Itius Portus or Portus Itius was the ancient Roman name for a sea port on the English Channel in what is now Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, though its precise location is unknown. The main candidates have been Saint-Omer (Sithiu), Wissant and Boulogne (more usually called Gesoriacum and later Bononia), but a silted-up lagoon on the Flanders shore behind Calais now seems a most likely speculated area
Julius Caesar described calling ships ad portum Itium (used twice) to embark troops for his invasions of Britain in 54 BC.
The location of the port was certainly near the uplands round Cap Gris Nez (Promunturium Itium), but the exact site has been violently disputed ever since the Renaissance. Many critics have assumed that Caesar used the same port for his first expedition, but the name does not appear at all in that connection. [1] This fact, coupled with other considerations, might make it probable that the two expeditions started from different places. [2] However, Strabo (Geography 4.5.2) mentions Itium in the context of Caesar's first crossing, so Caesar simply may not have named it in his own account of the first crossing.
It was once generally agreed that Caesar first embarked for Britain at Boulogne. The same view was widely held about the second crossing, but T. Rice Holmes in an article in the Classical Review (May 1909) gave strong reasons for preferring Wissant, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Gris Nez. The chief reason is that Caesar, having found he could not set sail from the small harbour of Boulogne with even eighty ships simultaneously, decided that he must take another point for the sailing of the more than 800 ships of the second expedition. Holmes argues that, allowing for change in the foreshore since Caesar's time, 800 specially built ships could have been hauled above the highest spring-tide level, and afterwards launched simultaneously at Wissant, which would therefore have been commodissimus [3] or opposed to brevissimus traiectus. [2] [4]
In fact the logical place to assemble 800 or so ships would have been the large lagoon (where now there is farmland and a maze of drainage ditches) behind a coastal fringe of islands (where the modern ports of Calais and Dunkirk now sit), because in Caesar's day an estuary stretched from this location all the way inland to the site of the modern town of Saint-Omer. In 1944, French historian Albert Grenier, against the backdrop of the Allied invasion of Normandy, reanalysed Caesar's text against modern understanding of wind, weather, tides, and siltation in the English Channel. He concluded Caesar's departure ports were likely to be Saint-Omer. All would later become important Roman ports. The English side of the Channel also had many places that served as ports in the Roman era but are now far inland because of silting. [5]
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Caligula's abortive invasion of Britain c. AD 40 was probably to have departed from Boulogne. The Roman lighthouse which once stood there is believed to have been built by him. [6]
Boulogne is likewise presumed to have been the point of departure for the conquest of Britain of AD 43 under Aulus Plautius, although the only surviving account of the invasion, that of Cassius Dio, does not mention it. [7] The emperor Claudius followed later with reinforcements, and Suetonius tells us he sailed from Gesoriacum. [8]
Boulogne-sur-Mer, often called just Boulogne, is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the Côte d'Opale, a touristic stretch of French coast on the English Channel between Calais and Normandy, and the most visited location in the region after the Lille conurbation. Boulogne is its department's second-largest city after Calais, and the 183rd-largest in France. It is also the country's largest fishing port, specialising in herring.
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.
Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC. He and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani in defeating their rivals, the Aedui. They then settled in large numbers into conquered Gallic territory, in the Alsace region. They were defeated, however, in the Battle of Vosges and driven back over the Rhine in 58 BC by Julius Caesar.
Cassivellaunus was a historical British military leader who led the defence against Julius Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC. He led an alliance of tribes against Roman forces, but eventually surrendered after his location was revealed to Julius Caesar by defeated Britons.
The Sicambri, also known as the Sugambri or Sicambrians, were a Germanic people who during Roman times lived on the east bank of the river Rhine, in what is now Germany, near the border with the Netherlands. They were first reported by Julius Caesar, who described them as Germanic (Germani), though he did not necessarily define this in terms of language.
Gaius Volusenus Quadratus was a distinguished military officer of the Roman Republic. He served under Julius Caesar for ten years, during the Gallic Wars and the civil war of the 40s. Caesar praised him for his strategic sense and courageous integrity.
Commius was a king of the Belgic nation of the Atrebates, initially in Gaul, then in Britain, in the 1st century BC.
The gens Scribonia was a plebeian family of ancient Rome. Members of this gens first appear in history at the time of the Second Punic War, but the first of the Scribonii to obtain the consulship was Gaius Scribonius Curio in 76 BC.
The Morini were a Belgic coastal tribe dwelling in the modern Pas de Calais region, around present-day Boulogne-sur-Mer, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
The site of the Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43 has been a matter of academic debate. Although it is generally believed that the force left from Gesoriacum (Boulogne), it is possible that part of the fleet sailed from near the mouth of the Rhine. Rutupiæ has earthworks that defended a bridgehead dating from this period and is often stated as the site of the landing, though there are plausible arguments in favour of a landing further west along the south coast of Britain.
Cap Gris-Nez is a cape located in Audinghen, a commune of the Pas-de-Calais département in northern France.
An evocatus was a soldier in the Ancient Roman army who had served out his time and obtained an honorable discharge but had voluntarily enlisted again at the invitation of the consul or other commander.
Dubris, also known as Portus Dubris and Dubrae, was a port in Roman Britain on the site of present-day Dover, Kent, England.
In the course of his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice: in 55 and 54 BC. On the first occasion, Caesar took with him only two legions, and achieved little beyond a landing on the coast of Kent. The second invasion consisted of 800 ships, five legions and 2,000 cavalry. The force was so imposing that the Celtic Britons did not contest Caesar's landing, waiting instead until he began to move inland. Caesar eventually penetrated into Middlesex and crossed the Thames, forcing the British warlord Cassivellaunus to pay tribute to Rome and setting up Mandubracius of the Trinovantes as a client king. The Romans then returned to Gaul without conquering any territory.
Servius Sulpicius Galba was a Roman general and politician, praetor in 54 BC, and an assassin of Julius Caesar.
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.
Mamurra was a Roman military officer who served under Julius Caesar.
Wissant is a seaside commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
The military campaigns of Julius Caesar were a series of wars that reshaped the political landscape of the Roman Republic, expanded its territories, and ultimately paved the way for the transition from republic to empire. The wars constituted both the Gallic Wars and Caesar's civil war.
The gens Mettia, also written Metia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens occur in history, and none attained the higher offices of the Roman state under the Republic. Several Mettii rose to prominence in imperial times, with at least three obtaining the consulship in the late first and early second century.
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