THE APOSTLE PAUL IN BRITAIN #2
HISTORIC POSITIONS OF BRITAIN AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
JULIUS CAESAR, in justification of his invasion of Britain,
alleges the Britons to have been the aggressors, British levies
taking the field against him in every Gallic campaign. Those
singular collections of cardinal events known as the "Triads of
the Isle of Britain," corroborate the statement. Prior to
Caesar's campaigns in Northern Gaul, a British army of 50,000
men, termed in these Triads the "second silver host," under the
command of the two nephews of Cassibelaunus, or Caswallon,
invaded Aquitania, routed the Roman proconsul, Lucius Valerius
Praeconinus, at Tolosa, and compelled Lucius Manilius, the
consul, to fly with the loss of all his commissariat. On
receiving intelligence of these reverses, Caesar turned his arms
against the Veneti (Vendeans), who carried on a flourishing
commerce with Britain, and whose navy supplied the transport for
these auxiliaries. As long as the Venetine fleet, which from
Caesar's description of it would do no discredit to our present
state of nautical architecture, remained mistress of the narrow
seas, invasion was impracticable. Upon its destruction, Caesar
advanced by slow marches to Portius Iccius (Witsand), near
Calais, and on the 5th of August, B.C.55, the Roman fleet crossed
the Channel in two divisions. This first campaign lasted
fiftyfive days, during which Caesar failed to advance beyond
seven miles from the spot of disembarkation, lost one battle, and
had his camp attempted by the victorious enemy, a thing
unprecedented in his continental career. 1
The second expedition embarked in above a thousand ships,
and carrying the army which afterwards completed
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I Dion Cassius states that Caesar's original intention was to
carry the war into the interior, but finding his forces
inadequate to cope with the British in the field, he abruptly
determined to close the campaign. (Lib. xxxix. p. 115, ed. 1606,
fol.)
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the conquest of the world on the fields of Pharsalia and Munda,
set sail from Witsand May 10, B.C.54. The campaign lasted till
September 10, when peace was concluded at Gwerddlan (Verulam, or
St. Albans), the furthest point (70 miles) from the coast Caesar
had been able to attain. The conditions are not particularized in
either the Triads or Commentaries. Hostages and a tribute are
mentioned by Caesar, but it is certain from numerous passages in
the Augustan authors that no Briton of eminence left the island a
hostage or prisoner. On the conclusion of the treaty, Caesar
moved from Verulam to London, where he was entertained at the
Bryn Gwyn (white mount 2) by Cassibelaunus, the British
pendragon,
or military dictator, with a magnificence which appears to have
found great favour in the eyes of the ancient Bards, who record
it with great exactness. Leaving not a Roman soldier behind,
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2 The old belief that part of the Tower of London was built by
Julius Caesar is known to every one; and the White Tower was
pointed out as the part. "The White Tower" appears a version of
the original British name Bryn Gwyn, but whether Caesar was
lodged therein, or laid its foundation-stone, or was never at all
entertained in London, there seems to us to be so much good sense
in the sentiments put by Shakespeare on this point in the mouth
of the young king Edward V, that we make no apology for
transcribing them:--
"Prince Edward. Did Julius Caesar build the Tower, my lord?
Gloucester. He did, my gracious liege, begin that place; which
since succeeding ages have re-edified.
Pr. Ed, Is it upon record, or else reported Successively from age
to age he built it?
Glo. Upon record, my gracious lord.
Pr. Ed. But say, my lord, it were not registered; Methinks the
truth should live from age to age, As 'twere entailed to all
posterity,
Even to the general all-ending day.
Glo. So wise, so young!
I say, without characters, fame lives long."
King Richard 111, act. iii, sc. 1.
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Caesar disembarked his forces at Rutupium, at ten at night, and
arrived at Witsand by daybreak the next morning, September 20,
B.C.54.
The tests of the success or non-success of a campaign are
its effects. The effects of the second Julian invasion
demonstrate that both at Rome and in Gaul it was considered a
more serious failure than the first. The line quoted by Lucan---
"Territa qucesitis ostendit terga Britannus 3"---
as a common sarcasm in the mouths of the Pompeian party against
Caesar, may be thrown aside as the invidious exaggeration of the
defeat on the Darent, and the loss of his sword to Nennius, the
brother of Caswallon; but it is undeniable that the invasion cost
Caesar for a time the loss of all his continental acquisitions.
Before he could dispose of his troops in winter quarters, the
Treviro, Eburones, Senones, and Sicambri rose in arms, and the
work of Gallic conquest had to be re-enacted.
To estimate aright the military abilities of Caswallon, and
the resources of the British people at this period of the first
collision of our island with the continent, it should be borne in
mind that they were engaged against perhaps the ablest general of
antiquity, heading an army to which, either before or after the
invasion, France, Spain, Western Germany, Africa, Egypt, Asia,
and finally Rome itself succumbed; the conquerors, in fact, of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the real founders of the imperial
dynasty of the Caesars. The double repulsion of the Julian
expedition by the ancient Britons has never received due weight
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3 Aulus Gellius wrote an account of Caesar's invasion of Britain.
He commemorates a British cry which seems to have produced a very
lively impression on the Roman mind "Horribilis ille Britannorum
clamor, Tori pen i Caisar" ('Off with Caesar's head').
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or consideration. It yet remains unparalleled in British history.
BARBARISM is a very indefinite term. To the Greeks and Romans all
other nations were in common parlance "barbarians," by which
was meant no more than "foreigners." If popular amusements are to
be taken as the test, the Romans were themselves the most
barbarous of the nations of Europe. The Coliseum is the gigantic
evidence of the race of human evolves which they not unaptly
considered themselves to be. When the brutal sports of the
gladiators were proposed to be introduced at Athens, even the
Cynic philosopher cried out, "We must first pull down the statue
to Mercy which our forefathers erected fifteen hundred years
ago." A similar gulf separated the British from the Roman
temper, and the accounts of the latter people with regard to the
former must be received with much the same caution as those of
the modern enemies of the same reserved and incommunicative
insular race. Boadicea, in her oration as given by Dion Cassius,
observes, that though Britain had been for a century open to the
continent, yet its language, philosophy, and usages continued as
great a mystery as ever to the Romans themselves; and the same
remark, with little modification, applies still. All the
evidences supplied by Caesar refute the notion of material
barbarism. Agriculture was universal, corn everywhere abundant,
pasturage a distinct branch of national wealth, the population so
thick as to excite his astonishment - "infinity multitudo
hominum" - the surest and most satisfactory proof of a sound
social state and ample means of sustenance. 4
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4 "Hominum infinita multitudo" is Caesar's expression. Diodorus
calls Britain (Greek). In A.D.110. Ptolemy enumerates fifty-six
cities; later, Marcianus fifty-nine. British architects were in
great demand on the Continent. "Redundabat Britannia
artificibus," states Eumenius in his era.
