previously on wrong rise and fall of an empire
groans defeat by the Germanic tribes in 9ad shatters the illusion of Roman moral
superiority
what Rome call civilization her neighbors called tyranny
it's a lesson Rome seems doomed to repeat
now in the first century AD Rome's forces find themselves in a legendary
land which still lies beyond her reach
brittania
shrouded in dense forests and inhabited by strange savages
it fascinates and terrifies the Romans and conquering it will be a glorious
feat worthy of a magnificent Emperor
for six centuries the Roman Empire bends the ancient world to its will
by the fourth decade ad it stretches from the sands of Arabia to the rocky
coast of the North Sea in every corner it seduces its enemies with trade in
luxury all backed by the Iron Fist of the most disciplined army ever known to
man
the roads like to think of themselves as bring civilization to other places they
were proud of the fact that they were governing well they believe that Jupiter
gave them this power covering is there
they're real strength
Romans believed that this godly power is vested in the Emperor but not all
Emperor's are defined in 41 ad the excesses of Emperor Caligula shake Rome
to its core
look at it was a spoiled brat he may also have had mental illness we hear the
stories about his name and his horse console for example he he builds bridges
just so we can ride his chariot across them he does these bizarre things and
just to to have power to show that he has power
significant numbers of those people very close to him began to feel that they
were just in danger that the Emperor was too unstable to paranoid and colleges
plane too crazy
members of the elite militia known as the Praetorian Guard decide the Caligula
must go before he turns on them they make their move as the Emperor returns
from an afternoon of
1st century biographers sweeto Gnaeus Caligula lay writhing on the ground
I am still alive he shouted a word went around strike again
they succumb to 30 further students
it was a really crucial moment that revealed the military underpinnings of
an emperor power for the first time a very raw and obvious fashion the
Praetorians will choose their own man as the new emperor behind a curtain
they find their candidate cowering Caligula's uncle Claudius here is
someone who will be easy to control a puppet to be manipulated
he'd roll the standard eat witched perhaps the only reason he survived was
simply because nobody took him seriously nobody saw him as a possible candidate
confident in their choice
the guard proclaims Claudius leader of the greatest empire on earth
senior members of his household when he was growing up had chosen not to give
him significant administrative or military experience almost all other
young men in the Imperial House were thrust very rapidly into public
positions
none of this happened to Claudia's Emperor Claudius has a lot to prove to
his subjects who think he's incompetent and to the Praetorians who have made him
Emperor he owes a great debt
one event will serve both needs a war honor and booty for the soldiers
prestige and dignity for the victorious Emperor
an active conquest of some area an active military adventure will always be
preferred economically for the Roman soldier psychologically soldiers don't
want to be an active psychologically they want to go out and fight there
the more spectacular the conquest the better but where to go
Emperor Claudius his answer is as daring as it is unexpected
brittania the fierce and remote island that defeated Julius Caesar nearly a
hundred years earlier
the man who teams it will be greater than Caesar himself
to lead the expedition Claudia's chooses Claudius a distinguished senator and
well-established commander
he leads four legions into a strange land
haunted with a dangerous history the troops are edgy and afraid
this kind of fear of the unknown I think cannot be minimalized in this type of an
engagement
there was this real fear that maybe some first century weapon of mass destruction
was going to be on the other side of the channel dark rumors fly about the
fearsome magic of the Druids the priests of brittania is pervasive and secretive
religion
classical sage plenty the elder Britannia is fascinated by a magic the
monstrous druid called professors that the murder a man is an act of the
greatest devoutness and to eat his flesh most beneficial
evidence of human sacrifice fills the soldiers with disgust and leads Emperor
Claudius to Ben Druidism
for any religious cult to be suppressed
they had to be doing things that the Romans didn't like one of those things
would be human sacrifice which the Druids are accused of doing and they may
well have been involved in another thing would be at being some kind of it
politically or socially destabilizing at force politics & Magic a deadly
combination
cautiously the Romans marched from their beachhead a true to pee I present-day
richboro towards the Thames the river which borders the extensive lands of the
powerful
catalani tribe
