ABSTRACT
Until the middle ofthe second century BC the history ofthe British Isles cannot be written in terms of identifiable individuals and their actions. At best we have to be content to define groups ofpeople through their artefacts, the structures they built and the effects they had on their environment. But the two centuries preceding the Roman invasion ofAD 43 lie in the shadows ofhistory - the literate world was encroaching. Broadly, this period, which is conventionally referred to as the Late Iron Age, can be divided into two: c. 150-55 BC and 55 BC-AD 43. In the first part, movements ofpeople and spheres of tribal influence can be dimly distinguished, largely through the evidence of coin typology and distribution; by the second, following the invasions ofJulius Caesar, we can write of the actual people, the kings and demi-kings of the British aristocracy, and begin to assess their relationship to each other and the Roman world, reflected in contemporary historical writings as well as in the numismatic evidence.
