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Cantiaci




Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and 54 BC , the first Roman expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his '' De Bello Gallico '' v. 14:

"Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt, quae regio est maritima omnis, neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine."

:"Of all these (British tribes), by far the most civilised are they who dwell in Kent, which is entirely a maritime region, and who differ but little from the Gauls in their customs".


RULERS



Pre-Roman Iron Age


Caesar mentions four kings, Segovax , Carvilius , Cingetorix and Taximagulus , who held power in Cantium at the time of his second expedition in 54 BC . The British leader Cassivellaunus , besieged in his stronghold north of the Thames, sent a message to these four kings to attack the Roman naval camp as a distraction. The attack failed, a chieftain called Lugotorix was captured, and Cassivellaunus was forced to seek terms.

In the century between Caesar's expeditions and the conquest under Claudius , kings in Britain began to issue coins stamped with their names. The following kings of the Cantiaci are known:



Sub-Roman period


According to Nennius , Gwrangon was King of Kent in the time of Vortigern , until Vortigern took away the kingdom and gave it to Hengist ; but Nennius is regarded as an untrustworthy source, and “Gwrangon seems to have been transported by the story-teller into Kent from Gwent” and “is turned into an imaginary King of Kent, secretly disposed of his realm in favour of Hengist, whose daughter Vortigern wished to marry” (Wade-Evans 1938).


REFERENCES

  • Julius Caesar , '' De Bello Gallico ''

  • Suetonius , ''Lives of the Twelve Caesars''

  • John Creighton (2000), ''Coins and power in Late Iron Age Britain'', Cambridge University Press

  • Wade-Evans, A. W. (1938), ''Nennius’s History of the Britons''



SEE ALSO

List Of Celtic Tribes


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