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30 - A History of the Roman Empire From Augustus to Aurelius by John Bagnell Bury · A History of the Roman Empire From Augustus to Aurelius

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, Section one of H. B. Bury's The Students
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  Speaker 1: Roman Empire, Part one. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Student's
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  Speaker 1: Roman Empire, Part one by John Pugnellbury, Chapter sixteen, The
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  Speaker 1: Conquest of Britain, Section one. The conquest of Britain was
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  Speaker 1: one of the tasks which the Great Caesar left to
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  Speaker 1: the Caesars who were to come after him. Like the
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  Speaker 1: conquest of Germany. It was an undertaking to which the
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  Speaker 1: subjugation of Gaul naturally led, and although his first successors
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  Speaker 1: did not cross the channel, as they crossed the Rhine,
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  Speaker 1: the island of the North was by no means forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: On two occasions Augustus had made preparations for an expedition
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  Speaker 1: against Britain, and both times the enterprise had fallen through.
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  Speaker 1: He was about to invade the island in thirty four
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  Speaker 1: BC when he was recalled from Gaul by the rebellion
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  Speaker 1: in Dalmatia, and the poetical literature of the following years
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  Speaker 1: shows that the conquest of Ultimatule was an achievement to
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  Speaker 1: which the Romans looked forward with confidence as destined to
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  Speaker 1: be accomplished. When the civil wars were over, Horace deplores
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  Speaker 1: that Romans should turn their swords against each other instead
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  Speaker 1: of leading the chain Britain down the Via Sacra. In
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven BC, after his accession, Augustus was believed to
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  Speaker 1: be about to fulfill their expectations and add a new
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  Speaker 1: province to the Empire. Horace besieged his fortune to preserve
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  Speaker 1: Caesar about to set forth against the Britain who lived
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  Speaker 1: in the ends of the earth. It is uncertain why
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  Speaker 1: this intention was not carried out. Perhaps the Cantabrian War
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  Speaker 1: and the hostilities of the Salasee, which occupied his attention
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  Speaker 1: at this time made Augustus shrink from undertaking for their warfare.
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  Speaker 1: At all events, the idea of subduing Britain was not
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  Speaker 1: again resumed by Augustus. Tiberius confessed that the occupation of
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  Speaker 1: Britain was necessary, but through reverence for the precept of
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  Speaker 1: Augustus again extending the Empire, refrained from attempting it. The
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  Speaker 1: problem also engaged the attention of Gaius, and we saw
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  Speaker 1: how his undertaking ended in a ridiculous demonstration on the
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  Speaker 1: Gallic shore. Strange, to say, the conquest of Britain, which
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  Speaker 1: Caesar himself had failed to accomplish in two attempts, which
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  Speaker 1: Augustus deemed too difficult, which Tiberius shrank, Rome, was reserved
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  Speaker 1: for the arms of Claudius, and we are led to
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  Speaker 1: believe that the idea was his own and not the
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  Speaker 1: suggestion of his counselors. The importance of occupying Britain was
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  Speaker 1: perhaps brought home to him when he endeavored to suppress
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  Speaker 1: the Druidical worship in Gaul. The constant communication which existed
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  Speaker 1: between the northern coast of Gaul and the opposite island
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  Speaker 1: rendered it hopeless to stamp out the barbarous rights as
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  Speaker 1: long as Britain was not in the hands of Rome. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: the fact that his model Augustus had contemplated the reduction
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  Speaker 1: of the island was a recommendation of the enterprise of Claudius.
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  Speaker 1: It is probable, too that he was encouraged by his freedmen,
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  Speaker 1: who may have entertained an exaggerated idea of the wealth
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  Speaker 1: of the island and hoped to profit by it. Friendly
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  Speaker 1: relations had been maintained with British kings by Augustus and Tiberius.
