The Cantiaci or Cantii were an Iron Age Celtic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a civitas of Roman Britain. They lived in the area now called Kent, in south-eastern England. Their capital was Durovernum Cantiacorum, now Canterbury.
They were bordered by the Regni to the west, and the Catuvellauni to the north.
Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and 54 Common era, the first Ancient Rome expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his De Bello Gallico v. 14:
Rulers
Pre-Roman Iron Age
Julius Caesar named five Celtic tribes inhabiting the land that would become the "heartland of the
Catuvellauni": the
Ancalites, the
Bibroci, the
Cassi, the
Cenimagni, and the
Segontiaci, each with their own "king" or chieftain. He found their way of life to be very similar to their cousins in
Gaul with whom they were close – the invasion of Britain may have been triggered by the Britons' supply of arms to the Gauls, who were being subjugated by the Romans.
Caesar mentions four kings, Segovax, Carvilius, Cingetorix, and Taximagulus, who held power in Cantium at the time of his second expedition in 54 BCE. The British leader Cassivellaunus, besieged in his stronghold north of the Thames, sent a message to these four kings to attack the Roman naval camp as a distraction. The attack failed, a chieftain called Lugotorix was captured, and Cassivellaunus was forced to seek terms.
In the century between Caesar's expeditions and the conquest under Claudius (starting in 43 CE), kings in Britain began to issue coins stamped with their names. The following kings of the Cantiaci are known:
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Dubnovellaunus: May have been an ally or sub-king of Tasciovanus of the Catuvellauni, or a son of Addedomarus of the Trinovantes; presented himself as a supplicant to Caesar Augustus 7 BCE.
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Vosenius, ruled until c. 15 CE.
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Eppillus, originally king of the Atrebates: Coins indicate he became king of the Cantiaci c. 15 CE, at the same time as his brother Verica became king of the Atrebates.
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Cunobelinus, king of the Catuvellauni: Expanded his influence into Cantiaci territory.
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Adminius, son of Cunobelinus: Seems to have ruled on his father's behalf, beginning c. 30 CE. Suetonius tells us he was exiled by Cunobelinus c. 40 CE, leading to Caligula's aborted invasion of Britain.
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Anarevitos, known only from a coin discovered in 2010, probably a descendant of Eppillus and ruling c. 10 BCE – 20 CE.
Sub-Roman period
According to
Nennius,
Gwrangon was King of Kent in the time of
Vortigern, until Vortigern took away the kingdom and gave it to
Hengist; but Nennius is regarded as an untrustworthy source, and "Gwrangon seems to have been transported by the story-teller into Kent from Gwent" and "is turned into an imaginary King of Kent, secretly disposed of his realm in favour of Hengist, whose daughter Vortigern wished to marry".
[Wade-Evans 1938]
See also
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Iron Age tribes in Britain
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List of Celtic tribes
Bibliography
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Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico
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Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars
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John Creighton (2000), Coins and power in Late Iron Age Britain, Cambridge University Press
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External links