steeped in druidic mysteries Coroticus Prince of the catalani people
where's no armor he relies instead on the strong magic of his war paint it
apparently took a lot of education before druids to be able to master these
things
maybe up to 20 years of learning to pick up the various texts the poems the
chance
the the words of Prayer the magic
the druid priests are ringleaders of rebellion against the Romans
they pass freely from one tribe to the next spreading intelligence of the enemy
and gathering new recruits who is not only a little bit between the people in
the gods but as judges as leaders they were individuals to be reckoned with in
virtually every area of Celtic society the Druids have a steak have power
toga dumbness brother of Coroticus and warlord of the neighboring Kingdom
arrives with his own soldiers to bolster the resistance their forces combined the
princes face the Romans with supreme confidence
the British had been conquered the last time the Romans have come over and of
course they were fighting on their home turf and you the territory and they had
had some experience of observing the Romans in action so for all these
reasons they may have felt some confidence in and been able to destroy
the Roman forces when they arrived
whales had the harshest of train and also the fewest people but there were
people who were more warlike than some of the others
yeah
what the soldiery trained to do was to find him long region formations and to
have the excellent troops on the sides will operate out in the open and this
worked it worked in North Africa worked in the Middle East it worked in call it
worked less well in Germany and it certainly didn't work at all in Britain
3rd century historian dial barbarians took refuge in the swamps and the
forests open to wear out the invaders in fruitless effort they knew where the
firm ground the easy passages in this region would be found
Roman attempts to follow them we're not so successful
if you're fighting the Romans it seems to me that the initial British strategy
was really good it was really quite a good one
they allowed the Romans to land on a post and I guess the plan was to draw
the man and then take them out when they were trapped in land further inland an
egg and they couldn't escape when the British strike
it is with guile and savagery
yeah
the discipline Roman soldiers as well known and well documented the fact that
Roman soldiers can stay disciplined even in the midst of the worst battles is
remarkable and certainly denotes a military skill of leadership and of
training that establishes the Roman soldier as the finest soldier on earth
that time perhaps in all of history
in one skirmish after another cloudiest suffers humiliating defeats but he
remains undaunted the Roman army above all was patient
there's no question the decisive victory here this is going to be a campaign and
the campaign was going to take long
after all where did the Romans have to go
Oh
back in Rome Emperor Claudius preens and prepares for his own invasion of Britain
soon he will personally see to her surrender for the first time in his life
he tries on the garb of a warrior he needed to establish his military
credentials this is an essential part of being in the public eye in an ancient
Rome must to be been a terribly efficient and to have some achievement
under your belt preferably victory over some foreign enemy
Claudia's plans to overwhelm the barbarians with the most destructive and
imposing weapon of the classical world battle elephants they will announce the
grand entrance of the Emperor then Claudius will teach the Britons to
grovel before the all mighty Roman Empire and claim a piece of glory for
himself
he orders a special force of provincials to launch a sneak attack across the
river thames
the Roman army was composed of more or less two kinds of soldiers those whom
they called legionaries who were Roman citizens and those whom they called
auxiliary Aires who recruited from subject populations
then I put soap latias has these auxiliary swim across the attempts
not because the Roman soldiers couldn't test run across the temps
it's just if it's more dangerous if there's the potential of losing a large
number of regular troops
why not let the eggs over easy to do
like all druids the Warlord's Coroticus and toga dumbness hold water sacred
believing the Mighty River protects them from their enemies not burdened by this
belief the Roman auxiliary cross silently and unseen they proved to be
very good at discerning what types of armies they were facing how unified
those types of armies are facing what their arms and armor work
so the operators scout and seem to understand a little bit better
who they were encountering and what the numbers were having learned what they
need to the auxiliary is killed the Barbarian horses cutting off any
possibility of a fast retreat
only now does plowed he is sending his full force to attack the cat alone
the troops are fighting out hand to hand it does become a big Mel a where where
