SECTION C.. Claudius Triumphs--Gladiatorial Shows--Last Stand of

Claudius triumphs--Gladiatorial shows--Last stand of Britons--Gallantry of Titus--Ovation of Plautius--Distinctions bestowed--Triumphal arch--Commemorative coinage--Conciliatory policy--British worship of Claudius--Cogidubnus--Attitude of clans--Britain made Imperial Province.

C. 1.--The success thus achieved was evidently felt to be something quite exceptionally brilliant and important. Not once, as was usual, but four several times was Claudius acclaimed "Imperator" even before he left our shores; and in after years these acclamations were renewed at Rome as often as good news of the British war arrived there, till, ere Claudius died, he had received no fewer than twenty-one such distinctions, each signalized by an issue of commemorative coinage. His "Britannic triumph" was celebrated on a scale of exceptional magnificence. In addition to the usual display, he gave his people the unique spectacle of their Emperor climbing the ascent to the Capitol not in his triumphal car, nor even on foot, but on his knees (as pilgrims yet mount the steps of the Ara Coeli), in token of special gratitude to the gods for so signal an extension of the glory and the Empire of Rome. In the gladiatorial shows which followed, he presided in full uniform [paludatus], with his son (whose name, like his own, a Senatus consultum had declared to be Britannicus) on his knee. One of the spectacles represented the storm of a British oppidum and the surrender of British kings. The kings were probably real British chieftains, and the storm was certainly real, with real Britons, real blood, real slaughter, for Claudius went to every length in this direction.

C. 2.--The narrative of Suetonius connects these shows with the well-known tale of the unhappy gladiators who fondly hoped that a kind word from the Emperor meant a reprieve of their doom. He had determined to surpass all his predecessors in his exhibition of a sea-fight, and had provided a sheet of water large enough for the manoeuvres of real war-galleys, carrying some five hundred men apiece. The crews, eleven thousand in all, made their usual preliminary march past his throne, with the usual mournful acclaim, "Ave Caesar! Salutant te morituri!" Claudius responded, "Aut non:" and these two words were enough to inspire the doomed ranks with hopes of mercy. With one accord they refused to play their part, and he had to come down in person and solemnly assure them that if his show was spoilt he would exterminate every man of them "with fire and sword," before they would embark. Once entered upon the combat, however, they fought desperately; so well, indeed, that at its close the survivors were declared exempt from any further performance. Such was the fate which awaited those who dared to defend their freedom against the Fortune of Rome, and such the death died by many a brave Briton for the glory of his subjugators. Dion Cassius tells us that Aulus Plautius made a special boast of the numbers so butchered in connection with his own "Ovation."

C. 3.--This ceremony was celebrated A.D. 47, two years after that of Claudius. Plautius had remained behind in Britain to stamp out the last embers of resistance,--a task which all but proved fatal to Vespasian, who got hemmed in by the enemy. He was only saved by the personal heroism and devotion of Titus, who valiantly made in to his father's rescue, and succeeded in cutting him out. This seems to have been in the last desperate stand made by the Britons during this campaign. After this, with Togodumnus slain, Caradoc probably a fugitive in hiding, and the best and bravest of the land slaughtered either in the field or in the circus at Rome, British resistance was for the moment utterly crushed out. Claudius continued his demonstrations of delight; when Plautius neared Rome he went out in person to meet him, raised him when he bent the knee in homage, and warmly shook hands with him [Greek:[kalos diacheirisas]]; afterwards himself walking on his left hand in the triumphal procession along the Via Sacra.

C. 4.--Rewards were at the same time showered on the inferior officers. Cnaeus Ostorius Geta, the hero of the first riverside fight in Britain, was allowed to triumph in consular fashion, though not yet of consular rank; and an inscription found at Turin speaks of collars, gauntlets and phalera bestowed on one Caius Gavius, along with a golden wreath for Distinguished Service. Another, found in Switzerland, records the like wreath assigned to Julius Camillus, a Military Tribune of the Fourth Legion, together with the decoration of the Hasta Pura (something, it would seem, in the nature of the Victoria Cross); which was also, according to Suetonius, given to Posides, one of the Emperor's favourite freedmen.

