Annie, Lady Brassey was a very popular Victorian author. She travelled with her husband, Thomas and her children aboard their yacht, the Sunbeam. Their eleven month sailing trip around the world in 1876-7 was inmortalized in Anna's book "A Voyage in the Sunbeam". The book ran through many English editions and was translated into many other languages.
The reign of the emperor Constantine (306-337) was as revolutionary for the transformation of Rome's Mediterranean empire as that of Augustus, the first emperor three centuries earlier. The abandonment of Rome signaled the increasing importance of frontier zones in northern and central Europe and the Middle East. The foundation of Constantinople as a new imperial residence and the rise of Greek as the language of administration previewed the establishment of a separate eastern Roman empire.
Gives the background of Britain before the Roman invasion of 43 AD and goes on to describe the Roman forces, the personalities involved, the actual invasion - including the crucial battle on the Medway - and Claudius' triumphal entrance into Camulodunum, the British capital.
A striking achievement of historical synthesis combined with a compelling interpretative line," The Roman Empire at Bay" enables students of all periods to understand the dynamics of great imperial powers. David Potter's comprehensive survey of two critical and eventful centuries traces the course of imperial decline, skillfully weaving together cultural, intellectual and political history.
