Hello, I'm Mark DeSantis and welcome to the ancient warfare podcast.

Longtime listeners of the podcast may recognize me as a participant.

Tonight I'm going to be talking with assistant editor of the ancient warfare magazine, Murray Dom, about his new book,

Finis Britanniae.

Finis Britanniae covers the end of Roman Britain, so looking back from it from our perspective,

it's roughly the third through six centuries AD.

It's a dark period from our perspective.

Incomplete historical sources, confused chronologies, shadowy warlords, and uncertain battles.

Murray Dom is taking the time out of his labors to shed some light on this subject for us.

And his book is out now from Amberley.

And I think that this is going to be a cracking episode.

So why don't we get on with it without further ado.

Hello, Barry.

Thank you for that lovely introduction.

So, Murray, why don't we start off with just the basic subject of the book?

Finis Britanniae, the end of Britain.

What made you choose this subject?

Well, I think you touched on it in your introduction that it is indeed a dark age for us.

And there's that, I say in the book that it's a peculiar one because for the ancient

historian, it's the end of the period.

It's the closing of Roman Britain and the abandonment of Britain.

And then a dark age where all of those things that you mentioned occur.

...