From Claudius to Boudica

to

Having watched I Claudius in our pasts we know everything about who he was (an heretofore obscure member of the reigning Julian dynasty), how he came to power (dragooned while hiding behind a curtain by the praetorian guards, who had just killed his predecessor, Caligula), why the praetorians thought he was good Emperor material (Claudius was considered to to be weak and controllable, said to walk hunched over, maybe physically disabled, oh, and also mentally). 

From watching the I Claudius series we also learned about a rumorthere was a very popular, in those times, rumor (which was "verified" by later historians Tacitus and Dio Cassius) that Claudius's last wife, Agrippina the younger, had poisoned him with a plate of  mushrooms.  It was said that Agrippina had a plan: she wanted her son from a previous marriage to succeed Claudius as Emperor.

As it turned out, Claudius was neither weak nor mentally mentally challenged.  Claudius had previously quietly written and published a history of the Etruscans, the predecessors and the inspiration of the Romans, included reading and writings of the Etruscan lost language -- Claudius's book was long ago lost and with that, Etruscan linguistics are gone). 

Claudius was empowered by the praetorians in 41 AD, and he ruled, some say ruthlessly, until 54 AD.  Two years after enthronement, seeking a way to validate his reign, he sent troops into Britain in 43 AD and followed them there himself after the invasion's success during the same fighting season, where he claimed the victory that started the 350+ (more or less) year long Roman phase of British history.

Some modern psychologists put Claudius on the Autism Spectrum and say that he was what today might be classified as "highly functional".  They also propose that, in his earlier life, before being drafted into his emperorship, he was smart enough to keep his head down while other members of his dynastic family were being eliminated.

Agrippina's son, Nero, did, in fact, succeed Claudius in 54 AD.  He ruled as Emperor Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Ahennobarbus until, pursued by a mob, he committed suicide in 68 AD.  He actually appeared to have started out well while still under the tutelage of his mother and of his tutor/advisor, the poet-tragedian-philosopher, Seneca, and of another advisor, the Praetorian Prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus.  But Nero had a recorded personality change after reported seisures that some modern specialists say were the result inherited epilepsy.  His behavior after that is well known.  Among his misdeeds were the murders of his mother, Agrippina (March of 59 AD), and ordering Seneca's monitored suicide (65 AD) for supposedly conspiring against Nero.  Seneca is thought not to have been guilty, but as a Stoic philosopher, he probably thought he should not resist Nero's order to open his veins and take poison.

Even if you read the two Robert Graves novelizations, on which the I Claudius TV series was based (as opposed to just watching TV) you still might not have gotten the short reference to the Claudian success in Britain that Graves included in the books.  The full story would have been another Graves book. 

We'll get to Boudica's "story" later.

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When Alice ate the cake labeled "eat me" she just grew and grew to unmanageable size.  The same thing happened to the Roman empire -- it must have eaten something really good to ultimately grow to the size it did by 117 AD, during Trajan's tenure.

That small separate Britania bite was the conquest of Emperor Claudius in 43 AD, and his conquest lasted until the natives, sometimes called "Romano British (Celts)", expelled the last Roman bureaucrats in 409/410 AD.  

By then, Roman occupation troops, had already been withdrawn from Britania (troops and the bureaucracy were separate entities).  The legions were needed to try to halt the surge/spread of the Germanii into Gaul on the continent after the 370s, leaving the civil servants in place in Britain.  The Germanic surge was a crisis closer to home and, which had to be addressed (although ultimately not successfully)

Both the arrival of Claudius's conquering expedition (four initial legions, auxiliaries in equal numbers, logistics train, camp followers, plus huge numbers of civilian administrators) and the withdrawal of all that apparatus centuries later are obviously landmarks in British history.

Roman conquest of Britain
Roman conquest of Britain, showing the dominant local tribes/kingdoms conquered in each area
Date AD 43–84 Location Great Britain Result Roman victory Territorial changes Most of England and Wales annexed by Rome
Belligerents
Roman Empire	Celtic Britons
Commanders and leaders
Claudius Aulus Plautius Gaius Suetonius Paulinus Vespasian Gnaeus Julius Agricola	Togodumnus † Caratacus (POW) Boudica † Calgacus
Casualties and losses
Boudican revolt: 30,000–40,000 killed (including 7,000 soldiers)[1]	100,000–250,000 killed[2][3]

 43 to 84 AD:

  The Claudian legions entered Britain commanded by a legate of Clausius named Aulus Plautius and landing in the same area that had been used by Julius Caesar almost a century earlier.  After taking the southeast they moved north and finally proved that Britain is really an island.

The conquest of Britain was the beginning of Roman Empire's military occupation of most of the island of Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. 

It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain (most of what is now called England and Wales) by AD 87, when the Stanegate was established. The conquered territory became the Roman province of Britannia.

Following Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain in 54 BC, some southern British chiefdoms had become allies of the Romans. The exile of their ally Verica gave the Romans a pretext for invasion. The Roman army was recruited in Italia, Hispania, and Gaul and used the newly-formed fleet Classis Britannica.

<---  Aulus Plautius (modern drawing) leading Claudus's legions ashore.

Under their general Aulus Plautius, the Romans pushed inland from the southeast, defeating the Britons in the Battle of the Medway.
 
The Battle of Medway in 43 AD was a decisive Roman victory for Aulus Plautius during the first season of the Claudian of invasion.  The Roman forces soundly defeate the Briton Celtsled by Caratacus and Togodumnus.  The battle undeniably secured the Roman foothold in Southeast Britain, allowing for subsequent Roman occupationand the eventual establishment of Roman Rule for almost 400 years.

