The Roman Empire was built and sustained by a vast army. At its park 450,000 men patrolled Pax Romana. Professor Saul David, Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War I: Staying Alive, BBC 2012
Even to war-hardened Roman soldiers, the Druids appeared a terrifying spectacle. Neil Oliver, Sacred Wonders of Britain II, BBC 2013
This new religion was undercover and banned in the Roman empire. Neil Oliver, Sacred Wonders of Britain III, BBC 2014
You have to start with the Romans. Because it was they who brought civilisation to Britain for the first time. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History: Britannia 1/8 BBC 2012
Roman letters found on Hadrian’s Wall give us the voices of ordinary Britons. ibid.
People enjoyed all the benefits of being Roman citizens. ibid.
At the fall of Rome the Roman army went but the people carried on. ibid.
A strong society with a unique and lasting culture. The Roman colonisation was supposed to have erased the ancient Britons ... But I don’t believe our ancient culture was overwhelmed as easy as that. Dr Francis Pryor, Britain AD: King Arthur’s Britain I, Channel 4 2004
Far from a dark age this was a time of huge creativity and development. ibid.
Archaeologists are starting to radically rethink the Roman invasion of Britain. ibid.
Pre-Roman Britain was in fact a collection of often feudal tribal kingdoms. ibid.
Britain turned its back on Rome and turned to an independent future. ibid.
Cracks were starting to appear in that empire’s authority. Julian Richards, Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited: Pagans of Roman Britain, BBC 2013
So why did the Romans come here to the edge of the world and run the gauntlet of all these ominous totems? There was the lure of treasure of course. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: Beginnings, BBC 2000
In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar launched his galleys across the Channel. ibid.
If we can now imagine Hadrian’s Wall as not such a bad posting it’s because our sense of what life was like at the time has been transformed by one of the most astonishing finds of recent archaeology: the so-called Vindolanda Tablets. Scraps of Roman correspondence. ibid.
The Romans changed the face of England. David Dimbleby, Seven Ages of Britain 1/7: Age of Conquest, BBC 2010
A war with no sign of an end. The Romans have stirred up a ferocious foe – our ancestors. The Romans consider Britain a land of barbarians. The British I: Treasure Island, BBC 2012
In A.D. 58 one of Rome’s most feared generals lands on British soil. ibid.
A fertile land kept warm and wet by the Gulf Stream. ibid.
The Druids ferment resistance to the Roman invasion. ibid.
Britain is transformed – new roads are built. ibid.
Urbanised Britons begin dressing and behaving like Romans. ibid.
It’s a slow death but Roman authority in Britain is collapsing. ibid.
Now it was the Romans who decided who ruled Jerusalem. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City 1/3: Wellspring of Holiness, BBC 2011
By the sixth century Rome had fallen and Jerusalem was now ruled by Byzantium, the capital of the eastern Roman empire. ibid.
The year is 49 B.C. Civil war rages across the Roman Empire. The violence spills into nearby Egypt where a teenage girl is thrust on to the throne of this mystical kingdom. She’ll go on to become one of the key power players of ancient history. Military might is not the only secret of her success. Mystery Files: Cleopatra, National Geographic 2010
Perhaps the key component of her legend as a magical Eastern temptress: is it possible the Romans like the Egyptians believe that a pharaoh is a god in human form? ibid.
In an age of deep religious conviction Romans would have been in awe of Egypt’s mystical past, and of the bizarre gods that watch over Cleopatra. To the Romans, Egypt is mysterious, exotic and frightening. ibid.
Egypt is progressively being brought into the Roman sphere of influence. Professor Valerie Higgins, American University of Rome
The Roman Church ... pushed itself into the place of the Roman world-empire, of which it is the actual continuation ... The Pope, who calls himself ‘King’ and ‘Pontifex Maximus’, is Caesar’s successor. Adolf Harnack, What is Christianity? p270