Caratacus

Prince of the Catuvellauni

Myths

His Family

Grandfather Tasciovanus.

Father Cunobelinus, was said to have been the first British statesman, and generally opposed the Druidic anti-Roman faction of which his two sons Togodumnus and Caratacus were active members. His sudden enfeeblement in c. AD40 led to a very sudden change in the balance of power in the south-east of England due to the actions of his sons, particularly Caratacus. He died possibly as late as c. AD43, after a long illness which made him incapable of ruling effectively.

Uncle Epaticcus, became king of the Atrebates after forcing Verica off the throne c. AD10. Verica, however, fought back and killed the usurper, making an enemy of Caratacus, who had based his coins on those produced by this favoured uncle! He seemed to have formed an attachment to his uncle Epaticcus, for he based his own coin issues – silver minims inscribed CARA – on those of his father’s brother, and their distribution in lands formerly of the Atrebates, is closely similar in pattern to those of Epaticcus. It is quite possible that he accompanied him during his campaigns against Verica of the Atrebates from c.AD25 until his death c.AD35. Following the enfeeblement of his father c.AD40, he supplanted his elder brother Adminius from his throne in Durovernon. He then joined forces with his other brother Togodumnus c.AD41 to renew the campaign against Verica of the Atrebates, who had caused the death of his beloved uncle.

AD35. Two factions emerge at the court of the ageing British king Cunobelinus (Cymbeline): the pro-Roman faction, under his son Adminius, and the anti-Roman faction, under his sons Togodumnus and Caractacus (Caradog) Brother Togodumnus, inherited the Catuvellaunian kingdom north of the Thames, probably because he was the eldest of the two Catuvellaunian princes.

Brother Adminius, possibly the eldest son of Cunobelinus, had his kingdom in the north-east tip of Kent forcibly taken from him for by Caratacus in c. AD41, most likely because of his pro-Roman tendencies. He then crossed the channel and tried to persuade Caligula to invade.

Personal History

After the death of his father Cunobelin, the majority of the Catuvellauni tribal lands fell into the hands of his elder brother Togodumnus. Caratacus was inclined or encouraged to recapture the lands previously taken by his uncle Epaticcus, and subsequently regained by king Verica of the Atrebates. Friends in the Durotriges and Dobunni tribes may well have connived to help him to take over much of the south-east of England, to the loss of Verica and the Atrebates. It is known that he set up camp and issued coin near Guildford during this time.

Before very long, he managed to depose Verica from the Atrebatean throne and forced him to flee to Gaul, wherefrom the old king made his way to Rome and appeared as a suppliant before the emperor Claudius in c.AD42. This was possibly the undoing of Celtic Britain, as it is likely that Adminius was instrumental in persuading the ageing emperor to seek the glory he needed to firmly establish his hand at the helm of the Roman Empire by conducting an expedition there.

Following the crushing defeat at the Battle of the Medway and the loss of his respected elder brother Togodumnus, Caratacus abandoned Camulodunum and fled the south-east of Britain. He removed his family and retinue to Wales, where his reputation as a fearless warrior soon established him as leader of the Welsh tribes (Silures, Demetae, Ordovices and Deceangli).

Operating from the lands of the Silures in the south-eastern part of Wales, he carried out a well-timed attack deep into the Roman held territory of Gloucestershire. The Roman governor, Ostorius Scapula managed to restore order and push Caratacus’ forces back across the River Severn, he also realised the need to eliminate the threat from Caratacus in the west and to halt the advance northwards.

As a prelude to his campaigns against Caratacus, Scapula moved the Twentieth Legion Valeria from its recently built fortress at Camulodunum to an establish a new one at Glevum (Gloucester) to guard the lower Severn. A colonia of veteran troops were left behind in Camulodunum as a reserve force, occupying the abandoned fortress. The Second Legion Augusta was then used to strike across the Severn deep into the Silurian heartlands.

In response, Caratacus moved his centre of operations from Silurian territory in southern Wales to the lands of the Ordovices in mid-Wales. Scapula reacted by building another fortress at Viroconium, re-grouping the Fourteenth Legion Gemina there as a second base of operations. The wooded and hilly terrain in Wales had up to now helped Caratacus’ forces with its guerilla tactics to seriously hamper the Romans’ advance, the establishment of the Viroconium base enabled Scapula to trap the British forces in a two-pronged attack, using the Second Legion from the south and the Fourteenth from the north.

Caratacus’ forces were finally beaten in c.AD50 by a frontal assault by ‘Roman legions’ up a steep slope. Caratacus fled north-east into the Pennines and Brigantia, and his defeated army melted back into the hills of Wales from which it had been raised.

” 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 the threatened invasion of Augustus he commanded the British fleet in the Channel. In 36 AD Bran resigned the Silurian crown to Caradoc, and became Arch-Druid to the Silurians. Caradoc had three sons, Cyllin or Cyllinus, Lleyn or Linus, and Cynon, and two daughters, Eurgain and Gladys, or Claudia.”

The Brigantian queen Cartimandua had been recognised as a client of Rome, and she now honoured her agreement with Rome by deceiving and capturing Caratacus, and then handing him over to Scapula’s forces. Caratacus was betrayed to the Romans in AD 52. The wife of Caradoc and his daughter Gladys also fell into the hands of the Romans.

He was paraded in Triumph by Claudius before the populace of Rome, and acted with such dignity and fearlessness that he was spared the customary death by strangulation and allowed to live there with his family.

Caratacus was highly influenced by the Druids, and both he and his brother Togodumnus were among the leading lights of the British anti-Roman faction, supported by the Druidical order.

In Rome Caradoc took up his residence in the Palatium Britannicum, on the side of the Mons Sacer, converted later by his granddaughter, Claudia Pudentia, into the first Christian church at Rome. ‘

We have now in AD 56 the Royal Silurian family located at Rome. But the loss of Caratacus didn’t end the war. The Silures elected his cousin Arviragus to succeed him and in the words of Tacitus ;- ‘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.’ – Tac. Ann., lib. v. c. 28.

It wasn’t until 75 AD, during the reign of Vespasian, that the Roman general Frontinus finally completed the subjugation of the Silures. A series of forts were built throughout Silurian territory to ensure continuing obedience.

The Caratacus Stone (Grid Ref: SS889336): Set on Withypool common, the Caratacus Stone leans towards a dry gutter running into a rush-filled bog from which runs a stream. It may have been a Bronze Age stream-head stone or erected by Caratacus’s clansman in the 5th or 6th century BCE, alternatively it could have been a stream-head stone inscribed later. The latin inscription “Carataci Nepus” means clansman of Caratacus the Chief of the Silures beaten by the Romans in CE46. The stone stood near the mediaeval “greatway” and was first documented in 1219 as a Forest boundary and called the “Langeston”. In 1936, it was moved to one side, supposedly by someone searching for treasure reputed to be beneath it but never found. Its shelter was built in 1906 to try to protect it.