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The points which appear to have originated the idea of
barbarism connected in some minds with the ancient Britons are,
that they stripped to fight, which every Briton, every British
schoolboy continues to do, and no other nation does: and,
secondly, that they tattooed their bodies with various devices in
deep blue lines, a practice which the British sailor cherishes in
all its original freedom, and from which probably he will never
be weaned, for these immemorial usages seemed rooted in something
mach deeper than taste or imitation. Our soldiers also still
retain the propensity of getting rid of every accoutrement and
incumbrance in battle, and of charging as naked as military
regulations will allow them. Yet it would be ridiculous to term
our sailors and soldiers barbarians in the modern sense of the
word because they continue in these respects to be "true blue
ancient Briton." In all the solid essentials of humanity our
British ancestors will compare to great advantage with the best
eras of Greece or Rome. In war the Briton, after the Julian
invasions, walked the streets of Rome the only freeman in Europe,
pointed at as the exception to the world:---
"Invictus Romano Marte Britannus." 5
For ninety-seven years no Roman again ventured to set
hostile foot on the island, and when the eagle of Romulus once
more expanded its pinions to the stormy winds of
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5 Tibullus. Horace implies that the Briton had scarcely been
touched by Caesar's campaigns:--
"Intactus aut Britannus ut descenderet Sacra catenatus via."
In another ode he writes that nothing but the conquest of
Britain was wanting to make Augustus "presens divus in terris,"
Od. lib. iii. 5.
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ocean, it was when no other enemy, unconquered, confronted its
gaze from the Euphrates to Gibraltar, and the forces of the whole
empire were ready to follow its leading against the solitary free
nationality of the West.
Caswallon, the able antagonist of Caesar, reigned after the
invasion seven years. Augustus Caesar succeeded Julius B.C.30.
Henceforth Rome is to be regarded as the unity of the continent
of Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia, in action from a central
court under a series of autocrats rarely swerving from the
imperial policy laid down by the Julian family. Augustus sent
ambassadors to Britain demanding the restoration of the three
Reguli of the Contani, or Coraniaid, Dumno, Belaunus, and
Jernian, to their estates, confiscated for treason. Tenuantius,
the son of Caswallon, a mild, pacific monarch, had sent his two
sons, Cynvelin and Llyr (Lear) to be educated at Rome, where
they were brought up with his nephews in his palace by Augustus
himself, who made a rule, as Suetonius informs us, of teaching
the younger branches of his family in person. Cynvelin
subsequently served in the German campaigns under Germanicus. He
had now succeeded his father, and received the Roman ambassadors
with courtesy, but peremptorily rejected the interference of a
foreign potentate in the affairs of the island. Augustus moved
half the disposable forces of the empire to the Gallic harbours
on the Channel, but he never entertained serious intentions of an
invasion. Cynvelin concentrated his army at Dover, A British
fleet, as we learn from Dion Cassius, swept the Channel. The
preparations of Augustus, tardily urged, indicated that
prudential motives had already superseded the suggestions of
pride. He had never conducted his campaigns in person, and where
the genius of Julius had been baffled, inferior skill was likely
to incur nought but disgrace and disaster. A reverse, as Horace
had the courage to warn him (Ode 35, lib. v.), would be followed
by a rising of the oligarchic faction in Italy. Cynvelin was not
slow to take advantage of this reluctancy. A conference with the
imperial friend and tutor of his youth was solicited.
The result was the triumph of British diplomacy, a much
rarer success than that of the British arms. Not only did the
emperor abandon his demands, but the heavy duties previously
levied on British goods were reduced to a very light tariff
(Strabo, lib. iv. c. 5). Friendly relations were restored.
British nobles again took up their residence at Rome, and were to
be seen dedicating their offerings at the shrines of the Capitol.
Cymbeline, or Cynvelin, after a reign of thirty-five years,
was succeeded by his eldest son Cuiderius (Gwyddyr), his younger,
Arviragus (Gweyrydd), receiving the dukedom of Cornwall (Cernyw),
which by the British laws was a dukedom royal. The numerous coins
of Cynvelin (Cunobelinus) which remain in our days, are the only
monuments we possess of a national mint in Western Europe apart
from that of Rome. The horse, sometimes thought to be introduced
as a national emblem by the Saxons, is one of the most common
types upon them, Britain being long before the reign of Cymbeline
famous for its breed of steeds, and the daring and accomp-
lishments of its charioteers.
We now enter the times contemporary with St. Paul. As the
central figure in the group of the historic characters we are
about to portray is Caradoc, king of Siluria, we are called upon
to notice somewhat at large his birth and character. 6
It is a matter of wander and indignation how few
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6 The accent in the British language is invariably on the penult
--Caradoc, Cynvelin, Taliesin, Llewelyn, &c.; The Romans latinized
Caradoc by Caractacus, the Greeks hellenized it more correctly by
Caratacos.
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patriotic heroes the long annals of history present to our view.
One in a century is not to be found. Turning over the pages which
record the aggressions of the Romans on various nations, we
inquire in vain for the most part for heroes to confront them.
When we have named a Viriathus for Spain, a Hannibal for
Carthage, an Arminius or Herman for Germany, a Mithridates for
Asia, we have exhausted the catalogue of three continents.
