Cantiaci

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Cantiaci
Map of the Territory of the Cantiaci.svg
Geography
Capital Durovernum Cantiacorum (Canterbury)
Location Kent
East Sussex
Rulers Dubnovellaunus, Vosenius, Eppillus, Cunobelinus, Adminius

The Cantiaci or Cantii were an Iron Age Celtic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a civitas of Roman Britain. They lived in the area now called Kent, in south-eastern England. Their capital was Durovernum Cantiacorum , now Canterbury.

Contents

They were bordered by the Regni to the west, and the Catuvellauni to the north.[ citation needed ]

Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and 54  BCE, the first Roman expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his De Bello Gallico v. 14: [1]


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

Julius Caesar named five Celtic tribes inhabiting the land that would become the "heartland of the Catuvellauni": the Ancalites, the Bibroci, the Cassi, the Cenimagni, and the Segontiaci, each with their own "king" or chieftain. He found their way of life to be very similar to their cousins in Gaul with whom they were close – the invasion of Britain may have been triggered by the Britons' supply of arms to the Gauls, who were being subjugated by the Romans. [2] [ page needed ]

Caesar mentions four kings, Segovax, Carvilius, Cingetorix, and Taximagulus, who held power in Cantium at the time of his second expedition in 54 BCE. 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 (starting in 43 CE), 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". [4]

See also

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The Bibroci were a tribe of Iron Age Britain in the first century BCE. They are known only from a brief mention in the writings of Julius Caesar. They may have been one of the four tribes of Kent, represented in Caesar by references to the "four kings of that region" and in the archaeological record by distinct pottery assemblages.

The Cassi were a tribe of Iron Age Britain in the first century BCE. They are known only from a brief mention in the writings of Julius Caesar. They may have been one of the four tribes of Kent, represented in Caesar by references to the "four kings of that region" and in the archaeological record by distinct pottery assemblages.

References

  1. Caesar, Gaius Julius. C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War, Book 5, chapter 14 (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Brothers.
  2. Sargent, Andrew (2013). The Story of the Thames. Amberley Publishing. ISBN   9781445611945.[ page needed ]
  3. Rudd, Chris (2011). "New Iron Age King Found in Kent" (PDF). The Searcher: 50–51. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  4. Wade-Evans 1938[ full citation needed ]

Bibliography