This volume is the product of a project to draw together the archaeological and historical information for Exeter up to the sixteenth century and combine it with that derived from work on the hinterlands in two volumes, referenced by the ugly acronyms EAPIT 1 and 2, for ‘Exeter a Place in Time’. One, as now reviewed, is the ‘overview’ volume and the second is a collecting-up of unpublished information, related also to detail from earlier work. The Roman chapters in the first volume are by Rippon and Gould on the regional landscape and identities, Bidwell on the legionary fortress and Holbrook on the civitas capital, with a contribution by Maltby on animal bones.

The big regional identities chapter by Rippon and Gould, with contributions by Müldner and Frémonteau (ch. 3), stands out. This is partly its academic engagement – it starts by declaring its intention to modify a view of Lady Fox on the relative cultural and other poverty of the area and argues for a more nuanced view of Iron Age trading activity and Roman settlement patterns than those given by Cunliffe and the Rural Settlement in Roman Britain volume. It marshals data over a truly impressive range. A landscape summary for the south-western peninsula (in its own short chapter 2) is followed by Iron Age and Roman settlement patterns and commercial relationships, with a study of domestic architecture; a survey of farming, including the reconstruction of crop cultivation and of animal husbandry, leads to a section by Müldner and Frémonteau on the application of strontium isotope analysis to the study of animal mobility and consequently urban meat supply (an analysis favoured by the distinctive geology of the south-western peninsula). This suggests that approximately a third of meat bones in the military period were from animals imported from areas further to the east, replaced by local sourcing of animals in the civilian period. A summary of evidence for regional identity from small metal objects such as brooches, finger rings, etc., confirms the cultural boundary of the Blackdown and Quantock Hills to the east of the Exe valley, shown also in settlement patterns and other classes of evidence. A study of the distribution of local and regionally imported pottery wares follows this, and finally there is a comprehensive study of the rural landscape east of Exeter within the Exe valley. The conclusion is not poverty, but that ‘There are other ways of expressing wealth and identity …’ (p. 101).

On the fortress, I would first express my profound admiration for Bidwell's achievements in exposing so much of its plan, including the fine legionary baths in the 1970s. But I found its chapter (5) a bit frustrating. It has that tidy type of military ‘history’ that one might hope to have escaped from, as, for example, ‘the legion remained at Exeter until c. AD 74 when it transferred directly to Caerleon’ (p. 162). Information about the fortress is first presented in an unproblematised way, but for the building sequence reference is made to Appendix 5.1. There the complexities of interpreting the detailed chronology of a timber legionary fortress, familiar to any fellow-excavator, emerge: was this part built after that part, was this context fortress or first civilian? – and so on. The historical approach tends to mix strong with weaker points: vigorous occupation until at least c. a.d. 75 can be demonstrated; comparisons with other sites used to reconstruct the movements of military units are shakier. Maltby's contribution on faunal remains makes a welcome emphasis on the fortress in the local economic and social setting. Yet the wealth of information in the regional identities chapter would enable this to be done in a more multi-dimensional way. A special feature of the military period at Exeter is knowledge of four extramural ancillary sites, plus those interpreted as canabae, a substantial civilian settlement c. 2.5 km away at St Loye's College, and the military and later port of Topsham, 6.5 km downstream.

Exeter's marginal placing in Roman Britain offers the prospect of clearer answers than usual to general questions like how far did the provincial authorities actively promote urbanisation? A theme of aspirations versus reality comes through in Holbrook's account (ch. 6): the seventh-largest forum in Roman Britain; an enclosed urban area expanded from the former fortress limits, despite no real signs of density of building at any stage. Evidence for the later history of the town is limited, but through this still come hints of actual meagreness – few mosaics and some types of later coins, for example. Chapter 6, however, seemed too long, partly, perhaps, because of touching on topics where Exeter had little to offer, but it also felt slightly disengaged. Previous work was extensively cited, but the ideas of other archaeologists were not as central to the discussion as in ch. 3. And it would have been good to see some urban sequences illustrated.

The volume as a whole, with its partner, EAPIT 2, is unquestionably a major contribution to Exeter's archaeology and will be a reference tool for the future.