Britain is here also an exception to the world, for it shews an
almost uninterrupted succession of patriots of the highest order,
from Caswallon and Caradoc, through the Arthurs and Cadwallos, to
the Wallaces and Glyndores of the Norman period. Nor have we any
wars on record so long and stubborn as those which were waged,
first between the Britons and the Romans, and secondly between
the same Britons and the Saxons with other Teuton tribes, after
the fall of the great empire. But Caradoc stands forth
pre-eminently as the ideal of what a patriot in the field should
be. With Arminius the last spark of liberty had expired on the
Continent. Northern Africa had finally been incorporated, by the
arms of Suetonius, Paulinus, and Cneius Geta, into the Roman
empire. Gaul, Spain, Southern Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, and
Asia as far as the Euphrates enjoyed profound peace and no small
amount of material prosperity under the enormous shadow of the
Roman Capitol. The Caesars were seated, firm as the seven hills
themselves, on the throne. East and west, north and south, there
was no enemy to be encountered; all was subjection and repose.
The formidable armies of the imperial state hung up their shields
for lack of a foe, or were employed in the formation of the
numerous military roads which radiated like a network from Rome
to Finisterre and Calais westward, and to the shores of the
Persian Gulf eastward. It was in truth the grandest and most
magnificent of empires, the extent of which, though embracing
1,600,000 sq. miles, and a population of 120,000,000 of Caucasian
or semi-Caucasian blood, was its least glory. Nothing has risen
like it since. Its mere fragments have sufficed for modern
kingdoms. Countries ruled by proconsuls now term their rulers
emperors. Fertile and well-cultivated, not only were these
countries situated in the healthiest part of the temperate zone,
but they teemed with all the materials of the finest soldiery,
with all the resources of inexhaustible physical wealth. "Urbs
Roma orbs humana" was no unfounded boast, for within the
circumference of the empire were contained almost every land and
race that had contributed to the civilization and progress of
humanity. All the appliances of this vast unity of law and arms
were at the command of one despot, and were now about to be moved
towards the northern harbours of Gaul for the invasion of the
only unconquered land of the ancient civilization.
One army and one general constituted the force which
Caswallon was called upon to resist; but Caradoc was summoned by
the voice of his country to take the field against an empire
pouring forth a succession of armies in the highest state of
discipline, under a succession of able and experienced
commanders. This is the first time Britain was matched against
the world in arms, and right nobly did the little island acquit
herself.
Bran, or Brennus, the father of Caradoc, was the son of
Llyr, brother of Cynvelin, surnamed Llyr Llediaith, from the
foreign accent imparted to the pronunciation of his native tongue
by his education under Augustus at Rome. During threatened
invasion of Augustus he commanded the British fleet in the
Channel. Augustus was succeeded by Tiberius Claudius Caesar, and
Tiberius by Caligula, A.D.37, a year marked by the births of
Nero, Josephus the Jewish historian, and Julius Agricola, the
future commander of the Roman forces in Britain. The tranquility
pervading. The empire instigated Caligula to renew the attempts
at a conquest which the first and second Caesars had either
failed to achieve, or prudently bequeathed to their successors.
The character, however, of this emperor, compounded of mania and
vice, left a memorable stamp of ridicule upon the whole
expedition. The armies of Gaul and the Rhine rendezvoused
at Boulogne. A Roman flotilla collected from the Spanish ports
was moored, ostensibly prepared to embark the troops, in the
Seine. The appearance, however, of a British fleet under
Arviragus disconcerted and put an abrupt end to the enterprize,
if indeed it was ever seriously meditated. Caligula, who felt a
morbid gratification in burlesqueing the most momentous measures
of state, and scandalizing his subjects by the maddest freaks of
imperial caprice, held a grand review of his splendid
expeditionary force on the sands at Boulogne. At its termination,
ascending the tribunal, he expiated on the glory which already
encircled his brow as one who had led his troops like Bacchus,
Hercules, and Sesostris, to the confines of the earth-surrounding
ocean. He asked if such renown ought to be jeopardized by an
armed exploration of an island which nature itself had removed
beyond the power and jurisdiction of the gods of Rome, and which
the campaigns of the deified Caesar himself had only succeeded in
pointing out to the wonder of the continental world. "Let us, my
comrades," he continued, adopting the well known phrase of the
great Julius (commilitones), "leave these Britons unmolested. To
war beyond the bounds of nature is not courage, but impiety. Let
us rather load ourselves with the bloodless spoils of the
Atlantic ocean which the same beneficient goddess of nature pours
on these sands so lavishly at our feet. Follow the example of
your emperor-behold," he added, suiting the action to the word,
"I wreathe for laurel this garland of green sea-weed around my
immortal brow, and for spolia optima I fill my helm with these
smooth and brilliant shells. Decorated with these we will return
to Rome, and, instead of a British king, Neptune and Nereus, the
gods of ocean themselves, shall follow captives to the Capitol
behind our triumphal car. To each of you, my fellow soldiers in
this arduous enterprize, I promise a gratuity of a year's extra
stipend in merited acknowledgment of your services and fidelity
to your emperor."
This singular harangue, which we are tempted to regard as
the practical sarcasm of a despot not altogether insane on the
ambition of the whole race of conquerors, was welcomed with
thunders of acclamation. The projected expedition had been from
the first viewed with extreme distaste by the soldiery, and
despite the indignation openly expressed by the officers, they
did not hesitate to give vent to their satisfaction, and, with
military jests and peals of laughter, imitate the example of
their imperial master. The British fleet gazed with astonishment
on these bronzed and mail-clad veterans disporting themselves in
the childish amusement of collecting shells on the seashore. The
camp was broken up, and Caligula entered Rome in triumphal
procession, with his army, on his birthday, August 31, A.D.40.
He was assassinated next year, in the 29th year of his age
(January 24th), and succeeded by Claudius, then in his 50th year.
