Catuvellaunia and Rome: Economic and Political Relations during the Final Decades Pre-conquest: The Role of Grain from Southeastern Britain and Its Potential for Maintenance of the Roman Military along the Frontier on the Rhine

Alistair Marshall examines the economic relationship between Catuvellaunian Britain and Rome in the decades before the conquest of AD 43, asking whether grain from south-eastern Britain helped supply Roman forces on the Rhine. Numismatic, archaeological and textual evidence is combined with analysis of agricultural capacity, transport and political power.

The question leads from chalkland fields and British oppida to shipping routes, the Catuvellaunian centre at Camulodunum and the demands of Roman frontier armies. Coins help Marshall reconstruct regional power and its relationships with Rome, while comparisons of grain production and military consumption test the plausibility of cross-Channel supply. The book argues for an economic connection before conquest; its proposed supply network is an interpretation assembled from several kinds of evidence, not a directly documented shipment record.