The Roman Conquest of Britain, part one
—Chrissie
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By the middle of the first century BCE, Rome had made itself felt throughout the Mediterranean and in much of Europe, but the island of Britian remained out of reach. Julius Caesar, while he was conquering Gaul, twice crossed the Channel to expand Rome’s reach, but was not terribly successful. In the late summer of 55 BCE, Caesar set out with two legions, with a contingent of cavalry set to follow. They were unable to land in the planned location because a massive force of Britons was waiting on the shore. The ships sailed to a secondary landing point, but the opposing force kept pace with them on the coast, forcing the Romans to wade to shore and fight on the beach.
Once the Romans were able to put together a battle line, the Britons left. Caesar set up a camp and received some ambassadors from the local tribes, but any Romans who ventured outside the camp were attacked. Caesar’s calvary never made it to shore due to storms, some were shipwrecked and the others turned back. Once he knew this, Ceasar decided it wasn’t worth staying; without the cavalry and provisions their ships carried, the Romans would have a very difficult time getting through even a mild winter. He packed up and returned to Gaul. Though this could hardly be called a successful invasion, the attempt was a feat in itself and provided information for future forays across the Channel.
Caesar planned a second invasion for the next year, with a larger force of five legions and two thousand cavalry on five hundred ships and regularly scheduled shipments of food and supplies planned. Just as the previous year, the Britons were waiting where Caesar planned to land, but were put off by the larger force and withdrew. As the Romans pushed inland, the Britons came together under the warlord Cassivellaunus. Knowing his forces would be defeated in a pitched battle, he directed his men to use guerrilla tactics to harass the invaders while preparing to stand against them at the Thames River. When Caesar’s forces arrived, they found it fortified with sharpened stakes hidden underwater and visible on the opposite shore, with a large force of Britons on the shore behind them. The Romans were able to push through, however, using their archers against those on the riverbank.
Once set up on the other side of the river, Caesar allied the Trinovantes, who had recently lost territory to Cassivellaunus. From them, and other local tribes, he got the location of Cassivellaunus’ fort and they laid siege. Cassivellaunus tried to bring in outside allies to distract Caesar, but their attempts failed, forcing the Britons to surrender. Caesar left with some hostages and agreements for tribute. The invasion was considered a success, Caesar extracted tribute and agreements, but left no Roman soldiers to assure these. The intention was not conquest, but to introduce the Britons to their future rulers. At the end of the season, Caesar returned to Gaul, and Britain was mostly forgotten for nearly a century. Rome was far too self-involved with civil wars and the maintaining what it already had for any new conquests. And, as Robert Graves put it, “there’s very little of value there, and the people make very poor slaves.” It was not until Roman politics cooled and the Empire was well-established that Britain was considered for any new military actions.
By the beginning of the 40s CE, the balance of power among the British tribes had changed: the Trinovantes had been displaced by the Catuvellauni, led by Caratacus. Another Roman-allied tribe, the Atrebates, was also pushed out of their territory by Caratacus. Their king, Verica, was exiled and so found his way to Rome. This created an opportunity for Rome to reassert its presence on the pretense of returning Verica to power. The action might have begun under Caligula, had had not gotten into an argument with Neptune at the Channel and turned his forces around after collecting pretty seashells and stones as the spoils of war. Despite this strange ending to his campaign, the preparations made by Caligula’s engineers and plans drawn up by generals set the stage for the invasion by Claudius in 43.
While Claudius led the invasion, he had not spent any time in the military due to his disabilities, so command was given to Aulus Plautius. The legions made generally short work of the British tribes under Togodumnus and Caratacus, though a large battle at the Medway River allowed General Gnaeus Hosidius Geta to earn a triumph for his bravery and leadership. By the end of the summer, Togodomnus was dead and the Britons were near surrender. Plautius summoned the Emperor Claudius so that he could lead the final battle. Claudius accepted the surrender of eleven tribes, then returned to Rome. Base camps were made at Camulodunum (modern Colchester) and Londinium (modern London) from which the Romans organized the new province. Caratacus had escaped, and rallied resistance, but was finally defeated by Governor Publius Ostorious Scapula in 50. He was brought to Rome to be displayed and executed in a triumph, but was pardoned after an impassioned speech to the Senate and Claudius, in which he defined Rome’s glory as necessarily being all the greater for having defeated a general as skilled as himself.