The father of Tiberius Claudius Caesar was Drusus
Claudius Nero, elevated first to the quaestorship, then to the
praemtorship, subsequently appointed to conduct the Rhaetian and
German campaigns. He was the first Roman commander that navigated
in force the German Ocean. He carried his arms to the centre of
Germany, and is stated by Suetonius to have been deterred from
further advance by the sudden apparition on his march of a female
of more than mortal stature and beauty, bidding him halt the
Roman banners where she appeared. He died suddenly, not without
suspicion of foul play, in the Castra AEstiva, thence called
Scelerata, whilst preparing to extend his conquests in another
direction. His body was conveyed from town to town, and
buried with state honours, Augustus himself pronouncing the
funeral panegyric, in the Campus Martius at Rome. Nearly
connected as he was with the Caesars, Drusus remained to the last
a stern republican. He left three children, Germanicus, Livilla,
and Claudius; the last born at Lyons. The infancy, childhood, and
youth of the future emperor were spent under the strictest state
of surveillance. He was regarded as but one remove from an idiot.
"He is as imbecile as my son Claudius" was an ordinary phrase in
his mother Livia's mouth when she wished to imply an
extraordinary degree of stupidity. His appearance did not belie
his character. Tall and full in person, and possessed, when
seated, of the external show of dignity, in motion his knees
shook, his head perpetually trembled, his tongue stuttered, his
laughter was outrageously violent, and his anger marked by
profuse foaming at the mouth. Cruel and bloodthirsty by nature,
as indeed every Roman was, he insisted on being present whenever
any criminal was put to the torture. He never failed to give the
sign of "no quarter" against disabled gladiators, and delighted
with a horrible voracity to gloat over the dying expression of
their faces. He sat from morning to night, neglecting the
ordinary hours of refreshment, at the bestiaria, or combats of
wild beasts, and yet personally was the rankest and most
contemptible of cowards. He never attended an invitation except
surrounded by guards, who searched every guest before he entered
the apartment, a precaution exercised on every citizen who
accosted him. In many points there exists a strong resemblance
between Claudius and our James the First - both were addicted to
the lowest companions and buffoonery, both were poltroons, both
coarse gourmands, and both were pedants of the deepest dye. Yet
it must be confessed that the loss of the work of Claudius on the
Races and Antiquities of Primitive Italy is one that can never be
replaced, the few fragments we possess evincing it to have been a
mine of undigested, but very valuable and authentic matter.
Let us with the Roman emperor contrast the British patriot.
Caractacus was born at Trevran, the seat of his father Bran,
within the present parish of Llanilid, in Glamorganshire. He
received his education at the Druidic cor of Caerleon-on-Usk,
where most of the Silurian nobility were trained in the cycle of
Celtic accomplishments. Of these, oratory was one of the chief,
and we possess in the speech of the British king before Claudius
a fair specimen of the bold, free, terse style inculcated in
these ancient national colleges. Allusion is made in it to a long
line of illustrious ancestors - "clari majores." It sounds
strange to persons accustomed to think a Norman pedigree, dating
from A.D.1066, ancient, to hear this British king, a thousand
years before, face to face with a Roman emperor, and in the heart
of the Capitol deliver himself proudly of a royal lineage, the
fount of which, like that of the Nile, was lost in its very
remoteness.
In the clan times, however, the preservation of a pedigree
meant the preservation of all that was valuable in blood,
station, and property. Without it a man was an outlaw; he had no
clan, consequently no legal rights or status. Genealogies were
guarded, therefore, with extreme jealousy, and recorded with
painful exactitude by the herald-bards of each clan. On the
public reception, at the age of fifteen, of a child into the
clan, his family genealogy was proclaimed, and all challengers of
it commanded to come forward. Pedigree and inheritance, indeed,
were so identified in the ancient British code, that an heir even
in the ninth descent could redeem at a jury valuation any portion
of an hereditary estate from which necessity had compelled his
forefathers to part. As the succession of these clari majores may
be interesting to the antiquary, we extract it from the
Pantliwydd Manuscripts of Llansannor:
"Genealogy of Caradoc. Caradoc ab Bran Fendigaid, ab Llyr
Llediaith, ab Baran, ab Ceri Hirlyn Gwyn, ab Caid, ab Arch, ab
Meirion, ab Ceraint, ab Greidiol, ab Dingad, ab Anyn, ab Alafon,
ab Brywlais, ab Ceraint Feddw, ab Berwyn, ab Morgan, ab Bleddyn,
ab Rhun, ab Idwal, ab Llywarch, ab Calchwynydd, ab Enir Fardd, ab
Ithel, ab Llarian, ab Teuged, ab Llyfeinydd, ab Peredur, ab
Gweyrydd, ab Ithon, ab Cymryw, ab Brwt, ab Selys Hen, ab Annyn
Tro, ab Brydain, ab Aedd Mawr."
Reckoning thirty years for a generation, this pedigree
carries us back 1,080 years, that is, 330 years before the
foundation of Rome. Not all of these ancestors have escaped the
reprobation of the blunt Bardic chroniclersone of them
especially, Ceraint Feddw, is stigmatized as an irreclaimable
drunkard, deposed by his subjects for setting fire just before
harvest to the corn lands of Siluria. In the year A.D.36, Bran
resigned the Silurian crown to Caradoc, and became Arch-Druid of
the college of Siluria, where he remained till called upon to be
a hostage for his son. At the period of his accession Caradoc had
three sons, Cyllin or Cyllinus, Lleyn or Linus, and Cynon, and
two daughters, Eurgain and Gladys, or Claudia.
In July, A.D.42, a British embassy arrived at Rome from
Guiderius, complaining of the encouragement extended by the
Emperor to the intrigues of Beric and Adminius, two reguli of the
Brigantes and Coritani, who, in consequence of being detected in
a treasonable correspondence with Caligula during the late
menaced invasion, had been banished by Britain. Claudius had
powerful reasons for temper, Plautius embarked the army in three
divisions, and landed two days afterwards at Rutupium, or Ynys
Ruthin, between Thanet and Richborough.
From Dover to Holyhead ran the British causeway, constructed
by Dyfnwal and his son, Beli the Great, B.C.400, called Sarn
Wyddelin, or the Irish Road, Wyddelin being the British term for
'Irish.' The corruption into Watling Street is not great. Along
the Sarn Wyddelin Caesar had directed his march, and Plautius
moved his forces on the same line. He found the British army
drawn up under Guiderius and Caradoc at Southfleet, across the
Sarn on the flat between the Kentish hills and the Thames. The
action terminated in the Britons falling back to Wimbledon Heath,
where a second battle was fought, in which Guiderius fell. He was
succeeded on the throne by his brother Arviragus, but the
national emergency requiring the establishment of the
pendragonate, or military dictatorship, Caradoc was unanimously
elected to that high office, Arviragus giving his vote first in
his favour, and consenting to act under him.
