Few historical events in the study of Roman Britain remain as enigmatic archaeologically as the evidence for Caesar's landing in Kent. This edited volume, springing from the discovery of Caesarean camp ditches in Pegwell Bay on the Isle of Thanet, provides a comprehensive treatment of recent archaeological and numismatic work on Caesar's conquest of Gaul. The book departs from traditional takes on the subject by abandoning earlier approaches that took the written sources as a starting point. Instead, the contributions pose a series of research questions arising from analysis of the archaeological evidence (and drawing from approaches to the late Iron Age), advances in archaeological science and experimental archaeology, and the results of development-led excavations.

The scope of the volume is impressive, both in the context of the international reach of the contributions, covering Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and the US, and in terms of the range of the professional backgrounds of the contributors. The result is a series of papers that departs from accounts told from the Roman perspective and instead reveals the evidence of the scale and complexities of both the short- and long-term effects of Caesar's campaigns on local communities. Although not formally divided into sections, the book falls into two parts. The first three contributions open up the discussion by looking at the influence of the reading of the Gallic Wars on the archaeological research agenda over the last two centuries (Krebs), the contribution of recent archaeological work to changing the understanding of the complexities of late Iron Age societies in Gaul (Ralston) and how the conquest of Gaul fits within the context of Rome's other colonial wars and the limitations of Roman accounts (Woolf). The rest of the book presents a kaleidoscope of geographical studies of individual sites, regions and finds, with a few papers touching on issues of the social impact of war.

Although the contributions are too numerous to discuss in detail, several stand out. Pernet analyses a large corpus of late La Téne graves from several regions in Gaul around the time of their conquest to identify Gallic auxiliaries and provide the context through which they would have become affiliated with the Roman army. The work showcases the power of meticulous contextual research, but also provides a reflection on the limitations of the extent to which weapons can be linked to identity and the difficulty of discussing identity in the absence of inscriptions. Roymans looks at evidence from south-east of Antwerp to reinterpret the assemblage from Kessel as testimony of a single episode of genocide, rather than as finds deposited as votive offerings over many years. This contribution illustrates the difficulty in dating Iron Age objects and also demonstrates that military archaeology can contribute to decolonising Roman studies by shedding light on the effects of racism on the part of the Romans, here specifically in the context of anti-Germanic ethnic stereotyping, and the price local communities had to pay.

Alongside papers on regions of Gaul, two contributions present comparative evidence for the Roman campaigns in Spain. These are particularly welcome as Spain has seen significant advances in archaeological research on its Roman conquest in recent years, much, however, published in Spanish only. Marillo and Sala-Sallés provide a synthesis of recent discoveries relating to the Sertorian Wars, one of the most intense periods of war in Roman Spain. The study illustrates how new excavations and modern archaeological prospection have been able to bring to light numerous new camps and evidence of siege and destruction (including a catapult from La Caridad de Camntreal), and reveal the existence of an earlier unidentified chain of fortlets on the south-eastern coast of Spain (area of Alicante). The presentation of results from the excavation of Puig Ciutat in Catalonia (chapter 12) undertaken since 2010 provides a glimpse into a late Republican garrison guarding a mountain passage and located on the site of an earlier, possibly evacuated, native settlement.

In conclusion, the volume provides a lengthy Europe-wide overview of archaeological approaches to late Republican conquest of Gaul, with a significant proportion of the research published in English for the first time. The editors achieve several important objectives. Alongside reflecting on the fundamental role that the study of Caesar's Gallic campaigns plays in shaping the development of Iron Age archaeology, the book provides the reader with a clear vision of where future research may lead us. Several important and timely theoretical considerations weave through the chapters, from reflections on the price of Roman imperialism paid by local communities and the global impact of Rome's politics, to the challenges of discussing ethnicity and identity in the absence of the written record.