Early Britain-Roman Britain Part 5

A. 5.--It would seem, therefore, that, Caesar's mandate to the contrary notwithstanding, Caswallon's clan, who were now called (perhaps from his name), Cattivellauni, had again conquered the Trin.o.bantes, deposing, and probably slaying, Mandubratius.[118] This would be under Tasciovan, who gave the land to his son Cymbeline, and, at a later date, must have subdued the Atrebatian power in the south.

The sons of Commius were, as is shown by Sir John Evans, contemporary with Tasciovan. But, by and by, we find Epaticcus, _his_ son, and Adminius, apparently his grandson, reigning in their realm, the latter taking Kent, the former the western districts. The previous Kentish monarch was named Dumnovella.n.u.s, and appears as d.a.m.nO BELLA on the Ancyran Tablet. This wonderful record of the glories of Augustus mentions, _inter alia_, that certain British kings, of whom this prince was one, fled to his protection. The tablet is, unhappily, mutilated at the point where their names occur, but that of another begins with TIM--probably, as Sir John Evans suggests, Tin-Commius.

Adminius also was afterwards exiled by his own father, Cymbeline, and in like manner appealed to Caesar--Caligula--in 40 A.D.

A. 6.--Nothing came of either appeal. Augustus did indeed, according to Dio Ca.s.sius, meditate completing his "father's" work, and (in B.C.

34) entered Gaul with a view to invading Britain. But the political troubles which were to culminate at Actium called him back, and he contented himself with laying a small duty on the trade between Britain and Gaul. Tin, as before, formed the staple export of our island, and other metals seem now to have been added--iron from Suss.e.x and lead from Somerset. Doubtless also the pearls from our native oysters (of which Caesar had already dedicated a breastplate to his ancestral Venus) found their way to Rome, though of far less value than the Oriental jewel, being of a less pure white.[119] Besides these we read of "ivory bracelets and necklets, amber and gla.s.s ornaments, and such-like rubbish,"[120] which doubtless found a sale amongst the _virtuosi_ of Rome, as like products of savage industry from Africa or Polynesia find a sale amongst our _virtuosi_ nowadays.

Meanwhile, Roman dignity was saved by considering these duties to be in lieu of the unpaid tribute imposed by Caesar, and the island was declared by courtly writers to be already in practical subjection.

"Some of the chiefs [Greek: dunastai] have gained the friends.h.i.+p of Augustus, and dedicated offerings in the Capitol.... The island would not be worth holding, and could never pay the expenses of a garrison."[121]

A. 7.--At the same time the Romans of the day evidently took a very special interest in everything connected with Britain. The leaders of Roman society, like Maecenas, drove about in British chariots,[122]

smart ladies dyed their hair red in imitation of British warriors,[123] tapestry inwoven with British figures was all the fas.h.i.+on,[124] and constant hopes were expressed by the poets that, before long, so interesting a land might be finally incorporated in the Roman Empire.[125]

A. 8.--Augustus was too prudent to be stirred up by this "forward"

policy; which, indeed, he had sanctioned once too often in the fatal invasion of Germany by Varus. But the diseased brain of Caligula _was_ for a moment fired with the ambition of so vast an enterprise. He professed that the fugitive Adminius had ceded to him the kings.h.i.+p of the whole island, and sent home high-flown dispatches to that effect.

He had no fleet, but drew up his army in line of battle on the Gallic sh.o.r.e, while all wondered what mad freak he was purposing; then suddenly bade every man fill his helmet with sh.e.l.ls as "spoils of the Ocean" to be dedicated in the Capitol. Finally he commemorated this glorious victory by the erection of a lofty lighthouse,[126] probably at the entrance of Boulogne harbour.