Caradoc withdrew his forces across the Thames at Chertsey,
Plautius following along the Sarn, now called "The Devil's
Causeway." In attempting to force the passage of the Thames at
Kingston, the Roman general was thrice foiled. He then proceeded
to Silchester, by means of his German cavalry defeated a British
division at Nettlebed, in Oxfordshire, and returning by a forced
march to Wallingford, crossed the Thames there, after a desperate
resistance. Dion Cassius, the Greek historian, gives a vivid
description of the action. The Romans, led by Plautius, Flavius
Vespasian, the future emperor, and his brother, entered the river
in three columns, whilst the German cavalry swam it lower down,
and assailed the British position in flank. But the British
stupidity, which never knows when it is beaten, appears to be of
very old date. Dion states the contest continued with slight
intermissions for two whole days on the northern side, and that
the defeat of Caradoc was eventually effected by a daring
manoevre on his flank and rear made by Cneius Geta, the
conqueror of Mauritania, who was rewarded for it, though he had
not yet attained the consular dignity, with the honours of a
triumph. It tells well for the abilities of Caradoc that in this
first battle as pendragon he was able to hold his ground for two
days of incessant fighting against three such generals as
Plautius, Vespasian, and Geta. Undismayed, he collected his
forces again, and Plautius, on attempting to follow him, was so
roughly handled that messages were sent to Rome for instructions
and reinforcements. Claudius himself immediately quitted Rome,
and passing through Gaul, landed at Richborough, with the second
and fourteenth legions, their auxiliaries, and a cohors of
elephants brought over for the express purpose of neutralizing
the British chariot-charges. He effected a junction with Plautius
at Verulam. Beric and Adminius had accompanied him, and, as had
been previously arranged, the two states of the Iceni and
Coritani, or Coraniaid, on their making their appearance among
them, rose in arms and proclaimed their alliance with the
invaders, Caradoc had thus the Romans in front and an insurgent
country in the rear. Dion terms Caer Col, or Colchester, the
basileion or royal residence of Cynvelin. It was known at this
period as Comulodunum, the city of Camul, an Umbric or Cymric
term for the God of War. 7 In its defence Caradoc fought two more
battles - the first at Coxall Knolls, and the second at Brandon
camp, on the Teme. In this latter the horses of the British
chariots, the odour of elephants being insupportable to this
animal, gave way in all directions, and Caradoc suffered his
first decisive defeat. Col-
.......
7 "Camulo Deo Sancto et Fortissimo."---Umbrian altar inscription.
......
chester in a few days surrendered. A treaty was concluded, known
as the Claudian treaty, by which it was stipulated that the
Coranidae and Iceni, on the payment of a certain amount of
tribute, should, under the Roman protectorate, be guaranteed
their land, laws, and native government. Claudius is said to have
promised also his natural daughter, Venus Julia, called in the
British accounts Venissa, to Arviragus. The alliance in after
years took place, and Arviragus built Caer Gloyw, or Gloucester,
in honour of his imperial father-in-law. Claudius left the
further prosecution of the war to his generals, and, returning to
Rome, celebrated his triumph with signal magnificence - the more
impressive from the humility displayed by himself in ascending
the steps of the Capitol on his knees, supported on either side
by his sons-in-law. But the war had in reality only just begun.
Caradoc, having carried fire and sword through the
territories of the revolted tribes, transferred hostilities from
the champaigns of the eastern counties to the hilly districts of
the southwest. Here he proceeded to levy and arm fresh forces. It
is instructive to study the movements on both sides, for never
was war carried on with greater energy and laboriousness.
Plautius marched against the pendragon by land, whilst Vespasian
was dispatched with the Roman fleet to effect a landing at
Torbay. Geta was left at Colchester, his legions commencing the
construction of that celebrated line of fortresses which extended
from the head of the fens, now forming the Isle of Ely, to
Gloucester. This immense work, the object of which was to mark
off southern Britain at once as a Roman province, was carried on
day and night with the usual indefatigability and science of the
Roman service. Castra after castra rose, each as completed being
occupied by its appropriate garrison, and the British pendragon
heard at the same time of the rising of the formidable
circumvallation in his rear, of the advance of Plautius on his
flank, and the disembarkation of Vespasion in his front.
Devonshire (Dyvnaint, the deep vales), Dorset (the water land),
and Somerset (Gwlad, yrhav, summerland), were, however, admirably
adapted for the display of British intrepidity and tactics. The
camps, Roman and British, pitched at almost regular intervals in
hostile frontage of each other over the whole surface of these
counties, bespeak better than any history the desperate and
long-sustained character of the campaigns which now ensued. In
the art of castrametation we fail to detect any evidence of
scientific superiority on the part of the invaders, it appears to
us to be. if anywhere, on the British side, especially in the
ramparts and in the strength of the approaches. But it is certain
that both the British and Roman soldier must have been in the
highest condition of military discipline before earthworks
necessitating such labour to construct and such vigilence to
defend could have been carried out as part of the ordinary drill
of the day. The 'navvy' power displayed in them is not unworthy
of the present century. Here the war rolled backward and forward
for seven years, absorbing during that time the almost undivided
military interest of the Roman world; for, with the exception of
the rebellion, soon crushed out by Corbulo, in Armenia, the
British pendragon was bearing the whole brunt of the arms of the
empire, under a series of its finest generals. In these seven
years, according to Suetonius thirty; according to Eutropius
thirty-two battles were fought. The central camp of Plautius was
fixed between Silbury Hill and Amesbury, that of Vespasian and
his son Titus on Hampden Hill, near Ilchester, the area of which
was able to accommodate 100,000 men. On the ground now forming a
farm called Conquest-farm, Bishops Lydiard, near a smaller camp
of twenty acres, Arviragus sustained a total defeat by Vespasian,
who proceeded to invest Caer Usc (Exeter). On the eighth day of
the siege he was surprised in his intrenchments by Caradoc and
Arviragus, and roused with great slaughter. Titus had on this
occasion the glory of saving his father's life. The British
attack was so sudden that Vespasian was on the point of being
slain in his tent, when Titus, divining his father's danger,
charged his captors at the head of the first cohort of the
fourteenth legion, and rescued him from their hands. 8
Plautius, Vespasian, Geta, and Titus were successively
recalled. We cannot do better than use the significant language
of Tacitus in describing the fluctuations of the war, victory
hovering now over the Romans, now over the British standards:--
"The Silures reposed unbounded confidence in Caractacus,
enumerating the many drawn battles he had fought with the Romans,
the many victories he had obtained over them." 9 The passionate
attachment, indeed, of his countrymen to their high-souled and
incorruptible compatriot is abundantly evidenced by the fond
allusions to him in their ancient Triads. "Three have been,"
declare these records, "our hero-kings---Cynvelin, Caradoc,
Arthur. Except by treachery they could not be overthrown."
