The Edge of Empire: Journey to Britannia: From the Heart of Rome to Hadrian's Wall, Riley - B

                                                 This hypothetical travelogue is told through the eyes of Julius Severus, who the Emperor Hadrian appointed as governor of Britain in AD 130. The-newly appointed were expected to leave Rome by April 1 in order to be at their new assignment around July 1. The first leg was a day-long trip to the Tiber ports on the Mediterranean. From there, his ship hugged the coast and sailed for a week to Narbonne, a port on the coast of Gaul. Overland transport brought our second century traveler to Lyon, chief city of the province. It then took approximately two weeks to reach the channel port of Boulogne, home of a Roman fleet. Crossing to Dover was a 6-8 hour sail. It took one full day to reach Londinium from the coast. London was the capital of the province and the seat of the Roman government. As Britain was a frontier province, military affairs were paramount and it was necessary to head west to Wales and north to Scotland. However, a day's ride from London, on the way to Wales, was the most Roman of towns and temples on the island.  Due to the underground springs, the thermal baths in Bath were surrounded by extraordinary buildings and temples. The baths of Bath were so spectacular that they actually rivaled those in Rome. On to the west and north went Severus as he approached the true end of the earth. Hadrian's Wall stretched from coast to coast and delineated Pax Romana and all it stood for against the barbarism to the north. At this northwestern most point of the Roman Empire, Severus was approximately 2,000 miles from the Empire's eastern reaches on the Black Sea. Perhaps that is just one of the many reasons the Empire's success still fascinates us two millennia later. This is a brief and enjoyable read. It's hard to characterize: part history, travel guide, commercial treatise, cultural guidebook, social commentary and geography lesson. In any event, I feel it's been fun.