ABSTRACT
This book focuses upon the images provided by the impact of classical Rome upon ancient Britain. The ways in which these images were used during the period from around 1860 to 1930 – the heyday of British imperialism – form the core of the text. The book also considers certain aspects of Roman archaeology in Britain, in particular the development of the subject under Francis Haverfield in the 1900s and 1910s and how aspects of the archaeological interpretation of Roman Britain have continued to reflect the world-view of late Victorians and Edwardians until the present day.
Attention is focused upon the nature of the imperial discourse that was current at this time. A study of imperial discourse examines the ways in which various media were used to serve the needs of the British Empire. In this context various Victorian and Edwardian texts concentrated upon the influence of the classical Roman Empire on ancient Britain. I shall argue that, through the creation of imperial discourse, some late Victorian and Edwardian British administrators, politicians and academics used images of the Roman Empire to help them to define the identity and imperial destiny of Britain. 1 It will also be shown that the Roman history of Britain appears to have been particularly significant from this perspective.
In the course of the book I study the interrelated nature of the images of Rome and the Roman Empire which existed in the popular mind, in political and academic works. The aim is to consider two main themes – the ways in which the images provided by Rome operated in the discourse of British imperialism and also the role of the developing subject of Romano-British archaeology. A circular process of interpretation existed in which the past was used to provide lessons for the present and this resulted in the creation of 2a relevant and useful past. In the context of imperial discourse, archaeological narrative was drawn into the provision of useful lessons for the British Empire. Archaeological knowledge reinforced, supplemented and sometimes contradicted popular imagery.
