As new archaeological evidence comes to light and written evidence re-evaluated, our understanding of Britannia is changing all the time. See for instance Alan Bowman’s Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier (British Museum Press, 2003) on the remarkable ‘Vindolanda letters’, a mass of correspondence some of which was discovered as recently as the 1990s. A comprehensive recent reference is A Companion to Roman Britain ed. Malcolm Todd (Blackwell, 2004). I used the Companion as my guide in my choice among variant spellings of names. The best map of Roman Britain remains the Ordnance Survey’s Historical Map and Guide (fifth edition) which I used as reference for variously spelled place names not mentioned in Todd’s Companion. (For clarity I have not used pre-invasion versions of Latinised place names: Camulodunon for Camulodunum, for instance.)

A good if somewhat dated reference on the Claudian invasion is The Roman Invasion of Britain by Graham Webster (Routledge, 1993). A good reference on the life of Constantine is Michael Grant’s The Emperor Constantine (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993). New interpretations of Britannia’s fall include Ken Dark’s Britain and the End of the Roman Empire (Tempus, 2000) and Neil Faulkner’s The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain (Tempus, 2000).

Regarding places, a recent reference on Richborough (Rutupiae) is Stephen Johnson’s Richborough and Reculver (English Heritage, 1997), and on York (Eburacum) Patrick Ottaway’s Roman York (Tempus, 2004). A magnificent new statue outside York Minster, on the site of the headquarters of the Roman fortress, commemorates Constantine’s elevation there. A recent reference on Colchester (Camulodunum) is Philip Crummy’s City of Victory (Colchester Archaeological Trust, 1997). The circus at Colchester is a recent discovery, not yet published at time of writing. A recent reference on Birdoswald (Banna) is Birdoswald Roman Fort by Tony Wilmott (Tempus, 2001), and the standard reference on the Wall is Hadrian’s Wall by David Breeze and Brian Dobson (Penguin, 2000). But there is no substitute for visiting these wonderful places.

Any errors or inaccuracies are of course my sole responsibility.

Stephen Baxter
Northumberland
June 2005