ABSTRACT
First, although population movements in the Iron-Age brought parts of Britain, culturally at least, into a wider frame, it was the Roman occupation that made Britain, in a structural sense, part of an organisation that comprised not just Europe, but also parts of the Middle East and north Africa. The active encouragement of the movement of people and goods within the Roman empire meant that Britain was subjected to a broader collection of cultural influences, and also had the chance to make its own impact. Britons served elsewhere in the empire and, as is shown by the ‘Price Edict’ of Diocletian (issued in AD 301), took the opportunity to sell their goods in the large market which the Roman empire represented. For a short time in the fourth century, as the ‘Dark Age’ was closing in on the European provinces, Britain was regarded as something of a haven, even an arsenal, for those trying to keep western Europe Roman. Thus, Britain was not simply a remote province on the far edge of the empire, but one which at times played a central role in the politics and economics of the empire-important enough to bring Roman emperors here in person.
