Caratacus Catuvellauni (abt. 10 - abt. 50)

Born about 0010 in Camulodunum (Colchester), Catuvellauni Territory, Britain

Descendants

Died about 0050 at about age 40 in Rome, Roman Empire

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Biography

Caratacus was a real person whose exploits also made him the subject of legends.

Name

He is most familiarly known as Caractacus, the Latin form of his name or Caratacus, derived from the Καράτακος / Καρτάκης. He is most likely to have been known as Caratācos, the Brythonic form of his name. From the Brythonic form may be derived Caratawc (Middle Welsh), Caradog (Welsh), and Karadeg (Breton). ^[1]

His name appears as both Caratacus and Caractacus in manuscripts of Tacitus, and as Καράτακος and Καρτάκης in manuscripts of Dio. ^[1]

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 [karaˈtaːkos], which gives the attested names Caradog ("Loving, Beloved, Dear; Friend") in Welsh, Karadeg in Breton and Carthach ("Loving, Dear") in Irish. ^[2]

10 Birth and Parents

Caratacus was born in about the year 10. ^[1]

Caratacus is named by Dio Cassius as a son of the Catuvellaunian king Cunobelinus. ^[3]

The Catuvellauni were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century. ^[4]

Cunobelinus had died some time before the invasion. ^[1]

His mother is unknown.^[1].

Siblings

Caratacus was one of three siblings, sons of Cunobelinus: Adminius, Togodumnus and Caratacus, ^[1]

1. Adminius. Adminius, judging by his coins, had control of Kent by this time. Suetonius tells us that in about 40 he was banished from Britain by his father and sought refuge with the emperor Caligula. Caligula treated this as if the entire island had submitted to him and prepared an invasion of Britain. He abandoned it, however, in farcical circumstances by ordering his soldiers to attack the waves and gather seashells as the spoils of victory. ^[5]
2. Togodumnus
3. Caratacus. Caratacus completed the conquest of the Atrebates, and their king, Verica, fled to Rome, providing the new emperor, Claudius, with a pretext for the conquest of Britain. Caratacus and Togodumnus led the initial resistance to the invasion. ^[1] Dio Cassius tells us that the "Bodunni", a tribe who were tributary to the Catuvellauni, changed sides and supported the Romans. This is probably a misspelling of the Dobunni of Gloucestershire, indicating that Cunobelinus's hegemony extended as far as the West Country. ^[6]

35 Reign

He reigned in the 1st century from 35-50 as King of the Catuvellauni or as King of the Britons. He was preceded by Epaticcus and Cunobelinus. Because the Catuvellauni territory was conquered by Roman Emperor Claudius in the period 43-50, he had no successors.^[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.^[1]

After Epaticcus died about 35 A.D., the Atrebates, under Verica, regained some of their territory, but it appears Caratacus completed the conquest.

43 Roman Invasion

Dio tells us that Verica of the Atrebates 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 AD. ^[1]

Lloyd comments that "it remains beyond doubt...that the invaders were opposed by two of the sons of Cunobelinus, Caratacus and Togodumnus, the latter of whom died in the couyrse of the war....The seat of their authority, Camulodunum, became t4he cengtre of the Roman province, where in a few years a temple was setg up in honour of the deified Claudius and a colony of veterans was established. ^[7]

Caratacus resisted the Romans for almost a decade, mixing guerrilla warfare with set-piece battles, but was unsuccessful in the latter. ^[1]

The invasion targeted Caratacus's stronghold of Camulodunon (modern Colchester), previously the seat of his father Cunobelinus.[3][4]^[1]

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, the Battle of the River Medway and River Thames. ^[1]

Togodumnus was killed (although John Hind argues that Dio was mistaken in reporting Togodumnus's death, that he was defeated but survived, and was later appointed by the Romans as a friendly king over a number of territories, becoming the loyal king referred to by Tacitus as Cogidubnus or Togidubnus) and the Catuvellauni's territories were conquered. ^[1]

The Catuvellauni stronghold of Camulodunum was converted into the first Roman colonia in Britain, Colonia Victricensis.^[1]

51 Silures and Ordovices and Defeat

Following the loss of Catuvellauni territory, Tacitus's Annals reports Caratacus leading the Silures and Ordovices of Wales against Plautius's successor as governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula. ^[1]

In 51, Scapula managed to defeat Caratacus in a set-piece battle somewhere in Ordovician territory (see the Battle of Caer Caradoc), capturing Caratacus's wife and daughter and receiving the surrender of his brothers.

