The Coming of Rome, first published in 1979, examines some basic features of Roman Britain: the cities, the towns, and the monuments of an urban culture. J.S. Wacher considers the evidence, mainly from inscriptions, of the people who inhabited or visited Britain during approximately the first two centuries of Roman rule. The Roman conquest of Britain and the progressive extension of Roman control marked a dramatic transformation of British society. Although there was much contact between pre-Roman Britain and the Continent, the advent of Romanisation meant incorporation into a much larger economic system. But Britain stood on one of the most distant frontiers of the Roman world, and the Romano-British society which gradually evolved was thus distinctive. Profusely illustrated throughout, The Coming of Rome will appeal to historians and archaeologists, as well as the general reader interested in some of the most formative centuries of Britain's development.