As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate disclosure.

Home / Periods / Roman Britain / Late Roman Britain

Period

Late Roman Britain

284–410 CE

Late Roman Britain remained a militarised frontier province within the western empire. Hadrian’s Wall, coastal defences and mobile forces had to respond to attacks from Picts, Scots, Saxons and other groups, while internal command structures changed with the wider reforms of the late empire.

Britain was also a place where soldiers could make emperors. Usurpers drew on the island’s troops, and the repeated movement of forces to the continent weakened local defence. By the early fifth century, imperial government in Britain had largely broken down.

Adam Lofthouse’s Shadow of Rome novels use late Roman Britain as a frontier society where military loyalty, family survival and imperial legitimacy collide. Fiction can bring Hadrian’s Wall, local civilians, Roman commanders and the uncertainty that precedes post-Roman Britain into sharper focus.

Related people for Late Roman Britain

Allectusdied 296 Carausiusdied 293 Constantine the Great272–337 Constantius Chlorusc. 250–306 Diocletianc. 240s–316 Gratian359–383 Honorius384–423 Magnus Maximus335–388 Theodosius I347–395

Series

Series about Late Roman Britain (4 series)

The Roman Britain Trilogy in Order

by Rosemary Sutcliff 3 books 4.5(2,785)

Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman Britain Trilogy follows three widely separated generations connected by a dolphin-engraved family ring as Roman power in Britain changes and finally disappears. The Eagle of the Ninth is set in the second-century province and sends Marcus Aquila beyond Hadrian’s Wall. The Silver Branch moves to…

Marcus Flavius Victor in Order

by Douglas Jackson 2 books 4.3(3,287)

The Marcus Flavius Victor sequence is set during the early fifth-century collapse of Roman authority in the West. Marcus, a veteran cavalry commander shaped by decades on Britain’s northern frontier, first undertakes a final and increasingly suspicious inspection of Hadrian’s Wall. He then leads a small company out…

The Saxon Shore Trilogy in Order

by John Broughton 3 books 4.0(173)

The Saxon Shore Trilogy traces the weakening of Roman authority in Britain from the breakaway empire of Carausius to the political world remembered in Arthurian legend. Successive generations of Valdor’s family serve as soldiers and commanders while imperial rivalry, frontier warfare and the withdrawal of Roman forces transform…

Britannia in Order

3 books 3.9(1,945)

The Britannia novels follow four Roman soldiers and the people around them as imperial authority in Britain begins to fracture during the late fourth century. Starting with the Great Conspiracy of 367, Justinus, Paternus, Leocadius and Vitalis are drawn from frontier service into invasions, military revolt and political…

Books

14 Best Novels About Late Roman Britain

Non-Fiction

1 Best Non-Fiction Book About Late Roman Britain

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.