posted on 13 Jan 2019

Revolt against the Romans by Tony Bradman

I stumbled across this compelling story in a bookshop in Bath recently, hoping to find fiction relating to Ancient Rome for a school event on that subject. I was feeling a bit dejected because most of the books I had come across were non- fiction, and I really wanted to focus on how stories can transport the reader to another time and place. Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe was the only one that I could bring to mind, but as I was planning to talk with eight and nine year olds, that would be far too sophisticated.

This story begins near Rome where twelve year old Marcus spends his vacation time in the family villa. He is clearly from a privileged background and enjoys a pleasant but somewhat dull life. Like most children of his age, he is starting to feel restless and dissatisfied with his lot so he is quite excited when his father, who is a senior official working for the governor, explains that they are relocating abroad as part of his job. And so we travel with him on his first overseas adventure to Britannia, ‘the island at the edge of the world’ where ‘the Britons are savages who tattoo themselves and take the heads of their enemies in battle’.  The contrast between the rather staid and stuffy familiar Roman world where Marcus has grown up sounds both exciting and daunting. I liked the way in which the author plants the idea of 'otherness‘ very early on and hints that the barely human Britons appear to be in need of civilisation.

Once his long journey begins, Marcus is thrilled by all the sights and sounds that he experiences first hand under the watchful eye of Sabinus, an officer friend of his father. They travel by ship to the northern coast of Gaul, and then endure a rough sea crossing. Once they land in Britannia, things do not turn out as planned and when Marcus is caught up in a violent battle, captured and taken hostage by the Britons in the Dun of the Long Hill, he has to rapidly rethink all his assumptions about the importance of family and loyalty to Rome. Who can he trust and who really cares about him? Will his father be proud of him? Will these strange people harm him?

Without giving away too much of the plot, Marcus eventually learns to trust his captors who treat him very well and he is eventually assimilated into the tribe of Caradoc. The author helps us to see the contrast between living in a beautiful Roman villa and the more basic roundhouse where space is shared with many people around a central hearth. It seems that a life of luxury isn’t necessarily better than one where people live closely as a community. Marcus learns to see from the perspective of those who have been invaded and who understandably hate the Romans and all they stand for. But, after a couple of years, his new  world is turned upside down when the Romans make their presence felt again in the region where he is living – whose side is he on and what is he prepared to do to prove it?

Even though this is a relatively slim book, it is packed with fierce action and tense with the on-going pull between the different cultures that Marcus has experienced. He is becoming a young man and is, in any case, coming to terms with his identity, so this will resonate with many children and young adult readers.  As ever, this excellent author makes history exciting and relevant and I learnt quite a lot about Rome and the invasion of Britannia that I didn’t know. Life at that time was extremely brutal and so it is relevant to include quite a bit of death and destruction, which I suppose might be alarming for more sensitive eight year olds (although they often seem to love bloodthirsty content). However, this is never gratuitous and is well balanced with episodes of calm reflection throughout, all vividly written.  When I gave a synopsis of the plot and then read a short extract to the children, they were rapt with attention. I really hope that their teacher will buy a copy for the class, perhaps read it aloud and then encourage the more able readers to give it a try.

Karen Argent

January 2019