Britannia or Toward the formation of England

(An abstract based on A history of the English-Speaking Peoples, by Winston S. Churchill)

In the first century B.C., Julius Caesar laid his eyes on Britannia, an island kwon by its “barbaric and savage” Celtic population. Considering that, for the Roman Empire, the latter represented not only a threat, but also a huge mass of worker power; he decided to guide his army to the island.

So, in his first rush, with eighty ships, Caesar sailed to Britannia in 55 B.C.

After several fighting months, he finally gained the victory and subjected the Britons, who soon found a leader called Cassivellaunus, a man who knew that Britons couldn’t defeat the Roman army and, instead of searching for a bloody ending, chose a pacific agreement with the Empire.

Thanks to this clever political movement, during nearly the next hundred years, Britannia rested in peace; however, after Caligula’s death, Claudius (after named “Britannicus”) took power and restarted the conquest of Britannia invading it in 43 A.C.

Unfortunately for Britons, there was a divergence between principal groups of the island, which allowed that Romans won the battles against them easily causing, on the one hand, a general flight of people and, on the other, many rebellions. The most important of them was made by Boadicea’s tribe between 60-61 A.C., which, helped by other tribes, beat the Romans in Camulodunum (the center of Roman authority) and Londinium (the biggest emporium of the island).

Nevertheless, Boadicea lost the ultimate battle against Caius Suetonius (the proconsul who led roman legions), and Nero, who in those days was already the emperor, sent a new governor for “making peace” with Britons in 78 A.C. His name was Julius Agricola and he was who accomplished the triumph of Romans in 83 A.C. winning the battle of Mons Graupius.

(To be continued…)