A. 9.--It was clear, however, that sooner or later Britain must be drawn into the great system so near her, and the next reign furnished the needful occasion. Yet another exiled British pretender appealed to the Emperor to see him righted--this time one Vericus. His name suggests that he may have been Verica son of Commius; but the theory of Professor Rhys and Sir John Evans seems more probable--that he was a Prince of the Iceni. The earliest name found on the coins of that clan is Addeomarus (Aedd Mawr, or Eth the Great, of British legend), who was contemporary with Tasciovan. After this the tribe probably became subject to Cymbeline, at whose death[127] the chieftains.h.i.+p seems to have been disputed between two pretenders, Vericus and Antedrigus; and on the success of the latter (presumably by Cateuchlanian favour) the former fled to Rome. Claudius, who now sat on the Imperial throne, eagerly seized the opportunity for the renown he was always coveting, and in A.D. 44 set in motion the forces of the Empire to subdue our island.

SECTION B.

Aulus Plautius--Reluctance to embark--Narcissus--Pa.s.sage of Channel--Landing at Portchester--Strength of expedition--Vespasian's legion--British defeats--Line of Thames held--Arrival of Claudius--Camelodune taken--General submission of island.

B. 1.--The command of the expedition was entrusted to Aulus Plautius Laelia.n.u.s, a distinguished Senator, of Consular rank. But the reluctance of the soldiery to advance "beyond the limits of this mortal world" [Greek: _exo tas ohikoumenes_], and entrust themselves to the mysterious tides of the ocean which was held to bound it, caused him weeks of delay on the sh.o.r.es of Gaul. Nor could anything move them, till they found this malingering likely to expose them to the degradation of a quasi-imperial scolding from Narcissus, the freed-man favourite of Claudius, who came down express from Rome as the Emperor's mouthpiece.[128] To bear reproof from one who had been born a slave was too much for Roman soldiers. When Narcissus mounted the tribune to address them in the Emperor's name, his very first words were at once drowned by a derisive shout from every mouth of "_Io Saturnalia_!" the well-known cry with which Roman slaves inaugurated their annual Yule-tide licence of aping for the day the characters of their masters. The parade tumultuously broke off, and the troops hurried down to the beach to carry out the commands of their General--who was at least free-born.

B, 2.--The pa.s.sage of the Channel was effected in three separate fleets, possibly at three separate points, and the landing on our sh.o.r.es was unopposed. The Britons, doubtless, had been lulled to security by the tidings of the mutinous temper in the camp of the invaders, and were quite unprepared for the very unexpected result of the mission of Narcissus. It seems likely, moreover, that the disembarkation was made much further to the west than they would have looked for. The voyage is spoken of as long, and amid its discomforts the drooping spirits of the soldiery were signally cheered by a meteor of special brilliance which one night darted westwards as their harbinger. Moreover we find that when the Romans did land, their first success was a defeat of the Dobuni, subject allies of the House of Cymbeline, who, as we gather from Ptolemy, dwelt in what is now Southern Gloucesters.h.i.+re.[129] This objective rather points to their landing-place having been in Portsmouth harbour[130] (_the_ Port, as its name still reminds us, of Roman Britain), where the undoubtedly Roman site of Portchester may well mark the exact spot where the expedition first set foot on sh.o.r.e.

B. 3.--Besides an unknown force of Gallic auxiliaries, its strength comprised four veteran legions, one (the Ninth _Hispanica_)[131] from the Danube frontier, the rest (Twentieth, Fourteenth, and Second) from the Rhine. This last, an "Augustan"[132] legion, was commanded by the future Emperor Vespasian--a connection destined to have an important influence on the _p.r.o.nunciamento_ which, twenty-five years later, placed him on the throne.[133] As yet he was only a man of low family, whom favouritism was held to have hurried up the ladder of promotion more rapidly than his birth warranted.[134] Serving under him as Military Tribunes were his brother Sabinus and his son t.i.tus; and in this British campaign all three Flavii are said to have distinguished themselves,[135] especially at the pa.s.sage of an unnamed river, where the Britons made an obstinate stand. The ford was not pa.s.sed till after three days' continuous fighting, of which the issue was finally decided by the "Celtic" auxiliaries swimming the stream higher up, and stampeding the chariot-horses tethered behind the British lines.

