Vindolanda

A brilliant historic fiction.

Adrian Goldsworthy’s 2017 novel of Roman Britain set in AD 98, years before Hadrian’s Wall but also a few decades after Boudicca’s revolt, describes a time when the expanding Roman Empire had pushed far into the north of Britain, into Scotland, but was far from holding this far conquest without contest from the natives.

While this is an extraordinarily well researched and erudite novel about life in the Roman Empire, the most compelling details lay in Goldsworthy’s descriptions of the various tribes and peoples who make up the Empire, and only a few in Britain at this time were Italians.

Goldsworthy’s protagonist is Flavius Ferox, a Roman centurion, but also a Silure – from a tribe of people who lived in what is now southern Wales. Ferox’ grandfather was a tribesman who was defeated by the Roman invaders and now this ethnic group has pledged loyalty to Rome and has produced in Ferox a formidable soldier.

Calling someone Native American is like calling someone European – vaguely accurate but falling far short of the whole truth. It is more precise to say Sioux, or Cherokee, or Belgian or German. So too does Goldsworthy eschew the term Celtic and unerringly describe his characters in first century Britain as Brigantians, Caledones, Selgovae, and Iceni. The Romans are also not just Italian, but composed of soldiers from other parts of the empire and Goldsworthy likewise adds details of their tribal ancestry.

The author also spends time with social and cultural aspects of this time and place. The druids are cast as a mysterious and ancient, but still potentially powerful, sect intent on ousting the foreigners. Ferox, a British Roman soldier, is approached in one noteworthy scene by a druid and offered the chance to avenge his grandfather. Fans of such films as Gladiator, The Eagle and Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 King Arthur will like this.

Well written and informative, it is also readable and entertaining.