Final Defeat and Flight: Cartimandua

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. ]^[1]

With the capture of Caratacus, much of southern Britain from the Humber to the Severn was pacified and garrisoned throughout the 50s.[9]]^[1]

Legends place Caratacus's last stand at either Caer Caradoc near Church Stretton or British Camp in the Malvern Hills, but the description of Tacitus makes either unlikely.^[1]

The invasion ended in A. DS. 51 in the signal defeat of Catacacus, at a spot which is now impossible to identify, since the description of Tacitus carries the readewr no further thanthis, that it was a hill-fortress in the country of the Ordovices, protecteed on one side by a river not easy to ford." ^[8]

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. His speech persuaded the Emperor Claudius to spare him.^[1]

Caratacus' Speech Before 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:]^[1]

If the degree of my nobility and fortune had been matched by moderation in success, I would have come to this City as a friend rather than a captive, nor would you have disdained to receive with a treaty of peace one sprung from brilliant ancestors and commanding a great many nations. But my present lot, disfiguring as it is for me, is magnificent for you. I had horses, men, arms, and wealth: what wonder if I was unwilling to lose them? If you wish to command everyone, does it really follow that everyone should accept your slavery? If I were now being handed over as one who had surrendered immediately, neither my fortune nor your glory would have achieved brilliance. It is also true that in my case any reprisal will be followed by oblivion. On the other hand, if you preserve me safe and sound, I shall be an eternal example of your clemency.^[1]

Caratacus 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?" ^[9]

Caratacus's speech to Claudius has been a common subject in art. Caratacus himself appears in numerous works of literature. ^[1]

Death

Caratacus died in Rome after the year 50 ^[1]

Issue

There is no record of Caratacus' wives or children.

Research Notes

Parallel Profiles (need consideration for merges)

The following WikiTree profiles respond to a search for WikiTree + Caratacus:

• Caratacus Catuvellauni
• Caradoc Bran
• Eurgen Ap Meric of Siluria daughter of Caradoc ap Bran
• Caradoc ap Bran

The following WikiTree profiles have the LNAB of Catuvellauni

• Deleted Profile
• Lucille Catuvellauni Britain born 150
• Casswallons Britons Catuvellauni born Jamaica, died 1948 British Columbia.

Legendary Siblings

In legend, Cambelinus, grandfather of Caratacus, died after a reign of two years, leaving two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. ^[10]

1. Arviragus is said to be the son of Cunobeline. ^[10]
2. Guiderius is said to be Avirargus' brother. ^[10] Guiderius succeeds his father in the government of the kingdom. He refuses to pay the tribute to the Roman government.^[11]

Legendary Associations

The legendary Welsh character Caradog ap Bran and the legendary British king Arvirargus may be based upon Caratacus. ]^[1]

Medieval Welsh traditions

Caratacus's 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. ^[6]

Wikipedia reports that 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.^[12] In Welsh versions his name is Gweirydd, son of Cynfelyn (Gweirydd ap Cynfelyn) , and his brother is called Gwydyr;^[13]the name Arviragus is taken from a poem by Juvenal.^[14]

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).^[15] The Welsh Triads agree that he was Bran's son, and name two sons, Cawrdaf and Eudaf.^[16]

Christian origins

"Welshmen have been taught to believew that the father of the great Caratcaus accompanied his son to Rome, there became a convert to the new faith, and, returning as a missionary to his native land, won immortal renown as "Bran the Blessed...Upon examination, these and similar stories vanish into thin air, and all that is certain is that at the beginning of the fourth century, when Christianity secured the protection and patronage of the Emperor Constantine the Geat, it had already obtained a footing and made some progress in Britain.." ^[17]

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 Saint Cyllin. ^[18]

Richard Williams Morgan claimed that a reference to Cyllin as a son of Caratacus was found in the family records of Iestyn ab Gwrgant and used this as evidence of the early entry of Christianity to Britain: "Cyllin ab Caradog, a wise and just king. In his days many of the Cymry embraced the faith in Christ through the teaching of the saints of Cor-Eurgain, and many godly men from the countries of Greece and Rome were in Cambria. He first of the Cymry gave infants names; for before, names were not given except to adults, and then from something characteristic in their bodies, minds, or manners." ^[19]

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. ^[20]

One is Pomponia Graecina, wife of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, who as Tacitus relates, was accused of following a "foreign superstition", which the tradition considers to be Christianity.[23]