B. 4.--What this stream may have been is a puzzle.[136] Dion Ca.s.sius brings it in after a victory over the sons of Cymbeline, Caradoc (or Caractacus, as historians commonly call him) and ToG.o.dumnus, wherein the latter was slain. And he adds that from its banks the Britons fell back upon their next line of defence, the _tide-way_ on the Thames. He tells us that, though tidal, the river was, at this point, fordable at low water for those who knew the shallows; and incidentally mentions that at no great distance there was even a bridge over it. But it was bordered by almost impa.s.sable[137] swamps. It must be remembered that before the ca.n.a.lizing of the Thames the influence of the tide was perceptible at least as high as Staines, where was also a crossing-place of immemorial antiquity. And hereabouts may very probably have been the key of the British position, a position so strong that it brought Plautius altogether to a standstill. Not till overwhelming reinforcements, including even an elephant corps, were summoned from Rome, with Claudius in person at their head, was a pa.s.sage forced. The defence then, however, collapsed utterly, and within a fortnight of his landing, Claudius was able to re-embark for Rome, after taking Camelodune, and securing for the moment, without the loss of a man,[138] as it would seem, the nominal submission of the whole island, including even the Orkneys.[139]

SECTION C.

Claudius triumphs--Gladiatorial shows--Last stand of Britons--Gallantry of t.i.tus--Ovation of Plautius--Distinctions bestowed--Triumphal arch--Commemorative coinage--Conciliatory policy--British wors.h.i.+p of Claudius--Cogidubnus--Att.i.tude of clans--Britain made Imperial Province.

C. 1.--The success thus achieved was evidently felt to be something quite exceptionally brilliant and important. Not once, as was usual, but four several times was Claudius acclaimed "Imperator"[140] even before he left our sh.o.r.es; and in after years these acclamations were renewed at Rome as often as good news of the British war arrived there, till, ere Claudius died, he had received no fewer than twenty-one such distinctions, each signalized by an issue of commemorative coinage. His "Britannic triumph" was celebrated on a scale of exceptional magnificence. In addition to the usual display, he gave his people the unique spectacle of their Emperor climbing the ascent to the Capitol not in his triumphal car, nor even on foot, but on his knees (as pilgrims yet mount the steps of the Ara Coeli), in token of special grat.i.tude to the G.o.ds for so signal an extension of the glory and the Empire of Rome. In the gladiatorial shows which followed, he presided in full uniform [_paludatus_],[141] with his son (whose name, like his own, a _Senatus consultum_ had declared to be _Britannicus_)[142] on his knee.[143] One of the spectacles represented the storm of a British _oppidum_ and the surrender of British kings. The kings were probably real British chieftains, and the storm was certainly real, with real Britons, real blood, real slaughter, for Claudius went to every length in this direction.

C. 2.--The narrative of Suetonius[144] connects these shows with the well-known tale of the unhappy gladiators who fondly hoped that a kind word from the Emperor meant a reprieve of their doom. He had determined to surpa.s.s all his predecessors in his exhibition of a sea-fight, and had provided a sheet of water large enough for the manoeuvres of real war-galleys, carrying some five hundred men apiece.[145] The crews, eleven thousand in all, made their usual preliminary march past his throne, with the usual mournful acclaim, "_Ave Caesar! Salutant te morituri_!" Claudius responded, "_Aut non_:"

and these two words were enough to inspire the doomed ranks with hopes of mercy. With one accord they refused to play their part, and he had to come down in person and solemnly a.s.sure them that if his show was spoilt he would exterminate every man of them "with fire and sword,"

before they would embark. Once entered upon the combat, however, they fought desperately; so well, indeed, that at its close the survivors were declared exempt from any further performance. Such was the fate which awaited those who dared to defend their freedom against the Fortune of Rome, and such the death died by many a brave Briton for the glory of his subjugators. Dion Ca.s.sius[146] tells us that Aulus Plautius made a special boast of the numbers so butchered in connection with his own "Ovation."