By AD 47, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way, which defined the extent of early Roman control. Parts of it are now the routes of modern British roads, but some sections are now only defined by popular foot paths. 
The Way (mostly still visible) stretches about 225 miles from Lincoln in the northeast to Exeter in the southwest.  It initially was built as a Roman military road and marked the frontier shortly after the invasion of 43 AD.  Later it was used for trade and communication, with small conurbations developing into towns along its route.  

British resistance beyond Fosse Way was led by the chieftain Caratacus until his defeat in AD 50

General Vespasian: 

And Chasing down the Druids

The isle of Mona, (modern Angelsey off the north coast of Wales) was a stronghold of the druids and was attacked in AD 60 by the Roman army of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus the Roman Governor.  The Romans considered the Druids to be agitators leading the resistance against the military occupation and also were disgusted by Druidic religious practices, which were said to include human sacrifice.  Destruction of Druidic sacred groves on the Island was documented by the historian Tacitus. 

<--- The "Wicker Man".  In his Gallic Wars, a century earlier, Julius Caesar has described the Wicker Man rite in which the Druids were said to sacrifice masses of victims by burning them in large wicker effigies.

The conquest of Wales was interupted by the eruption of an uprising in 60 AD led by "Boudica".  During the revolt, the Britons destroyed Camulodunum (Colcester),  Verulamium (Saint Albans), and Londinium (London).

Or, at least, many Romans and Celtic Quislings bit the dust during extensive burnings and lootings.
The Boudicca story:

The Boudican revolt was a major, but short lived uprising in eastern Roman Britain around 60-61 AD led by Boudica, a hereditary queen of the Iceni tribe, against Roman oppression.  After Romans flogged Boudica and raped her daughters following the death of her husband and then disregarded his will, which had left the women half of his Iceni territory (the other half going to the Emperor, Nero), she was said to have united several local tribes and led a revolt.  Her forces were reported to have have killed up to 70,000 Romans and Roman Celtic sympathizers while destroying Roman settlements at Colchester, London, and St. Albans.  Suetonius Paulinus Interupted his campaign against the Druids in Angelsey, Wales, to confront Boudicca's revolt.  He finally reportedly chased her down (after having abandoned Londinium's populace to their fate by not fighting her there, and after not fighting her at St. Albans) at an "unknown location" along the major Roman road toward the north that is now known as Watling Street where he defeated her forces and ruthlessly executing all who were captured. The "Battle of Watling Street", of which no trace has ever been found, reportedly took place in 60 or 61 AD.  Some British academics are now pointing out that there is very little written (i.e., "Historical") and no contemporary eye witness written (real, primary source, "Historical") written evidence of the Boudicca story.  There also appears to be a complete absence of Archeological evidence (like artifacts) to back up what little was alwritten.  What is well attested, however, is that Suetonius Paulinus, moved his forces from "stabilized" southeast British territory, i.e., the Roman controlled side of the Fosse Way.   He led legions off to campaign against Druids on Angelsy (Mona Island) but then was informed of widespread uprisings by Celts back in his stabilized area south and east of the Fosse Way .  He pulled his troop off Mona, quickly marched back southeast, and reportedlykilled a lot of Celts.  And the story of Boudicca became "History".  And Suetonius Paulinus was soon recalled from Britain -- for excessive brutality. Notably, Academia now often refers to Boudicca as a "legendary heroine" in the fight against Roman conquest and military occupation.  This can, of course, be thought of as part of the general "revisionism" concerning the whole period of the Roman stay in Britain.

<--- Suetonius Paulinus statue at Bath, England. Note that there appear to be no contemporary images of the otherwise obscure Roman Governor of Britain, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.  The statue at Bath in England is modern (1894) one of a series of statues carved to enhance the appearance of the baths and enhance the positive Victorian view of the occupation.  The statues, set up on the terrace of the Bath Spa when the Baths were to be opened to the public in 1897, include sculptures of Emperors Julius Caesar, Claudius, Hadrian, and Constantine the Great, of Governors/Generals Vespasian, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, and Julius Agricola, and of Female personifications of Roma and Britania in Roman sculptural style.  The Victorian sculptures were part of an effort to develop and present  the Roman Baths as a major tourist attraction.  The terrace, with its rows of statues, provides visitors with their first views of the Great Bath today, but they give a misleading impression.  The Great Bath was originally an enclose and roofed building.  <--- Four 1894 Statues, Bath Spa

   So "the Romans ruthlessly put down the rebellion by AD 61."  Governor Suetonius Paulinus was soon recalled and replaced for using excessive force.

And the conquest of Wales ultimately took until about
AD 77.

After Watling Street
Boudica's fate was recorded differently by Roman historians.  Tacitus claims she poisoned herself to avoid capture, but Dio Cassius says she died of an illness.  Tacitus lived closer to the time of the events

The Roman Governor, Suetonius Paulinus, was later replaced by a more conciliatory Publius Petronius Turpilianus, ushering in a period of greater Roman control and stability in Britain.

Smaller revolts were intermittently recorded, but none caused the reaction of tht of 60/61 AD.

Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola conquered much of northern Britain during the following seven years.  In AD 84, Agricola defeated a Caledonian army, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius.  However, the Romans soon withdrew from northern Britain.

After Hadrian's Wall was established (started 122 AD) as the northern border, tribes in the region repeatedly rebelled against Roman rule and forts continued to be maintained across northern Britain to protect against these attacks.