Caratacus

The invasion force landed in the southeast, probably near what is now Richborough and Kent, and moved steadily northward and westward against fierce resistance.

The most significant early battles were fought at the rivers Medway and Thames, where British forces under the leaders Caractacus and Togodumnus, brothers and sons of the old king Cunobellin, mounted serious opposition.

The Romans won both engagements.

Togodumnus was killed.

Caractacus escaped westward to fight a guerrilla campaign that would continue for years.

It was at this point that Claudius himself arrived in Britain, the emperor personally crossing the ocean to oversee the ceremonial capture of Camulodunum, modern Colchester, which served as the first Roman capital of the new province.

He stayed for approximately 16 days, accepted the submission of several tribal kings, and returned to Rome to celebrate a spectacular triumph.

[upbeat music] Welcome back to the Roman History podcast, episode 14, Humanitas.

Last episode, we followed Caractacus into the mountains and into captivity and into legend.

This time, we're going to do something that feels almost like a betrayal of him, and in a sense it is.

We're going to turn our back on the war in the West and look at what was quietly rising in the peaceful lowlands behind the army, because that in the long run is, and was, the rest of the conquest.

There were also slower transformations of existing British centers into Roman towns.

The best example of this is Verulamium, which is the modern St. Albans.

This had been a major center of the Catuvellauni, Caractacus' own people before the conquest.

A sprawling native settlement, the kind that the Romans called an oppidum.

Boudica gets the big story.

Boudica gets the big sort of Hollywood treatment, whereas Caratacus, uh, tends to get ignored and forgotten.

I deliberately started by saying Caractacus-

[laughs]

... because I knew you were going to challenge me straight away.