http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caratacus December 23, 2010

Caratacus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caratacus / CaractacusKing of the BritonsKing of the Catuvellauni

"Caractacus before the Emperor Claudius at Rome", 18th century print by an unknownartist (British Museum).

King of the Catuvellauni)Reign 1st century, to c.50 AD

Predecessor EpaticcusSuccessor None (Catuvellauni territory conquered by Claudius)

King of the BritonsReign 43-50

Predecessor CunobelinusSuccessor Cogidubnus)

Father CunobelinusMother Unknown

Bornc. 10 AD ?Probably inCatuvellauni territory

Died After c. 50 ADRome

Caratacus (Brythonic *Caratācos, Greek Καράτακος; variants Latin Caractacus, Greek

Καρτάκης) was a historical British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who led the British

resistance to the Roman conquest. He was sentenced to death as a military prisoner, but

made a speech before his execution that caused the Emperor, Claudius to spare him. The

legendary Welsh character Caradog ap Bran and the legendary British king Arvirargus may

be based upon Caratacus.

[edit] History

[edit] Claudian Invasion

Caratacus is named by Dio Cassius as a son of the Catuvellaunian king Cunobelinus.[1]

Based on coin distribution Caratacus appears to have been the protégé of his uncle

Epaticcus, who expanded Catuvellaunian power westwards into the territory of the

Atrebates.[2] After Epaticcus died ca. 35, the Atrebates, under Verica, regained some of

their territory, but it appears Caratacus completed the conquest, as Dio tells us Verica was

ousted, fled to Rome and appealed to the emperor Claudius for help. This was the excuse

used by Claudius to launch his invasion of Britain in the Summer of 43.

Cunobelinus had died some time before the invasion. According to established history,

Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus led the initial defence of the country against Aulus

Plautius's four legions thought to have been around 40,000 men, primarily using guerrilla

tactics. They lost much of the south-east after being defeated in two crucial battles on the

rivers Medway[3] and Thames. Togodumnus was killed and the Catuvellauni's territories

were conquered. An alternative reading of Dio's history of the invasion suggests that

Togodumnus may actually have been acting in support of the Roman troops, against his

brother Caratacus, and that he survived the battles of the River Thames, providing the

later Roman administration with valued assistance.[4] Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth

University has further suggested that Togodumnus and Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus,

postulated resident of the late 1st century AD palace at Fishbourne may well have been one

and the same. Claudius was present in August when his legions marched into

Camulodunum (Colchester), the capital of the Catuvellauni,[5] but Caratacus survived and

carried on the resistance further west.

[edit] Resistance to Rome

We next hear of Caratacus in Tacitus's Annals, leading the Silures and Ordovices of Roman

Wales against Plautius' successor as governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula.[6] Finally, in 51,

Scapula managed to defeat Caratacus in a set-piece battle somewhere in Ordovician

territory (see the Battle of Caer Caradoc), capturing Caratacus' wife and daughter and

receiving the surrender of his brothers. Caratacus himself escaped, and fled north to the

lands of the Brigantes (modern Yorkshire) where the Brigantian queen, Cartimandua,

handed him over to the Romans in chains. This was one of the factors that led to two

Brigantian revolts against Cartimandua and her Roman allies, once later in the 50s and

once in 69, led by Venutius, who had once been Cartimandua's husband. With the capture

of Caratacus, much of southern Britain from the Humber to the Severn was pacified and

garrisoned throughout the 50s.[7 ]

Legend places Caratacus' last stand at British Camp in the Malvern Hills, but the

description of Tacitus makes this unlikely:

“ [Caratacus] resorted to the ultimate hazard, adopting a place for battle so thatentry, exit, everything would be unfavourable to us and for the better to his ownmen, with steep mountains all around, and, wherever a gentle access was possible,he strewed rocks in front in the manner of a rampart. And in front too there floweda stream with an unsure ford, and companies of armed men had taken up positionalong the defenses.[8] ”

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.