C. 3.--This ceremony was celebrated A.D. 47, two years after that of Claudius. Plautius had remained behind in Britain to stamp out the last embers of resistance,--a task which all but proved fatal to Vespasian, who got hemmed in by the enemy. He was only saved by the personal heroism and devotion of t.i.tus, who valiantly made in to his father's rescue, and succeeded in cutting him out. This seems to have been in the last desperate stand made by the Britons during this campaign. After this, with ToG.o.dumnus slain, Caradoc probably a fugitive in hiding, and the best and bravest of the land slaughtered either in the field or in the circus at Rome, British resistance was for the moment utterly crushed out. Claudius continued his demonstrations of delight; when Plautius neared Rome he went out in person to meet him,[147] raised him when he bent the knee in homage, and warmly shook hands with him[148] [Greek:[kalos diacheirisas]]; afterwards himself walking on his left hand in the triumphal procession along the Via Sacra.[149]

C. 4.--Rewards were at the same time showered on the inferior officers. Cnaeus Ostorius Geta, the hero of the first riverside fight in Britain, was allowed to triumph in consular fas.h.i.+on, though not yet of consular rank; and an inscription found at Turin speaks of collars, gauntlets and phalera bestowed on one Caius Gavius, along with a golden wreath for Distinguished Service. Another, found in Switzerland,[150] records the like wreath a.s.signed to Julius Camillus, a Military Tribune of the Fourth Legion, together with the decoration of the _Hasta Pura_ (something, it would seem, in the nature of the Victoria Cross); which was also, according to Suetonius,[151] given to Posides, one of the Emperor's favourite freedmen.

C. 5.--To Claudius himself, besides his triumph, the Senate voted two triumphal arches,[152] one in Rome, the other in the Gallic port whence he had embarked for Britain. Part of the inscription on the former of these was found in 1650 on the site where it stood (near the Palazzo Sciarra), and is still to be seen in the gardens of the Barberini Palace. It runs as follows (the conjectural restoration of the lost portions which have been added being enclosed in brackets):

TI CLAVD [IO. CAES.] AVG [VSTO] PONTIFIC [I. MAX. TR. P. IX]

COS. VI. IM [P. XVI. PP] SENATVS. PO [PVL. Q.R. QVOD] REGES.

BRIT [ANNIAE. ABSQ] VLLA. JACTV [RA. DOMVERIT] GENTES QVE [BARBARAS] PRIMVS. INDI [CIO. SVBEGERIT]

"To Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding for the 9th time the authority of Tribune, Consul for the 6th time, acclaimed Imperator for the 16th, the Senate and People of Rome [have dedicated this arch]. Because that without the loss of a man he hath subdued the Kings of Britain, and hath been the first to bring under her barbarous clans under our sway." Claudius also affixed to the walls of the imperial house on the Palatine (which was destined to give the name of "palace" to royal abodes for all time),[153] a "_corona navalis_"--a circlet in which the usual radiations were made to resemble the sails, etc. of s.h.i.+ps--in support of his proud claim to have tamed the Ocean itself [_quasi domiti oceani_] and brought it under Roman sway: "_Et jam Romano cingimur Oceano_."[154]

C. 6.--As usual, coins were struck to commemorate the occasion, the earliest of the long series of Roman coins relating to Britain. They bear on the obverse the laureated head of Claudius to the right, with the superscription TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. P.M. TR. P. VIIII. IMP.

XVI. On the reverse is an equestrian figure, between two trophies, surmounting a triumphal arch, over which is inscribed the legend DE.

