i was expecting this to be staunchly pro-roman propaganda, and it certainly leans that way, but it's not that bad; it at least gets the point across about rome being an empire, and the inhabitants in britain being unwilling, colonized subjects. in fact, there were frequent revolts in all of the celtic heartlands (britain and modern day spain, france and germany), not just britain. i've spoken before of the celtic genocide at the hands of the romans, but the last remnants of celtic civilization were mostly subsumed by the dominant german tribes, as they moved into the region as allies of the indigenous celts. the celts became german, when they would not become roman.  

these revolts were frequent, widespread and nationalistic in character. this is so often glossed over and denied entirely by the official church histories of western europe, but it is the actual truth - rome was always a mediterranean empire, with few willing subjects north of the alps, or west of the rhone. this idea of western europe as inherently roman is just flat out wrong. while i would have focused more on the broader nature of the celtic revolts against imperial rule, the fact that he mentions it at all is non-standard and appreciated. the anglican church would hate this.

so, i don't have the reaction i was expecting.

i just want to point something out though - hadrian didn't realize that britain was an island. that's really why that wall is there - it walled off an unknown land to the north, of unknown size with unknown inhabitants. they could never be sure that there wasn't a giant landmass, with millions of barbarians. they decided they didn't want to find out....