A Brief History of Roman Britain cover art

A Brief History of Roman Britain

Brief Histories

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

A Brief History of Roman Britain

By: Joan P. Alcock
Narrated by: Lisa Coleman
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The rise and fall of Roman Britain, how they lived and what they left behind...

In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar came, saw, conquered and then left. It was not until A.D. 43 that the Emperor Claudius crossed the channel and made Britain the western outpost of the Roman Empire that would span from the Scottish border to Persia. For the next 400 years the island would be transformed. Within that period would see the rise of Londinium, almost immediately burnt to the ground in A.D. 60 by Boudicca; Hadrian's Wall, which was constructed in A.D. 112 to keep the northern tribes at bay, as well as the birth of the Emperor Constantine in third century York. Interwoven with the historical narrative is a social history of the period showing how Roman society grew in Britain.

Joan Alcock is a fellow of the University of South London. She is also the author of A Social History of Roman Britain, as well as A Social History of Ancient Rome.

©2011 Joan P. Alcock (P)2012 Audible Ltd Ancient Europe Great Britain England Ancient History

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A Brief History of the Vikings cover art
A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons cover art
The Roman Conquest of Britannia: The History and Legacy of Roman Britain from Julius Caesar to Hadrian cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1066-1485 cover art
Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations cover art
The Anglo-Saxon World cover art
Boudica: The Life and Legacy of the Celtic Queen Who Rebelled Against the Romans in Britain cover art
A Brief History of British Kings and Queens cover art
Romans in Britain cover art
The Norman Conquest cover art
In Search of the Dark Ages cover art
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1851 to 2010 cover art
Edward II cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1485-1660 cover art
The Fall of the Assyrian Empire cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
This was fascinating facts delivered in a way to cure the worst insomniac through monotonous delivery.

Interesting content made unbelievably boring.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great insights into all aspects of the Roman period in Britain . Intriguing details of everyday living , food , home decor , religion ,all covered in fluent style .

Superb collation of facts

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’m very impressed regarding the level of information the author had crammed into this one book. I personally would have preferred the information spread a bit thinner and more emphasis on style and dare I say it, entertainment.

Informative but Dry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I never thought I would encounter a history book that I found boring but ....here you have it. A previous reviewer states that the narrator may as well have been reading the phone book and I concur with this assessment. It is not really the narrator's fault as the "story" about existence in Roman Britain is presented in a one-fact-after-another style that leaves her with little room for developing listener engagement. If you want to know what this book is like then imagine a Bettany Hughes TV series, where Bettany Hughes and her narrative have been replaced with a robot who reads aloud factual sentences that have been written by an accountant.

Bland delivery of one fact after another

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall this is very disappointing! It is a list of facts we were taught at school which are blandly listed to you. The narrator mangles and mispronounces both roman and modern names which make it a cringe fest from start to finish.

A list of basic school level facts, mispronounced!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What disappointed you about A Brief History of Roman Britain?

An appallingly dry and boring book. It is a simple listing of facts with absolutely nothing whatsoever to hold your attention. I literally couldn't believe that a) someone had written something so utterly devoid of interest and b) someone chose to publish it.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The reading was fine, but she might as well have been reading the phone book.

An exercise in tedium

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm not sure who this book is aimed at. It has some interesting nuggets, but for the most part lacks detail, and for the whole part lacks any insight. Some terminology is deployed without definition, and it's safe to say that anyone who understands the terminology will already be more than familiar with the limited content of the book. On the other hand, anyone happy with such a brief overview of the subject is likely to be baffled by the terminology, and no one wants to listen to a glossary on an audiobook, even if it was included.
A bigger problem is the narration. The narrator deploys an almost robotic approach to word emphasis. It's unclear whether this is due to a lack of narration experience or a refusal to engage with the text. In any case, it's a dry, unpleasant listen. One particular error on word emphasis had me laughing out loud, so unintentionally hilarious was the way it diverged from the intended meaning into something scientifically impossible. To be fair, this error could be down to a missing hyphen in the script, but it was unintentionally entertaining, regardless.
There must be better books in this vein out there.

Not Great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.