The large quantity of objects from Roman Britain associated with people performing priestly functions is apparent to anyone who has written about religion in the province. Esposito's book, based on a London thesis, brings most of these together (though it is a pity that only a minority are illustrated) and is consequently very much to be welcomed.

Esposito assesses the major categories of material, including the priestly headdresses from Stony Stratford, Cavenham Heath and Hockwold-cum-Wilton, presumably originally from shrines or temples, as is certainly the case for those from Wanborough. Although the form and decoration of these often approximate to the priestly headgear of flamens and the like depicted on Roman monuments, Esposito shows that there were also local Iron Age antecedents.

Of particular interest are the sceptres, especially numerous in Britain, including two complete examples from a burial at Brough-on Humber with heads in the form of Mars. The god was popular in eastern Britain, where he sometimes appears as a horseman. Of other deities, Venus is represented by a head from Ludford Magna; Esposito rejects a bust of Minerva from Stonea as a sceptre head although a gold leaf with a votive dedication to Minerva from the same site indicates this is the most likely explanation. More obviously native deities are represented, such as the torc-wearing bearded head from Worlington and (listed under ceremonial spears) the busts of the three Matres atop a staff from Aldworth. A class of sceptre heads exhibits the features of second-century emperors, including examples with the features of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. These perhaps demonstrate the introduction of an aspect of the imperial cult into the countryside. Images of other creatures, especially birds, were sometimes mounted on shafts. The shafts of sceptres from the temple at Wanborough are especially well represented. A great deal of this material has been published (much of it by the present reviewer), though some examples are recent additions from records of the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The problem for Esposito was always going to be how to get much beyond such material evidence of cult to bring provincial religion to life. Only the two sceptres from Brough are directly associated with the people who carried them, though the material from excavated temples, such as headdresses and sceptres, tells us priests were present at these sites.

Literary evidence for priests in Britain includes numerous references to Druids, mainly relevant to the period before Roman intervention, while the temple of Claudius at Colchester suggests a functioning official cult, which implies provincial priesthoods. Epigraphic evidence is nugatory; there is the tombstone of a sacerdos and a dedication by a haruspex at Bath. Both titles are Roman and this was a highly Romanised sanctuary. Three other sacerdotes are mentioned epigraphically in northern Britain, in the milieu of the Roman army, and an official sacrifice, a suovetaurilia, is depicted on the Antonine Wall distance slab from Bridgeness. The priestess (archiereia) Diodora who dedicated an altar to Tyrian Hercules at Corbridge is not really relevant to the mainstream cults in Britain. At the temple of Nodens at Lydney Park, Titus Flavius Senilis, who abbreviates his office as Pr rel, is thought by many scholars to be the praepositus religionis in charge of religious rites, while his companion, Victorinus, is an interpres, a dream interpreter. Esposito, citing four precedents, prefers the original expansion of the first as praepositus reliquationis (a military officer), while Victorinus the interpres was possibly a language interpreter or some other sort of intermediary. However, the fact that they had control of the offerings of worshippers to pay for the splendid late Roman mosaic, alongside an interpretation of the long building as an abaton for sacred incubation, suggests that a role as priests is the more likely interpretation.

To these we can add the dendrophori of Verulamium, known from a pot at Dunstable, and who perhaps operated from the Triangular Temple at Verulamium; they should though be regarded as a sort of supporters’ club in the rites of Attis and Cybele rather than as priests. It is likely (though uncertain) that the well-known burial of a young man festooned with jet jewellery from Catterick was a gallus. A clamp depicting these deities and others recovered from the Thames at London Bridge may have been associated with the rite of emasculation; while not mentioned by Esposito, a small stone casket carved with a figure of the expiring Attis from under Southwark Cathedral may have been a receptacle for the vires of a gallus.

There is of course a great deal of religious material – numerous altars and dedications, votives left by worshippers, as well as the remains of sacrifices – but the question of organisation, and control too, often remains unanswered. If one leaves the book feeling just a trifle disappointed that is not really quite fair. Our own modern prejudices expect a hierarchy of priesthood as found in the medieval and modern Christian church, but most priesthoods in antiquity were honorary. Doubtless there were professional specialists, haruspices and those skilled in augury (and here Esposito has missed a gem from Silchester depicting an augur's staff) and the elucidation of dreams, but most priesthoods were simply honorary. Indeed, in the home, the head of the household – the paterfamilias – had a priestly role. Religious performers included a vast range of people in the provinces, amongst them participants in religious associations like those whose names are inscribed on the spoons from Thetford and the Christian priest who celebrated the Eucharist with the Water Newton Treasure. Libations and sacrifices were performed at votive altars in rustic shrines and at crossroads; hymns and prayers were intoned by men and women who spent most of their lives doing other things.