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  Speaker 1: Exiled princes sought refuge with Augustus and Caius. The immediate
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  Speaker 1: occasion of the expedition of Claudius is said to have
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  Speaker 1: been the request for succor addressed to him by Bericus, who,
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  Speaker 1: owing to domestic voets, had fled from his country and
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  Speaker 1: became the suppliant of Claudius, as Adminius had been the
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  Speaker 1: suppliant of Caius. This Beericus was probably a son of
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  Speaker 1: the king of the Utterbates, who dwelt between the Severn
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  Speaker 1: and the Thames. But the restoration of this native was
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  Speaker 1: merely a pretext for carrying out at length what had
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  Speaker 1: long been inevitable. The emperor resolved to visit Britain himself
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  Speaker 1: and win the honor of personally achieving a great conquest
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  Speaker 1: and adding a new province to the Empire, but it
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  Speaker 1: was arranged that the way should be prepared before him,
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  Speaker 1: so that he could arive in time to witness the
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  Speaker 1: final scene. Four legions were assigned to the expedition, three
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  Speaker 1: from the German provinces and one from Pannonia. Their numbers
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  Speaker 1: and names were second Augusta and fourteenth Geminar from Upper Germany,
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  Speaker 1: twenteenth Valeria, Victrex from Lower Germany, and nine c Hispania
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  Speaker 1: from Pannonia. Besides these, there were the usual contingents of
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  Speaker 1: auxiliary troops, cohorts of infantry, and ally of cavalry. Allus
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  Speaker 1: Plotius Sylvanus was selected to command the expedition. He was
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  Speaker 1: a relation of Plotia or gulan Nila, the divorced wife
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  Speaker 1: of Claudius, and is described as a senator of the
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  Speaker 1: highest repute at this time. He doubtless held command in
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  Speaker 1: some of the provinces from which legions were drafted from
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  Speaker 1: the expedition, either Upper or Lower Germany, or possibly Belgica.
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  Speaker 1: He was supported by many able and distinguished officers, whose
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  Speaker 1: selection shows what importance was attached to the expedition among them,
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  Speaker 1: but they mentioned el Galba, destined one day to be
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  Speaker 1: an emperor himself, an able officer whom we would have
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  Speaker 1: already met as Legatus of Upper Germany. The legatus of
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  Speaker 1: the Second Religions Flavius Vespasianus, also destined, like Galba, rules
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  Speaker 1: the Roman world. Hosidius Getta, who had completed the work
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  Speaker 1: of Setenius Paulinus in Mauritania, was probably the commander of
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  Speaker 1: another legion, Valerius Asiaticus, who afterwards fell a victim to Messalina,
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  Speaker 1: and Sensanius Saturninus, may also be mentioned. It has been
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  Speaker 1: calculated that the whole forces amounted to upwards of sixty
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  Speaker 1: thousand men, and an enormous transport fleet was necessary to
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  Speaker 1: convey them to the British coast. For this purpose, ships
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  Speaker 1: were sent to Guessoiacum Bologne from the naval stations of Italy,
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  Speaker 1: Ravenna and Mizzenum. Early in forty three a d. The
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  Speaker 1: army assembled near the place where just one hundred years before,
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  Speaker 1: Caesar had embarked on the same errand. But the difficulties
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  Speaker 1: of those first and successful attempts were remembered in the army.
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  Speaker 1: The soldiers murmured and showed a mutinous spirit when Plautius
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  Speaker 1: revealed the object of the expedition. Ploutius sent the news
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  Speaker 1: to Rome, and Claudius dispatched Narcissus to restore order. The
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  Speaker 1: freedmen haranged the turbulent troops, and they contended with mocking
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  Speaker 1: him as a slave submitted to the emperor's wishes. The
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  Speaker 1: British coast was reached safely though not without some difficulty
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  Speaker 1: from other adverse weather, and the invading army disembarked in
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  Speaker 1: three harbors without encountering any resistance from the Britons. It
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  Speaker 1: seems probable that these harbors were on the coast of
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  Speaker 1: Sussex and Kent, something that the landing was made as
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  Speaker 1: far west as Portsmouth. It is impossible to determine with
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  Speaker 1: anything like certainty the line of Roman advance, but it
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  Speaker 1: is clear that their first object was to overcome the Trinovantes,
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  Speaker 1: whose home was north of the Thames, in the territory
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  Speaker 1: which now forms the counties of Essex and Hertford, but
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  Speaker 1: whose way extended over southeastern Britain. In the days of Caesar,
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  Speaker 1: their leader, Casavelaunus, had formed a league to oppose the invaders.
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  Speaker 1: Their capital was then at Verulamium Saint Albans, but Conobellinus,
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  Speaker 1: the origin of Shakespeare's Cumberlin, had transferred it to Camolo Duno, Colchester.
