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Caratacus was a 1st-century AD British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain.
Before the Roman invasion, Caratacus is associated with the expansion of his tribe's territory. His apparent success led to Roman invasion, nominally in support of his defeated enemies. He resisted the Romans for almost a decade, using guerrilla warfare, but when he offered a pitched battle he was defeated by Roman forces. After defeat he fled to the territory of Queen Cartimandua, who captured him and handed him over to the Romans. He was sentenced to death but made a speech before his execution that persuaded the Emperor Claudius to spare him. Caratacus' speech to Claudius has been a popular subject in visual art.
The invasion targeted Caratacus' stronghold of Camulodunon (modern Colchester), previously the seat of his father Cunobelinus.Crummy, Philip (1997) City of Victory; the story of Colchester – Britain's first Roman town. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust ()Todd, Malcolm. (1981) Roman Britain; 55BC – 400AD. Published by Fontana Paperbacks () Cunobelinus had died some time before the invasion. Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus led the initial defence of the country against Aulus Plautius's four Roman legion, thought to have been around 40,000 men, primarily using guerrilla tactics. Jorit Wintjes (2020) 'On the side of a righteous vengeance' – Counterinsurgency operations in Roman Britain, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 31:5, 1108–1129, DOI: 10.1080/09592318.2020.1764715 They lost much of the south-east after being defeated in two crucial battles, the Battle of the River Medway and River Thames.
Dio reports that Togodumnus was killed (although both Miles Russell and John Hind argue that Dio was mistaken in reporting Togodumnus' death, that he was defeated but survived and was later appointed by the Romans as a friendly king over a number of territories, becoming the loyal king referred to by Tacitus as Cogidubnus or Togidubnus)Russell, Miles. (2006) Roman Sussex, pp. 33-43. Published by Tempus ()J. G. F. Hind, "A. Plautius' Campaign in Britain: An Alternative Reading of the Narrative in Cassius Dio (60.19.5–21.2)", Britannia Vol. 38 (2007), pp. 93–106) and the Romans conquered the Catuvellaunian territories. Their stronghold of Camulodunon was converted into the first Roman colonia in Britain, Colonia Victricensis.Crummy, Philip (1992) Colchester Archaeological Report 6: Excavations at Culver Street, the Gilberd School, and other sites in Colchester 1971–85. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust ()Crummy, Philip (1984) Colchester Archaeological Report 3: Excavations at Lion Walk, Balkerne Lane, and Middleborough, Colchester, Essex. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust ()
Legends place Caratacus' last stand at either Caer Caradoc near Church Stretton or British Camp in the Malvern Hills, but the description of Tacitus makes either unlikely:
Although the Severn is visible from British Camp, it is nowhere near it, so this battle must have taken place elsewhere. A number of locations have been suggested, including a site near Brampton Bryan. Bari Jones, in Archaeology Today in 1998, identified Blodwel Rocks at Llanymynech in Powys as representing a close fit with Tacitus' account.
He made such an impression that he was pardoned and allowed to live in peace in Rome. After his liberation, according to Dio Cassius, Caratacus was so impressed by the city of Rome that he said "And can you, then, who have got such possessions and so many of them, still covet our poor huts?"Dio Cassius, Roman History, Epitome of Book LXI, 33:3c
Caratacus does not appear in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (1136), although he appears to correspond to Arviragus, the younger son of Kymbelinus, who continues to resist the Roman invasion after the death of his older brother Guiderius.Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae In Welsh versions his name is Gweirydd, son of Cynfelyn, and his brother is called Gwydyr;Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, translated by Lewis Thorpe, 1973; Peter Roberts (trans), The Chronicle of the Kings of Britain, 1811 the name Arviragus is taken from a poem by Juvenal.Juvenal, Satires, 4.126–127
Caradog, son of Bran, who appears in medieval Welsh literature, has also been identified with Caratacus, although nothing in the medieval legend corresponds except his name. He appears in the Mabinogion as a son of Bran the Blessed, who is left in charge of Britain while his father makes war in Ireland, but is overthrown by Caswallawn (the historical Cassivellaunus, who lived a century earlier than Caratacus). Mabinogion: " Branwen, daughter of Llyr" The Welsh Triads agree that he was Bran's son, and name two sons, Cawrdaf and Eudaf.Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, University of Wales Press, 1963; Triads from the Red Book of Hergest and Peniarth MS 54
Two hills in Shropshire bear the name Caer Caradoc (Welsh – Caer Caradog), meaning fort of Caradoc, and have popular associations with him. One is an Iron Age hill fort and Scheduled Monument near the town of Clun. It overlooks the village of Chapel Lawn. The other Caer Caradoc is a prominent hill and Iron Age hill fort near Church Stretton, 16 miles (26 km) to the north-east.