BRITAN. This coin, being of gold, was struck not by the Senate (who regulated the bronze issue), but by the Imperial mint, and dates from the year 46, when Claudius was clothed for the ninth time with the authority of Tribune. By that time the arch was doubtless completed, and the coin may well show what it was actually like. Another coin, also bearing the words DE. BRITAN., shows Claudius in his triumphal chariot with an eagle on his sceptre. Even poor little Britannicus, who never came to his father's throne, being set aside through the intrigues of his stepmother Agrippina and finally poisoned (A.D. 55) by Nero, had a coin of his own on this occasion issued by the Senate and inscribed TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. F. [_Augusti Filius_]

BRITANNICVS.

C.7.--Seneca, whose own connection with Britain was that of a grinding usurer,[155] speaks with intense disgust of the conciliatory att.i.tude of Claudius towards the populations, or more probably the kinglets, who had submitted to his sway. He purposed, it seems, even to see some of them raised to Roman citizens.h.i.+p [_Britannos togatos videre_].

That the grateful provincials should have raised a temple to him at Camelodune, and rendered him wors.h.i.+p as an incarnate deity, adds to the offence. And, writing on the Emperor's death, the philosopher points with evident satisfaction to the wretched fate of the man who triumphed over Britain and the Ocean, only to fall at last a victim to the machinations of his own wife.

C. 8.--An interesting confirmation of this information as to the relations between Claudius and his British subjects is to be found in a marble tablet[156] discovered at Chichester, which commemorates the erection of a temple (dedicated to Neptune and Minerva) for the welfare of the Divine [_i.e._ Imperial] Household by a Guild of Craftsmen [_collegium fabrorum_] on a site given by Pudens the son of Pudentinus;[157] all under the authority of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, at once a native British kinglet and Imperial Legate in Britain. This office would imply Roman citizens.h.i.+p, as would also the form of his name. That (doubtless on his enfranchis.e.m.e.nt) he should have been allowed to take such a distinguished _nomen_ and _praenomen_ as Tiberius Claudius marks the special favour in which he was held by the Emperor.[158] To this witness is also borne by Tacitus, who says that certain states in Britain were placed under Cogidubnus not as a tributary Kingdom but as a Roman Province. Hence his t.i.tle of Imperial Legate. These states were doubtless those of the Cantii and Regni in Kent, Surrey and Suss.e.x.

C. 9.--The Iceni, on the other hand, were subject allies of Rome, with Vericus, in all probability, on the throne.[159] The Atrebates would seem also to have been "friendlies." But the great ma.s.s of the British clans were chafing under the humiliation and suffering which the invaders had wrought for them, and evidently needed a strong hand to keep them down. Under the Empire provinces requiring military occupation were committed not to Pro-consuls chosen by the Senate, but to Pro-praetors nominated by the Emperor, and were called "Imperial"

as opposed to "Senatorial" governments.[160] Britain was now accordingly declared an Imperial Province, and Ostorius Scapula sent by Claudius to administer it as Pro-praetor.

SECTION D.

Ostorius Pro-praetor--Pacification of Midlands--Icenian revolt--Camb's d.y.k.es--Iceni crushed--Cangi--Brigantes--Silurian war--Storm of Caer Caradoc--Treachery of Cartismandua--Caradoc at Rome--Death of Ostorius--Uriconium and Caerleon--Britain quieted--Death of Claudius.

D. 1.--When Ostorius, in A.D. 50, reached Britain he found things in a very disturbed state. The clans which had submitted to the Romans were being raided by their independent neighbours, who calculated that this new governor would not venture on risking his untried levies in a winter campaign against them. Ostorius, however, was astute enough to realize that such a first impression of his rule would be fatal, and, by a sudden dash with a flying column (_citas cohortes_), cut the raiders to pieces. As usual the Britons hoisted the white flag in their familiar manner, making a surrender which they had no intention whatever of keeping to longer than suited their plans; and they were proportionately disgusted when Ostorius set to work at a real pacification of the Midlands, constructing forts at strategic points along the Trent and Severn, and requiring all natives whatsoever within this Roman Pale to give up their arms.

