Britannia

Thomas Codrington's Roman Roads in Britain, published in 1903, was authoritative in its time though now in part superseded. It still provides an enormous amount of information, however, and offers many insights into the basic tools and methods available to the student of Roman roads. For example, the introduction includes a general discussion of study methodology and of road construction techniques, plus the 15 British itinera of the Antonine Itinerary.

[ 1/4/99: 380 pages of print, 2 maps ]

In 1911 the archaeologist John Ward wrote a one-volume survey of The Roman Era in Britain incorporating information from much of the then latest excavations. After a general introduction, about a third of the book covers roads and buildings of all kinds, and fully half of it with pottery, glassware, and the so‑called instrumentum domesticum — objects of all kinds: coins, jewelry, lamps, tools, padlocks, oculists' stamps, strigils, shoes, knitting needles, you name it; the remainder of the book deals with tombs and religion.

[ 280 pages of print, 9 photographs,
52 drawings, 32 plans and maps ]

1911 was a busy year for Prof. Ward; his companion volume to the preceding also appeared: Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks covers the architecture of Roman Britain based on all the same latest excavations. Though inevitably dated, the book contains a wealth of material; the section on Roman camps and fortifications is particularly good.

[ 312 pages of print, 9 photographs,
23 drawings, 49 plans and maps ]

A single webpage, but useful for some: an English translation of the chapter on Britain of Claudius Ptolemy's Geography, including a complete map of Britain drawn from his coördinates: ancient geography in modern clothes, as it were.