4. The Roman Conquest

The successful invasion was that of Claudius in 43 AD. This time the pretext was conveniently provided by Caratacus, king of the Catuvellauni tribe. Caratacus invaded the territories of the Atrebates, whose king, Verica, fled to Rome and appealed for help. Claudius was quite happy to respond. The invasion force, consisting of four legions plus auxiliaries, was led by Aulus Plautius. It was delayed by a mutiny of the troops, who were eventually persuaded to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world.

Landing at Richborough in Kent, the Romans defeated the Catuvellauni and their allies in two battles on the rivers Medway and Thames.

First a substantial British force met the Romans at a river crossing thought to be near Rochester on the River Medway. The battle raged for two days. At the beginning the Romans and Britons faced each other from the opposite sides of the riverbank. The Britons watched the Roman troops moving about on the other side, little knowing that while they watched eight cohorts of Batavian troops were slipping into the water unseen. The Batavians came out a little way from the British warriors and made their way to the back of their lines to where their chariots stood, they then began to disable the horses and the chariots thus taking away the backup of the British army. This put the Britons into total disarray and whilst they panicked two Roman legions successfully crossed the Medway and set up base on the British side. The Britons rushed at the legions and the battle carried on throughout the day, the Roman legions knowing that they had to stand firm until reinforcements arrived. At night more Romans crossed the river and the next day the fighting resumed with the Romans employing their tight group fighting tactics.

With superior armour, discipline and sheer numbers of men the Roman army were victorious and now had a large area of south-east Britain subdued, which they could now use as a base from which to launch further expeditions into Britain to prevent the possibility of the remaining tribes forming a larger fighting force and launching counter attacks.

The battle at Medway was one of the most significant battles in British history for it enabled the Romans to finally get the stronghold on Britain that they so desired. It gave them a base from which to plan and carry out the Romanisation of Britain and the expansion of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately the exact site of the battle at Medway has not been definitely identified. After the battle the troops returned to collect their dead and see that they were buried accordingly.

The British were pushed back to the Thames. The Romans pursued them across the river causing them to lose men in the marshes of Essex. Whether the Romans made use of an existing bridge for this purpose or built a temporary one is uncertain. At least one division of auxiliary Batavian troops swam across the river as a separate force.

Togodumnus, one of the Britons’ leaders died shortly after the battle on the Thames, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere.

Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, allowing the emperor to appear as conqueror. Claudius arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, and received the submission of twelve chieftains for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (now Colchester).

The future emperor Vespasian's 2nd Legion marched through Sussex and Hampshire, the lands of the Atrebates, who were friendly to Rome, meeting their first real opposition from the Durotriges tribe in Dorset. They overran the hill fort of Hod Hill, and in an unusual move, built their military camp in one corner of the enclosure, where it can be seen today. Then they pushed on to present day Exeter, capturing twenty hill forts in all.

A grim reminder of this invasion is still to be seen at Maiden Castle in Dorset, where the Romans left behind a war cemetery full of enemy remains. The Celtic inhabitants had attempted to defend the fort with the aid of some 54,000 sling stones brought up from Chesil Beach, but this primitive artillery was no match for the discipline and experience of the Roman legions. As a result, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside the area under direct Roman control.

The plan at first was to limit the conquest to the lowlands of modern England, so a border was established by 47 A.D. along the route of the Fosse Way, the great Roman road running from Exeter to Lincoln. It was a reasonable decision, but the Romans weren't through dealing with their old friend Caratacus, who had fled to Wales. With the help of the Silures in the south-east and the Ordovices in the north, Caratacus made life on the frontier unpleasant. The Romans had little choice but to deal with the troublesome tribes. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. Caratacus and his warriors were defeated in a battle near Snowdonia in 51 A.D., and Caratacus himself fled north to the territory of the Brigantes. The Brigantian Queen, Cartimandua, hopeful of staying on good terms with the Romans and keeping her own territories in the bargain, promptly handed him over to the invaders. He was sent to Rome and publicly displayed as a prisoner. There he is said to have uttered the lines, "Why do you, with all these grand possessions, still covet our poor huts?" A dignified speech he made during Claudius' triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. However, the Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius stepped into Caratacus's shoes as the most prominent leader of British resistance.

In 61, while governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning in Wales, the south-east rose in revolt under Boudica, queen of the Iceni (territory of modern Norfolk), provoked by the seizure of the tribe's lands and the brutal treatment of the queen and her daughters. Amazingly, she persuaded the Trinovantes – the tribe that occupied modern Essex and south Suffolk and who traditionally had been the Iceni's enemies – to join her cause and march with the Iceni. The joint forces destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum and routed the legion that was sent to relieve it. Suetonius Paulinus rode to Londinium, the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (now St.Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Suetonius regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Romans killed not only the warriors but also the women, children and even pack animals. Boudica is said by Tacitus to have poisoned herself not long afterwards. The revolt had almost persuaded the emperor Nero to withdraw from Britain altogether.

However, following the successful suppression of Boudica, the Romans continued the conquest by edging north and west. They suppressed the rebellions of local chieftains, employing tactics of terrorising each local tribe before offering terms. In 79 AD the Romans occupied the whole of Wales, where they built roads and forts, mined gold and conducted commerce, but their interest in the area was limited because of the difficult geography and shortage of flat agricultural land. Most of the Roman remains in Wales are military in nature. The area was controlled message by legionary bases at Deva (Chester) and Isca Silurum (Caerleon), with roads linking these bases to auxiliary forts such as Segontium (Caernarfon) and Maridunum (Carmarthen). Romans are only known to have established one town in Wales, Caerwent (Venta Silurum). They also began the construction of a fortress at Inchtuthil which would have been the largest in the Roman world at the time if completed.

The Romans could not conquer "Caledonia", as they called Scotland, although they spent over a century trying to do so. At last they built a strong wall along the northern border, named after the Emperor Hadrian who planned it. Construction probably started in 122 and was largely completed within ten years, with soldiers from all three of the occupying Roman legions participating in the work. At the time, Hadrian's Wall was simply intended to keep out raiders from the north. But it also marked the border between the two later countries, England and Scotland. Eventually, the border was established a few miles further north. An attempt was made to push this line north to the River Clyde-River Forth area in 142 when the Antonine Wall was constructed. However, this was once again abandoned after two decades and only subsequently re-occupied on an occasional basis. Roman troops, however, penetrated far into the north of modern Scotland several more times. Certainly, in 180 Hadrian's Wall was breached and barbarians had killed the commanding officer or governor there in what Dio Cassius described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus.

The degree to which the Romans interacted with the island of Hibernia (now Ireland) is still unresolved amongst archaeologists in Ireland.

As for the next 2 centuries, the 3^rd and the 4^th, there was little stability both in Rome and in its provinces, including Britannia. The Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders, now and then experiencing some periods of peace and loyalty to this or that new emperor.