Before the season of sojourns and vacations kicks in, we invite you to a trip like no other - that from the Imperial Rome to Roman Britain - , vividly brought to life in minute detail by historian and writer Bronwen Riley. To accompany the launch of her most recent book, "Journey to Britannia: from the Heart of Rome to Hadrian's Wall, AD 130", Bronwen, also the author of an irresistible Transylvanian travelogue, will converse with landscape historian Tim Richardson about what it meant to be a traveller during the apogee of the Roman Empire and how a voyage from Latium to Britannia, via Gaul and across the English Channel might have been for anyone brave enough to venture on such a daring enterprise. The book will be introduced by Richard Milbank, publishing director non-fiction of the Head of Zeus Publishing.
The event is organised in collaboration with Head of Zeus Publishing.
Bronwen Riley read Classics at Oxford and Byzantine Art at the Courtauld Institute, where her particular interest was post-Byzantine art in Romania. She worked extensively on national magazines and newspapers and is currently Head of Content at English Heritage and Series Editor of English Heritage Guidebooks. She is the author of "Transylvania", volume published by Frances Lincoln in 2008, with photographs by Dan Dinescu.
Tim Richardson is an independent garden historian and landscape critic. Tim writes regularly for newspapers and magazines including "The Daily Telegraph", "Financial Times" and "Country Life", and is the author of nine books on garden and landscape subjects. He is a trustee of the Garden History Society and a member of the gardens advisory panel of the National Trust.
"Journey to Britannia: from the Heart of Rome to Hadrian's Wall, AD 130" is a vivid snapshot of Roman Britain, evoking the different journeys and people who travelled to Britain at this time and what this very remote province was like once they arrived. In particular, it looks at the journey made by the new governor of the province, emperor Hadrian's 'first and best general' - Sextus Julius Severus and his senior officials, and explores Severus's background and career and the kind of places he visited when he arrived. The book also speaks about the presence of Dacians in Britain, referring to the construction of Hadrian's Wall by soldiers recruited in Dacia, and dwelling upon the way in which they maintained traditions and memories of their native land.
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PHWhen: Wednesday 1 July 2015, 7 pm (doors open at 6.30 pm)
Free entry, but please reserve your seat on Eventbrite.
