Main content

Roman Britain

Melvyn Bragg discusses the Romans in Britain, a history of 400 years of occupation. Do those four centuries still colour our national life and character today?

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Romans in Britain. About 2000 years ago, Tacitus noted that 鈥渢he climate is wretched鈥, Herodian said, 鈥渢he atmosphere in the country is always gloomy鈥, Dio said 鈥渢hey live in tents unclothed and unshod, and share their women鈥 and the historian Strabo said on no account should the Romans make it part of the Empire because it will never pay its way. But invade they did, and Britain became part of the Roman Empire for almost four hundred years.But what brought Romans to Britain and what made them stay? Did they prove the commentators wrong and make Britain amount to something in the Empire? Did the Romans come and go without much trace, or do those four centuries still colour our national life and character today?With Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at St Andrews University; Mary Beard, Reader in Classics at Cambridge University; Catharine Edwards, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck College, London University.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Thu 1 May 2003 21:30

Broadcasts

  • Thu 1 May 2003 09:02
  • Thu 1 May 2003 21:30

Featured in...

In Our Time podcasts

Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.

The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10

If you鈥檙e new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.

Arts and Ideas podcast

Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.

Podcast