Cæsar in Kent: the landing of Julius Cæsar and his battles with the ancient Britons, with some account of Early British trade and enterprise

Front matter

TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS CONYNGHAM, THIS BOOK IS, BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS LORDSHIP'S CHAPLAIN, FRANCIS THOMAS VINE THE LANDING OF JULIUS CÆSAR AND HIS BATTLES WITH THE ANCIENT BRITONS WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF EARLY BRITISH TRADE AND ENTERPRISE BY THE REV. FRANCIS T. VINE, B.A. RECTOR OF EASTINGTON, STONEHOUSE.rtLOUCESTERSHJRE From an Old Print i?i Sammcs Britannia (1O76) ERRATA. Page 14, line \,for " was" read " were." Page 27, line 4, erase "other." Page 51, line 14, for "port" read "ports." Page 56, line 21, for " him " read " Scipio." Page 56, line 1 7, for " other " read " others." Page 63, line 16, for " implies " read " imply."

Preface

. LTT7 1 1- r g(F^ early history or every country is d^T ||§|| more or less mixed with fable. (yglJIgg While, however, the mythical stories of classic antiquity are chiefly because of the grandeur of the literature which has preserved them, thought worthy of notice and examination ; while the Argonautic ex pedition, the Trojan war, and the story of Romulus and Remus are familiar to every schoolboy, very little effort has been made, at any rate in our own day, to elucidate the truth concerning the some what legendary history of what may be called "the heroic age" of our own country. That this history contains the record of brave and noble deeds which, by careful and critical investigation, may be rescued from the region of fable, I have endeavoured in one or two instances to establish b

PREFACE.

. in these pages. My principal object, however, has been to write more fully than has been written before, what has always been regarded as the first page of our country's history, as distinguished from the less reliable traditions of the prehistoric period. The traces of Julius Cæsar's encampments in the neighbourhood where I lately resided, as Vicar of the parishes of Patrixbourne and Bridge, were first brought to my notice by one who had long made them his study. His love of retire ment has prevented him from associating his name with this work ; but I desire gratefully to acknow ledge the deep interest he has taken in its produc tion, and the important help which he has rendered me throughout its preparation, by giving me the benefit of his archæological researches of many years. I have sought no novel sites for Cæsar's landing and struggles with our British forefathers.

In all cases the only traditions extant corroborate the choice of the localities in which I have placed the scenes of his battles. I believe that where tradition unhesitatingly localises events, it may

PREFACE.

. IX generally be relied upon. A striking instance of the accuracy with which the memory of events has thus been preserved for many centuries has been made public while these pages have been passing through the press. It occurred in con nection with the remarkable discovery by Mr Petrie of the Palace of King Pharaoh at Tah panhes, in Egypt. When he approached, wearied and footsore, the group of mounds called Tell Defennah, which have long been supposed to be the Tahpanhes of the Bible, "he beheld," as the Times article graphically relates, " one of these mounds, consisting of the burnt and blackened ruins of a huge pile of brick buildings, standing high against a lurid sky and reddened by a fiery sunset. His Arabs hastened to tell him its local name ; and he may be envied the delightful surprise with which he learnt that it is known far and near as ' El Kasr el Bint el Ya hudi' — the Castle of the Jew's Daughter."

This information enabled Mr Petrie to identify this ruined pile with the House in Tahpanhes which, as we gather from the 43rd chapter of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Pharaoh set apart as a resi- X

PREFACE.

. dence for the daughters of the Jewish King Zedekiah when he was dethroned and carried captive to Babylon. Thus local tradition has afforded a remarkable corroboration of this seem ingly unimportant detail of the Bible narrative. Having, as I trust, established clearly Cæsar's landing-place and general route of conquest, it has been my aim to enable the reader to realize the actual scenes in which he moved during his stay in Britain. If it be thought presumptuous to assign to particular localities the footprints of the great conqueror, to assert that here his standard was fixed, that there his entrenchments were thrown up, that along this and that road his legions marched, my reply is that my conclusions must be considered as a whole. After laying down on general lines the places where Cæsar landed and fought his battles, I deem it of import ance to show that these localities afford evidence of agreement even with the details of his history.