you're you're just trying to use brute force to overwhelm the enemy to scare
them to to frighten them to for some way and then pursue them
but on the second day the advantage tilt towards the Romans
the Roman army would emerge Hale and healthy at the end of a day and able to
fight again where the other side was really from the psychological emotional
and otherwise effects of the devastation the Romans wreaked on them
the ensuing slaughter told um this is mortally wounded
stricken the survivors vanish into the swamps
the families of the druid leaders awaken to a new reality
word of the catastrophe triggers of panic and a scramble to escape Coroticus
and his family must also flee or face humiliation and slavery at the hands of
the Romans
meaning
when the Romans 1 a significant military victory
the general was traditionally awarded the right to hold what we think of as a
ticker-tape parade what they called a triumph
if possible the leader of the Concord forces was marched through out the
parade to display in his or her person
the subjugation of the foreign people and that it traditionally that person
was then executed at the end of the parade as an enemy of the Roman people
Coroticus has no intention of being a Roman trophy swearing revenge he gathers
his supporters and leads them on a long journey West to the rugged hill country
where the heart of the druid establishment lies erratic is correctly
assumes that the Romans will not follow
instead they plant themselves on the banks of the Thames
3rd century historian dial because of the troubles he hadn't counted on the
Thames Claudius became afraid
instead of advancing any further he proceeded to god what he had already won
and self Claudius
but is it really fear that stops plow dias or politics
I doubt amount of experience and ability of Claudius would have been daunted too
much by a river like the terms
it seems more likely to me that yet that he was given orders that a suitable .
once a certain beachhead had been established once there was a certain
hinterland of Thrones can operate in and not the Emperor be someone that he
should show up in person to establish that military credibility which is so
badly needed Emperor Claudius attempts to sail to pretend iya his ship is
nearly lost of the Spanish coast and he must March instead through gall to go
sorry Occam present-day ballon before finally crossing the channel
it is late in the campaigning season by the time he arrives
we know that the emperor showed up in style he came with courts of his
personal bodyguard the so-called Praetorian Guard and he also came with
elephants
which is something of a seat it's not an animal made up to Britain or any Western
Europe sir
by showing up with elephants it was really announcing his presence and then
he supervised probably from a safe distance in the rear at the capture of
various towns and cities
Claudius is surprising arrival coupled with Coroticus is humiliating defeat
prompts many British warlords to submit rather than fight we modern people have
our own idea of freedom
that's part of our makeup it's not necessarily the makeup at all of the
ancient world
the majority of people simply a custom themselves to their new leadership the
taxes they were paying to leader a they were now pay the leader be and it didn't
matter much if they could cut down on any violence that could be made against
them by an army principally that are me not being allowed to
raper pillage or destroy their lands by acquiescence they would their mission
to resist the Romans or collaborate in the northern kingdom began tease the
decision looms like an ominous shadow the choice will be made by their
powerful queen
cartimandua
the British were willing to stand up behind women who must have been very
powerful personalities who must have had a powerful men folk that they are
attached to I think who established their stages and and then they must have
been able to buy by dint of force of personality charisma and so forth
rally there are people behind them the Queen's husband venetia's has no doubt
about which way the Brigante should go
he opposes the Romans with all his heart
in the area that will become known as whales there is no indecision either
here Britain's fiercest warlords cleave to the old ways and vehemently reject
imperial domination
the Druids call upon their gods to drive the Romans from their Shores in their
hour of need
they performed their greatest mystery the sacrifice of a living man
the Exile Coroticus becomes their righteous agent his passion ignites the
resistance
he was able to combine some of these very disparate tribes of people into an
anti-roman stance by creating a common enemy
this must have made him the most charismatic
British person at the time because how could he go about and convince so many
individuals to oppose a Roman war machine bound by common hatred and their
ancient religion the celts vowed to fight on to the bloody end
victory in battle restores confidence among the Roman rank-and-file they no
