1-44AD: The Romans Invade

As the new millennium opens, the Romans are yet to invade but the South Britons continue internal manouevring as if their world would survive regardless of intentions in Rome. Addedomarus, Chief of the Trinovantes, is succeeded by Dubnovelaunus while Tasciovanus, Chief of the Catuvellauni, is succeeeded by Cunobeline (Shakespeare's Cymbeline). The latter captured Camulodunum in or around AD9. From there, he ruled over the bulk of the Belgae in the South East as an independent tributary of Rome. He or one of his sons, Adminius, then went on to expel Eppillus from Kent in AD20. Cunobeline, the nearest thing that South Britain has had to a unifying force, dies some time before AD43 and is succeeded by two sons, Togodumbnus and Caratacus.

Lexden Tumulus (Colchester [Camulodunum], said to be the burial place of Chief Addedomarus of the Trinovantes (For Source - see Note 1)

This dynasty is the proximate cause of the invasion. There is a ridiculous performance in 41AD when the deranged Caligula accepts the homage of Adminius, forced into exile from Kent by his father for reasons unknown, as the homage of all Britain and has his legions collect sea shells on a Gallic beach (although the source of the story, Suetonius, is not exactly reliable and is prone to propaganda at the expense of unpopular Emperors). However Caligula (in fact, the Emperor Gaius) was soon ousted in a military and court coup that same year. He is replaced with his uncle Claudius. Caratacus, with exquisitely poor timing, misread the situation in Rome as one of weakness. This was, after all, only three decades after the crushing Roman defeat in the Teutoberg Forest (AD9) which had seemed to encourage barbarian state builders to misinterpret the situation then and for some time to come.

Caratacus decided to depose Verica, Chief of the Atrebates, and a significant Roman ally. Claudius and his circle must have seen this as a provocation at a time when Rome needed to assert its authority after the failures of Caligula. Claudius ordered a full-scale invasion by Aulus Plautius in AD43. Cunobeline had got away with ousting the Trinovantes, also a Roman ally, in AD9 in the wake of the Teutoberg disaster but he had been swift to rebuild relations with Rome and become a tributary. It is possible that Caratacus thought he could perform the same trick a quarter of a century later and so establish his position as Chief of Chiefs. What he clearly did not understand was that political conditions in Rome now demanded decisive action to ensure the legitimacy of the new Emperor. The fact that eleven tribal chiefs immediately allied with Rome when the legions landed suggests that a very large number of British aristocrats considered a Catuvellauni Capo di Tutti Capi to be more oppressive than the foreign invaders and believed that the Romans would probably guarantee their 'rights'.

Those committed to resistance undertook a major wave of hill fort refortification. No doubt those not committed to resistance also thought it advisable to review their defences in what might become general mayhem as tribe fell on tribe because of their differing allegiances. Under Aulus Plautius, Vespasian (later to become not only Emperor but eventual conqueror of the Jews in the Great Jewish War of AD66-60) undertook a year of campaigning, systematically reducing the hillforts of a stretch of country from Hampshire through to Cornwall. Some 20 oppida were taken. The General eventually arrived at Isca Dumnoniorum (Exter) having secured the vital line of South Coast ports essential to securing trade. Many of these assaults appear to have been captured in the archaeological record.

The response of the defending Britons was to create a grand confederacy of the Catuvellauni, Trinovantes and Cantiaci, moving their headquarters to the more defensible Camulodunum from Verulamium (St. Albans). This proved to be a 'last stand' around which the Romans simply flowed.

Broch of Mousa (Source:See Note 2 )

Although the significant political struggle is taking place in the South, iron age culture continued to flourish in North Britain. Although the Broch of Mousa in Shetland dates from around a century before these events, it is the best preserved of the 571 or so identified broch structures in the far north of Scotland that were being built not only in the first century BC but in the first century AD. One might assume that instability had become endemic across the island but archaeologists seem to be increasingly dismissive of the idea that these structures were merely or even primarily defensive.

Note

[1] Source: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=4687 (Thorgrim)
[2] Source: http://www.walkshetland.com/mousa-circular.php