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  Speaker 1: The sons of Connabellinus, by name Caractacus and Togotumnus, commanded
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  Speaker 1: the Trinovantes and took the field against Plautius. Their tactics
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  Speaker 1: were to draw the invaders into Woody and marshy country,
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  Speaker 1: but they were both defeated in two distinct battles. The Poduni,
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  Speaker 1: one of the tribes which were ruled over by these princes,
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  Speaker 1: submitted and received a Roman garrison. Soon afterwards, the legions,
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  Speaker 1: drawn on by the barbarians and perhaps conducted by the
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  Speaker 1: friendly Attrabates, reached a certain river, which may possibly be
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  Speaker 1: the Medway. The Britons offered as stubborn resistance, but at length,
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  Speaker 1: after two days fighting, the Romans effected a crossing. On
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  Speaker 1: this occasion, Vespasian and Hosidious Gheta particularly distinguished themselves. The
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  Speaker 1: enemies then fell back behind the Thames. They were followed
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  Speaker 1: by the Batavian auxiliaries who swam across the stream, and
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  Speaker 1: by some Roman troops who crossed by a bridge higher up.
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  Speaker 1: But these forces were beaten back, and Cloutius determined to
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  Speaker 1: wait for the arrival of the emperor with reinforcements before
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  Speaker 1: crossing the Thames and striking the final blow. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: he was able to secure the ground which he had won,
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  Speaker 1: and it seems likely that at this time King Cogidubnus
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  Speaker 1: declared for the Romans. He seems to have been the
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  Speaker 1: prince of the Ragni, whose capital town has been identified
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  Speaker 1: with Chichester. He brought himself a firm friend of the Romans,
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  Speaker 1: and received his reward from Claudius roman citizenship, the title
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  Speaker 1: of Legatus Augusti and a grant of territory, apparently his
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  Speaker 1: original possessions. A monument of him as Tiberius Claudius Kochybdubnusume,
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  Speaker 1: the emperor's name may be still seen in Goodwood Park.
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  Speaker 1: Leaving the conduct of affairs at Rome during his absence
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  Speaker 1: to Vitelius, Claudius, with a large retinue, embarked from Azilia
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  Speaker 1: about July, crossed Gaul and reached the Roman camp, probably
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  Speaker 1: somewhere near Londinium London before the end of the military season.
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  Speaker 1: A great battle was fought under the imperial auspices. The
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  Speaker 1: Bretons were rooted and Camolodunum, the capital of the Triowantes,
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  Speaker 1: was taken. Claudius was saluted Emperator by the army more
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  Speaker 1: than once, although only a single assumption of the title
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  Speaker 1: in a single campaign was allowed by usage. He honored
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  Speaker 1: Camolodunum by a visit and selected it to be the
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  Speaker 1: center of the Romanization of Britain. The Emperor remained only
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  Speaker 1: sixteen days on the island, and leaving the consolidation and
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  Speaker 1: the extension of the conquest to his general, he recrossed
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  Speaker 1: the channel, spent the winter in Gaul, and reached Rome
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  Speaker 1: in the following spring forty four a d His son
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  Speaker 1: in law Pompeius and Silanus, who had attended him on
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  Speaker 1: his journey, were sent forward to announce the victory. The
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  Speaker 1: Senate decreed to the conqueror of Britain the honor of
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  Speaker 1: a triumph and the title Britannicus, which however, he declined
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  Speaker 1: for himself, but accepted for his infant son. They also
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  Speaker 1: decreed the erection of two triumphal arches, one in the
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  Speaker 1: Campus Martius and the other at Gesoriacum. In the inscription
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  Speaker 1: on the Roman Arch, which has been partly preserved, Claudus
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  Speaker 1: boasts that he subdued eleven kings. The rejoicings were marked
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  Speaker 1: by the mimic representation in the Campus Martius of the
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  Speaker 1: siege of a British town and the submission of British chieftains.
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  Speaker 1: The part which the fleet had played in the expedition
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  Speaker 1: was afterwards celebrated by naval maneuvers at the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: the Padus. Claudius was not a little proud of having
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  Speaker 1: outdone his three predecessors by adding a province to the Empire,
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  Speaker 1: and the achievement seemed greater from the circumstance that the
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  Speaker 1: new province was beyond the ocean. An important consequence of
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  Speaker 1: the conquest of Claudius was the decree of the Senate
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  Speaker 1: the treaties made by Claudius or his legati should be valid,
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  Speaker 1: just as if they had been made by the Senate
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  Speaker 1: or the Roman people. This measure was intended to facilitate
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  Speaker 1: the reduction of the distant island. End of Chapter sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: Section one