The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
at Rome during his absence to L. Vitellius, Claudius, with a large retinue, embarked for Massilia (about July), crossed Gaul and reached the Roman camp, probably somewhere near Londiniutn (London), before the end of the military season. A great battle was fought under the imperial auspices; the Britons were routed and Camalodunum, the capital of the Trinovantes, was taken. Claudius was saluted Imperator by the army more than once, although only a single assumption of the title in a single campaign was allowed by usage. He honored Camalodunum by a visit, and selected it to be the centre of the Romanization of Britain.
The Emperor remained only sixteen days in the island, and, leaving the consolidation and extension of the conquest, to his general, he reclosed the channel, spent the winter in Gaul, and reached Rome in the following spring (44 A.D.). His son-in-law Pompeius, and L. Silanus, who had attended him on his journey, were sent forward to announce the victory. The senate decreed to the conqueror of Britain the honor of a triumph, and the title Britannicus, which, however, he declined for himself but accepted for his infant son. They also decreed the erection of two triumphal arches, one in the Campus Martius, the other at Gesoriacum. In the inscription on the Roman arch, which has been partly preserved, Claudius boasts that he subdued eleven kings. The rejoicings were marked by the mimic representation in the Campus Martius of the siege of a British town and the submission of British chieftains. The part which the fleet had played in the expedition was afterwards celebrated by naval maneuvers at the mouth of the Padus. Claudius was not a little proud of having outdone his three predecessors by adding a province to the Empire, and the achievement seemed greater from the circumstance that the new province was beyond the ocean.
An important consequence of the conquest of Claudius was the decree of the senate that treaties made by Claudius or his legati should be valid, just, as if they had been made by the senate or the Roman people. This measure was intended to facilitate the reduction of the distant island.
SECT. II. — ADMINISTRATION AND EXTENSION OF THE PROVINCE
The true conqueror of Britain, was Aulus Plautius, and he remained there until 47 A.D., as legatus pro praetore of the new province. During these years the progress of the conquest went on, chiefly in the west and south. Vespasian and his brother Flavius Sabinus played a prominent part in breaking the resistance of the natives. Vespasian is said to have fought thirty battles during his command in Britain, and to have captured twenty places. One of his chief achievements was the reduction of Vectis, the Isle of Wight. The Romans must also have penetrated to the border of Somersetshire at this period; for there have been found in the Mendip Hills two pigs of lead, with the names of Claudius and his son, dating from the year 49 A.D.. In the east, the Iceni, a powerful tribe, who held the regions which, after the English conquest, became East Anglia, submitted to Roman overlordship. It may be said roughly, that a line drawn from Aquae Sulis (Ba'h) to Londinium, passing through Calleva (Silchester) and extended so as to take in Camalodunum, may roughly define the limits of Roman Britain, when Plautius was recalled. Plautius received the reward of an ovation,—a rare distinction under the Empire for anyone not belonging to the imperial family.
The successor of Plautius was P. Ostorius Scapula, and immediately on his arrival, towards the close of the season, he was called upon to subdue a rising of the Iceni. The Iceni were all the more formidable as their strength had not yet been weakened by war. They instigated the surrounding tribes to take up arms, and chose as a battlefield a place enclosed by a rude burrier, with a narrow approach and impenetrable to cavalry. Ostorius led the auxiliary troops without the strength of the legions—whose presence in other parts of the country was necessary—against these defenses, and attempted to break through them. He equipped the cavalry to do the duty of infantry, and succeeded in forcing the barriers. The rebels, finding escape impossible, fought desperately; and the general’s son, Marcus Ostorius, won the civic crown for saving a citizen’s life. Those tribes which were hesitating between war and peace were quieted by this defeat of the Iceni.
