Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Rome’s defeat by \hthe Germanic tribes in 9 AD

shatters the illusion of Roman moral superiority.

What Rome calls civilization, \hher neighbors call tyranny.

\h\hIt’s a lesson Rome seems doomed to repeat.

Now, in the 1st century AD,

Rome’s forces find themselves \h\h\h\h\hin a legendary land

which still lies beyond \hher reach, Britannia.

Shrouded in dense forests and inhabited by strange savages,

\h\hit fascinates and terrifies the Romans.

And conquering it will \h\hbe a glorious feat,

worthy of a magnificent emperor.

(men applaud)

\h(dramatic music) (soldiers shouting)

- [Narrator] For six centuries,

the Roman Empire bends the ancient world to its will.

By the fourth decade AD,

\hit stretches from the sands of Arabia

to the rocky coast \hof the North Sea.

In every corner it seduces its enemies

with trade and luxury,

all backed by the iron fist

of the most disciplined army ever known to man.

(soldiers shout)

- The Romans like to \hthink of themselves

as bringing civilization \h\h\h\hto other places.

\h\hThey were proud of the fact that they were governing well.

They believed that Jupiter \h\h\hgave them this power,

governing is their \h\hreal strength.

- [Narrator] Romans believed \h\h\h\hthat this godly power

is vested in the emperor,

but not all emperors are divine.

In 41 AD, the excesses \h\hof Emperor Caligula

shake Rome to its core.

- Caligula was a spoiled brat.

He may also have had \h\ha mental illness.

We hear the stories

about his naming his horse \h\ha consul, for example.

He builds bridges

just so he can ride his \hchariot across them.

\h\h\hHe does these bizarre things just to have power,

to show that he has power.

\h\h\h- Significant numbers of those people very close to him

begin to feel that they \hwere just in danger,

that the emperor was too \hunstable, too paranoid,

and probably just plain too crazy.

- [Narrator] Members of the elite militia

known as the Praetorian Guard

decide that Caligula must go

before he turns on them.

\hThey make their move as the emperor returns

from an afternoon of gambling.

\h(dramatic music) (Caligula whimpers)

\h\h\h\h\h1st century biographer Suetonius.

- Caligula laid writhing \h\h\h\h\hon the ground.

"I am still alive," he shouted.

But word went around, \h\h\h"Strike again."

And he succumbed to 30 further wounds.

(blades swooshing)

- It was a really crucial moment

\h\h\hthat revealed the military underpinnings

of an emperor’s power \hfor the first time

in a very raw and obvious fashion.

- [Narrator] The Praetorians \h\hwill choose their own man

as the new emperor.

Behind the curtain, they find \h\htheir candidate cowering.

Caligula’s uncle, Claudius.

\h\h\hHere is someone who will be easy to control,

a puppet to be manipulated.

\h\h\h- He drooled, he stammered, he twitched.

\hPerhaps the only reason he survived

was simply because nobody \h\h\htook him seriously,

nobody saw him as a possible candidate.

(soldier speaks in \hforeign language)

- [Narrator] Confident \h\h\hin their choice,

the guard proclaims Claudius

leader of the greatest \h\h\hempire on Earth.

\h\h\h\h\h- Senior members of his household when he was growing up

had chosen not to give him

significant administrative \h\hor military experience.

\hAlmost all other young men in the imperial house

were thrust very rapidly \hinto public positions.

\h\h\h\hNone of this happened to Claudius.

\h\h\h- [Narrator] Emperor Claudius has a lot to prove

\h\hto his subjects who think he’s incompetent,

\hand to the Praetorians who have made him emperor

he owes a great debt.

One event will serve \hboth needs, a war.

(soldiers shout in \hforeign language)

Honor and duty for the soldiers,

prestige and dignity for \hthe victorious emperor.

(men applaud)

- An active conquest \h\h\h\hof some area,

an active military adventure

\h\h\h\hwill always be preferred economically

for the Roman soldier.