"Three have been the chief battle-kings of the Isle of
Britain---Caswallon, son of Beli; Arviragus, son of Cynvelin;
Caradoc, son of Bran." "Caradoc, son of Bran, whom every Briton,
from the king to the peasant, followed when he lifted his spear
to battle."
But we must draw his military career, which is but
indirectly connected with this essay, to a close. On the recall
of Plautius, who had married Gladys (Pomponia
......
8 "In Britannia circumdato a barbaris Vespasiano et in extremo,
periculo versante Titus filius ejus patri metuens coronam hostium
incredibili audacia disjecit."---Suetonius in Vita Vespas.; Dion
Cass., lib. ix.
9 Taciti Annal., lib, ii. c. 24. The era of Tacitus was A.D.80
......
Graecina), the sister of Caractacus, a truce was concluded for
six months, during which must be fixed the visit of the British
chief to Rome. What credence to attach to the British story in
the lolo MSS., which represents him as appearing before the
senate, and stating that he had ordered "everv tree in Siluria
to be felled, that the Romans might no longer allege it was the
British forests, and not British valour, which baffled him," we
hardly know. It is in accordance with his character, which we
recognise also in the anecdote recorded by Dion. "When
Caractacus," says that historian, "was shewn the public
buildings of Rome, he observed, 'It is singular a people
possessed of such magnificence at home should envy me my
soldier's tent in Britain.'" On the expiration of the truce and
the return of Caradoc to his command, Ostorius Scapula, with the
Plautian line of fortresses for his base of operations, proceeded
to carry the war westward. Supported by the Silures and
Ordovicians, the fierce indomitable mountaineers, whom the Roman
arms never succeeded in subduing, the Pendragon contested every
advance of the invaders. Around Caer Essylt (the Hereford Beacon)
a succession of encounters took place for six months. The winter
did not interrupt hostilities. A Roman division which had
penetrated as far as Caerleon was cut to pieces. Ostorius, in the
next campaign, fixed his headquarters at Castra Ostorii, in
Dinder, Herefordshire, now ludicrously corrupted into "Oyster
Hill." Towards the end of the campaign, in the autumn of
A.D.52, the battle which terminated the career of Caradoc in the
field was fought close to the confines of the Teme and the Clune
in Shropshire. The Roman victory was complete. 10 The wife of
Caradoc and his daughter Gladys fell into the hands of the
conquerors, and were conveyed to the Castra at Urechean
(Uriconium, Wrekin). Caradoc
......
10 Tacit; Annal., lib. xii.
......
himself took refuge, at her repeated solicitations, at Caer Evroc
(York), with Aregwedd or Aricia, the Cartismandua of Tacitus,
queen of the Brigantes, and grand-niece of the infamous traitor
in the Julian war, Mandubratius, or Avarwy. Here by her orders,
with hereditary treachery, he was seized while asleep in her
palace, loaded with fetters, and delivered to Ostorius Scapula.
On intelligence of the event, Claudius ordered him and all the
captive family to be sent to Rome. The British Triads commemorate
this captivity of the royal Silurian family in their quaint
fashion. "There were three royal families that were conducted to
prison, from the great-great-grandfather to the
great-grandchildren, without permitting one of them to escape.
First the family of Llyr Llediaith, who were carried to prison at
Rome by the Cesaridae... Not one or another of these
escaped. They were the most complete incarcerations known as to
families." The great great-grandfather on this occasion was Llyr,
the father of Bran, who subsequently died at Rome. Bran
voluntarily surrendered himself as a hostage. The approach and
arrival of Caradoc at Rome are finely described by the ancient
historians:---
"Roma catenatum tremuit spectare Britannum 11."
Since the days of Hannibal and Mithridrates, the only foe
worthy the Roman arms entered the Eternal City amidst the
excitement of three millions of inhabitants, who blocked up the
line of the procession to obtain a view of the formidable and
illustrious captive. The Senate was convened. The trial and
speech of Caradoc are familiar to every schoolboy. With an
unaltered countenance, the hero of forty pitched fields, great in
arms, greater in chains, took his position before the tribunal of
the emperor, and thus delivered himself:--- "Had
......
11 ... " Rome trembled
When she saw the Briton, thcwh fast in chains."
......
my government in Britain been directed solely with a view to the
preservation of my hereditary domains, or the aggrandizement of
my own family, I might long since have entered this city an ally,
not a prisoner; nor would you have disdained for a friend a king
descended from illustrious ancestors, and the dictator of many
nations. My present condition, stript of its former majesty, is
as adverse to myself as it is a cause of triumph to you. What
then? I was lord of men, horses, arms, wealth: what wonder if at
your dictation I refused to resign them? Does it follow, that
because the Romans aspire to universal dominion, every nation is
to accept the vassalage they would impose? I am now in your
power - betrayed, not conquered. Had I, like others, yielded
without resistance, where would have been the name of Caradoc?
Where your glory? Oblivion would have buried both in the same
tomb. Bid me live, I shall survive for ever in history one
example at least of Roman clemency."
