The Roman invasion of Britain was the final stage in a century of contact when two very different cultures interacted in a number of ways. We are fortunate in having not only written sources (from the Roman point of view) but also a huge amount of fascinating archaeology which sheds a lot more light on what kind of place Britain was and what kind of peoples lived in Britain 2,000 years ago. More than any other topic it combines a multiplicity of sources, with more information still being discovered to give us a clearer picture of ‘what actually happened’ and to pose more questions. The topic also raises important questions for our own age – of imperialism and attitudes towards it, and multiculturalism.

In a nutshell, if you want to understand the question ‘what have the Romans ever done for us’, study Roman Britain!

Read the OCR Prescribed Source Booklet for Britannia here: Word

Corrections to print edition
p.270 - the missing page range in the SQ box is 252-255
p.272 - the top source quotation should be black not blue, PS icon should not be there (this is not a PS)
p.284 - first bullet point about Q9 should not refer to the passage as there is none for this question