[edit] Captive in Rome

After his capture, Caratacus was sent to Rome as a war prize, presumably to be killed after

a triumphal parade. Although a captive, he was allowed to speak to the Roman senate.

Tacitus records a version of his speech in which he says that his stubborn resistance made

Rome's glory in defeating him all the greater:

“ Andrew Birrell (after Henry Fuseli), Caractacus at the Tribunal of Claudius atRome (1792)

If the degree of my nobility and fortune had been matched by moderation insuccess, I would have come to this City as a friend rather than a captive, nor wouldyou have disdained to receive with a treaty of peace one sprung from brilliantancestors and commanding a great many nations. But my present lot, disfiguring asit is for me, is magnificent for you. I had horses, men, arms, and wealth: whatwonder if I was unwilling to lose them? If you wish to command everyone, does itreally follow that everyone should accept your slavery? If I were now being handedover as one who had surrendered immediately, neither my fortune nor your glorywould have achieved brilliance. It is also true that in my case any reprisal will befollowed by oblivion. On the other hand, if you preserve me safe and sound, I shallbe an eternal example of your clemency."[9]

”

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,

covet our poor tents?"[10]

[edit] Caratacus' name

Caratacus' name appears as both Caratacus and Caractacus in manuscripts of Tacitus, and

as Καράτακος and Καρτάκης in manuscripts of Dio. Older reference works tend to favour

the spelling "Caractacus", but modern scholars agree, based on historical linguistics and

source criticism, that the original Brythonic form was *Caratācos, pronounced [kara

ˈtaːkos], which gives the attested names Caradog in Welsh and Carthach in Irish.[11]

[edit] Legend

[edit] Medieval Welsh traditions

Caratacus' memory may have been preserved in medieval Welsh tradition. A genealogy in

the Welsh Harleian MS 3859 (ca. 1100) includes the generations "Caratauc map Cinbelin

map Teuhant", corresponding, via established processes of language change, to "Caratacus,

son of Cunobelinus, son of Tasciovanus", preserving the names of the three historical

figures in correct relationship.[12]

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.[13] In Welsh versions his name is Gweirydd, son of Cynfelyn, and his brother is

called Gwydyr;[14] the name Arviragus is taken from a poem by Juvenal.[15]

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).[16] The Welsh Triads agree

that he was Bran's son, and name two sons, Cawrdaf and Eudaf.[17 ]

[edit] Modern traditions

Caradog only began to be identified with Caratacus after the rediscovery of the works of

Tacitus, and new material appeared based on this identification. An 18th century tradition,

popularised by the Welsh antiquarian and forger Iolo Morganwg, credits Caradog, on his

return from imprisonment in Rome, with the introduction of Christianity to Britain. Iolo

also makes the legendary king Coel Hen a son of Caradog's son Cyllen.[18]

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.[19]

One is Pomponia Graecina, wife of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, who as Tacitus

relates, was accused of following a "foreign superstition", generally considered to be

Christianity.[20] 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;[21] 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.[22] Martial

describes Claudia's marriage to a man named Pudens,[23] almost certainly Aulus Pudens,

an Umbrian centurion and friend of the poet who appears regularly in his Epigrams. It has

been argued since the 17th century[24] 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.[25] 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 St. 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 Caesar, Tacitus and Juvenal, although his classical cites at least are wildly inaccurate,

many of his assertions are unsourced, and many of his identifications entirely speculative.

He also regularly 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.[26]

[edit] In literature

Caractacus [sic] is referenced in a line of the "Modern Major General's Song", the

well-known libretto from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance.

The name Caractacus appears under a poem in The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann

Radcliffe.

Caractacus is the subject of a Victorian poem called "Caractacus the Briton" by

William Stewart Ross, published 1881 in a collection titled Lays of Romance and

Chivalry

The defeat of Caratacus by the Romans is the subject of Henry Treece's 1952 adult

novel, The Dark Island, the second book in his Celtic Tetralogy. As well, a poem

titled Caratacus appears in Treece's Exiles, a collection of poetry published in the

same year.

