num_pages: 256
description: A compelling new account of religion in Roman Britain weaving together the latest archaeological research and a new analysis of ancient literature to illuminate parallels between past and present Two thousand years ago the Romans sought to absorb into their empire what they regarded as a remote almost mythical island on the very edge of the known worldBritain. The expeditions of Julius Caesar and the Claudian invasion of 43 CE up to the traditional end of Roman Britain in the fifth century CE brought fundamental and lasting changes to the island. Not least among these was a pantheon of new classical deities and religious systems along with a clutch of exotic eastern cults including Christianity. But what homegrown deities cults and cosmologies did the Romans encounter in Britain and how did the British react to the changes? Under Roman rule the old gods and their adherents were challenged adopted adapted absorbed and reconfigured. Miranda Aldhouse- Green balances literary archaeological and iconographic evidence (and scrutinizes the shortcomings of each) to illuminate the complexity of religion and belief in Roman Britain. She examines the two-way traffic of cultural exchange and the interplay between imported and indigenous factions to reveal how this period on the cusp between prehistory and history knew many of the same tensions ideologies and issues of identity still relevant today. 110 illustrations
language: English
title: Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain
publisher: Thames & Hudson