But the main work of Ostorius lay in the west. The peoples of the mountainous districts of Wales presented a stubborn resistance to the progress of Roman arms in that direction; and they were organized by the indomitable spirit of Caractacus, who, when his own people, the Trinovantes, were irretrievably overthrown, retreated to the west and there maintained with vigor and success the struggle for British independence. The remains of the British entrenchments in the counties which border on Wales, are probably a record of this struggle. Glevum (Gloucester) seems at this time to have become the headquarters of the IInd legion, and Ostorius probably drew a line of forts from this point across country to Camalodunum. Ostorius first attacked the Decangi, an obscure tribe, who dwelled probably in the neighborhood of Deva, (Chester), and then advanced into the hilly land of the Sihires, whose habitation corresponded to Hereford, Monmouth and South Wales. The position of Viroconium, (Wroxeter), was occupied as a stronghold against the Ordovices and became for some time the headquarters of the XIVth legion.
The Britons were far inferior in military strength, but Caractacus knew how to take advantage of the intricacies of the country. After a struggle of three years, he changed the scene of war from the land of the Silures northward to the territory of the Ordovices, and thus compelled the Roman army to retrace its steps under great difficulties (51 A.D.). He then resolved on bringing the war to a final issue. He chose a position for the battle, in which it would be easy for his own forces, and difficult for the Romans, either to advance or retreat; and piled up stone ramparts on some lofty hills wherever the slope was gentle enough to admit of an approach. A river lay in front of his position, and he drew up his men before the defenses. He made a stirring appeal to his followers to recover their freedom, and every warrior swore by the gods of his tribe to shrink neither from wounds nor weapons. The Roman general was somewhat daunted by the enthusiasm of the foe, the river in front of him, the frowning hills behind, but the soldiers insisted on accepting battle. Having made a careful survey of the assailable points in the enemy’s position, Ostorius led his troops across the river without difficulty, and attacked the barrier. As long as it was a fight with missiles, the Romans had the worst of it, but when the testudo was formed, and the soldiers advanced with locked shields, the rude fence was easily thrown down, and the barbarians were forced to retire up the heights. The Romans pursued them, and as the Britons had no defensive armor their ranks were soon broken. When they turned to oppose the light-armed auxiliaries, the legionaries hewed them down behind with swords and javelins; when they turned round to resist the legionaries, they were attacked by the spears and sabres of the auxiliaries. It was a great and decisive victory. The wife and daughter of Caractacus were immediately captured, his brothers surrendered, and he was soon afterwards taken prisoner through the treachery of Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, to whom he had fled for refuge, and was sent to Rome.
His fame was celebrated in Italy, and all were eager to see the hero who had defied the Roman power for nine years. The people of Rome were summoned as to a great spectacle; the praetorian cohorts were drawn up in front of their camp. A procession of the clients of the British prince defiled before the Emperor’s tribunal; the ornaments and chains of Caractacus and the spoils which he had won in war with other tribes were displayed. Then followed his brothers, his wife, and his daughter; last of all the warrior himself. While all the others were cowed into humility, Caractacus did not seek to move compassion either by word or look. Claudius pardoned him and his kinsfolk; and the captives, released from their chains, did homage to the Emperor and Agrippina, who sat on another throne beside him, although it was an unheard of thing that a woman should sit on the tribunal of the Imperator surrounded by the standards. After this solemnity the senate assembled and laudatory speeches were delivered on the capture of Caractacus, which was compared to the exhibition of Syphax by Scipio, or that of Perseus by Aemilius Paullus. Caractacus was retained, like the Suevian Maroboduus, in an honorable custody until his death. Ostorius received the triumphal ornaments.
This victory, although decisive, was by no means equivalent to the subjugation of western Britain. The quarters of the IInd legion were established further west, at Isca Silurum (Cairleon on the Usk, to be distinguished from Isca Dumnoniorum, Exeter), and it was exposed there to great dangers, sustaining several serious reverses. At the same time the great tribe of the Brigantes in the north, who held all the land north of the Trent at least as far as the Tyne, displayed signs of hostility to the Romans. Scapula did not long survive his victory. He died