He succeeded Iain MacIvor as Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic Scotland in 1989, serving in this role until 2005.
The report on his excavations at the Roman fort at Bearsden on the Antonine Wall was published in 2016, with a separate 'popular' account shortly afterwards.
He was one of the founders of the Hadrianic Society in 1971, and is now a patron of its successor, the Roman Army School held in Durham each Easter.
Breeze was presented with a Festschrift in 2009: The Army and Frontiers of Rome edited by William S. Hanson and published by the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
In 2021, Breeze was awarded the Kenyon Medal by the British Academy "for his outstanding contribution to the archaeology of the Roman Empire and to ensuring the inscription of the Antonine Wall as a World Heritage Site".