A meticulously researched and vividly told account of a dramatic, little-known chapter in Romano-British history, this book brings to life the rise of Carausius, Rome’s self-declared “pirate king”. Tasked with suppressing North Sea piracy, he instead built a powerful fleet, then seized control of Britain and parts of northern Gaul, founding a breakaway empire with its own fortifications and London mint. Drawing on detailed sources, including coinage evidence, Elliott expertly reconstructs the political tensions that drove his usurpation and Rome’s response. The narrative continues through Carausius’s violent downfall and the brief rule of his successor Allectus, who was ultimately crushed in a Roman invasion. Both scholarly and compelling, it turns fragmentary evidence into a coherent, gripping story of ambition, legitimacy, and imperial collapse.