C. 5.--To Claudius himself, besides his triumph, the Senate voted two triumphal arches, one in Rome, the other in the Gallic port whence he had embarked for Britain. Part of the inscription on the former of these was found in 1650 on the site where it stood (near the Palazzo Sciarra), and is still to be seen in the gardens of the Barberini Palace. It runs as follows (the conjectural restoration of the lost portions which have been added being enclosed in brackets):

TI CLAVD [IO. CAES.] AVG PONTIFIC [I. MAX. TR. P. IX] COS. VI. IM [P. XVI. PP] SENATVS. PO [PVL. Q.R. QVOD] REGES. BRIT [ANNIAE. ABSQ] VLLA. JACTV [RA. DOMVERIT] GENTES QVE [BARBARAS] PRIMVS. INDI [CIO. SVBEGERIT]

"To Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding for the 9th time the authority of Tribune, Consul for the 6th time, acclaimed Imperator for the 16th, the Senate and People of Rome [have dedicated this arch]. Because that without the loss of a man he hath subdued the Kings of Britain, and hath been the first to bring under her barbarous clans under our sway." Claudius also affixed to the walls of the imperial house on the Palatine (which was destined to give the name of "palace" to royal abodes for all time), a "corona navalis"--a circlet in which the usual radiations were made to resemble the sails, etc. of ships--in support of his proud claim to have tamed the Ocean itself [quasi domiti oceani] and brought it under Roman sway: "Et jam Romano cingimur Oceano."

C. 6.--As usual, coins were struck to commemorate the occasion, the earliest of the long series of Roman coins relating to Britain. They bear on the obverse the laureated head of Claudius to the right, with the superscription TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. P.M. TR. P. VIIII. IMP. XVI. On the reverse is an equestrian figure, between two trophies, surmounting a triumphal arch, over which is inscribed the legend DE. BRITAN. This coin, being of gold, was struck not by the Senate (who regulated the bronze issue), but by the Imperial mint, and dates from the year 46, when Claudius was clothed for the ninth time with the authority of Tribune. By that time the arch was doubtless completed, and the coin may well show what it was actually like. Another coin, also bearing the words DE. BRITAN., shows Claudius in his triumphal chariot with an eagle on his sceptre. Even poor little Britannicus, who never came to his father's throne, being set aside through the intrigues of his stepmother Agrippina and finally poisoned (A.D. 55) by Nero, had a coin of his own on this occasion issued by the Senate and inscribed TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. F. [Augusti Filius] BRITANNICVS.

C.7.--Seneca, whose own connection with Britain was that of a grinding usurer, speaks with intense disgust of the conciliatory attitude of Claudius towards the populations, or more probably the kinglets, who had submitted to his sway. He purposed, it seems, even to see some of them raised to Roman citizenship [Britannos togatos videre]. That the grateful provincials should have raised a temple to him at Camelodune, and rendered him worship as an incarnate deity, adds to the offence. And, writing on the Emperor's death, the philosopher points with evident satisfaction to the wretched fate of the man who triumphed over Britain and the Ocean, only to fall at last a victim to the machinations of his own wife.

C. 8.--An interesting confirmation of this information as to the relations between Claudius and his British subjects is to be found in a marble tablet discovered at Chichester, which commemorates the erection of a temple (dedicated to Neptune and Minerva) for the welfare of the Divine [i.e. Imperial] Household by a Guild of Craftsmen [collegium fabrorum] on a site given by Pudens the son of Pudentinus; all under the authority of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, at once a native British kinglet and Imperial Legate in Britain. This office would imply Roman citizenship, as would also the form of his name. That (doubtless on his enfranchisement) he should have been allowed to take such a distinguished nomen and praenomen as Tiberius Claudius marks the special favour in which he was held by the Emperor. To this witness is also borne by Tacitus, who says that certain states in Britain were placed under Cogidubnus not as a tributary Kingdom but as a Roman Province. Hence his title of Imperial Legate. These states were doubtless those of the Cantii and Regni in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

C. 9.--The Iceni, on the other hand, were subject allies of Rome, with Vericus, in all probability, on the throne. The Atrebates would seem also to have been "friendlies." But the great mass of the British clans were chafing under the humiliation and suffering which the invaders had wrought for them, and evidently needed a strong hand to keep them down. Under the Empire provinces requiring military occupation were committed not to Pro-consuls chosen by the Senate, but to Pro-praetors nominated by the Emperor, and were called "Imperial" as opposed to "Senatorial" governments. Britain was now accordingly declared an Imperial Province, and Ostorius Scapula sent by Claudius to administer it as Pro-praetor.