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Free Books on the Romans in Scotland

There are lots of free books to download and read. I’ve read or browsed most of the ones below. Pretty amazing to be able to read books nearly 2000 years old. There is a website called Project Gutenberg that makes historical books freely available as well as university and academic sites. There are different translations so you may find differences.

Roman Books from ancient times

  1. The Gallic Wars (Julius Caesar, 49 BC)
  2. The Ten Books on Architecture (Vitruvius, 30 BC)
  3. The Natural History ( Pliny the Elder, 77 AD)
  4. THE LIFE OF CNÆUS JULIUS AGRICOLA, browser version, (Tacitus, 98 AD)
  5. Agricola by Cornelius Tacitus – Free Ebook, kindle, and other versions ( Tacitus, 98 AD)
  6. Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II by Cornelius Tacitus kindle, and other versions ( Tacitus, 98 AD)
  7. All books by Tacitus on Project Gutenberg
  8. Suetonius: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Suetonius, 121 AD)
  9. Roman History (Cassius Dio, 233 AD) link takes you to a chapter about Agricola
  10. Roman History (Cassius Dio, 233 AD) link takes you to the pages about Septimius Severus (at 13 1)
  11. The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus (380 AD) link takes you to book 27 which describes war in Britain. Kindle and other versions on Gutenberg.
  12. Jerome Chronicle (380 AD) gives the history of all time from his date of creation in 5201 BC. Inaccurate in quite a few places.
  13. Historia Augusta (395 ish) unknown author and some facts disputed
  14. Claudian with an English translation by Maurice Platnauer. (404 AD) Gutenberg edition and easier to read.
  15. The works of Claudian, tr. into Engl. verse by A. Hawkins By Claudius Claudianus (404 AD) · 1817 ( good brief material about Theodosius and Caledonian riches)
  16. Paulus Orosius:   Histories against the Pagans (Orosius, 418 AD)

History Books after ancient times

  1. History of the Britons ( Nennius, 796)
  2. Chronicle of the Scottish Nation (John of Fordun, 1384)
  3. Historical Inquiries Concerning the Roman Monuments and Antiquities in the North Part of Britain Called Scotland ( Sir Robert Sibbald, 1707)
  4. Itinerarium Septentrionale Or, A Journey Thro’ Most of the Counties of Scotland, and Those in the North of England. (Alexander Gordon, 1726)
  5. Observations on some Roman Altars found in 1771 by Mr Gough (page 118 of Archaeologia)
  6. The military antiquities of the Romans in Britain (William Roy, 1793)
  7. An Enquiry into the History of Scotland (John Pinkerton, 1814)
  8. Caledonia Romana A Descriptive Account of the Roman Antiquities of Scotland (Robert Stuart, 1852)
  9. The Roman Antiquities of Inveresk, Etc (David Macbeth Moir, 1860)
  10. Handbook to the Roman Wall (John Collingwood Bruce, 4th edition 1894) Note this book now in its 14th edition. See https://www.newcastle-antiquaries.org.uk/index.php?pageId=416
  11. The Roman forts on the Bar Hill, Dumbartonshire (George MacDonald, 1906)
  12. The Roman Wall in Scotland ( by George MacDonald, 1911)
  13. Roman Britain in 1914 By Professor F. Haverfield ( good diagrams of fort buildings)
  14. Transaction Perthshire proceedings of Natural Science – The Caledonian Camp (1921, page 28)
  15. The Cambridge Medieval History: J. B. Bury: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive
  16. The Early Chronicles Relating to Scotland BEING THE RHIND LECTURES IN ARCHAEOLOGY FOR 1912 IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND
  17. Topography of Roman Scotland: North of the Antonine Wall (OGS Crawford, 1949)
  18. Celtic Britain (1963, by Nora Chadwick)
  19. Various books on the Romans from the start of the 20th century are available online at https://archive.org/details/romanfortatbalmu00mill
  20. ToposText – Over 800 texts from ancient history as well as an index of places and people

Modern Books on the Romans in Scotland

  1. Elginhaugh: A Flavian Fort and its Annexe (by W S Hanson, 2007)
  2. First Contact: Rome and Northern Britain (David Breeze and many others, 2008)
  3. The Antiquarian Rediscovery of the Antonine Wall (Lawrence Keppie,2012)
  4. The Antonine Wall Papers in Honour of Professor Lawrence Keppie (edited by David J. Breeze and William S. Hanson)
  5. Bearsden: A Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall | Digital Books (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (David Breeze, 2020)
  6. Anatomy of an Iron Age Roundhouse: The Cnip Wheelhouse Excavations, Lewis (they existed during the Roman occupation)
  7.  Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Vol. I Scripts and Texts Mullen, A. and Bowman, A. (2021) (LatinNow ePubs, Nottingham) (Interactive ebook) (also available in PDF: LatinNow Mullen and Bowman 2021 MREW 1 Scripts and Texts)
  8. Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Vol. 2 Writing EquipmentWilli, A. (2021) (LatinNow ePubs, Nottingham) (Interactive ebook) (also available in PDF: Willi (2021) MREW 2 Writing Equipment)
  9. Frontiers of the Roman Empire: The Antonine Wall – A World Heritage Site (by David Breeze, 2022)
  10. Frontiers of the Roman Empire – 12 free books on Roman frontiers across the Empire including Egypt, Africa, Hungary , Germany and others (2022)

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