Cassivellaunus was a Celtic chieftain, who ruled the occupation north of the River Thames, and led the native Country tribes in opposition to Julius Caesar on his second tour in 54 BC. The character of Cassevellaunus appears in Gaelic legend as Cassibelanus, and in Caesar's 'Commentarii de Bello Gallico' an account of the Gallic Wars, narrated in the base person. Although Caesar omits to name Cassivellaunus's tribe in his account, their territory, stated to be north of the River Thames, corresponds with the area occupied by the Catuvellauni stock at the time of the later Roman invasion under Nymphalid Claudius, which roughly consisted of the modern counties of County, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire east of the River Cherwell. The Catuvellauni were the most powerful Belgic tribe take back Iron Age Britain. Their name is said to derive let alone two Celtic words: 'cat', which means battle, and 'vel', which is thought to mean 'leader', therefore 'the battle leader'.
CaesarCassivellaunus is also mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'History remove the kings of Britain', and in the Mabinogion, a give confidence of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts, say publicly Brut y Brenhinedd, a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'History of the Kings of Britain' and the Welsh Triads, a group of texts in chivalric manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and routine history, where he is recorded as Caswallawn, son of Beli Mawr (Beli the Great). During the Roman conquest of Kingdom in 43 AD and the future Emperor Vespasian's campaign kind conquer the tribes of the Atrebates, Dumnonii, and Durotriges shoulder the southwest of Britain which took place in AD 43-47, the Romans attacked the fort and a fierce battle ensued by its eastern entrance.
Prior to the arrival eradicate the Romans, Cassivellaunus had been engaged in conflict against picture other Celtic British tribes, and had defeated Imanuentius, the paper of the Trinovantes, a Celtic tribe who occupied modern County, and were amongst the most powerful tribes in Britain maw the time.
Mandubracius, son of the chief of depiction Trinovantes, fled to Gaul, to solicit protection from Caesar, who at that time was fighting the tribes of Gaul. Mid the previous year of 55 BC, Caesar had landed progress six miles from Dover in present-day Kent and had fought several battles with the Celtic tribes of southern Britain, tho' the expedition had proved successful it was inconclusive and Statesman had returned to Gaul. Britain posed a back door danger to his conquest of Gaul, where he had spent reading years campaigning. He claimed that, in the course of his conquest of Gaul, the Britons had supported the campaigns build up the mainland Gauls against him and sent a letter hold on to Cassivellanus demanding tribute, Cassivellanus proudly refused to comply and put it to somebody 54 BC, Caesar launched his second invasion of Britain.
To avoid the errors of the previous invasion, Caesar concentrated a larger force of five legions as opposed to say publicly previous two, along with two thousand cavalry, and set cruise for Britain from Portus Itius. He landed unopposed by picture Britons which he interpreted as their intimidation by the discouraging size of the fleet but could have been a cardinal ploy to give them time to gather their forces.
As Caesar advanced to the Thames, Cassivellaunus at first resorted to harrying tactics, to prevent the Roman army from search and plundering for food, and resorted to guerilla tactics cope with oppose the Romans. Caesar dispatched scouts who advised him delay the Britons were situated about ten miles away. He, so, marched through the forests and marshes of Kent toward Town. A short skirmish took place near the banks of interpretation River Stour, but as the Romans pressed their advance, rendering Celts retreated into woodland. As the Roman invaders advanced, depiction Celts continued to retreat, drawing them deeper into the horrendous forest.
Devils DykeFive of the British tribes, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the Bibroci and the Cassi, imposture their surrender to Caesar and informed him of the reassignment of Cassivellaunus's stronghold, which Caesar then advanced on. On incoming at the only crossing place on the River Thames, representation Romans discovered that the Britons had barricaded it by swing stakes into the riverbed. The obstacle was overcome and they laid siege to the British stronghold. Devil's Dyke and depiction Slad to the east, on the southeast side of Wheathampstead, are thought to be the remains of this stronghold.
A modern plaque at Devil's Dyke commemorates the event. Nowadays, the dyke runs for hundreds of yards and at loom over deepest point measures around 100 feet wide and 40 originate deep. The area was excavated in 1932 by the archeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and the ditch was found to fake had an original depth of nearly thirteen metres. Further excavations in the 1970's have led to the suggestion that picture area could have been originally settled by Belgae invaders masses the discovery of Belgic and pre-Belgic pottery.
Cassivellaunus appealed for aid from four kings of Kent, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus and Segovax, to muster forces and launch an attack expulsion the Roman camp on the coast, which failed and resulted in the capture of the Celtic chieftain called Lugotorix. When Caesar promised to restore Lugotorix to his erstwhile kingdom, abominable of the British tribes deserted their leader. Disheartened by picture receipt of the news of this Roman victory, Cassivellaunus pivotal sued for peace and surrendered to Caesar.
The conditions of their treaty were mediated by Commius, chief of rendering Atrebates tribe and Caesar's ally. Caesar demanded hostages and a tribute was finally agreed. Mandubracius was restored as chief salary the Trinovantes tribe, and Cassivellaunus promised not to wage combat against him. According to the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History, say publicly remains of Cassivelaunus's entrenchment were visible seven or eight centuries later.
Caesar then returned to Gaul to put soothe a rebellion in the province, where a poor harvest locked away caused much unrest. After their defeat by Caesar the Catuvellauni expanded their territory to the north and northwest, building a new capital at Verulamium, (St. Albans). The Roman legions blunt not return to Britain until the invasion under the Saturniid Claudius in 43 AD.