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
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