Personal Names – the first known Britons
All information on the pre-conquest inhabitants of Britain is both patchy, and a possible victim of propaganda
All information on the pre-conquest inhabitants of Britain comes entirely from coin evidence and pro-Roman writers. It is subsequently both patchy, and a possible victim of propaganda. Names are given below, for consistency, in their Romanised forms, although the names of leaders of the Catuvellauni, namely Cassivellaunus, Tasciovanus, Cunobelinus and Caratacus have survived in Welsh as Caswallawn, Teuhant, Cynfelyn and Caradog respectively. Cunobelinus is also the Cymbeline of Shakespeare’s play.
55 BC and all that.
Julius Caesar raided the south east of Britain twice, once in 55BC, and once again in 54BC. As these raids were related to his wars in Gaul, he recorded information about them in his books on the Gallic Wars, De Bello Gallico, and in so doing, became the first person to record the names of individuals from Britain.
No individuals from Britain are mentioned in the 55BC account apart from Commius the Atrebatian (see below). The Atrebates were a Belgic tribe with lands on both sides of the channel, and Commius was a native of Gaul.
The Catuvellauni – from Cassivellaunus to Caratacus
The honour of being the first ever historically known person believed to be a native of Britain goes to Cassivellaunus, King of the Catuvellauni. Cassivellaunus led the British resistance to Caesar’s second raid in 54BC, with the support of four kings of the Cantiaci (see below). The British, however, were not united in their opposition, due to inter-tribal war and differing approaches as to how to deal with Caesar.
After deciding to use guerrilla tactics to combat the Romans, Cassivellaunus’ location was betrayed to Caesar by members of other tribes, and Cassivellaunus surrendered. He was then forced to accept terms, which included accepting Mandubracius as leader of rival tribe the Trinovantes, and paying an annual tribute to Rome.
Cassivellaunus was succeeded as King of the Catuvellauni (possibly not immediately) by Tasciovanus, who is only known via coin inscriptions. He seems to have become king about 20BC, and to have temporarily taken over the Trinovantes between about 15–10BC. The Catuvellauni had their ‘capital’ at Verulamium (modern day St. Albans) while the Trinovantes had theirs at Camolodunum (modern day Colchester), and Tasciovanus, for a short while, issued coins from both. He died in about 9AD.
His son Cunobelinus, took over where he left off, while another son, Epaticcus, moved westwards into the land of the Atrebates in the 20s AD, and took their capital of Calleva (modern day Silchester). Epaticcus died in about 35AD after which time the Atrebates gained some of their territory back. Cunobelinus, however, like his father, minted coins from both Camolodunum and Verulamium. During his reign, there seem to have been increased trading links with the Roman empire, as noted by the historian Strabo, and Cunobelinus was not afraid to use the title REX on his coins. He died in the early 40s AD, prior to the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD.
Cunobelinus had three sons, Adminius, Togodumnus and Caratacus. Adminius seems to have taken control of the Cantiaci by about 35AD, but was banished from Britain by his father some five years later. Adminius then indulged in the popular pastime of seeking refuge with the Roman emperor, in this case Caligula. Caligula subsebquently planned an invasion of Britain, but never carried it out.
Togodumnus took control of the Catuvellauni, and Caratacus reconquered the Atrebates, giving the Atrebatian leader Verica his own opportunity to seek refuge with a Roman emperor, who by this time was Claudius. This provided Claudius with an appropriate excuse to invade Britain in 43AD, and, unlike Caligula, he went ahead with it.
Resistance to the Claudian invasion was led by Togodumnus and Caratacus, but Togodumnus was killed in 43AD in a battle on the Thames. Caratacus remained at large, outside of Roman controlled territory until 51AD, and so we shall return to him again in the chapter on Roman Britain.
The Trinovantes
From references in Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, it seems that the Trinovantes had been the most influential tribe in the region before Cassivellaunus killed Imanuentius, their leader. This resulted in Imanuentius’ son Mandubracius fleeing to Gaul to seek Caesar’s protection. While on his expedition of 54 BC, the Trinovantes betrayed Cassivellaunus’ location to Caesar, who then besieged him and ultimately forced him to surrender and make terms. Part of those terms included installing Mandubracius as king of the Trinovantes, and Cassivellaunus promising not to make war against him.
The next known king of the Trinovantes was Addedomarus, who produced the first inscribed coins north of the Thames sometime between 35 and 15BC. He was succeeded by Dubnovellaunus in about 10–5BC. Dubnovellaunus reigned for several years before losing control of his territory to Cunobelinus of the Catuvellauni.
The Atrebates
The Atrebatian leader Commius is actually mentioned by Caesar before Cassivellaunus. However, the Atrebates had lands in Gaul and in Britain, and it is via Gaul that we hear of him first. After conquering his lands in Gaul, Caesar made Commius king of the Atrebates and tried to use him as an ambassador to Britain. When sent to Britain in advance of Caesar’s first expedition in 55 BC, he was captured, but later released back to Caesar as part of the negotiation of terms. Commius returned to Gaul, where he fought against the Romans.
A king called Commius was ruler of the Atrebates back in Britain at around 30BC and issued coins until circa 20BC. However, 20BC is a long way from 55BC, and it is possible, although not certain, that there were two kings, father and son, with the same name.
The Commius of 20BC had three known recorded sons, namely Tincomarus, Eppillus and Verica. Tincomarus seems to have ruled jointly with his father from about 25BC until his father’s death, after which the territory appears to have been divided into a northern part, ruled by Tincomarus from Calleva, and a southern part ruled by Eppillus from Noviomagus (modern day Chichester). Eppillus became sole ruler in about 7AD, and Verica took over about 8 years later, ruling from Calleva until just before the Claudian conquest in 43AD. The conquest of Verica’s territory by Caratacus of the Catuvellauni was in fact used by Claudius as justification for his invasion.
The Cantiaci
The ‘four kings of Cantium’ (Kent) who helped Cassivellaunus against Caesar in 54BC were, Carvilius, Cingetorix, Segovax and Taximagulus. By the 30s BC, a king named Dubnovellaunus (not the same person as his namesake from the Trinovantes above) was the first king of the Cantiaci to issue inscribed coins. He appears to have been succeeded by Vodenos, who ruled until about 15AD, when he was succeeded by Eppillus, probably the same Eppillus that ruled the Atrebates until this time.
The Iceni
Anted(ios) was ruler of the Iceni from about 25AD until 47AD. He did not oppose the Claudian invasion of 43AD and was consequently allowed to remain in control as a client ruler. He issued coins marked with his own name ANTED, followed by coins marked with the tribal name ECEN, probably because of internal unrest. Despite his complicity with the Romans, his tribe, the Iceni, would in time lead the biggest revolt against the Romans in Britain.
References and External Links
Information on British tribes and their leaders can be found at: www.roman-britain.org/main.htm#
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Monarchs_of_British_tribes