longer fear the British little do they know that the worst is yet to come
yeah
after only 16 days in Britain Claudius returns home
in total he has been gone just six months but in terms of status
he is light years away from where he started he is a conqueror
the propaganda value of such a trip is extraordinary and it gave him a bump in
the political favor of the people in a way that's similar to a modern from
President visiting his troops online
even if he never goes anywhere near the fight
3rd century historian daioh the Senate gave him the title of Britannicus also
voted that there should be an annual festival to commemorate the conquest and
the triumphal arches should be erected the stunning monuments known as
triumphal arches stand as much as 70 feet tall
he gets a triumphal arch with inscription commemorating his
achievements in conquering Britain
that's the same permanent monument in the city of Rome with his name on it
that marks Claudius as a great general and a great Conqueror
so the military honors are the whole point of the other reason to go into
Britain they are
that's the that's the purpose of first and foremost to give Claudius and that
degree of I is a military sort of credibility military standing that he
had formerly lacked
to claudius whom the Emperor leaves behind as governor brittania the
celebration must seem premature
any time the Romans step outside their zone of safety they become targets of
well-orchestrated guerrilla attacks inspired by Coroticus the rebel leader
they would have communicated by means of runners some messengers again knowing
the lie of the land
knowing what the quickest ways between the various parts of Britain were then
they would have an advantage in getting information swiftly between different
different parts of the island
some of the greatest ambushes in history have come from support of logs being
rolled down or stones being rolled down on two soldiers below from the mountain
above
so here's the Roman he has his conventional spare he has a short sword
is used to close fighting and suddenly he's having rocks pelted on him he's
having spirits thrown out of his having access thrown at him he's having trees
rolled down on all of these things take their toll
the British succeeded in outfoxing the Romans because they knew the terrain in
that local generals that is British generals inspired their troops by giving
speeches in which they exhort them to fight off the invaders who wanted to
enslave them that these were foreigners seeking to conquer them
yeah
traffickers was a very effective at fighting what I guess what we call a
guerrilla warfare the Romans probably called a terrorism and insurgency and
but he would have called a resistance and this was fairly effective too often
the rebels melt away into the forests after an attack
Claudius must crush the resistance or watch it destroy his new province
this meant that the officers on the ground had to make decisions that were
not just straight wrote out of whatever training manual that they have been
taught from that they actually had to adapt themselves to the train and also
to the tactics might call guerrilla tactics of their opponents
in 45 ad he sends a surge of troops from his headquarters in camel Odom three
legions marched south west and north
the ninth heads for the land of the Brigantes
the courageous Brigantes control the north country an important buffer from
other barbarians for the Roman ambassador the cooperation of Queen card
Amanda what is key
you're trying to divide and conquer you're trying to separate and isolate
individual groups subdue them and having friends on the on the home field so is
is a big advantage
cartimandua accepts the Imperial offer after all with a legion on her doorstep
her options are limited
what good are you doing for your people
if the choice is not between freedom and conquest but between collaboration or
destruction for somebody like cartimandua collaborating with Rome
allowed her to remain in a position of authority and to risk a great deal less
perhaps personally and she might have she tried to fight
- sheís the Queen's consort vehemently opposes their decision and he is not
alone just the Robins advantage to have these are this Richards
now the problem of course is that sometimes as with cargo management you
get a split internally where her husband turns against her
the lucious shapes on his short leash but for now he suffers the Queens will
bitter but unbowed
he waits for events to change
the Romans roll across the country subduing one village after another
the main thing for the Roman governor particularly the provinces just been
established is maintaining stability
he has to try to make links with the local community
so any kinds of romanization making local people feel comfortable with
Rome's there is two to their advantage for those who cooperate the Roman hand
is gentle for those who resist the Vengeance is Swift soldiers hunt down
insurgents and teach them Imperial justice at the point of a spear every
corner turns up troublemakers
