- Chapter Thirty-Two -
the hatred they incurred of the anti-Roman faction which was later responsible for
the destruction of their capital, Verulamium, in the Boudican revolt of AD 60. The
Dobunni had split into two tribes, due doubtless to an early dynastic quarrel.
The southern half, south of the river Avon, were allied to the Durotriges, who had a
bitter hatred of Rome, due mainly to Caesar's destruction of the Veneti with whom
they had a close trading and possibly tribal relationship. The northern half of the
tribe had felt the distant hand of Cunobelinos, according to Dio, and small-scale
excavations at their great oppidum at Bagendon have produced evidence of early
trade in the form of imported samian (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments
1976: 7). It is possible that they had been obliged to supply levies to the anti-Roman
forces gathered together by Caratacus.
THE CLAUDIAN INVASION AND BEYOND
The fate of Britain was settled by the two-day battle on the Medway when Vespasian
outflanked the Britons and established a bridgehead on the west bank. The army
advanced to the Thames but remained on the south bank to await the arrival of
Claudius to enable him to lead his victorious army into the enemy capital at
Camulodunum. Here he received the surrender of eleven rulers, according to the
surviving pieces of the inscription from his triumphal arch. What is surprising, how-
ever, is the inclusion of the phrase sine ulla iactura which, at that time, would have
meant 'without bloodshed', which is grossly untrue. Caesar, a hundred years earlier,
had used it in a totally different sense, since to him it meant 'without loss of hon-
our'. The pedantic mind of Claudius may have seen an occasion to use an outdated
phrase quite deliberately as an acknowledgement to his distinguished forebear. It
would also have been legally correct, since it could have been said that Claudius
invaded Britain in response to the request of a client-king, Verica.
The identity of the eleven rulers who surrendered is not known, but presumably
it would have included those who had already come to terms with Rome, such as the
northern Dobunni, the Catuvellauni, the Atrebates/Regni and most likely the old
ally, the !ceni, and the powerful Brigantian confederacy of north Britain under
Queen Cartimandua. It seems probable that, in the later reorganization of the
tribes for administrative purposes, smaller tribes were absorbed into the larger units.
This could be especially true of the Catuvellauni, who appear, in the Roman reorga-
nization, to have occupied a territory larger than other tribes. This could also apply
to the Corieltauvi (formerly and incorrectly known as the Coritani, Tomlin 1983:
353-5). The most interesting tribe is the Regni with its head of state, Cogidubnus.
He had been given Roman citizenship by Claudius and took his name, Claudius
Tiberius.
The Roman commander, Aulus Plautius, was evidently working to a predeter-
mined plan to occupy only south-eastern Britain. The boundary of the new province
was marked by the Fosse frontier which stretched from the Humber to Lincoln, then
turned in a south-west direction to the south-west coast (Webster 1958: 49-98;
1993b: 159-67). It was a fortified zone some 30-40 miles in depth and included those
tribes which had migrated to Britain from Gaul within the previous four centuries,