D. 2.--This demand the Britons looked upon as an intolerable dishonour, even as it seemed to the Highlanders two centuries ago.

The first to resent it were the chieftain and clan whose alliance with Rome had been the _raison d'etre_ of the Conquest, Vericus and his Iceni.[161] Was this brand of shame to be their reward for bringing in the invaders? They received the mandate of Ostorius with a burst of defiance, and hastily organized a league of the neighbouring tribes to resist so intolerable a degradation. Before their allies could come in, however, Ostorius was upon them, and it became a matter of defending their own borders.

D. 3.--The spot they selected for resistance was a s.p.a.ce shut in by earthworks _(agresti aggere)_ accessible only by one narrow entrance.

This description exactly applies to the locality where we should look for an Icenian Thermopylae. The clan dwelt, as we have said, in East Anglia, their borders to the south being the marshy course of the Stour, running from the primaeval forest that capped the "East Anglian Heights," and, to the west, the Cambridges.h.i.+re Fens. They thus lived within a ring fence almost una.s.sailable. Only in one spot was there an entrance. Between the Fen and the Forest stretched a narrow strip of open turf, some three or four miles across, affording easy marching.

And along it ran their own great war-path, the Icknield Street, extending from the heart of their realm right away to the Thames at Goring. It never became a Roman road, though a few miles are now metalled. Along most of its course it remains what it was in British days, a broad, green track seamed with scores of rut-marks. And even where it has been obliterated, its course may be traced by the names of Ickborough in Norfolk, Iclingham in Suffolk, Ickleton in Cambridges.h.i.+re, and Ickleford in Hertfords.h.i.+re.[162]

D. 4.--The Iceni had long ago taken care to fortify this approach to their land. The whole s.p.a.ce between fen and forest in the Cam valley was cut across by four (or five) great d.y.k.es which may still be traced, constructed for defence against invaders from the westward.

Of these, the two innermost are far more formidable than the rest, the "Fleam d.y.k.e" near Cambridge, and the "Devil's Ditch" by Newmarket.

The outer fosse of each is from twenty to thirty feet deep; and the rampart, when topped by a stockade, must have const.i.tuted an obstacle to troops unprovided with artillery which the Iceni might justifiably think insuperable. The "one narrow entrance" along the whole length of the d.y.k.es (five miles and ten miles respectively) is where the Icknield Way cuts through them.

D. 5.--Here then, probably, the Icenian levies confidently awaited the onslaught of Ostorius--the more confidently inasmuch as he had not waited to call up his legionaries from their winter quarters, but attacked only with the irregulars whom he had been employing against the marauders in the midlands. The Iceni, doubtless, imagined that such troops would be unequal to a.s.saulting their d.y.k.e at all. But Ostorius was no ordinary leader. Such was the enthusiasm which he inspired in his troops that they surprised the revolters by attacking along the whole line of the Fleam d.y.k.e at once, and that with such impetuosity that in a moment they were over it. The hapless Iceni were now caught in a death-trap. Behind them the Devil's Ditch barred all retreat save through its one narrow entrance, and those who failed to force their way through the mad crush there could only fight and die with the courage of despair. "Many a deed of desperate valour did they," says Tacitus [_multa et clara facinora_], and the Romans displayed like courage; the son of Ostorius winning in the fray the "civic crown"[163] awarded for the rescue of a Roman citizen. But no quarter seems to have been given, and the flower of the Icenian tribe perished there to a man.

D. 6.--This slaughter effectually scotched the rising which the Icenians were hoping to organize. All Central Britain submitted, and, we may presume, was quietly disarmed; though the work cannot have been very effectually done, as these same tribes were able to rise under Boadicea twelve years later. The indefatigable Ostorius next led his men against the Cangi in North Wales[164] (who seem to have been stirred to revolt by the Icenian Prince Antedrigus), and gained much booty, for the Britons dared not venture upon a battle, and had no luck in their various attempts at surprise. But before he quite reached the Irish Sea he was recalled by a disturbance amongst the Brigantes, which by a judicious mixture of firmness and clemency he speedily suppressed. And all this he did without employing a single legionary.

