ABSTRACT
Having defined the main problem we can next consider the questions of continuity of a Romano-British culture. It is now possible to trace the existence of civilized life down to at least the middle of the fifth century at Verulamium, Cirencester and Silchester. Throughout history the classic causes of depopulation have been war, famine and pestilence. All may have played their part in the collapse of Roman Britain and the rise of Anglo-Saxon England during the fifth and sixth centuries. Their desertion and the failure of the way of life they had supported was probably caused by depopulation for one reason or another: flight, famine, disease and the consequent disintegration of an economic system of which they had been the major prop. Town life had been reduced to life in towns and it cannot be emphasized enough that towns did not continue, and by no stretch of the imagination can they be thought to have done so.