The dedication of this book has been accepted by the representative of a family which has done much to encourage and promote the study of antiquarian pursuits. The successful researches

PREFACE.

. XI of the late Lord Albert Conyngham, afterwards Lord Londesborough, in the field of archæology, and the liberal and personal support which he gave to many of our learned societies are well known. The valuable collection also of antiquities at Bifrons, the seat of the Marquis Conyngham, testifies to the same interest in the relics of the past by the grandfather and father of the present Lord. It was my privilege, in connection with a friend already mentioned, to whom their discovery was due, to be of some assistance to the late Marquis Conyngham, in opening three large contiguous Tumuli, belonging, as I believe, to the prehistoric period, in Gorsley Wood, on ( the Bifrons estate. These were found to contain cists of a remarkable character. My account of this exploration, which was carried out at his Lordship's expense, and with the active assistance of his agent, Mr Robert Smith, was published in the 18th volume of the "Archæologia Cantiana." The cists, which are well worth a visit, are still carefully preserved and protected by order of the present Marquis.

PREFACE.

. Shortly before his death, I had asked permission of the late Lord Conyngham to dedicate this little book to him, and, with the heartiness and kindliness so characteristic of him, he at once acquiesced, saying, " Of course; won't I read it ?" For this he was not spared, but his son, the present Marquis Conyngham, has very kindly granted me the same favour which his lamented father had promised. I have derived much assistance in the preparation of this work from previous publications. My thanks are especially due to Messrs Cassell & Co. for permission kindly given me to make extracts from a work published by them, "The History of Julius Cæsar," by Napoleon III., to the value of which I have borne testimony in the Introduction. I am also indebted to Mr Edward Hay ward, of Deal, for allowing me to quote portions of the late Mr Stephen Pritchard's interesting "History of Deal," of which I am glad to hear he contemplates issuing a new edition. I have also made use, in my description of Dover, of " Batcheller's Sketch of Dover." For this I have the permission of Messrs Cuff

PREFACE.

. XIII Brothers, of Snargate Street, Dover, who have, I am informed, issued, under the title of " Visitor's Guide to Dover," another edition of this useful compendium. To another publication, "The British Kymry," by the late Rev. R. W. Morgan, of Tregynon, I have made frequent reference. I have failed to discover to whom I should express my obligations, but trust that any representatives of his family will accept this acknowledgment of my indebtedness to his valuable work. Eastington Rectory, August 6, 1886.

Introduction

. SOURCES OF THE HISTORY. æfjpj foundation and text-book of every feg-s history of Cæsar's invasion of Britain (y£gj|g|r must necessarily be the account given of the event by Cæsar himself. We must not indeed expect that he would give precise geographical information with regard to the countries which he conquered. His history is the " veni, vidi, vici " of the conqueror whose chief aim was to establish the reputation of his army's success. Still it is universally allowed that his details, when he condescends to give details, are wonderfully accurate. His accounts of the manners and customs of the inhabitants A of those lands in which his wars were carried on although necessarily incomplete, have been in most particulars corroborated by other historians. His computations of the distances between places, and the times in which those distances were traversed by his army, will bear the closest scrutiny.

The officers employed by the Emperor Napoleon III. have verified them wherever the localities visited by Cæsar can be assigned in his Gallic and British Campaigns, and have found them strictly accurate. The value of such cor roborative evidence cannot be over-estimated. When an Emperor having at his command the resources to be found in the whole civil adminis tration of a country and in an army of half a million of men, gives the order to compare manuscripts, to explore and excavate fortifications, to measure distances, and in every way to elucidate the history of a particular epoch, the results of such investigations carry with them an authority which could not be derived from the researches of any private individual. The conclusions laid down in the following pages with regard to the site of Cæsar's first inland encamp- SOURCES OF THE HISTORY. 3 ment were in the first instance arrived at independently of Napoleon's suggestions, and before his work on the life of Cæsar was seen, but they are found so entirely to agree with and to supple ment the remarks of that distinguished Emperor, that they may almost be regarded as a sequel to his work.

