A little book on a great subject, especially when that book is one of a "series," is notoriously an object of literary distrust. For the limitations thus imposed upon the writer are such as few men can satisfactorily cope with, and he must needs ask the indulgence of his readers for his painfully-felt shortcomings in dealing with the mass of material which he has to manipulate. And more especially is this the case when the volume which immediately precedes his in the series is such a mine of eru

A complete Bibliography of Roman Britain would be wholly beyond the scope of the present work. Much of the most valuable material, indeed, has never been published in book form, and must be sought out in the articles of the 'Antiquary,' 'Hermes,' etc., and the reports of the many local Archaeological Societies. All that is here attempted is to indicate some of the more valuable of the many scores of sources to which my pages are indebted. To begin with the ancient authorities. These range throug

The constant accession of new material, especially from the unceasing spade-work always going on in every quarter of the island, makes modern books on Roman Britain tend to become obsolete, sometimes with startling rapidity. But even when not quite up to date, a well-written book is almost always very far from worthless, and much may be learnt from any in the following list:—...

§  A. — Palaeolithic Age—Extinct fauna—River-bed men—Flint implements—Burnt stones—Worked bones—Glacial climate §  B. — Neolithic Age—"Ugrians"—Polished flints—Jadite—Gold ornaments—Cromlechs —Forts—Bronze Age—Copper and tin—Stonehenge §  C. — Aryan immigrants—Gael and Briton—Earliest classical nomenclature—British Isles —Albion—Ierne—Cassiterides—Phoenician tin trade viâ Cadiz §  D. — Discoveries of Pytheas—Greek tin trade viâ Marseilles—Trade routes—Ingots—Coracles —Earliest British coins—Lead

Palaeolithic Age—Extinct fauna—River-bed men—Flint implements—Burnt stones—Worked bones—Glacial climate. A. 1.—All history, as Professor Freeman so well points out, centres round the great name of Rome. For, of all the great divisions of the human race, it is the Aryan family which has come to the front. Assimilating, developing, and giving vastly wider scope to the highest forms of thought and religion originated by other families, notably the Semitic, the various Aryan nationalities form, and

Caesar and Britain—Breakdown of Roman Republican institutions—Corruption abroad and at home—Rise of Caesar—Conquest of Gaul. A. 1.—If the connection of Britain with Rome is the pivot on which the whole history of our island turns, it is no less true that the first connection of Rome with Britain is the pivot whereon all Roman history depends. For its commencement marks the furthest point reached in his career of conquest by the man without whom Roman history must needs have come to a shameful an

Britain after Julius Caesar—House of Commius—Inscribed coins—House of Cymbeline—Tasciovan —Commians overthrown—Vain appeal to Augustus—Ancyran Tablet—Romano-British trade —Lead-mining—British fashions in Rome—Adminius banished by Cymbeline—Appeal to Caligula —Futile demonstration—Icenian civil war—Vericus banished—Appeal to Claudius—Invasion prepared. A. 1.—With the departure of Caesar from its shores our knowledge of the affairs of Britain becomes only less fragmentary than before he reached th

Pacification of Britain—Roman roads—London their centre—Authority for names—Watling Street—Ermine Street—Icknield Way. A. 1.—The work of Agricola inaugurated in Britain that wonderful Pax Romana which is so unique a phenomenon in the history of the world. That Peace was not indeed in our island so long continued or so unbroken as in the Mediterranean lands, where, for centuries on end, no weapon was used in anger. But even here swords were beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks t

Era of Pretenders—Probus—Vandlebury—First notice of Saxons—Origin of name—Count of the Saxon Shore—Carausius—Allectus—Last Romano-British coinage—Britain Mistress of the Sea —Reforms of Diocletian—Constantius Chlorus—Re-conquest of Britain—Diocletian provinces —Diocletian persecution—The last "Divus"—General scramble for Empire—British Army wins for Constantine—Christianity established. A. 1.—After the death of Severus in A.D. 211, Roman historians tell us nothing more concerning Britain till we