First Contact
Julius Caesar came over from France expecting to silence the noisy neighbours, but things did not go according to plan.
55 BC
Roman Britain 43-410
Julius Caesar came over from France expecting to silence the noisy neighbours, but things did not go according to plan.
55 BC
Roman Britain 43-410
In 55 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the Channel from Gaul to Britain. British tribes were supporting the Gallic resistance, and he thought they needed to be taught a lesson. That proved to more difficult than he had hoped, and it is perhaps unsurprising that after this, the Roman authorities pursued a policy towards Britain that Emperor Augustus christened ‘masterly inactivity’.
ONE night late in August, 55 BC, Julius Caesar set sail from Boulogne with more than eighty ships. Eighteen more, carrying his cavalry, were to follow. Dover’s towering cliffs, lined with defiant Britons, prompted Caesar to land his ships at Walmer. His men, reluctant to disembark into unexpectedly deep waters, were rallied by their standard-bearer. “Leap, fellow soldiers” he cried, “unless you wish to betray your eagle to the enemy. I, for my part, will perform my duty to the republic and to my general.”
But there was no swift victory. Caesar knew little of Britain’s powerful tides* and relentless storms, and underestimated his opponent. The cavalry were blown far off course. His other ships were battered or wrecked on the shore, and the Britons’ courage and remarkable horsemanship unnerved the Romans. Afraid of being trapped by winter and starved, Caesar snatched the first opportunity to broker a face-saving peace (whose terms the Britons mostly ignored) and returned to Gaul with a long line of slaves. “Caesar alerted his successors to Britannia,” cautioned Roman historian Tacitus; “he did not give it into their hands.”
* The tides of the Mediterranean Sea that Julius Caesar knew well are straightforward and of very low amplitude, barely measuring in inches, whereas the tides in the English Channel are complex and can swing by several feet.
* Publius Cornelius Tacitus (?56-120) in his biography Agricola, section 13: “Britanniam... potest videri ostendisse posteris, non tradidisse”.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Where did the Romans land?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Gauls resisted the Romans. British tribes helped the Gauls. Caesar intended to punish them.