D. 7.--But neither firmness nor clemency availed to put an end to the desperate struggle for freedom maintained by the one clan in Britain which still held out against the Roman yoke. The Silurians of South Wales were not to be subdued without a regular campaign which was to tax the Legions themselves to the utmost. Naturally brave, stubborn, and with a pa.s.sionate love of liberty, they had at this juncture a worthy leader, for Caradoc was at their head. We hear nothing of his doings between the first battle against Aulus Plautius, when his brother ToG.o.dumnus fell, leaving him the sole heir of Cymbeline, until we find him here. But we may be pretty sure that he was the animating spirit of the resistance which so long checked the conquerors on the banks of the Thames, and that he took no part in the general submission to Claudius. Probably he led an outlaw life in the forest, stirring up all possible resistance to the Roman arms, till finally he found himself left with this one clan of all his father's subjects still remaining faithful.

D. 8.--But he never thought of surrender. He was everywhere amongst his followers, says Tacitus, exhorting them to resist to the death, reminding them how Caswallon had "driven out" the great Julius, and binding one and all by a solemn national covenant [_gentili religione_] never to yield "either for wound or weapon." Ostorius had to bring against him the whole force he could muster, even calling out the veterans newly settled at the Colony[165] of Camelodune. Caradoc and his Silurians, on their part, did not wait at home for the attack, but moved northwards into the territory of the Ordovices, who at least sympathized if they did not actually aid. Here he entrenched himself upon a mountain, very probably that Caer Caradoc, near Shrewsbury, which still bears his name. Those who know the ground will not wonder that Ostorius hesitated at a.s.saulting so impregnable a position. His men, however, were eager for the attack. "Nothing," they cried, "is impregnable to the brave." The legionaries stormed the hill on one side, the auxiliaries on the other; and once hand to hand, the mail-clad Romans had a fearful advantage against defenders who wore no defensive armour, nor even helmets. The Britons broke and fled, Caradoc himself seeking refuge amongst the Brigantes of the north.

D. 9.--At this time the chief power in this tribe was in the hands of a woman, Cartismandua, the heiress to the throne, with whose name and that of her Prince Consort scandal was already busy. The disturbances amongst the clan which Ostorius had lately suppressed were probably connected with her intrigues. Anyhow she posed as the favourite and friend of the Romans; and now showed her loyalty by arresting the national hero and handing him over to the enemy. With his family and fellow-captives he was [A.D. 52] deported to Rome, and publicly exhibited by the Emperor in his chains, as the last of the Britons, while the Praetorian Guards stood to their arms as he pa.s.sed.

D. 10.--According to Roman precedent the scene should have closed with a ma.s.sacre of the prisoners. But while the executioners awaited the order to strike, Caradoc stepped forward with a spirited appeal, the substance of which there is every reason to believe is truthfully recorded by Tacitus. Disdaining to make the usual pitiful pet.i.tions for mercy, he boldly justified his struggle for his land and crown, and reminded Claudius that he had now an exceptional opportunity for winning renown. "Kill me, as all expect, and this affair will soon be forgotten; spare me, and men will talk of your clemency from age to age." Claudius was touched; and even the fierce Agrippina, who, to the scandal of old Roman sentiment, was seated beside him at the saluting-point "as if she had been herself a General," and who must have reminded Caradoc of Cartismandua, was moved to mercy. Caradoc was spared, and a.s.signed a residence in Italy; and the Senate, believing the war at an end with his capture, voted to Ostorius "triumphal insignia"[166]--the highest honour attainable by any Roman below Imperial rank.[167]