| Caesar and Britain No 3. |
This quote is taken from C. Suetonus Tranquillus, The Lives of Twelve Caesars.
Caractacus presented himself with great dignity to the tribunal and the Emporer in Rome, and addressed himself in the following terms-
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"If to my high birth and distinguished rank I had added the virtues of moderation Rome had beheld me rather as a friend than a captive, and you would not have rejected an alliance with a prince descended from illustrious ancestors and governing many nations. The reverse of my fortune to you is glorious, and to me humiliating. I had arms, and men, and horses; I possessed extraordinary riches, and can it be any wonder that I was unwilling to lose them? Because Rome aspires to universal dominion must men therefore implicitly resign themselves to subjection? I apposed for a long time the progress of your arms, and had I acted otherwise would either of you have had the glory of conquest or I of a brave resistance? I am now in your power. If you are determined to take revenge my fate will soon be forgotten, and you derive no honour from the transaction. Preserve my life, and I shall remain to the latest ages a monument of your clemency" "Immediately upon this speech Claudius granted him his liberty, as he did likewise to the other royal captives. They all returned their thanks in a manner the most grateful to the Emporer; and as soon as their chains were taken off, walked towards Agrippina, who sat upon a bench at a little distance, they repeated to her the same fervant declaration of gratitude and esteem". |
According to Tacitus "In this year of A.D. 61 a severe disaster was sustained in Britain". Because The Isle of Mona (Anglesey) was the centre of Druid resistance, Suetonius, the new governor transferred the Roman army to Chester (Cheshire) and was prepared to attack "the populous of Mona" , which had become a refuge for fugitives, and he had built some flat-bottomed boats suitable for the shallow and shifting seas.
The infantry crossed in boats, whilst the cavalry went over by fords: where the water was too deep the men swam alongside of their horses. The enemy lined the shore, a dense army of well armed men, interspersed by women clad in black, with their hair hanging down and holding torches in their hands. Around this were the Druids uttering dire curses and stretching their hands towards heaven.
These strange sights terrified the soldiers. They stayed motionless, as if paralysed, offering their bodies to the blows. At last, encouraged by the general, and exhorting each other not to quail before the rabble of female fanatics, they advanced their standards, bore down all resistance, and enveloped their enemy in their own flames. Suetinus built a garrison there, which I will talk about in the next bulletin.
Continuing with the saga of occupied Britain, Suetonius built a garrison, cutting down the groves devoted to the Briton's superstitions; for it was part of the Britons religion to spill the blood of captives on their altars, and to inquire of the gods by means of human entrails, this dramatic scene on the frontiers of Wales was the prelude to a tragedy. The king of the East Anglian Iceni had died. Hoping to save his kingdom and family from molestation, he had appointed Nero, who had succeeded Claudius as Emporer, as heir jointly with his two daughters.
"But", says Tacitus; "things turned out differently. His kingdom was plundered by centurions, and his private property by slaves, as if they had been captured in war; his widow Boadicea was flogged, and his daughters outraged; the chiefs of the Iceni were robbed of their ancestral properties as if the Romans had received the country as a gift, and the kings own relatives were reduced to slavery". (These extracts were taken of Tacitus ANNULS and are from G.G.Ramsay's translation.)
Boadicea's tribe, once the most powerful and hitherto the most submissive, was moved to frenzy against the Roman intruders. They flew to arms. Boadicea found herself at the head of a numerous army, and nearly all the Britons within reach rallied to her aid. There followed an uprush of hatred, it was a scream of rage against invincible oppression and the superior culture which seemed to lend it power.
In Ranke's History of England, he had this to say-- "Boadicea is earnest, rugged, and terrible". There is a monument on the banks of the Thames, opposite Big Ben which reminds us of the harsh cry of "Liberty or Death" which has echoed down the ages.
In all Britain there were only four legions, at most twenty thousand men, the Fourteenth and Twentieth were with Suetonius on his Welsh campaign. The Ninth was at Lincoln, and the Second at Gloucester. Boadicea's first target was Camulodunum (Colchester), which was the centre of Roman authority and religion where the recently settled veterans, supported by soldiers, had been ejecting the inhabitants from their houses and driving them away from their lands.
The Britons were a superstious race and were encouraged by omens. The statue of the Roman Victory was toppled with its face to the floor as if in flight from the enemy. Roman officials, bankers, business men and the Briton collaborators who had participated in the profits of the Roman occupation, found themselves in the midst of the great hoard of barbarians, hell bent on destruction and revenge, how dare they come and dominate their country.
Suetonius was in Wales, very occupied by the troubles there, he was at least a month away when he heard of the uprising. The Ninth legion was 120 miles distant. There was neither mercy nor hope; the town was raised to ashes. The temple, whose strong walls resisted conflagration, held out for two days and everyone, Roman or Romanised, was massacred and everything destroyed.
Meanwhile the Ninth legion was marching to the rescue. The victorious Britons advanced from Camulodunum to meet them, and by sheer force of numbers they overcame the Roman infantry and slaughtered them to a man, and the commander, Petilius Cerialis, was content to escape with his cavalry mostly intact.