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The conquest of Britain by the Romans in A.D. 44 and the immediately succeeding years is described in a number of contemporary accounts. The Greek historian Dio Cassius, though he lived more than a hundred years after the occurrences, had access to many records that are now lost, and he gives a specially full account of the early years of the conquest.
14. The inva-
sion under
Plautius
About the same time Aulus Plautius, a very distinguished senator, marched against Britain. For one Bericus, being driven out of that island by an insurrection, persuaded the Emperor Claudius to send an army thither. And this Plautius, taking the command, had great difficulty in leading his forces out of Gaul. For the soldiers were highly enraged, as though they were about to make war beyond the habitable world; nor would they obey him until Narcissus, having been sent from Claudius, ascended the tribunal of Plautius and was desirous of addressing them. for then on this account, turning their rage against him they did not permit him to utter one word, but suddenly shouting out the well-known expression “Io Saturnalia” (for the slaves during the festival of Saturn, assuming the characters of their masters, give themselves up to revelry), they immediately followed Plautius with alacrity.2 In consequence of these proceedings they were delayed in commencing their expedition.
Being divided at length into three bodies, lest attempting to land all at one point they should be obstructed, and having during their passage been somewhat disheartened by one occurrence, namely by being driven backward, but encouraged by another, that is to say, a meteor springing from the east and darting across towards the west, whither they were navigating, they landed on the island without opposition. For the Britons, from what they had learned not expecting that they would come, had not assembled together; nor even when they had arrived did they attack them, but fled to the marshes and woods, hoping to wear them out by delay, and that, as had happened under Julius Cæsar, the Romans would go back without effecting their purpose.
Plautius, therefore, had much difficulty in seeking them out; but when he did discover them, as they were not independent but subject to different kings; he overcame first Cataractacus, then Togodumnus, the son of Cunobelinus who was now dead. These taking to flight, he brought a part of the Boduni, who were under the dominion of the Catuvelanni, to terms of peace. Here, leaving a garrison, he proceeded farther. But when they arrived at a certain river, which the barbarians supposed the Romans could not pass without a bridge, and in consequence had taken up their position carelessly on the opposite bank, he sends forth the Gauls, who, even armed, were accustomed to swim with ease over the most rapid rivers; who, attacking them contrary to their expectation, wounded, not the men indeed, but the horses which drew their chariots. These being thrown into confusion, they who rode therein were no longer secure.
Next he sent across Flavius Vespianus, who afterward enjoyed the supreme rule, and his brother Sabinus as next in command; these also, having passed the river at a certain place, killed many of the barbarians by surprise. The rest, however, did not fly, but the following day again maintained the conflict nearly on equal terms, until Caius Osidius Geta, though in imminent danger of being made prisoner, ultimately so completely defeated them that he received triumphal honors, although the had not yet served the office of consul. The Britons, 22thence retreating to the river Thames, where it discharges itself into the ocean and becomes an estuary at high tide, easily passed it, as they were well acquainted with those parts which were firm and fordable. The Romans pursued them, but at this point failed to overtake them, though the Gauls again swimming over, and others passing a little higher up by means of a bridge, attacked them on every side and cut off many of them; but rashly pressing on the remainder, they wandered into the pathless marshes and lost many of their own soldiers.
1 From Dion Cassius, Lib. lx, cc. 19-23; Monumenta Historica Brittanica, p. liv.
2 Narcissus was a Greek slave who had been freed by the Emperor, treated as a favorite, and raised to the position of his special representative, thus earning the ridicule and hatred of the soldiers, and turning their enthusiasm back to their own general.