HE invasion of Britain, which was carried out by four legions plus auxiliaries under A. Plautius some time in the high summer of AD. 43, and the subsequent sixteen-day expedition made by the emperor, Claudius, in person in the autumn of that year, form together one of the most famous, if not one of the best understood, episodes in the history of the Roman Empire. In spite of the apparent familiarity of the event our knowledge of the way in which the invasion was planned, and of the route followed, is scanty in the extreme. It is based in part on a very brief summary of Claudius' own journey to Britain, which was a separate expedition of reinforcement, undertaken in order to associate Claudius personally with the prestige of the project. This is described by Suetonius in his Divus Claudius, written some eighty years after the event, 1 but the chief source for the whole invasion is the narrative in Greek given by the historian Cassius Dio some century and a half after the expedition. 2 To these can be added short references of a mere sentence in length, also in Suetonius' Caesares. They relate to the presence of the future emperor, Galba, in Claudius' entourage in Gaul, 3 and to the large part played by Vespasian, and his brother and son, in the early stages of the Roman conquest. 4 Another, and earlier, mention of Vespasian's part in the conquest is to be found in Josephus' Bellum Judaicum, but it contributes no useful or circumstantial detail, and indeed nothing but praise of Josephus' patrons, the Flavian dynasty. 5 Later Roman historians, such as Aurelius Victor and the anonymous writer of De Caesaribus, merely give abbreviated versions of the already meagre information retailed by the historians of the second and early third centuries. 6 Eutropius does add some circumstantial detail, namely that Gn. Sentius (Saturninus) was jointly in command of the expedition with A. Plautius, 7 and that the Orkney Islands (Orcades) were received under Roman control by Claudius. This submission, if it is historical, must have been received through envoys at very long distance, while Claudius was in Colchester. This latter item is repeated by the early fifth-century Christian writer, Orosius. 8 * I am grateful to the editorial board of Britannia for a number of most useful comments on this paper in draft. This is not to claim their acceptance of all or any part of the suggestions put forward here. Any errors that remain are my own.
Three aspects of Cassius Dio's account of the Claudian invasion of Britain are discussed. First, the convention, by which ancient historians routinely introduced their detailed narrative of military campaigns with a summary, allows the two first battles in the sequence to be eliminated as separate events. Secondly, the kings, Togodumnus in Cassius Dio and Cogidumnus in Tacitus' Agricola, are taken to be the same individual, who after defeat was reconciled to be Claudius' client-ruler. Thirdly, the argument is restated that the invasion took place through the harbours of West Sussex on a route suggested by the description given by Dio and by the evidence of place-names, known from the Geography of Ptolemy and the Antonine Itinerary.
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NOTES difficult to determine. Though the name suggests that it ought to have been focused on the Highlands of Scotland, or at least situated north of the Forth, knowledge of the Caledonian forest before the campaigns of Agricola implies that it may have extended into the Southern Uplands. 170 In conclusion, though the process was neither synchronous nor universal, extensive deforestation was well underway across much of north Britain by the late Iron Age. Those areas which still retained their woodland cover were probably largely cleared by the end of the Roman period. The process was a gradual and progressive one, and was linked more to the expansion of settlement and agricultural activity than to the particular demands of the Roman military. 171 University of Glasgow Whose Head on the Bath Temple-Pediment? John Hind writes: For many years, since its discovery in 1790, the central motif, comprising the shield-emblem of the goddess Sulis-Minerva (centre-piece of the pediment of the great temple at Bath), has been the object of much admiration and no little discussion. 172 It has been explained as a gorgon-head, and this would be a suitable attribute of Minerva; such a gorgoneion commonly adorned her breastplate (aigis) and, occasionally, her shield. But this head from Bath would be unique among gorgons of Hellenistic and Roman date. It is clearly male, having a luxuriant moustache and beard, as well as the more standard locks fanning out into a circle, which incorporate wings sprouting from either temple, and coiled snake-bodies, writhing most obviously beneath the beard. This apparent maleness of the 'Gorgon' has been explained by a mingling of the Classical and Celtic religious and artistic traditions. 173 But, as the whole ensemble at Bath, temenos, temple, quadrifrons, tholos, bath-buildings, and their architectural members and sculptural ornament (tritons, victories, orbs, parade-helmets, crests, goddess Luna, nymphs) is Classical and Roman in concept and execution, 174 perhaps another explanation may be sought for the iconography of this unique and prominent piece of sculpture. Even if Gallic sculptural traditions affected its style, the interpretation of its meaning should, I would argue, be sought in Classical mythology, just as is the case with the subsidiary sculptures of the same pediment. One personification of the mighty powers of nature has already been sought in this connection, and usually rejected. This is Oceanus, the sole surviving Titan to retain his power (over the great seas surrounding the land-mass of Europe, Asia, and Africa) after the war against the Olympian gods of the next generation. 175 At the time of Claudius' conquest of Britain, Oceanus was a prominent feature of the occasional poetry written to celebrate it. Clearly, to a Roman at the centre of the Empire, the crossing of ocean-stream and the joining of 'two worlds together' was a more remarkable feat than the accompanying conquest of the southern British tribes. 176 It might have seemed a nice conceit to place a frontal head of...
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