The Roman Invasion of Britain with Richard Hingley

18 days left

Invest in History Education

By supporting our charity World History Foundation, you're investing in the future of history education. Your donation helps us empower the next generation with the knowledge and skills they need to understand the world around them. Help us start the new year ready to publish more reliable historical information, free for everyone.
$399 / $10000

Video

Kelly Macquire
by
published on 05 April 2022

In our interview with Richard Hingley, we chat all about his new book Conquering The Ocean: The Roman Invasion of Britain. What's the book about? It's about the Roman conquest of Britain, but that takes some explaining because I suppose in the mind of the public, sometimes the Roman conquest is quite a short term thing, you know, perhaps it occurs over a few years, in reality, it goes on for a long period of time. And really, the first significant episode is when Julius Caesar comes to Britain. Now Julius Caesar, who's campaigning in Gaul, which is largely modern-day France, and he decides to go over the ocean to Britain in 55 and 54 BCE. He travels twice with armed forces, but he doesn't actually conquer anything. He ends up leaving again with some agreements with leading peoples in Britain, and they have to pay Rome tribute, but he doesn't actually conquer anything.

— FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK —
Why did Julius Caesar come to Britain? His own account suggests that he invaded to quell a resistance of Gallic sympathizers in the region of modern-day Kent – but there must have been personal and divine aspirations behind the expeditions in 55 and 54 BCE. To the ancients, the Ocean was a body of water that circumscribed the known world, separating places like Britain from terra cognita, and no one, not even Alexander the Great, had crossed it. While Caesar came and saw, he did not conquer. In the words of the historian Tacitus, "he revealed, rather than bequeathed, Britain to Rome." For the next five hundred years, Caesar's revelation was Rome's remotest imperial bequest.

Conquering the Ocean provides a new narrative of the Roman conquest of Britain, from the two campaigns of Caesar up until the construction of Hadrian's Wall across the Tyne-Solway isthmus during the 120s CE. Much of the ancient literary record portrays this period as a long march of Roman progress but recent archaeological discoveries reveal that there existed a strong resistance in Britain, Boudica's short lived revolt being the most celebrated of them, and that Roman success was by no means inevitable. Richard Hingley here draws upon an impressive array of new information from archaeological research and recent scholarship on the classical sources to provide a balanced picture of the military activities and strategies that led to the conquest and subjugation of Britain. Conquering the Ocean is the fullest picture to date of a chapter in Roman military history that continues to captivate the public.

— BUY CONQUERING THE OCEAN: THE ROMAN INVASION OF BRITAIN —
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conquering-the-ocean-9780190937416?utm_campaign=oupac-campaign:1354485383514359890&utm_source=third%20party&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=web+banner+link&utm_term=world+history+encyclopedia

— SUPPORT US VIA OUR PATREON—
https://www.patreon.com/join/whencyclopedia

— BUY OUR MERCH —
https://www.worldhistory.store​/​

— CHAPTERS —
0:00​ Introduction
0:39 What is the book all about?
8:47 Why did you decide to write this book?
17:17 What did you find the most interesting when researching the book?
24:28 What do you think people should really know about the conquering of Britain?

— WANT TO KNOW MORE? —
Roman Britain https://www.worldhistory.org/Roman_Britain/
Claudius https://www.worldhistory.org/claudius/
Julius Caesar https://www.worldhistory.org/Julius_Caesar/
Hadrian's Wall https://www.worldhistory.org/Hadrians_Wall/
Legions of Britain https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1753/legions-of-britain/

— WATCH NEXT —
The Ides of March: the Assassination of Julius Caesar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIe1OzqfXLY
Rome: An Empire's Story with Greg Woolf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQSrskjPRs
Norse America: The Story of a Founding Myth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldOtYQOqCw8
The Destruction of Ancient Pompeii https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNPNBarRhQc
Ancient Celtic History, Origin and Culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3PsiRtaJec

— ATTRIBUTIONS —
The music used in this recording is the intellectual copyright of Michael Levy, a prolific composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, and used with the creator's permission. Michael Levy's music is available to stream at all the major digital music platforms. Find out more on:
https://www.ancientlyre.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v?si=emacIH9CRieFNGXRUyJ9
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ1X6F7lGMEadnNETSzTv8A

— THUMBNAIL IMAGE —
Conquering the Ocean: The Roman Invasion of Britain Cover
Richard Hingley / Oxford University Press
Copyright

World History Encyclopedia
www.worldhistory.org

#romanbritain #juliuscaesar #richardhingley

Remove Ads
Advertisement
Subscribe to this author

About the Author

Kelly Macquire
Kelly is a graduate from Monash University who has completed her BA (Honours) in Ancient History and Archaeology, focussing on iconography and status in Pylos burials. She has a passion for mythology and the Aegean Bronze Age.

Cite This Work

APA Style

Macquire, K. (2022, April 05). The Roman Invasion of Britain with Richard Hingley. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/video/2761/the-roman-invasion-of-britain-with-richard-hingley/

Chicago Style

Macquire, Kelly. "The Roman Invasion of Britain with Richard Hingley." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 05, 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/video/2761/the-roman-invasion-of-britain-with-richard-hingley/.

MLA Style

Macquire, Kelly. "The Roman Invasion of Britain with Richard Hingley." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 05 Apr 2022. Web. 13 Dec 2024.

Membership