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The date of Claudius' British campaign and the mint of Alexandria
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The main outline of the events and chronology of the Claudian invasion of Britain are familiar enough, despite the loss of Tacitus' Annals for the period in question. A Roman force of four legions was assembled, along with auxiliaries, at Boulogne and crossed the channel under the command of Aulus Plautius. Dio states unambiguously that this occurred in A.D. 43. He provides no explicit information on the month, but certain assumptions can safely be made. It is inconceivable that the Romans would have attempted a crossing of a dangerous stretch of sea like the English Channel before the sailing season technically opened, on 10 March, and it is almost inconceivable that they would have ventured to transport a large army over that passage before the seas were considered safe, on 27 May. Moreover, the expeditionary force was delayed by two unforeseen factors. Suetonius tells us that the expeditionis Britannicae dies was postponed because of the illness of Galba. Also, the troops initially refused to embark from Gaul, and if Dio's account is correct, this led to a delay while Narcissus was summoned from Rome to the Gallic coast. How long these two factors might have held back the invasion cannot be known. Even after the successful landings the Claudian forces faced another hold–up. The Britons refused to engage the Romans, hoping to wear the invaders out, and Plautius had great difficulty tracking his enemy down.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1998
References
1 Year of invasion: Dio 60.19.1. For the chronological problems, see Barrett, A., ‘Chronological errors in Dio's account of the invasion’, Britannia 11(1980), 31–3.Google Scholar
2 On the sailing seasons, see Vegetius, De Re Mil. 4.39. de Saint-Denis, E., REL251947 196–215 and Rouge J., REA 54 (1952), 316–19 list exceptions, but they are at times of military crisis.Google Scholar
3 Suet. Galb.7.
4 Dio 60.19.2.
5 Dio 60.19.5–20.1.
6 Six–month absence: Suet. Claud. 17, Dio 60.23.1; sixteen–day stay: Dio 60.23.1, Suet. Claud.cf. 17; return in A.D. 44: Dio 60.23.1.Google Scholar
7 Levick, B., Claudius(New Haven and London, 1990), p. 142; Frere S, Britannia3 (London, 1987), p. 51; Halfmann D., Itinera Principum (Stuttgart, 1986), p. 172; Dudley D. R. and Webster G., The Roman Invasion of Britain A.D. 43–572 (London, 1973), p. 77; in his revised version of this work, The Roman Invasion of Britain (London, 1980), does not speculate on the detailed chronology; Salway P., Roman Britain (Oxford, 1981), p.85., Hind, J. G. F., in his detailed account, ‘The invasion of Britain in A.D. 43—an alternative strategy for Aulus Plautius’, Britannia 20 (1989), 1, judiciously places the invasion ‘some time in the high summer’.Google Scholar
8 Kevin Herbert, Roman Imperial Coins Augustus to Hadrian and Antonine Selections, 31 B.C.–A.D. 180, The John Max Wulfing Collection in Washington University Vol. Ill (Wauconda, 1996).Google Scholar
9 Britannicus; birth: Tac. Ann13.15.1 indicates that had Britannicus survived he would have become 14 in 55, thus placing his birth in 41. Suet. Claud. 27.2 puts the birth on the twentieth day of Claudius' imperium (i.e. February 41). The situation is somewhat confused by Claudius' further statement that it was in his second consulship (which did not begin until 42). Dio first mentions Britannicus' birth under 42 (60.12.5) but without explicitly dating the event to this year.
10 Grandsons of Tiberius: RPC 946–9, cf. RlC2 42 (on the dates, Tac. Ann. 2.4.1,15); Claudius and Britannicus together: RFC 2314 (Ilium); Augustus and Gaius Caesar: RPC 5019 (Alexandria).Google Scholar
11 Dio 60.21.5–22.2.
12 Suet. Iul. 57 cites 100 miles a day as a record land speed; Pliny N.H. 19.3 cites nine days for a fast journey by sea from Puteoli to Alexandria.