ABSTRACT
Norman Vance has suggested that the image of Rome was imbued during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the problematic idea that the pride of Britain had once been humbled by the Roman army who made most of the island a colony. 1 Children’s novels and history textbooks sometimes struggled with the idea of previous phases of ‘foreign’ (Roman and Norman) domination. Many books focused on medieval and modern England when the country had remained free from conquest. 2 When they deal with the Roman conquest children’s authors often struggled with the idea of native British defeat. For instance, W. Locke suggested in his Stories of the Land we Live in; or England’s History in Easy Language, published in 1878 that:
I dare say every one of our forefathers, when they saw the Romans come first, were discouraged, and thought all was over with them; they should never be happy any more, their towns and castles taken, many of them killed and their enemies very proud and haughty. But those very things were meant for their good. Their savage customs and barbarous manner of life were thus changed. There we find the first steps on the ladder that has conducted Englishmen to such power and greatness … Let us heartily thank God for it. 3