Caractacus briefly appears as a minor character in the Robert Graves novel, Claudius

the God.

Caratacus' capture and life as a captive in Rome is told from the point of view of his

fictional daughter, Eigon, in Barbara Erskine's time-slip novel, The Warrior's

Princess, pub. 2008.

Caratacus is a major character in Douglas Jackson's novel Claudius, pub. 2009, the

sequel to Caligula (2008).

Australian singer Rolf Harris recorded a song called "The Court Of King Caractacus"

in 1964; it was a hit in Australia and also charted in the US and UK.[27 ]

Edward Elgar composed a secular cantata based on the story of Caractacus for the

Leeds Choral Festival in 1898.

Ian Fleming, in his novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, named the family patriarch

"Caractacus Potts", and in the story, explains the significance of the name to his

readers.

Caradoc (Caratacus) is a major character in author Pauline Gedge's 1978 novel, The

Eagle and The Raven.

Caratacus appears in Simon Scarrow's Books Under the Eagle, The Eagle's Conquest,

When the Eagle Hunts, The Eagle and the Wolves and The Eagle's Prey

The story of Caratacus is dramatized in the "Onslaught" episode of The Roman

Invasion of Britain (2010) by the Smithsonian Channel[28]

[edit] References

1. ^ Dio Cassius, trans Earnest Cary, Roman History 60:19-22

2. ^ John Creighton, Coins and power in Late Iron Age Britain, Cambridge University

Press, 2000; Philip de Jersey (1996), Celtic Coinage in Britain, Shire Archaeology

3. ^ see also Battle of the Medway

4. ^ Miles Russell (2006) Roman Britain's Lost Governor, Current Archaeology 204, p

630-635; Miles Russell (2006) Roman Sussex Tempus, p 33-43; Miles Russell

(2010) Bloodline: The Celtic Kings of Roman Britain Amberley, p 100-112, 140-146

5. ^ A History of Britain, Richard Dargie (2007), p. 20

6. ^ Tacitus, Annals 12:33-38

7. ^ A History of Britain, Richard Dargie (2007), p. 21

8. ^ Tacitus, The Annals, translated by A. J. Woodman, 2004; see also Church &

Brodribb's translation

9. ^ Tacitus, The Annals, translated by A. J. Woodman, 2004; see also Church &

Brodribb's translation

10. ^ Dio Cassius, Roman History, Epitome of Book LXI, 33:3c

11. ^ Kenneth H. Jackson, "Queen Boudicca?", Britannia 10 p. 255, 1979

12. ^ Harleian Genealogies 16; The Heirs of Caratacus - Caratacus and his relatives in

medieval Welsh genealogies

13. ^ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae 4.12-16

14. ^ 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

15. ^ Juvenal, Satires, 4.126-127

16. ^ The Mabinogion: "Branwen, daughter of Llyr"

17. ^ Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, University of Wales Press, 1963; Triads

from the Red Book of Hergest and Peniarth MS 54

18. ^ Iolo Morganwg, Triads of Britain 17, 2, 23, 24, 34, 35, 41, 55, 79, 85, 91

19. ^ 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".

20. ^ Tacitus, Annals 13:32

21. ^ "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." Lingard, John, History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon

Church, 2nd. ed. Newcastle, Walker, 1810 Vol. I., p1.

22. ^ Martial, Epigrams, XI:53 (ed. & trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Harvard University

Press, 1993)

23. ^ Martial, Epigrams IV:13

24. ^ Baronius, 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)(Archdeacon),

contributor John Abraham, Claudia and Pudens, Herauld

25. ^ 2 Timothy 4:21 - "Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and

all the brethren."

26. ^ George Jowett, The Drama of the Lost Disciples, Covenant Books, 1961

27. ^ Rolf Harris discography

28. ^ The Roman Invasion of Britain

[edit] Further reading

Leonard Cottrell, The Roman Invasion of Britain, Barnes & Noble. New York, 1992

Sheppard Frere, Britannia: a History of Roman Britain, Pimlico, 1991

[edit] External links