Besides the testimony of Cæsar himself regard ing his invasion of this country, we have that of Dion Cassius and Plutarch, as well as a few passing notices of that event in other classic writers, which do not, however, throw much light upon the details of his conquests. Another source of information, and that of great importance, is afforded by the writings of the British bards and historians. First among these must be mentioned the historic Triads. These are disjointed and fragmentary, but they were certainly transcribed at a very early period, and contain the traditional account of various historical events, amongst others of Cæsar's invasion of Britain. They have never been published collectively in English, but most of them will be found in the Welsh language in "the Myvyrian Archaiology."

Those relating to Julius Cæsar and the heroic resistance he met with from the British have been embodied in a valuable work, published some years ago by the Rev. R. W. Morgan of Tregynon, under the title of "The British Kymry, or the Britons of Cambria." A larger work was promised by Mr Morgan, but the author of the present treatise has not been able to ascertain that it was ever published. In addition to that gathered from the Triads, a British version of the events of Cæsar's progress in Britain may be read in the rather fabulous his tory of Geoffrey of Monmouth, which seems to have had a common origin with " The Chronicle of Tyssilio," translated from a Welsh manuscript in the Red Book of Hergest, found in the Library of Jesus College, Oxford. It is needless to enter into the controversy as to the genuineness of Geoffrey's history, which he professes to have translated from a manuscript received from Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford.

His history, and also the very similar record of Tyssilio, contain evidence of fabrication, and are only SOURCES OF THE HISTORY. 5 valuable so far as they agree with, or may be reconciled with, other more trustworthy accounts. They are not certainly to be wholly rejected, for although embellished with much that is legendary by the ingenious translator, there is every reason to believe that they were founded upon early British annals, upon the first records of the traditional knowledge so carefully preserved and for centuries transmitted orally by the ancient Druids and Bards. The accounts given in these British histories should be critically examined with respect to the several events narrated, and compared with other more authentic records of the same events. If, as will often be found, they do not contradict these, but are evidently independent accounts of the same transactions, their corroborative testimony is of considerable value.

The references to Julius Cæsar's invasion con tained in " The History of the Britains " by Nen nius, in Henry of Huntington, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in Beda, and in other later authors, can scarcely be considered as independent testimony, being gathered principally from the Roman authorities before mentioned, and in the case of Henry of Huntingdon to a considerable extent also from the earlier British histories. It has not, therefore, been thought necessary to quote them in the present work, except in one or two instances in which their information seems to have been derived from other sources not now extant. The author has, however, found much important information in the writings of Camden, Leland, and other early archæologists. These have handed down traditions as to the site of Cæsar's landing, and of his first encounters with the British, and have pointed out the position of earthworks and entrenchments existing in their day, many of which may still be traced, marking the scenes of these battles.

He has also been assisted by the traditional knowledge still current in the neighbourhood of these localities, particular scenes of historic interest being in some cases indicated by names known only locally, and handed down from age to age. The topographi cal position of Cæsar's early battlefields being now discovered, as he believes beyond ques- SOURCES OF THE HISTORY. 7 tion, the traditional knowledge of them will be seen to harmonize with the accounts given by classic and early British authors, and not un frequently to reconcile these when apparently at variance.

Chapter I. Early British Colonies And Warlike Enterprises

is commonly but erroneously sup *ly& 81$ Posed tnat prior to the coming of ««|§ Cæsar the isle of Britain was known only by name to the ancients, and that it was peopled by barbarous races, shut out by its inhospitable shores from all intercourse with the rest of the world. To say that such was not the case would be to state only half the truth. The testimony of Cæsar, corroborated as it is by that of many other writers, sufficiently proves that not only had the Gauls and other continental nations frequent communication with Britain for trade and other purposes, but that this country was the centre of their religious culture, and a principal source of their military strength. The author has endeavoured in this and the following chapter to describe the condition of Britain, and the relationship of its inhabitants to the neighbouring peoples at the time when Cæsar invaded its shores.