Such an address as this, worthy a king, a soldier, and a
freeman, had never before been delivered in the Senate. Tacitus
thought it worthy to be reported and immortalized by his pen. Its
spirit reminded him of the old republican times of the Camilli,
the Cincinnati, the Catones; a spirit long since extinct. The
custom at those revolting displays of Roman pride and
bloodthirstiness called "triumphs," was that at a certain spot on
the Sacra Via the captive kings and generals should be removed
from the procession, cast into the Tarpeian dungeons, to be there
starved to death, strangled, or decapitated, and their dead
bodies dragged by hooks into the Tiber. 12 Alas! for the
chivalry of heathen warfare. The preservation of Caradoc forms a
solitary exception in the long catalogue of victims to this
dastardly and nefarious policy; nor can it be accounted
......
12 Jugurtha, king of Numidia, went mad during the procession, as
he followed the car of his conqueror Marius.
......
for, considering the inflexibility of Roman military usage, in
any other way than by an immediate and supernatural intervention
of Providence, which was leading by the hand to the very palace
of the British king at Rome the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
The family of Aulus Plautius, indeed, was already connected with
that of Caradoc, and an engagement existed between his daughter
Gladys and Aulus Rufus Pudens Pudentinus, a young senator of
large possessions in Samnium. But their united influences would
never have sufficed to alter a fixed law of the Roman state in
favour of an enemy that had tasked its utmost prowess and
resources for so many years. The defeat at Caer Caradoc and the
betrayal of their sovereign had, moreover, served not to
intimidate, but to infuriate and rouse to greater efforts, his
subjects in Britain, The Silures elected his cousin Arviragus his
successor in the pendragonate. The Romans were beaten back across
the Severn. Disaster followed disaster. Tacitus, loth to dilate
on the misfortunes of the imperial arms, sums up the reverses of
the war in a few expressive lines:- "In Britain, after the
captivity of Caractacus, the Romans were repeatedly conquered and
put to the rout by the single state of the Silures alone." 13
Perhaps this knowledge, that the execution of Caradoc might
still further imperil the Roman states in Britain, and the
consideration that clemency might be the wisest policy towards a
highspirited and loyal enemy, dictated the course of Claudius. Be
this as it may, the life of Caradoc was spared, on condition of
his never bearing arms against Rome again. A residence of seven
years in free custody (libera custodia) at Rome was imposed upon
him. His father Bran was accepted as one of the hostages, and he
was allowed the
......
13 "In Britannia Rornanos post Caractaci captivitatem ab una
tantum Silurum civitate saepius victos et profligatos." - Tac.
Ann., lib. v. c. z8.
......
full enjoyment of the revenues of the royal Silurian domains,
forwarded to him by his subjects and council. Gladys, his
daughter, was adopted by the Emperor Claudius, and assumed, of
course, his family name---Claudia. Caradoc took up his residence
in the Palatium Britannicum, on the side of the Mons Sacer,
converted afterwards by his grand-daughter, Cladia Pudentiana,
into the first Christian Church at Rome, known, first as the
"Titulus," and now as St. Pudentiana. Here the nuptials of
Claudia and Rufus Pudens Pudentinus were celebrated A.D.53. Four
children were the issue of this marriage. St. Timotheus, St.
Novatus, St. Pudentiana, St. Praxedes. Of the sons of Caradoc,
Cyllinus and Cynon returned to Britain, the former succeeding on
his death to the Silurian throne. The second Lleyn, or Linus,
remained with his father, and was, as we shall see subsequently,
consecrated by St. Paul first bishop of the Roman church.
Martial the epigrammatist was born A.D.29: he went to Rome
A.D.49; he left Rome A.D.86; and died at his native place,
Bilbilis in Spain, A.D.104, aged 75. As far as we can collect by
collation, Claudia was born A.D.36, and at her marriage with
Rufus was in her 17th year. Martial was a familiar frequenter of
the Pudentinian house, and in the habit of submitting his verses
for emendations to its heir, Rufus. We have an epigram extant in
which the witty but licentious poet complains of the severity of
his young critic's castigations. It would have been well for his
reputation, with no loss to his wit, had he allowed all his works
to pass through the hands of Rufus before he had consigned them
to the public ear. The epigram he addressed to the cousin of
Rufus, Quintus Pomponius Rufus, then on military service in
Dalmatia, on the nuptials of Claudia and Rufus, at which he
appears to have been present, is subjoined in the note below. 14
[see footnote 14]
Four years afterwards, on the birth of Pudentiana, Martial
addressed a second highly complimentary poem to the British
princess, celebrating her beauty, grace, wit, and fascination. He
represents her as uniting the separate accomplishments of the
Roman and the Athenian ladies. Claudia, though the mother of
three children, was only in her twenty-first year, and might with
propriety be still termed "puella" by the poet. In the interval
between the first and the present epigram, Pudens had been
converted to Christianity, hence he is called Sancto Marito:--
"Claudia Ceruleis quum sit Rufina Britannis Edita quam Latia
pectora plebis habet!
Quale decus forma! Romanam credere matres
Italidum possunt Attides esse suam
Die bene quod sancto peperit foecunda marito
Quod sperat generos quodque puella nurus
Sic placeat superis ut conjuge gaudeat una
Et semper natis gaudeat ipsa tribus."
All the family of Caradoc were attached to literary
pursuits. Bran introduced the use of vellum into Britain from
Rome; 15 and by the younger members copies of the best Roman
authors were circulated in Siluria, and deposited in the
principal receptacles of Druidic learning. Martial was no
exception, and his verses appear to have become popular:--
"Dicitur et nostros cantare Britannia versus." - Lib. xi.
14 "Claudia, Rufe, meo nubit Peregrina Pudenti:
Macte esto taedis, O Hymenaee, tuis.
Tam bene rara suo miscentur cinnama nardo,
Massica Theseis tam bene vina cadis,
Nec melius teneris junguntur vitibus ulmi,
Nec plus Lotos aquas, littora myrtus amat.
Candida perpetuo, reside, Concordia, lecto,
Tamque pari semper sit Venus aequa jugo.
Diligat illa senem quondam: sed et ipsa marito,
Tunc quoque quum fuerit, non videatur anus."
Lib. iv. p.18.
15 Coelbren, p. 25.
......
