This article reviews the mapping of Roman Britain, from Roman antiquity to the
contemporary age. By reviewing the classical mapping of the British Isles and three
particular examples of cartographic representation produced during early modern and
modern times, it is argued that the Roman past of Britain has been made to perform
particular roles with regard to the creation of early modern and modern imperial
discourse. By generating a Roman ancestry for English civilization, the evidence
derived from the classical past was used to provide intellectual justification for
the colonization of territories abroad, in Ireland, Scotland and the New World.
Recent examples of mapping do not challenge the terms through which these ideas of
imperial inheritance were defined. Alternative approaches to mapping in the future
may seek to communicate different ideas about the relevance and character of Britannia.
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