In doing so he has deemed it best to illustrate from other authors what Cæsar has himself related, and to show that his candid acknowledgment of the prowess and resources of his British foemen entirely agrees with the estimate which may be formed of their character from what is known or may be con jectured as to their previous history. No account of Cæsar's invasion of Britain could be deemed complete without some con sideration of the reason which he himself gives for visiting these shores. His commentaries relate: "Cæsar determined to proceed into Britain because he understood that in almost all the Gallic wars succours had been supplied thence to our enemies." The writer of the commentaries doubtless refers principally to the wars Cæsar had himself carried on in the provinces of Gaul, but his memory may have reverted to the history of other previous wars between the Gauls and Romans, in which British warriors had made their name distin guished and feared.

The history of the long continued struggle between these two rival races, the Romans and the Gauls, carries us back to a period more than 300 years prior to the time of Cæsar. At an earlier period even than this the Gauls had established themselves in the extensive district between the Alps and the Apennines, known as Cisalpine Gaul, but they did not come into collision with the Roman armies till the year b.c. 390, a.u.c. 364. Then it was that under Brennus they inflicted the most serious blow which the Roman power ever sustained by the taking and burning of Rome itself, the capitol alone being saved by the payment of a large ransom. Livy gives the following account of the first inroads of the Gauls into Italy. He says 1 that in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus (b.c. 616, a.u.c. 138) Ambigatus, King ofthe Bituriges, the chief people of the Celtæ, finding that part of Gaul 1 Livy, v. 34. over-populated, sent forth Bellovisus and Sego visus, his sister's sons, with as many as attached themselves to them, to whatever settlements the gods, by augury, might direct.

The Hernician, or Black Forest, fell to Segovisus, the road to Italy to Bellovisus. The forces of the latter were derived from the Bituriges, Averni, Senones, Œqui, Ambarri, Carnutes, and Aulerci. Pro ceeding over the pathless Alps, uncrossed before by man, and having defeated an army of Tuscans near the river Ticin, they encamped in Insubria, and built a city called Mediolanum (Milan). These early settlers were followed, says Livy, by the Cœnomani, and the Saluvii. Then the Boii and Lingones crossed the Pennine Alps and the river Po, and drove out the Etrurians and Urn brians from the country. Then, last of all, the Senones possessed themselves of the countries between the rivers Montone and Fiumesmo. Of these various settlers, according to Livy, the powerful nation of the Gauls was composed, who at last ventured to assault and capture Rome itself.

The names of many of these early Gallic settlers are also given by Polybius,1 who thus describes their nomadic character: "They dwelt in villages open and without walls, they had few or no moveables, they slept without beds, and their chief employments were husbandry and war, since they were totally ignorant of all other arts and sciences ; their substance consisted chiefly in cattle and gold, two commodities which they could easily carry with them whenever by any chance they should be compelled to remove. They not only were masters of the country, but compelled the neighbouring nations to pay them obedience. At length they made war on the Romans, whom, after they had vanquished in battle, together with those who took part with them, they pursued three days together, and took at last the city of Rome itself, all but thecapitol."

Plutarch gives a very similar account of the first coming of the Gauls.2 " Now as touch ing the Gauls they came (as they say) of the Celtæ, whose country not being able to maintain the multitude of them, they were driven to go and seek other countries to dwell in ; and there were 1 Polybius, vol. i., book i. "- Plutarch, " Camillus." amongst them many thousands of young men fit for service, and good soldiers, but yet more of women and little children. Of these people some of them went towards the North Sea, passing the mountains Riphei, and did dwell in the extreme parts of Europe. Others remained between the mountains Pirinei, and the greatest mountains of the Alps, near unto the Senones, and the Celtorii. There they continued a long time, until they happened at last to taste of the wine which was first brought out of Italy unto them.

