Raoul McLaughlin

Dr Raoul McLaughlin presents ancient sources for the Atlantic Celts, providing new, annotated translations of Roman texts. These describe contact and conflict between Rome and the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the Celtic peoples of northern Europe, or the military and economic development of the Roman frontiers. Roman forces conquered southern Britain in AD 43, establishing a seaboard province facing Gaul and the militarised Rhine frontier. But external threats and mass revolts revealed how easily this condensed province could be eradicated by warfare. Further expansion followed, but the Roman Empire struggled to locate and establish secure northern and western limits to Britannia. Despite large-scale military and political efforts, the Romans never conquered or fully subjugated the Celtic territories on the Atlantic edge of EuropeThis book contains ancient sources ranging from AD 60 and the Boudiccan Revolt, to the disintegration of imperial rule in the AD 400s. Chapters cover ancient Ireland, the Flavian expansion of Roman Britain, the planned Irish conquest and the first Caledonian campaign (AD 77-83). Further ancient evidence reveals the withdrawal and consolidation of imperial frontiers behind barriers such as Hadrian’s Wall, while later texts outline the threat posed by the Picts and ancient Irish. The final chapters cover the Germanic migrations that led to the collapse of Roman Britain and the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons.

Ancient Ireland and Britain were large Celtic territories on the northwest edge of Europe. They were subject to myth and speculation by the early Greeks and Romans, but they later became the focus for trade, exploration and partial conquest. Dr Raoul McLaughlin presents the ancient sources for the Atlantic Celts in chapters covering the resources, commerce, warfare and beliefs of the oceanic Celts. This book contains updated translations of ancient sources concerning the lands known as Ivernia and Britannia. These accounts reveal what the Greeks and Romans knew about the origins, culture, and social practices of the insular Celts. The evidence begins in 600 BC when Carthaginian merchant ships explored the Atlantic coasts of western Europe searching for metal alloys. Then, in 325 BC, a Greek mariner named Pytheas explored the northern limits of the Atlantic territories and returned with accounts of Bretannike, Ierne and Thule. But it was Rome that led armies across the northern seas to conquer Britain. This book includes the campaign reports of Julius Caesar, along with accounts of conquests by the Emperor Claudius. These ancient texts reveal the ambitions, conflict and compromises involved in establishing the Roman province of Britannia, which by AD 60 encompassed most of southern Britain. This book therefore provides a unique resource for future scholarship and a fascinating insight for anyone interested in the distant Celtic past.

The Germanic nations of northern Europe resisted the Romans, forcing them to confine their empire within the heavily militarized Rhine and Danube frontiers. Despite fierce wars and repeated invasions, German tribes retained their independence until, in Late Antiquity, they surged forth to overrun and dismantle the Roman Empire itself.This collection of Greek and Latin sources gives accounts of ancient Germans beyond the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire written by those who were present at the time. These records include German service in the Roman army, the impact of civil war and the origin and development of later tribal groups. Chapters cover the Batavian Revolt (AD 69-70), the Marcomannic Wars of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 166-180), and later Rhine campaigns against the Alamanni. The final chapters cover the Migration Era, with the Germanic conquest of the Roman Empire, from the Gothic invasions to the Vandal capture of North Africa.This book is a valuable resource for ancient historians, classicists, archaeologists, and interested others, featuring events from the formation of the Rhine-Danube frontiers in the first century, to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.