Author: Neil Faulkner Published: 2004 Pages: 287 Combining a fresh analysis of the archaeological evidence with the traditional historical accounts, Neil Faulkner presents a new interpretation of the decline and fall of Roman Britain. The original conquest of Britain was one of the last successes of the Roman military imperialism, whereas the Romans' repeated failures on the north British frontier show the limits of this system - once dynamic and expansionist, later faltering and defensive. By the late third and early fourth century a new order was established in Britain: a centralised, military-bureaucratic state, governed by a class of super-rich landlords and apparatchiks, who siphoned wealth out of the provinces to defend the frontiers. As a result, the towns declined and the countryside was depressed. The fabric of late Roman imperial society simply rotted away. This process of decline reached a climax in the great military crisis of the late fourth century. The Roman imperial army, bled white by defeats on continental battlefields, withdrew its troops from Britain to defend the imperial heartlands, and the Romano-British elite succombed to a combination of warlord power, barbarian attack and popular revolt. Dr Faulkner concludes his study by discussing the legacy of Rome and the significance of the so-called 'dark-age'. Illustrated by numerous maps, plans, photographs, tables and graphs, this is a book that will enjoy a wide appeal - from Time Team viewers through to dirt archaeologists and academics.
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