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Roman Conquest of Britain
Why would the mighty Roman Empire
conquer a remote island “at the edge
of the world?”
Britain was remote but familiar to
Greek & Roman traders.
It was known for mild winters,
abundant food, and in some cases
obliging native Celtic allies.
Julius Caesar, in the middle of a 3
way power struggle needed a quick &
easy victory to secure his glory. He
assumed Celtic ‘barbarians’ would
submit to Roman legions.
• Roman Conquest of Britain-2
• 55-54BC Julius Caesar unsuccessfully invaded
Britain twice. Celtic leaders used hit-and-run
tactics to frustrate the Roman legions. In the
decades after various Celtic tribes and kings
paid homage to Rome and trade increased. 90
Years later in 43AD, the Romans, led by the
Emperor Claudius launched a classical world
version of ‘shock & awe’ against the island.
40,000 troops! Many Celtic kings and tribal
leaders surrendered and became puppet-kings.
Other Celtic kingdoms and tribes, especially the
Picts & Caledonii in the north resisted.
• Roman Conquest of Britain-3
• 60AD the Iceni, who cooperated with the Romans were
treated harshly & declared a slave province.
• The Queen of the Iceni, Boudicca tried to negotiate but
was publicly flogged & her daughters were publicly
brutalized.
• The enraged Iceni, led by Boudicca rebelled &
assembled a large army, of 300,000 & sacked
Colchester& Londinium.
• Roman legions finally defeat Boudicca’s army and she
took her own life rather than fall to the Romans. “They
make a desert and they call it peace.”
• Roman’s did learn to run Brittania better.
• 122AD Hadrian’s Wall is begun to keep out the Picts
and Caledonii.
• By the 200s most Celtic tribes had begun to ‘Latinize.’
Roman & Celtic culture merged, and created a
hybridized Romano-British culture in the cities.
• Roman Conquest of Britain-4
• By the 300s trade flourished, roads were built,
and cities grew. The Roman Empire was
crumbling, but because of the hybridization of
the Roman-British, the concept of ‘Rome’ in
Britannia was stronger than it was in Europe.
367AD a 3-way coordinated onslaught by
Anglo-Saxons from across the North Sea, Picts
from the North, and the Gaelic Dal Riata Scoti
from Ireland invaded Roman Britain. 410AD ‘the
Flight of the Eagles.’ Last Roman legions
evacuate Britain to defend the empire.
• Roman Conquest of Britain-4
• Vortigern (name or title?) invited Saxon
mercenaries and their ‘wave horses’ to
fight other Saxons and Picts & promised to
give them land. This failed. The Angles &
Saxons continued to invade & settle
Britain. Celtic and Romano-British
resistance grew. The Age of Arthur? 480520AD?
• The Saxon Invasions
• ‘Saxon’ was a generic term for groups of Germanic
invaders including Angles, Jutes, Franks, & Frisians.
Celts & Gaels called them ‘Sassenoch;, the Britons
‘Sais.
• ‘Saxon’ comes from the word Seax or ‘long-knife.’
• Saxon raiding began in the 400s and caused the
Romano-British to build the ‘Saxon Shore’ forts.
• After the Roman withdrawal in 410 the Saxon raiding
became a full scale invasion. Saxons no longer raided
but settled in the SE.
• 439AD Vortigern hired Saxon & Jute mercenaries led by
Hengist & Horsa to fight Picts. He did not pay them.
• Saxons terrorize Britannia and the amount of settlers, at
first very small, becomes a flood.
• Gildas, a Briton (Welsh) poet recorded the Saxon
invasions as horrific events portending the end of the
world.
• The Saxon Invasions
• Why did the Saxons invade/settle Britain?
• Climatic change caused flooding in Northern
Germany and colder weather shortened their
growing season.
• Demographic explosion. Too many people, not
enough food.
• Political climate: Too many chiefs, kings and
warriors to sustain a lawful society, so young
warriors were encouraged to venture out.
• Saxons were envious of Roman civilization, and
often built their towns over the ruins of RomanoBritish cities.
• Saxon kings also sought the regnum Britanniae.
• The Saxon Invasions
• Saxons have been portrayed as ignorant brutes
& barbarians that ruined the civilization of
Britain. Not entirely true. Unlike the Romans,
who at times saw war and violence & sport
(Gladiators, etc.) Saxons used war as a system.
Chiefs became kings through physical prowess.
Plunder was the glue of Saxon society. It bound
warriors to their chiefs, land was held in return
for military service, it was the honor that fed their
epic poems and culture. The Anglo-Saxon poem
Beowulf written in the 7th or 8th century is a
fantasy epic, but clearly shows how honor, war,
and the society of ceorls ‘free warriors’
dominated Anglo-Saxon society.
• King Arthur: Man or Myth?
“If King Arthur did not live, he should have.”
Sir Winston Churchill
• Was Arthur a real man, a king, warlord, soldier,
defender of his people? Or was he the stuff of
legend, a mythic hero from the ‘Celtic twilight’
that haunts us through the centuries as a
romantic ideal for which we can not achieve?
• Regardless, Arthur and his companions were
not from the age of Chivalry with armored
knights & jousting which was from the 12th-15th
centuries. The saga of Arthur is from the Dark
Ages, approximately 450-600AD.
• King Arthur: Man or Myth? 2
• There are several theories regarding a
‘historical’ Arthur Ancient Deity
• In Welsh, the modern language perhaps closest
to the Celtic tongue spoken by the inhabitants of
southern Britain in the era of the Saxon
invasions, the word ‘arth’ means ‘bear.’ In preChristian Celtic religions there are several ‘bear
gods’ with a name similar to arth, arthos, &
artos. Over the centuries the legends of this
‘god’ or demi-god may have been adapted and
fit to contemporary facts and survived in the form
of a legend of a great man as a way in which
pagan religions became intertwined & adapted
into early Christianity. It is possible there was a
warrior during the 5th-6th centuries that used a
bear as his standard or battle flag.
• King Arthur: Man or Myth? 3Lucius Artorius Castus
• In 1924 historian Kemp Malone suggested that the
Arthur was Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman general
sent to guard Hadrian’s Wall in 181AD.
• Lucius Artorius Castus’ banner was a red dragon. The
King Arthur of lore, Arthur Pendragon, was said to carry
a banner with a red dragon on it.
• 183AD, Castus led the defense of Britannia when Picts
swarmed over the wall.
• Castus’ force was a cohort of 5,500 Sarmatian cavalry.
The Sarmatians were from the Black Sea region.
Sarmatians were mounted horsemen. Their religion
practiced worship on alters of a sword in a stone, and
archeological evidence from Britain shows that
Sarmatian warriors were buried with the hilts of their
swords protruding from the ground. It is possible this led
to the legend of Arthur’s knights.