of a pint of oil per man per day.

Britons and Romans : advancing an archaeological agenda

Abstract: This challenging book encourages those with an interest in Roman Britain to think broadly and to engage actively in shaping the future priorities of research into the subject. The volume reconsiders many assumptions about relations between Romans and the indigenous population and the authors explore themes as diverse as: the Iron Age/Roman and Roman/Medieval transitions; Romanisation; material culture and identity; rural society; urbanism; zooarchaeology; and soldiers and civilians. Within these themes the contributors seek to break down the relative insularity of Romano-British studies, and to open it up to new external perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches.