43 - 410 Epic Empire Builders

Roman Invasion

of Britain

 

...arguably the most significant event ever to

happen to the British Isles!

 

In 43 AD Emperor Claudius sent approximately 40,000 legionaries to conquer Britain. The Roman army, commanded by Aulus Plautius, sailed westwards from the European mainland in three divisions or groups, and landed unopposed somewhere in southern Britain.

 

Plautius then marched inland, first defeating Caratacus and then Togodumnus, before confronting a combined British army across a major river. Units of Plautius's auxiliary force, trained to swim in full-armour, crossed the river and engaged the British in a battle that raged for two days. With the British in retreat, Plautius waited for Emperor Claudius to join them so that he could lead the final battle for Camulodunum (Colchester), the seat of tribal resistance.

 

Claudius, after only 16 days in Britain, returned triumphant to Rome. He had succeeded where Julius Caesar had failed a century earlier. This was the most important addition to the empire since the time of Augustus. Plautius continued the conquest for Britain...it would take reinforcements and another 40 years to conquer the rest of Britain (bar the Highlands).

 

For 400 years, Rome brought a unity and order to Britain that it had never had before. But  life continued under threat of invasion by Hibernians (Irish), Caledonians and Picts (Scots), and pirates and raiders from northern Europe. The Romans answer was to build a series of forts around the south and east coasts of Britannia, known as the Forts of the Saxon Shore. For a while they kept the attackers from across the North Sea at bay.

 

In 410 AD, attacks on the Roman Empire increased, until finally the Roman army was withdrawn from Britannia and the Britons were left to fend for themselves.

 

Marking the end of Roman occupation

and Britain's first Brexit...

 

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Illustration of the Romans landing in Britain