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;[24] 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.[25] Martial describes Claudia's marriage to a man named Pudens,[26] 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[27] 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.[28]

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 citations 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.[29]

Temporary: Wikipedia References

Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd

[2]Jump up ^ 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]^ Jump up to: a b Crummy, Philip (1997) City of Victory; the story of Colchester - Britain's first Roman town. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust (ISBN 1 897719 04 3)

[4]Jump up ^ Todd, Malcolm. (1981) Roman Britain; 55BC - 400AD. Published by Fontana Paperbacks (ISBN 0 00 633756 2)

[5]Jump up ^ J. G. F. Hind, "A. Palutius' Campaign in Britain: An Alternative Reading of the Narrative in Cassius Dio (60.19.5-21.2)", Britannia Vol. 38 (2007), pp. 93-106)

[6]Jump up ^ Crummy, Philip (1992) Colchester Archaeological Report 6: Excavations at Culver Street, the Gilberd School, and other sites in Colchester 1971-85. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust (ISBN 0-9503727-9-X)

[7]Jump up ^ Crummy, Philip (1984) Colchester Archaeological Report 3: Excavations at Lion Walk, Balkerne Lane, and Middleborough, Colchester, Essex. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust (ISBN 0-9503727-4-9)

[8]Jump up ^ Tacitus, Annals 12:33-38

[9]ump up ^ A History of Britain, Richard Dargie (2007), p. 21

[10Jump up ^ Tacitus, The Annals, translated by A. J. Woodman, 2004; see also Church & Brodribb's translation

[11]Jump up ^ Tacitus, The Annals, translated by A. J. Woodman, 2004; see also Church & Brodribb's translation

[23]Jump up ^ Tacitus, Annals 13:32

[24]Jump up ^ "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.

[25]Jump up ^ Martial, Epigrams, XI:53 (ed. & trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Harvard University Press, 1993)

[26]Jump up ^ Martial, Epigrams IV:13

[27]Jump up ^ 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), contributor John Abraham, Claudia and Pudens, Herauld

[28Jump up ^ 2 Timothy 4:21 - "Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren."

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24} Wikipedia Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
2. ↑ Kenneth H. Jackson, "Queen Boudicca?", Britannia 10 p. 255, 1979. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
3. ↑ Dio Cassius, trans Earnest Cary, Roman History 60:19-22. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
4. ↑ Wikipedia Catuvellauni
5. ↑ Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Caligula 44.2–47; Dio Cassius, Roman History 59.25 Cited by Wikipedia.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Dio Cassius, Roman History 60.20. Cited by Wikipedia.
7. ↑ Lloyd, 50
8. ↑ Lloyd, 53
9. ↑ Dio Cassius, Roman History, Epitome of Book LXI, 33:3c Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Pedigree, St. Paul in Britain, page 172, displayed at From Beli to Byzantine
11. ↑ John de Wavrin, 1864, A Collection of the Chronicles and ancient Histories of Great Britain, now called England, translated by Will. Hardy: From Albina to A, Part 688 (Google eBook)
12. ↑ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae 4.12-16. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
13. ↑ 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. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
14. ↑ Juvenal, Satires, 4.126-127. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
15. ↑ The Mabinogion: "Branwen, daughter of Llyr" Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
16. ↑ Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, University of Wales Press, 1963; Triads from the Red Book of Hergest and Peniarth MS 54. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
17. ↑ Lloyd, p. 103
18. ↑ Iolo Morganwg, Triads of Britain 17, 2, 23, 24, 34, 35, 41, 55, 79, 85, 91. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
19. ↑ Richard Williams Morgan (1861). St. Paul in Britain; or, The origin of British as opposed to papal Christianity. pp. 161–. Retrieved 8 August 2012. Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd
20. ↑ 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". Cited in Wikipedia. Caratacus. Accessed August 24, 2017. jhd

'Bibliography of Frequently Cited Sources

Lloyd, Sir John Edward. A History of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest London Longmans, Green & Co, 1911.

See also:

• Leonard Cottrell, The Roman Invasion of Britain, Barnes & Noble. New York, 1992
• Sheppard Frere, Britannia: a History of Roman Britain, Pimlico, 1991
  • Wikipedia: Silures

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile UNKNOWN-83022 created through the import of heinakuu2011-6.ged on Jul 5, 2011 by Johanna Amnelin. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Johanna and others.