At a little over two hundred pages, it's a great achievement that Todd manages to pack as much of the four centuries of Roman Britain that he did into this book. It's very readable, and an excellent primer on the subject if, like me, you need to refresh yourself on one or two key dates or events while prepping for an exam.

That said, there are a number of areas in which I felt that Todd was making assumptions which can't be supported by the available evidence, or which seem to have a distinct cultural bias in them. I also wasn't wild about the fact that he consistently referred to the native Britons as 'barbarians.' Surely that is both a label which is only valid from a Roman point-of-view, and one which is no more or less clumsy than simply referring to the inhabitants as 'British'? There are also a number of areas in which the scholarship simply isn't up-to-date, as the book was published in 1981.

Anyway, a good introduction to a subject which has a huge bibliography, but not a work which can be relied on to any great extent. Recommended, but with reservations ( )