This short and well-focused book, one of the Cambridge Elements The Archaeology of Europe volumes, takes a critical view of the actions and motivations of the Roman imperial commanders who led military actions during the late Republican and early Imperial periods across the western periphery of the Roman Empire. At 30,000 words long, this concise book is well written and based on up-to-date reading. It makes a significant contribution to the field of Roman imperial studies. The direction taken by the authors seeks to adopt a critical approach to Roman military campaigning, developing the idea of the Roman Empire as a ‘predatory regime’ (12). Focusing upon the theme of conflict archaeology, the authors aim to ‘reclaim the memory of communities that were forcibly incorporated into the Roman state’ (3). The book draws upon a new body of fieldwork and research on Roman-period battle sites, mainly on the Continent. It focuses sustained attention on Roman wars of conquest, addressing the violence of these actions and the resulting human misery.

Roman military archaeology has attracted considerable attention since the late nineteenth century. However, much of this research has focused on the archaeology of the Roman frontiers, as developed through the tradition of Limes research. This scholarship has made substantial advances in the discovery and recording of Roman military infrastructure, but tended historically to attract scholars who identified with the Romans. It also pacified the idea of military violence by focusing on the material culture of frontier installations. More recently, a strong tradition has developed — in the work of Simon James, Ian Haynes and others — that focuses upon the ‘Roman army as community’. Perhaps this work turned too far away from the realities of Roman warfare by effectively pacifying the ancient past. This process of pacification is seen, particularly in the realm of public display, where Roman legionary reenactors tend these days to perform military manoeuvres outside the forts and domestic life in the vicus. Armed combat is rare these days and can also look staged (as a result of the implementation of health and safety rules). Encouraging the public to visit ancient monuments has communicated the idea of an accessible and civilised Roman military.

The scarcity of past research on Roman battlefield archaeology, with some notable exceptions (e.g. Alesia, Numantia), means that until recently it was difficult to document the impact of the military campaigning. Fernández-Götz and Roymans note that classical authors give some details, including the figure of one million enslaved people taken during Caesar’s Gallic War. However, many commentators have considered such figures exaggerated (10). Traditions of research have been changing over the past decades as a result of the development of more critical views of the classical past. The authors are able to exploit a new body of research across the Continent that has turned attention to the violence inherent in Roman imperial expansion. Over the past few decades, many fieldwork projects have explored battle-site archaeology in Germany, Iberia and Gaul. Work in Britain has also focused on Caesar’s landing point in Kent and the Roman-period sieges at Burnswark Hill and Ambleside.

Fernández-Götz and Roymans explore three themes in the Introductory chapter (8–9) to highlight the potential of archaeology as a source of information about the Roman conquest: the study of (a) Roman military installations and infrastructure, (b) battlefield sites and sieges and (c) the demographic consequences of conquest. The book then proceeds in chronological order to address four main campaigns: Caesar’s invasion of Gaul, the Roman conquest of Iberia, Augustus’ failed Germanic wars and the conquest of Britain. These chapters introduce recent research and discoveries in these four geographical areas.

One area the authors could not fully develop in the short book is the variability of Roman strategy in the areas they aimed to conquer. They focused their attention on military conflicts across the Roman West and the violence and loss of life that resulted. Roman commanders had an additional strategy that enabled influential leaders in the territories they desired to conquer to submit their people and become clients of Rome. Such leaders were often allowed to rule until they died, when their territories were incorporated into the Roman Empire. This strategy enabled Rome to expand without requiring direct armed force against these ‘friendly’ peoples. Using such local leaders, often titled ‘friendly rulers’ or ‘client kings’, enabled Claudius to conquer substantial areas of southern Britain in the course of a few years. Caesar also befriended the leaders of peoples across Gaul a century before, explaining how he conquered so much territory in a few years.

The idea of the predatory regime that Fernández-Götz and Roymans develop seems relevant to acquiring territory through this less directly violent negotiation process, since the establishing of client rulers also forced communities to submit to Roman power. It is quite understandable that these authors focus their attention on military violence and depopulation in this short book. However, the increased social hierarchy and growing inequalities resulting from imperial assimilation are additional aspects of the predatory regime spread through Roman action across western Europe.

This book is one of several recent publications that aim to rebalance the view of the Roman conquest of western Europe (84). Decolonising Roman archaeology requires us to find a new balance in accounts of Roman military action. This need for balance is — in part — because public presentations of the Romans across temperate Europe have tended to portray conquest in positive terms, often communicating the idea of the introduction of ‘civilization’ to a previously ‘barbaric’ population (6). Finding a balance in assessing the Roman past requires a focus on the negative as well as the positives of Roman imperial incorporation. The world has long been violent, and the Roman Empire was certainly not an exception. This book makes a reasoned and cogent contribution to a lively debate.