at what was to them the edge of the known world, was a land of great mystery. Some Roman writers even insisted that it did not exist and dismissed reports of Pytheas's voyage as a hoax.

Britain during the reign of Julius Caesar had an Iron Age culture, with an estimated population of between one and four million. Archaeological research shows that its economy was broadly divided into lowland and highland zones. In the lowland southeast, large areas of fertile soil made possible extensive arable