Britannia: The Failed State

Tribal Conflicts and the End of Roman Britain

Stuart Laycock

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780752446141
• eBook ISBN: 9780752487656
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Attempts to understand how Roman Britain ends and Anglo-Saxon England begins have been undermined by the division of studies into pre-Roman, Roman and early medieval periods. This groundbreaking new study traces the history of British tribes and British tribal rivalries from the pre-Roman period, through the Roman period and into the post-Roman period. It shows how tribal conflict was central to the arrival of Roman power in Britain and how tribal identities persisted through the Roman period and were a factor in three great convulsions that struck Britain during the Roman centuries. It explores how tribal conflicts may have played a major role in the end of Roman Britain, creating a 'failed state' scenario akin in some ways to those seen recently in Bosnia and Iraq, and brought about the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Finally, it considers how British tribal territories and British tribal conflicts can be understood as the direct predecessors of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Anglo-Saxon conflicts that form the basis of early English History.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Thanks
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Tribes
• Chapter 2 The First of Rome
• Chapter 3 60-61
• Chapter 4 155-211
• Chapter 5 367-369
• Chapter 6 The Last of Rome
• Chapter 7 The First of the Anglo-Saxons
• Chapter 8 The First of the English
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Copyright