ABSTRACT
Most studies of the nature and purpose of the Roman frontiers of Northern Britain begin from the premise that there was a consistent policy in the establishment and maintenance of the frontiers of the Roman Empire, whether in Germany, North Africa or Britain, and that frontier policy was determined by some governing principle, generally perceived as rational, just and paternalistically benign, in the way that was once assumed in the minds of the enforcers of British imperial administration. The extent to which subjugated native populations adopted a Romanised way of life was seen as a measure of their innate receptivity to civilisation or the capacity of their primitive social and economic infrastructure to adapt to such improvement. Until relatively recently, the possibility that native communities may have exercised positive choice in the matter, and actively rejected Romanisation, was not seriously entertained. In the case of the northern frontier of Britain, it is also possible that the option of Romanisation was limited from the outset, and that the impact of the Roman presence was one of cynical exploitation with little pretence of colonial altruism.