but the Legionaries find potential converts to slowly but surely they
expand Rome's domain winning hearts and minds as they go
in the arena of Roman politics general Claudius is a hero for years after the
invasion a grateful Claudia's calls him home he brings along his british
prisoners for the gladiator rink
yeah
four years is pretty standard for a person to be in command of a province or
an army like that and then somebody else would come in you don't want a person to
be in command for too long in case the troops become too attached to their
commander
and if that happens they may get ideas that maybe this commander would make a
good Emperor
yeah
3rd century historian dial in the gladiatorial combats many persons took
part including the British captives Claudius used up ever so many men in
this part of the spectacle and took pride in the fact
the blood sport of the arena confirms the superiority of every Roman heart
the barbarians are dust beneath their feet
the work of pacifying a population to the point where Roman armies could be
removed from apartment was an arduous process the Romans must have taken a
very long term view to the process of annexation and conquest
they must when facing a charismatic opponent like Coroticus Coroticus may
have had the most significant of these rebellions he seems to have been able to
combine most of the British the people and they have successes
the romanized villages real under Atticus's audacious attacks his
surprising string of victories makes him first among British chieftains
don't look to him to force the invaders from their Shores
in November when he learns that a new Roman governor is assigned to Britannia
Coroticus launches his most virulent assault yet
the new governor scapula receives a bloody welcome to his province but
things do not go as erratic as predicts the Roman troops never waver
scapula deals cratic kiss his first major defeat of the insurgency
still the rebel leader remains defiant
gratis retreats to southern wales and sparks an uprising there instead as it
spreads north through the hill country scapula pulls the Ninth Legion out of
Brigantes and heads west
yeah
all he finds our women and children the rebels have vanished like smoke into the
hills
the welt rebellion flourished as almost all rebellions and Wales will flourish
down through the early modern period
simply because it's hard to get to the rebels
yeah
now they have to go into the mountains in the woods and the islands and find
where these rebels are and then take him out
it's actually not unlike the situation that American soldiers found themselves
in popular histories of Vietnam where the the Americans found themselves
fighting in jungle terrain where the quality of their training elsewhere
didn't prepare them for the ability of the enemy to melt into the background
scapula solution is to obliterate their hiding places
he destroys every rebel village and presses forward
but behind him treachery strikes threatening a second rebellion
in the forests of the Brigantes the Druids are gathering the people of the
began to see the Romans heading into Wales which is very difficult territory
and said well it's a good opportunity i mean when they're busy over there we can
them cause trouble in the rear and perhaps gain an advantage
maybe if they're caught between two force they'll be destroyed
to make this second rebellion work one noble is vital
- sheís husband of the collaborator Queen cartimandua
canisius card Amanda's husband of course was a significant figure
he didn't hold a hereditary position in his own right but he was perhaps the
most highly visible male leader in the kingdom and as such
his breaking ranks with his wife provided a very significant focus for
anybody with aspirations to rebellion the rebellious nobles discussed - she's
his name and loyalty who after all would benefit more of his wife the Queen is
overthrown but they underestimate car demand was reach
she has spies everywhere
when the names of the ringleaders are revealed by her husband's own manservant
she learns that her most valuable warriors are in the plot desperate she
turns to Rome
the client Kings and Queens chieftains that that support the Romans are
supporting them because the Romans have worked out some kind of arrangement
in other words we will come to your aid and it's kind of an ongoing arrangement
through the Roman on voice she sends word to scapula
he must return to Brigantes immediately and honor Rome's pledged to protect her
the timing couldn't be worse for scapula
he has no choice but to pull out of Wales and marched the Ninth Legion back
east to support the Queen his departure creates an opening for Coroticus and the
Welsh rebels
with the Romans withdrawing warriors rally to erratic is from all over
Britain they bring their weapons ancient beliefs and their families
this time the resistance will not hit run erratic his orders his troops to dig
in classical court historian Tacitus he selected a site where numerous factors
