By Iron Age here is meant the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Europe, since it is the spread of the Roman Empire which brings this short account of prehistory to a close, however incomplete it must thereby remain. The literate civilisation of Rome, for all its stranglehold on the ancient world, did not penetrate to every corner of even Europe: the legions never reached Scandinavia, or central Germany, or even the far west and north of the British Isles, although Britain was a Roman province. Thus certain areas even within Europe remained in a prehistoric phase right up to what was elsewhere the Medieval Period, and certain areas also reverted to a barbarian state when the collapse of the Roman Empire took place.