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The Roman Invasion of A.D. 43

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Sheppard Frere  and
Michael Fulford
Sheppard Frere
Affiliation:
Netherfield House, Marcham, Oxon
Michael Fulford
Affiliation:
University of Reading, m.g.fulford@reading.ac.uk
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Extract

Dio provides the only surviving coherent account of the Roman invasion of Britain. Modern attempts to investigate the sources of his History have raised doubts about the reliability of certain details: in the chapters which concern us the description of the river-battle as lasting into a second day and even the division of the army into three parts before sailing have been held to be mere literary topoi. But these suggestions are by no means certain, for each passage is well suited to its context. With one emendation of the text, noted below, we see no certain justification in rejecting any part of Dio's account of the campaign. However, even if the passages concerned could be established as topoi, their rejection would make virtually no difference to an understanding of the campaign, for, as we shall show, the three divisions are irrelevant to the development of the advance while the reduction of the battle-span from one and a half days to one does not detract from the difficulties of the river crossing or from the decisiveness of victory.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 32 , November 2001 , pp. 45 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Sheppard Frere and Michael Fulford 2007. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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