Nearly a hundred years had passed since Julius Caesar first launched Rome’s inaugural skirmish into Britannia. During the course of that time, Rome had degenerated into an imperial dictatorship. Julius Caesar was assassinated by his political opponents –he was stabbed to death on the floor of the Senate on March 15 in 44 BC. Following his death, another unstable Triumvirate was established until Octavius took power (a.k.a. the reign of Caesar Augustus). He planned several invasions of Britannia, but each attempt was eventually abandoned as there was simply no need or justification to invade –Britannia and its kings paid all their tributes to Rome in an acceptable manner. Augustus ruled as Emperor of Rome until his natural death in AD 14. He was then followed by his adopted son Tiberius who ruled until his death in AD 37. Then one of the more infamous Roman Emperors, Caligula, took power (he was descended from the Augustan bloodline). Latter day writers have painted Caligula as a sadistic madman, lusting for greed, sexual deviance, and personal power. An amusing anecdote in Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars highlights Caligula’s insanity while preparing his troops to invade Britannia, an invasion that never happened because as he lined up his soldiers gazing out over the English Channel, he oddly instructed his infantry to hurl their javelins out into the sea for inexplicable reasons. Caligula ruled for less than one year until meeting his grisly demise amidst a conspiracy of Praetorian guards who replaced Caligula with his uncle Claudius in AD 41.
According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio, who wrote some 80 books on the history of ancient Rome, the province of Britannia during the AD 40s had become a rowdy and unstable place. The Atrebanes tribe had once again been conquered by the Catuvellauni. So Roman Emperor Claudius used this ‘affront’ as a pretext. He launched an invasion with the promise of reinstating the Roman clientele, the Atrebanes who were led by their exiled king Verica. Claudius’s goal was to complete the task Caesar had set out for himself nearly a hundred years prior –conquering Britannia and claiming it for Rome. In many ways, Claudius’s invasion was hardly an invasion at all. It was more of an impressive work of performance theatre. It was led by Aulus Plautius, a ‘famous soldier’ according to Tacitus; and Narcissus, Claudius’s all-powerful secretary.
Plautius took his band of Gaulish soldiers fighting their way inland up to the Thames, at which point Claudius was notified of their arrival. In ceremonial fashion, Claudius arrived in a well-orchestrated performance showcasing a massive regalia of elephants while conquering the Catuvellauni. It was called a bloodless victory and Caratacus, the leader of the Catuvellauni, was captured and taken in chains to Rome. Upon Claudius’s return to Rome, he performed the stunt all over again to roaring crowds. After Claudius’s victory, one legion was sent further north and another legion conquered a series of extant tribes who quickly became Roman clientele in the southwest under the generalship of Vespasian, future emperor of Rome.
However, not every client kingdom easily fell under the sway of Rome. In AD 60-61 the king of the Iceni, a tribe of Eastern Britain, died and he left half his kingdom to Rome and the other half to his daughters. The Romans did not accept this division (especially of female rulership), and so they simply ignored his plans for successorship and plundered the whole kingdom. Rome removed his Queen Boudica from power, and raped his daughters. In revenge, Queen Boudica raised an army from the neighboring Trinovantes while Rome burned the surrounding towns to the ground, including Londinium (London) and Verulamium (Albion) –the effects of can be shown in present-day excavations. Queen Boudica’s uprising was so great that Emperor Nero considered withdrawing forces from Britannia, but the Romans managed to quell her rebellion, leading Queen Boudica to either die of ill-health (as Cassius Dio says) or poison herself (as Tacitus says).
Nevertheless, despite the rebellions, Roman culture was spreading widely across the British mainland and it quickly spread throughout southern Britannia and even as far north as Scotland. Sophisticated classical education emerged under the rule of Emperor Agricola. Roman baths, roads, and architecture were constructed, as well as the emergence of Roman coinage and the common usage of Latin script. Cogidubnus took over the rulership of Verica, king of the Atrebanes, and he perpetuated the Romanization of the island. Londinium was then refortified and rebuilt with a Roman amphitheater and Forum, among other Roman features.
A vast wall was constructed during the reign of Emperor Hadrian in AD 122, extending across Northern England to prevent a potential Pict invasion. The wall is famously known to us today as Hadrian’s Wall. A second wall was also constructed further north about twenty years later, called Antonine’s Wall (in present-day central Scotland). In addition, an outer defensive wall was erected around the growing commercial port of Londinium. The visible remnants of the wall can still be seen today, notably at Cooper’s Row near the Tower Hill Tube station.
In AD 313 Emperor Constantine “The Great” issued the Edict of Milan, announcing his politically motivated “conversion” to Christianity. It proclaimed religious tolerance particularly for Christians throughout the Empire. As a result, Britannia gradually became a Romanized Christian island, as well.
The Pax Romana brought a period of relative peace to the British isles, but it was tragically not to last. Throughout its vast empire, Rome relied upon servitude from its subjects, and there were always those who refused to bend the knee –namely the “barbarians,” those unruly Gauls and Goths. By now, post-Augustus, all power in Rome had been concentrated in the hands of the Emperor, which drew the ire of those distant to the events of the eternal city, and the barbarian nations often chose the path of violence. Insurrections and rebellions grew in number while the Roman gentry became generally unruly, decadent, and addicted to entertainment. Eventually, even the Britons grew distasteful of the Romans. It all came to a head in AD 367 amidst the collapsing scenery of Roman Britain as it was besieged by a confederation of Gauls, Picts, Scots (of Ireland), and other tribes including Saxon raiders in long-boats from the mainland in the barbariac conspiracio of Ad 367. These groups raided and overwhelmed the Roman defenses, as well as all the sprawling villas that dotted the isle. It was a year of chaos and insurrection that only ended when the Roman Emperor Valentinian sent military leader, Theodosius, back to fight against the invaders in order to restore a temporary semblance of law and order in Britannia.
By the year AD 409 the Britons were wholly discontented with their Roman rulers and many Romans were expelled back to mainland Europe. However, once infighting arose in Britannia again the scattered kingdoms of Britannia desperately called to Rome for help but now Emperor Honorius had far more pressing concerns. By this point, Rome was facing the threat of total destruction. In AD 410 Rome, itself, was captured by Alaric the Goth. The city was sacked and the Emperor’s own sister was carried off as a prize. This pivotal moment caused a shift in power from Rome in the West to Constantinople in the East (i.e. from Rome to Byzantium). Meanwhile the western Roman provinces were all lost. Emperor Honorius solemnly instructed Britannia to look to its own defenses –it was a foreboding sign of the impending collapse of the Empire and the looming shadow of the Dark Ages.
For this reading I used Winston Churchill’s essential History of English Speaking Peoples, David Starkey’s Crown and Country, Peter Ackroyd’s Foundation: The History of England From Its Earliest Beginnings To The Tudors, and the writings of Tacitus and Cassius Dio.