Another tradition, which has remained popular among British Israelites and others, makes Caratacus already a Christian before he came to Rome, Christianity having been brought to Britain by either Joseph of Arimathea or St Paul, and identifies a number of early Christians as his relatives.This article formerly made reference to a passage of Dio Cassius that described Caratacus as a "barbarian Christian". This derived from a transcription error in the version of the Cary translation of Dio online on the Lacus Curtius website, which has now been corrected to read "barbarian chieftain" as per the print edition ( Dio 61.33.3c). See also the Foster translation at Project Gutenberg, which also reads "barbarian chieftain".
One is Pomponia Graecina, wife of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, who as Tacitus relates, was accused of following a "foreign superstition", which the tradition considers to be Christianity.Tacitus, Annals 13:32 Tacitus describes her as the "wife of the Plautius who returned from Britain with an ovation", which led John Lingard (1771–1851) to conclude, in his History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, that she was British;"We are, indeed, told that history has preserved the names of two British females, Claudia and Pomponia Graecina, both of them Christians, and both living in the first century of our era." John Lingard, History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 2nd. ed. Newcastle, Walker, 1810 Vol. I., p. 1. however, this conclusion is a misinterpretation of what Tacitus wrote. An ovation was a military parade in honour of a victorious general, so the person who "returned from Britain with an ovation" is clearly Plautius, not Pomponia. This has not prevented the error being repeated and disseminated widely.
Another is Claudia Rufina, a historical British woman known to the poet Martial.Martial, Epigrams, XI:53 (ed. & trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Harvard University Press, 1993) Martial describes Claudia's marriage to a man named Pudens,Martial, Epigrams IV:13 almost certainly Aulus Pudens, an centurion and friend of the poet who appears regularly in his Epigrams. It has been argued since the 17th centuryBaronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, Antwerp, 1614; Archbishop James Ussher (1637), British Ecclesiastical Antiquities, Oxford; Cardinal Michael Alford (1663), Annales Ecclesiae Britannicae: Regia Fides, Vol 1; Williams, J. (1848), contributor John Abraham, Claudia and Pudens, Herauld that this pair may be the same as the Claudia and Pudens mentioned as members of the Roman Christian community in 2 Timothy in the New Testament. 2 Timothy 4:21 – "Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren." Some go further, claiming that Claudia was Caratacus' daughter, and that the historical Pope Linus, who is described as the "brother of Claudia" in an early church document, was Caratacus' son. Pudens is identified with Saint Pudens, and it is claimed that the basilica of Santa Pudenziana in Rome, and with which St. Pudens is associated, was once called the Palatium Britannicum and was the home of Caratacus and his family.
This theory was popularised in a 1961 book called The Drama of the Lost Disciples by George Jowett, but Jowett did not originate it. He cites renaissance historians such as Archbishop James Ussher, Caesar Baronius and John Hardyng, as well as classical writers like Julius Caesar, Tacitus and Juvenal, although his classical citations at least are wildly inaccurate, many of his assertions are unsourced, and many of his identifications entirely speculative. He also frequently cites St. Paul in Britain, an 1860 book by R. W. Morgan, and advocates other tenets of British Israelism, in particular that the British are descended from the lost tribes of Israel.George Jowett, The Drama of the Lost Disciples, Covenant Books, 1961
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