Caratacus: British Resistance to the Roman Conquest (AD 43-51)

Caratacus was a British chieftain who led the longest early resistance to the Roman conquest of Britain, fighting from the invasion of AD 43 until his capture in AD 51. Defeated in the south-east, he carried the war into Wales, was betrayed by the pro-Roman queen Cartimandua and was finally paraded in Rome, where his dignified speech won him a pardon from the Emperor Claudius.

Background

Caratacus was a son of Cunobelinus, king of the Catuvellauni, the most powerful tribe of south-east Britain in the early 1st century AD. From their centre at Camulodunum (modern Colchester) the Catuvellauni dominated neighbouring peoples, including the Trinovantes, and pressed on the Atrebates to the south.

Cunobelinus died around AD 40, and his sons Caratacus and Togodumnus took a more aggressive line. Their expansion drove out Verica, an Atrebatic king friendly to Rome, who fled to the emperor. This gave Claudius, a new emperor eager for military prestige, a pretext for invasion.

The Claudian invasion of AD 43

In AD 43 a Roman army of about four legions plus auxiliaries, perhaps 40,000 men in all, landed under the general Aulus Plautius, beginning the Roman conquest of Britain. Caratacus and Togodumnus led the British opposition. According to Cassius Dio, the Britons were beaten in a series of engagements, including a hard two-day battle at a river crossing usually identified with the Medway in Kent, and a further fight near the Thames.

Togodumnus died soon afterwards. Claudius himself then came to Britain with reinforcements, reportedly including elephants, and entered Camulodunum in triumph. He stayed only about sixteen days, but eleven British rulers are recorded as submitting to him.

War in the west

Caratacus refused to submit. He moved west and became the war leader of the Silures of south-east Wales and later the Ordovices of central Wales. For several years he used hills, forests and river valleys to wage a draining guerrilla war against Roman forces.

In AD 47 a new governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula, took over. He disarmed suspect tribes, faced a revolt among the Iceni, and pushed Roman power towards the Welsh border. The Silures, Tacitus says, could be neither broken by force nor won over by kindness, largely because of Caratacus’s leadership.

The last battle and betrayal

In AD 50 or 51 Caratacus chose to fight a pitched battle in Ordovician territory. Tacitus describes a steep hillside position above a river, strengthened with stone ramparts. The legions crossed the river, broke through the defences and routed the Britons. The site has never been identified with certainty.

Caratacus escaped, but his wife and daughter were captured and his brothers surrendered. He fled north to Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, hoping for help. She was a client ruler allied to Rome, and she had him bound and handed over to the Romans in AD 51.

Caratacus in Rome

Caratacus’s fame had spread across Italy, and Claudius staged a grand display. The captive’s family and followers were paraded before the people, and the Praetorian Guard stood in arms. Tacitus gives Caratacus a speech in which he argues that his long resistance only made his defeat more glorious for Rome, and that sparing him would make the emperor’s clemency remembered forever.

The words are Tacitus’s literary version, not a transcript, but the outcome is not in doubt. Claudius pardoned Caratacus, his wife and his brothers. Cassius Dio adds the story that, after his release, Caratacus wondered aloud why a people with such great possessions should covet the humble homes of the Britons. Nothing reliable is known of his later life.

Myths and facts

Several hillforts claim to be the site of the last battle, including Caer Caradoc in Shropshire and British Camp on the Herefordshire Beacon. These are local traditions; archaeology has not confirmed any of them.

The Caratacus Stone on Exmoor carries a Latin inscription mentioning a descendant of a man called Caratacus. It dates from the 5th or 6th century AD and cannot be shown to refer to the famous chieftain. Coins marked CARA have been linked to him by some numismatists, but the attribution is debated.

Legacy

Caratacus became a symbol of British independence long after his defeat. Writers and artists from the 18th century onwards celebrated him, including Henry Fuseli’s painting of the scene before Claudius and Edward Elgar’s cantata Caractacus (1898). In Welsh tradition he is remembered as Caradog.

His capture did not end resistance. The Silures fought on, Ostorius died in office in AD 52 worn out by the struggle, and Wales was not fully conquered until the AD 70s. A decade after his surrender, Boudica’s revolt showed how fragile Roman control still was, and the later northern frontier at Hadrian’s Wall marked how far that conquest finally reached.

Timeline

• c. AD 40: Death of Cunobelinus; Caratacus and Togodumnus take power among the Catuvellauni.
• AD 43, summer: Roman invasion under Aulus Plautius; British defeats at the Medway and Thames.
• AD 43: Claudius arrives and enters Camulodunum; several British rulers submit.
• AD 47: Publius Ostorius Scapula becomes governor and campaigns towards Wales.
• AD 50 or 51: Caratacus is defeated in a pitched battle in the territory of the Ordovices.
• AD 51: Cartimandua hands Caratacus to the Romans; he is paraded in Rome and pardoned by Claudius.
• AD 52: Ostorius Scapula dies in Britain while the Silures continue fighting.

Why it matters

Caratacus’s eight-year struggle showed that the conquest of Britain would be long and costly for Rome. His story, preserved by Tacitus, became one of the earliest named portraits of a British leader and a lasting image of defiance in defeat.