helped him and impeded us in all defenses were strongly manned and then
entrenched defensive position like that gives a huge advantage to the defender
and had every reason to believe perhaps on this occasion
given these circumstances that he had chosen the ground and he had prepared
the ground
maybe the Romans would falter I think the traffic is at a reasonable
expectation that he could win
the last chance for British independence hangs on that fragile hope
cartimandua Rome's client queen in the North demands that the Empire defend her
against her rebellious subjects
she and her followers barricade themselves in her stronghold waiting for
Roman general scapula to rescue her
in short order scapula crushes her rebellious subjects and brings her the
head of its leader the royal consort Venusian is outraged his sympathy for
the resistance grow stronger
at last scapula marches to Wales with the Ninth Legion once more desperate to
finish off Coroticus he doubles his true compliment or during the twentieth
Legion out of camel Odom as well
yeah
in 50 ad with the honor of the Empire weighing on him
scapula leads thousands of the most highly trained men on earth against a
well-entrenched and determined enemy
it might have been possible for a man like scapula to persuade Claudia's that
failure under the particular circumstances would have been acceptable
but basically what was at stake Beyonce life and death was his chance for a
further post after this one
failure is not an option but victory will not be easy
classical biographer Tacitus our soldiers face the rampart
but in an exchange of missiles they came off worse and wounds and casualties
the Roman simply regroup and come on once more
Rome takes over Rome becomes roam the war machine and there's no future for
the rebellion and that's precisely how history played out
yeah
so they really wanted to get to grips with the Britons and finally end this
thing and the demons on ferociousness of the result was such that the British
were overwhelmed the luckiest have the good fortune of a quick death
the rest are soon captured
humiliation slavery and ritual murder await the captives to his horror erratic
his realizes his wife and children are among them
cratic is himself escapes remarkably he flees all the way to the kingdom of
Brigantes even though their queen card Amanda what is a Roman collaborator card
Amanda's husband - Jesus is a known patriot and oppose card amanda was
collaborationist policies with the Romans i would suggest that gratis flat
not to cart amount of the two - jeez in the hope of perhaps gaining his support
may be convincing card amount of it to turn finally card Amanda what does not
Bend
she is Rome's creature the Queen trades Coroticus to hear all the resistance to
cement her position as a friend of Rome
The Betrayal disgusts her husband venetia's
paraded through the streets of Rome Coroticus and his family thrilled the
citizens classical court historian Tacitus the reputation of Coroticus had
spread beyond the islands and through the neighboring provinces
- inle itself these people were curious to see the man who would define our
power for so many years
even at Rome his name meant something
this was the symbol of their victory you know here's the enemy chieftain marching
through our streets in submission but normally happened to enemies of Rome is
that they were brought into the prison and put into a pit and strangled
but in this instance it didn't happen and instead radicals was led to Claudia
sitting on a large raised sort of a tribunal our days and and he gave a
stirring speech and if we believe taxes the speech was about the need to resist
domination and that if he allows gratis to live that he would be a living symbol
of Claudius's clemency
to bestow mercy implies superiority and above all else
that is how Roman see themselves as superior
moved by kratika speech Claudia's grants his celebrity barbarian and all of his
family pardon
he was probably retired to have dinner somewhere in the neighborhood of wrong
we're able to live down his life in relative comfort but of course lacking
freedom a golden cage
the assimilation of Coroticus is at last complete the romanization of Britain is
not so smooth
within a decade the rebels rise again this time with venetia's at their head
even a century later the northern border remains untamable it never becomes fully
romanized it's just too far away and the Romans will eventually of course have to
build hadrian's wall to keep out the invaders from the north
it's going to be difficult to hold and finally they'll abandon it and frankly
there isn't a lot left of Roman rule in Britain conquer to shore up an emperors
reputation
the island drains men and resources for centuries and when Rome Falls at last
Britain will be the first to revert to its barbarian state
next on wrong rise and fall of an empire as the Empire ascends to its zenith its
rulers forsake the greater good
- chase personal glory trajan finds gold in the Transylvanian hills but
ultimately meets wretched defeat