Claudia wrote several volumes of odes and hymns. Her aunt,
Pomponia Graecina, received her agnomen from her intimate
acquaintance with Greek literature. The palace, indeed, of the
British king formed a focus and rendezvous, and perhaps the
safest they could frequent, for the poets and authors of Rome.
Nor did it cease to be so on his return to his native country; it
continued to be the residence of Pudens and Claudia and their
children. Some conception may be formed of its size and
magnificence from the number of servants who constituted its
ordinary establishment. These, as we learn from the Roman
Martyrology, were two hundred males and the same number of
females, all born on the hereditary estates of Pudens, in Umbria.
16
The attachment between Pudens and Claudia first grew up when
the former was stationed by Aulus Plautius as praetor castrorum
at Regnum, now Chichester. We still possess in the Chichester
Museum a remarkably interesting monument of the residence of
Pudens in this city. Cogidunus, regulus of the Regni, was one of
the kings included as allies - in fact, tributaries - under the
Roman protectorate in the Claudian treaty of Colchester. Their
native dynasties, laws, and lands were guaranteed to such states
- the kings themselves becoming and being titled Legati Augusti,
Lieutenants of the Roman emperor, as the heads of our counties
are now styled Lieutenants of the Queen. They were bound to
permit the construction of a Roman castra, garrisoned by Roman
legionaries with their
......
16 Adiacent to the palace were baths on a corresponding scale,
known subsequently as Thermae Timothinae and Thermae Novatianae.
The palace baths and grounds were bequeathed by Timotheus to the
Church at Rome. And these were the only buildings of any
magnitude possessed by the Roman Church till the reign of
Constantine. Hermas terms the Titulus "amplissima Pudentes
domus." It was the hospitium for Christians from all parts of the
world.
......
usual staff of engineers, in their chief city. The praetor of the
castra held the military command within the allied territory.
Such kings were considered and dealt with as traitors to the
national cause by the Silurian and independent Britons, and their
names either branded with the disgraceful stigma of "bradwr"
(traitor), or consigned to oblivion by the Bardic chroniclers.
Hence we find not a few commemorated in the pages of the Roman
historians, of whose existence we can trace no vestige in the
British. Of these Cogidunus is one. Tacitus remembered him, as he
well might. For Tacitus was born A.D.56, the year of the death
of Claudius, and Cogidunus was alive A.D.76, ten years after St.
Paul's martyrdom, when Tacitus was in his twentieth year. In the
year A.D.1723, whilst excavating the foundations of some houses,
the monument to which we refer, generally known as the Chichester
stone, was discovered. The inscription, which was partly
mutilated, and is cut in very bold characters, as restored by
Horsley and Gale, is as follows:
NEPTUNO ET MINERVAE
TEMPLUM
PRO SALUTE DOMUS DIVINE
Ex AUCTORITATE TIB : CLAUDII
COGIDUNI
REGIS LEGATI AUGUSTI IN BRITANNIA
COLLEGIUM FABRORUM ET QUI IN EO
A SACRIS SUNT DE SUO DEDICAVERUNT
DONANTE AREAM PUDENTE PUDENTINI FILIO.
"The College of Engineers, and ministers of religion attached to
it, by permission of Tiberius Claudius Cogidunus, the king,
legate of Augustus in Britain, have dedicated at their own
expense, in honour of the divine family [the imperial family]
this temple to Neptune and Minerva. The site was given by Pudens,
son of Pudentinus."
Apart from its value in other respects, the inscription is
interesting as evidence of the naturally pious bent of the young
Roman commander's disposition, and, secondly, of the fact that to
every legion in the Roman service was attached a staff of
ministers of religion - a part of moral discipline in which these
iron-minded heathens put to shame our own and other countries
professing Christianty. The temple appears to have been erected
about A.D.50, before, of course, the conversion of Pudens or his
marriage with Claudia.
We have now, A.D.56, the royal Silurian family located at
Rome on that part of the Mons Sacer called Scaurus, in the
Palatium Britannicum, afterwards called the Titulus, or Hospitium
Apostolorum, then St. Pudentiana, which name the building still
retains. The minister of this church, and of the family of
Pudens, was Hermas, mentioned by St. Paul, 17 surnamed, from his
work bearing the title of Pastor, Hermas Pastor. The church was
called also after him, Pastor. In front of this relic of eminent
British and Apostolic times may still be seen, carved in
characters corroded by age, the Latin inscription, attributed to
the second century, of which the following is a translation:
"In this sacred and most ancient of churches, known as that of
Pastor, dedicated by Sanctus Pius Papa, formerly the house of
Sanctus Pudens, the senator, and the home of the holy apostles,
repose the remains of three thousand blessed martyrs, which
Pudentiana and Praxedes, virgins of Christ, with their own hands
interred." 18
......
17 Rom. xvi. 14.
18 " n hac sancta antiquissima ecclesia," &c.;, &c.--Baronius;, ad
Maii 19.
......
Baronius l9 has the following note upon the Titulus: "It is
delivered to us by the firm tradition of our forefathers that the
house of Pudens was the first that entertained St. Peter at Rome,
and that there the Christians assembling formed the Church, and
that of all our churches the oldest is that which is called after
the name of Pudens."
......
19 Annales Ecclesias, in Notis ad 19 Maii. Note on Pastor. Some
authors affirm there were two distinct Hermas Pastors - one the
above minister of the Titulus, so called because he belonged to
the senatorian family of the name of Pastor; the second of later
date, author of the treatise Pastor, and brother of Pius Papa. If
this view is correct, both were ministers of the Titulus, for the
letters of the latter from the Titulus to Timotheus in Britain
are extant.
Vide also Moncaeus, Syntagma de Claudia Britannica, p.18;
Pastoris Epistolae ad Timotheum; Justini Martyris Apologia; Greek
Menology, ad dies Pudentianx et Praxedis. That the palace of
Claudia was the home of the apostles in Rome appears agreed upon
by all ecclesiastical historians - even Robert Parsons, the
Jesuit, admits it. "Claudia was the first hostess or harbourer
both of St. Peter and St. Paul at the time of their coming to
Rome." - Parsons' "Three Conversions of England," vol. i. p.16.
..........
To be continued with "The British Royal Family at Rome"
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