)

5. Inscribed tile from Silchester. (From a drawing by Sir E. M.
Thompson)

6. Inscribed tile from Plaxtol, Kent, and reconstruction of lettering.
(From photographs)

7. Ground-plans of Romano-British Temples. (From _Archaeologia_)

8. Ground-plan of Corridor House, Frilford. (From plan by Sir
A. J. Evans)

9. Ground-plan of Roman House at Northleigh, Oxfordshire

10. Plan of a part of Silchester, showing the arrangement of the
private houses and the Forum and Christian Church. (From
_Archaeologia_)

11. Painted pattern on wall-plaster at Silchester.(Restoration by
G. E. Fox in _Archaeologia_)

12. Plan of British Village at Din Lligwy. (From _Archaeologia
Cambrensis_)

13. Late Celtic Metal Work in the British Museum.(From a photograph)

14. Fragments of New Forest pottery with leaf patterns. (From
_Archaeologia_)

15. Urns of Castor Ware. (From photographs)

16. Hunting Scenes from Castor Ware. (From _Artis, Durobrivae_)

17. Fragment of Castor Ware showing Hercules and Hesione. (After
C. R. Smith)

18. The Corbridge Lion. (From a photograph)

19. Dragon-brooches. (From a drawing by C. J. Praetorius)

20. Inscription from Caerwent illustrating Cantonal Government.
(From a drawing)

21. Ogam inscription from Silchester. (From a drawing by C. J.
Praetorius)

Note. For the blocks of the frontispiece, of Figs. 3, 5, 15, 16, I am
indebted to the editor and publishers of the Victoria County History.
Figs. 6, 11, 14, 20, 21, are reproduced from _Archaeologia_ and the
_Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries_. For the block of Fig. 10 I
have to thank the Royal Institute of British Architects; for the block
of Fig. 18, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

CHAPTER I

THE ROMANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE

Historians seldom praise the Roman Empire. They regard it as a period of
death and despotism, from which political freedom and creative genius
and the energies of the speculative intellect were all alike excluded.
There is, unquestionably, much truth in this judgement. The world of the
Empire was indeed, as Mommsen has called it, an old world. Behind it lay
the dreams and experiments, the self-convicted follies and disillusioned
wisdom of many centuries. Before it lay no untravelled region such as
revealed itself to our forefathers at the Renaissance or to our fathers
fifty years ago. No new continent then rose up beyond the western