Mark Hassall has made many valuable contributions to the study of Roman Britain over a long career: the bibliography of his published works, which appears as an appendix, begins in 1954. In this volume he re-publishes a selection of twenty previously published articles, all based upon documentary and epigraphic sources. The original publications were in journals and collections of papers, many of them festschriften or conference collections. Of these, six appeared in volumes in the British Archaeological Reports series, four in CBA Research Reports, three in Britannia, one in a Research Framework document and six in other collections, three of which were published outside the UK. The earliest date of publication is 1970 (‘Batavians and the Roman Conquest of Britain’); the latest is 2010 (‘The Written Record and the Late Roman Frontier’).

The collection is gathered under four headings: ‘Early military history: ad 43–122’ (two papers); ‘Frontier: ad 122–207’ (six papers); ‘The Province’ (ten papers, grouped under thematic sub-heads); and ‘Later military history: the fourth century’ (four papers). As the author acknowledges, there is overlap of some of the papers that argue from the same or similar bodies of evidence. Importantly, the papers selected for inclusion are some of those that have stood the test of time, and which retain their usefulness. Where later relevant work has augmented the content, this is acknowledged. For most papers the additional material comes from the publication of Roman Inscriptions of Britain iii, which is referenced in additional notes where relevant. Original papers were produced with differing referencing styles. This has been made consistent, and a single, unified bibliography has been produced, along with a very full and comprehensive index. Both index and bibliography are useful in their own right.

The first section includes a paper on the strategic aspects of legionary movements during the conquest phase, and the way in which legions seem to have been located at forts for short periods (from 2000). He has particular doubts about the identification of vexillation forts. The other paper looks at the role of Batavian auxiliaries during the conquest, especially around the period of the Batavian revolt (1970). The modern assessment of the role of epigraphy on Hadrian’s Wall (2009) is backed by a piece in the third section on epigraphy and the Roman army in Britain more generally (1984), and a specific example in the area of military tile stamps (1979). In the ‘Frontier’ section is an article on ‘Wingless Victories’ based on an analysis of the iconography of the Hutcheson Hill distance slab on the Antonine Wall (1977). Articles on the building of the Antonine Wall (1983) and the date of the rebuilding of Hadrian’s Turf Wall in stone (1984) have arguably been rather overtaken by the speed of change and discovery on the frontier. Hassall’s idea that the Turf Wall was replaced in stone in the Severan period (reiterated in the final paper in the volume) remains controversial.

Section three, ‘The Province’, is very diverse. The administration of the province is tackled in a set of ‘footnotes’ to Anthony Birley’s Fasti (2008) – a set of additions to this magisterial work, which also refers back to legionary dispositions – and two papers on London, as a provincial capital (1996) and the role of soldiers in that capital (1973). Both papers look at the role of the governor, his staff and his military guard. The urban theme is continued by an examination of the impact of Roman urbanism on indigenous structures (1979), and a discussion of the way in which tabularia – record offices – may have functioned in British cities (2003). Epigraphic sources for religion in the civilian province (1980) include references to priestly persons, and there is an implication that curse tablets may have been written by professional scribes in formulaic language. This leads to the idea of education in the province and the presence of grammarians and rhetoricians (2008). Finally, in this section is a consideration of the epigraphic evidence for trade with the Rhine provinces (1978).

The papers in the final section use as their principal source the Notitia Dignitatum – a document in which the author has long been interested. The section shows the development of his thinking on the subject. His well-known article on the British section of the document (1976) is particularly important in demonstrating a lacuna in the section per lineam valli, which enabled a more accurate identification of place names to sites on Hadrian’s Wall. A companion piece on the units of the Saxon Shore follows (1977), and these are tied together through an epigraphic and archaeological study of the defence of Britain in the fourth century (2004). The final short paper shows how small a role epigraphy has in the evidence for the late Roman frontier (2010).

This collection displays the extraordinary breadth of the interests and scholarship of the author. It brings together, and makes accessible, significant work that might otherwise be perhaps be overlooked in edited volumes. It is an excellent starting point for research in many aspects of Romano-British studies in which written sources are important.