Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall defined the edge of the Roman Empire in Britain. Today, the spectacular remains of these great frontier works stand as mute testimony to one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. This new accessible account, illustrated with 25 detailed photographs, maps and plans, describes the building of the walls, and reconstructs what life was like on the frontier. It places these frontiers into their context both in Britain and Europe, examining the development of frontier installations over four centuries. Designed for students and teachers of Ancient History or Classical Civilisation at school and in early university years, this series provides a valuable collection of guides to the history, art, literature, values and social institutions of the ancient world.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This is a fully revised, expanded and updated edition of the Vindolanda writing tablets, recently voted Britain's number one treasure, and what they tell us about life on the Roman frontier. Alan Bowman summarises new evidence, and the book also containsnew photographs.

First published in 1998. Over three hundred letters and documents have recently been discovered at the fort of Vindolanda, written on wooden tablets which have amazingly survived nearly 2000 years. Painstakingly deciphered by Alan Bowman and J. David Thomas, they have contributed a wealth of evidence for daily life in the Roman Empire. From the military documents we learn of the strength and activities of the units stationed at Vindolanda. The accounts testify to the lifestyle of officers and ordinary soldiers, with payments for pepper and oil, towels and tallow, boots and beer. Then there are snapshots of domestic life in letters between the officers' wives, including a birthday invitation (see front cover). Most fascinating of all is the evidence for a high level of literacy in the Roman army, where even someone of humble rank receives a letter from home promising him a parcel of socks. Alan Bowman's lively summary of this new evidence is followed by the texts of 38 key tablets, in Latin and in translation, including new tablets found in 1991-4, which bring the reader very close to the actual people who inhabited Vindolanda in 100 AD.

There is no synthetic or comprehensive treatment of any late Roman frontier in the English language to date, despite the political and economic significance of the frontiers in the late antique period. Examining Hadrian’s Wall and the Roman frontier of northern England from the fourth century into the Early Medieval period, this book investigates a late frontier in transition from an imperial border zone to incorporation into Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, using both archaeological and documentary evidence. With an emphasis on the late Roman occupation and Roman military, it places the frontier in the broader imperial context. In contrast to other works, Hadrian’s Wall and the End of Empire challenges existing ideas of decline, collapse, and transformation in the Roman period, as well as its impact on local frontier communities. Author Rob Collins analyzes in detail the limitanei, the frontier soldiers of the late empire essential for the successful maintenance of the frontiers, and the relationship between imperial authorities and local frontier dynamics. Finally, the impact of the end of the Roman period in Britain is assessed, as well as the influence that the frontier had on the development of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria.

An up-to-date and in-depth historical study of the northern Roman frontier in Britain - why was the military conquest of Scotland never completed and what were the criteria governing Roman policy over the centuries? The idea of the Roman frontier immediately conjures up pictures of Hadrian's Wall with its forts and other remains, and of the Antonine Wall in Scotland. These two structures, however, represent two elements in a story which took a great deal longer to evolve and which, if taken in isolation, tend to mask a clear appraisal of the way in which the frontier in Britain actually developed. What, after all, did the Romans want to achieve in Britain? Why did they not capitalise on Agricola's victory at Mons Graupius in AD83 to subdue the entire country once and for all? How did the idea for a physical barrier evolve? And why, after all the effort of building Hadrian's Wall, did the emperor Antoninus Pius embark upon fresh conquest in Scotland? This book is intended primarily as an historical treatment of the Roman military occupation in Britain up until the early third century AD, although it does also describe the later history of the frontier zone.It draws upon archaeological evidence, but is not intended as a guide to the remains of Hadrian's and Antonine's Walls. Rather, it aims to set these spectacular fortifications into the broader context of Roman military plans.

The northern frontier of Britain was the most distant of the Roman Empire. This book describes the frontiers constructed by the Roman army in north Britain in the first and second centuries AD and looks at their rationale and occupation through to the fifth century. Compte-rendu critique in Classics Ireland, Vol. 15, 2008, p. 81 & sq. : http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20799739?uid=3738016&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102646910177 ; & in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.03.17 : http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008-03-17.html.