Which drink they found so good, and were so delighted with it, that suddenly they armed themselves, and tak ing their wives and children with them, they went directly towards the Alps, to go and seek that country which produced such fruit, judging all other countries in comparison with that to be but wild and barren. . . . They conquered at their first coming all that country which the Thuscans held in old time, beginning at the foot of the mountains, and stretched out in length from one sea unto the other. All that country is well planted with trees, and hath goodly pleasant pastures for beasts and cattle to feed in, and is notably ■4 CÆSAR IN KENT. watered with goodly running rivers. There was also at that time eighteen fair great cities in that country, all of them very strong and well seated, as well for to enrich the inhabitants thereof by traffic as to make them to live delicately for pleasure.

All these cities the Gauls had won, and had expelled the Thuscans, but this was done long time before." The historian then relates that entering further into Thuscan the Gauls at length laid siege to the city of Clusium, the in habitants of which besought the intervention of the Romans. The representatives sent by the latter, consisting of three of the most honourable of the house of the Fabians, forgetting their character of ambassadors, and joining in hostilities against the Gauls, were the cause of that invasion of Roman territory which lead to such disastrous results. There can be no doubt from these accounts that the people who took possession of the northern parts of Italy, and became eventually the conquerors of Rome, were drawn from all parts of Gaul, and, were there no other testimony, it might fairly be concluded from this fact, that there were among them British warriors.

For Livy states that some of the earlier settlers in Italy came from the Aulerci, a people who inhabited the district between the Seine and the Loire, the sea coast of which district was known as Armorica. This Armorica was so largely peopled from the Isle of Britain, that Pliny reckons the Britanni or Britons among the maritime people of Gaul, and Dionysius Afer, an early Greek writer, does the same in a pas sage of which Camden gives the following trans lation — " Near the great pillars of the furthest land The old Iberians, haughty souls, command Along the continent, where northern seas Roll their vast tides, and in cold billows rise ; Where British nations in long tracts appear, And fair-skinned Germans ever famed in war." That the inhabitants of this district and of the adjacent British isles were conspicuously present in the invading army may be further inferred from the description given by Livy, who repre sents the attacking force as "an unknown and terrible enemy from the ocean and utmost verges of the earth."

By this description he would certainly include our British forefathers, since the island of Britain was then the furthest known land, and is so described in a passage of Pausanias. " The Iberi and Celti," he says, " live near an ocean, not a river, but near the farthest sea navigated by man ; and this ocean contains the island of the Britons." The method also of warfare of the invaders, their discordant shouts, the extraordinary size of their men, as well as their unencumbered mode of fighting, although to some extent characteristic of the nation of the Gauls, were especially so of the Britons, and seem to indicate the predomin ance of the latter, and that the leadership of the invading host was entrusted to one of that nation. With regard to these particulars, Livy 1 gives the following account.

"The Clusians," he says, " were terrified both by the number and extra ordinary size of the enemy, and withal by the kind of arms they used." He speaks also of their rapid marches, and of the barbarous songs and hideous howlings which made all around them resound with a horrible noise ; — so great was the panic caused by these, that when the Roman 1 Livy> v. 35-55. soldiers " heard the shouts of the Gauls, which seemed to those who stood next to have been raised from the flank, and to the most remote from their rear, they fled in a body without striking a blow or even returning the enemy's shout." The Gauls when " they entered Rome were heard roaring out their howlings and dis cordant notes, as they strolled in troops round the city walls." Camillus in addressing the people of Ardea incites them to attack their enemy then foraging in the neighbourhood, by describing them as a people advancing in straggling parties, on whom nature had bestowed enormity of size and impetuosity of courage, rather than firmness of body or constancy of mind ; and when acting upon his advice, the Ardeans afterwards sur prise and slaughter the enemy, " they were all butchered," says Livy, "without resistance, naked as they were born, and fast asleep."

