Caratacus

Caratacus resisted the Roman conquest of Britain for eight years and won his life with a speech. He was a son of Cunobelinus, the powerful king of the Catuvellauni, whose territory covered much of south-east Britain and whose expansion gave Rome a pretext for invading in AD 43. He and his brother Togodumnus led the defence against Aulus Plautius's landing, fought at the Medway over two days, and were defeated. Togodumnus was killed. Caratacus escaped west and continued the war among the Silures and Ordovices in what is now Wales, conducting a guerrilla campaign of ambush and raid in mountainous country for years — a resistance effective enough that Tacitus says his name was known throughout Italy. Around AD 50 the governor Publius Ostorius Scapula forced him to a set-piece engagement at a hill position, probably in the Welsh borders. The Britons held high ground behind a stone rampart with a river in front; the legions crossed under fire, formed testudo, pulled the rampart apart and broke them. Caratacus's wife, daughter and brothers were captured. He fled north to the Brigantes, and their queen Cartimandua, a Roman client, handed him over in chains. He was taken to Rome in AD 51 and paraded. Brought before Claudius, he made a speech Tacitus records: that if the Romans wished to rule everyone, it did not follow that everyone wished to be slaves, and that had he surrendered at once, neither his fortune nor Claudius's glory would be remembered. Claudius pardoned him and his family, and he lived out his life in Italy.

• Lived: 10 BCE – 54 CE
• Nationality: British
• Roles: king, resistance_leader