Abstract :
Exports of Italian wine to Gaul were in steep decline from c. 50 b.c. A quite different picture
emerges from Britain where finds of the Italian Dressel 1 amphora peak at the very end of
the form c. 10 b.c. The discrepancy between Gaul and Britain is explained by the export of
commodities from Britain to supply the Roman army on the Rhine, and is the expression of
a direct interest in the island by the Roman state. Afterwards, the number of wine amphoras
reaching Britain declined sharply: in the 50 years before the Roman invasion the volume of
amphora-borne wine imported by Britons fell by between two-thirds and three-quarters. This
decline is apparent from both rich graves and settlement sites. The fall in the number of wine
amphoras cannot be accounted for by the replacement of the amphora by the barrel as the
standard commercial wine-container: we are dealing with a real decline in the volume of wine
traded. In Gaul there was a similar slump in wine imports from Italy, and the same pattern is
repeated in Mediterranean shipwrecks. It can be explained by growing demand for wine in Italy
itself: wine that had hitherto been exported was now consumed in the peninsula.