That the characteristics here given of the in vading army were such as might be expected from British even more than from Gaulish warriors, may be gathered from the following quotations from classic authors. " The Britons," says B Strabo, " in stature exceed the Gauls, and their hair is not so yellow nor their bodies so well set. Let this be an argument of their tallness, that I myself have seen at Rome some young men of them taller by half a foot than any other men. Yet their legs were but weak, and the other parts of the body showed them to be not well made or handsome." Tacitus says of the Britons that " they show more heat and fierceness than the Gauls ; " Dio Nicæus, that " they run at a great rate;" Cæsar, that "they fight in detach ments or small bodies of men at a time, others being ready to relieve them in case of need."

Dion Cassius speaks ofthe loud clamour and songs of defiance with which they advance towards the enemy, and relates that being naked they were able in warfare to swim rivers. Herodian states that they fought " with a sword hanging by their naked bodies." With regard to their simple mode of life, it is described in very simi lar terms to those in which Polybius described the Gauls who first settled in Italy. Diodorus Siculus1 gives the following : — " Further, they 1 Diodor Siculi, Bibliotheca Historica, lib. i. ch. 4. say that its aboriginal tribes inhabit Britain, in their usages preserving the primitive modes of life ; for in their wars they use chariots as the ancient Greek heroes are reported to have done in the Trojan war, and they have mean habitations, constructed for the most part of reeds and of wood, and they gather in their harvest by cutting off the ears of corn and storing them in subterranean repositories : that they cull there from daily such as are old, and dressing them have thence their substance : that they are simple in their manners, and far removed from the cunning and wickedness of men of the present day: that their modes of living are frugal, and greatly differing from the luxury consequent on riches."

Dion Cassius1 also makes Bunduica (or Boadicea) say in her address to her army, com paring the Romans with the Britons, " We are endued with courage so superior, that we deem our tents more secure than their walls, and our shields a better defence than their complete armour. If we choose to retreat to any place, we hide ourselves in marshes and mountains, 1 Dio. Cass., lxii. 5. where we can neither be discovered nor taken ; whereas they, from the weight of their armour, are neither able to pursue others nor to escape themselves : moreover, they stand in so much need of shade and shelter, pounded corn, wine and oil, that if one of these things fail them they perish ; while to us every herb and root is food, every juice is oil, every stream is wine, and every tree an house." Strabo again says of the in habitants of the Cassiterides, by which name some authors seem to refer to the Scilly Isles, others to the British Isles generally, that " they subsist by their cattle, leading for the most part a wandering life."

Pomponius Mela says : "The Britons are uncultivated, and in proportion as they live a great distance from the Continent, they are un acquainted with the wealth and riches in other places, theirs consisting wholly in cattle and the extent of their grounds." This simplicity of life, which Mela and some other writers attributed to ignorance of luxury, was, however, adopted not from necessity but from choice. The Britons and Gauls owed the formation of their national character to the Druidical religion, which, although a corrupted form of Patriarchal worship, retained nevertheless its primitive simplicity. Hence they despised luxury ; and although carrying on a considerable trade with other more cultivated nations, pre ferred the nomadic life which they had inherited from their forefathers, so that, even when they settled in Italy, they continued, as Polybius states, the same primitive mode of living.

The author has deemed it desirable to show on the testimony of Greek and Latin authors that it is more than probable that British warriors were prominent among the conquerors of Rome ; and it may be added that the name of their leader, Brennus, mentioned by Livy, Plutarch, and others, is apparently of British origin. " That Brennus," says Camden, " so famous both in Greek and Latin authors, was a Briton, some think may be easily made out. For my part, I know only thus much in this matter, that the name is not yet quite lost among the Britons, who in their language call a king Brennin." We need not, however, depend solely upon the classical authorities. That the leader and the dominant part of the invading army were British is distinctly claimed by the British historians. The account of the invasions is as follows : — Brennus and Belinus, the two sons of Dunwallo Molmutius, King of Britain, disputed after their father's death for the sovereignty of the island.