Psychologically, soldiers don’t wanna be inactive.

Psychologically, they want to go out and fight their best.

(people applauding)

\h\h- [Narrator] The most spectacular the conquest,

the better.

But where to go?

\h\hEmperor Claudius’ answer is as daring as it is unexpected.

Britannia, the fierce \h\hand remote island

that defeated Julius Caesar \hnearly 100 years earlier.

The man who tames it will be greater than Caesar himself.

(hooves thumping)

\h\hTo lead the expedition, Claudius chooses Plautius,

a distinguished senator and well-established commander.

He leads four legions \hinto a strange land

\h\hhaunted with a dangerous history.

The troops are edgy and afraid.

(eerie music)

\h\h- This kind of fear of the unknown

I think could not be minimalized

in this type of an engagement.

There was this real fear

that maybe some 1st century weapon of mass destruction

\h\hwas going to be on the other side of the channel.

- [Narrator] Dark rumors fly

\habout the fearsome magic of the druids,

the priests of Britannia’s \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hpervasive

and secretive religion.

Classical sage Pliny the Elder.

- Britannia is fascinated \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hby magic,

the monstrous druid called professors,

that to murder a man is an act \h\hof the greatness devoutness

and to eat his flesh, \h\hmost beneficial.

- [Narrator] Evidence \hof human sacrifice

fills the soldiers with disgust

\h\h\h\hand leads Emperor Claudius to ban druidism.

(soldier speaks Latin)

\h\h- For any religious calls to be suppressed,

\hthey had to be doing things that the Romans didn’t like.

\h\h\hOne of those things would be human sacrifice,

\h\hwhich the druids are accused of doing

\h\h\hand they may well have been involved in.

Another thing would be being \h\hsome kind of a political

or socially destabilizing force.

(dramatic music)

\h\h- [Narrator] Politics and magic, a deadly combination.

Cautiously, the Romans march

from their beachhead \h\h\h\hat Rutupiae,

present day Richborough,

towards the Thames,

the river which borders \h\hthe extensive lands

\h\hof the powerful Catuvellauni tribe.

Steeped in druidic mysteries,

\h\hCaratacus, prince of the Catuvellauni people,

wears no armor.

\h\h\hHe relies instead on the strong magic of his war paint.

- It apparently took \ha lot of education

before druids were able to master these things,

maybe up to 20 years of learning

to pick up the various texts,

the poems and the chants,

the words of prayer, the magic.

- [Narrator] The druid priests

\h\h\h\h\hare ring leaders of rebellion against the Romans.

\hThey pass freely from one tribe to the next,

spreading intelligence \h\h\h\h\hfor the enemy

and gathering new recruits.

- Druids are not only middlemen

between the people and the gods,

but as judges, as leaders,

they were individuals to be reckoned with.

\h\hIn virtually every area of Celtic society,

\hthe druids have a stake, have power.

- [Narrator] Togodumnus, \h\hbrother of Caratacus,

\hand warlord of the neighboring kingdom,

arrives with his own soldiers \hto bolster the resistance.

Their forces combined,

the princes face the Romans \hwith supreme confidence.

(men speaking in foreign language)

- The British hadn’t \h\h\hbeen conquered

the last time Romans \h\h\hhad come over,

\h\hand of course they were fighting on their home turf

and knew the territory

and they had had some experience

of observing the Romans in action,

so for all these reasons they may have felt some confidence

\hin being able to destroy the Roman forces when they arrived.

(men shout)

\h\h- Wales had the harshest of terrain

\h\hand it also had the fewest people,

\hbut they were people who were more war-like

than some of the others.

\h(dramatic music) (soldiers shouting)

What the soldiers were \h\hbeing trained to do

was to fight in long \h\hlegion formations

and to have the auxiliary \h\h\htroops on the side

to be able to operate \h\hout in the open.

And this worked.

It worked in North Africa,

it worked in the Middle East,

it worked in Gaul.

It worked less well in Germany,

and it certainly didn’t work at all in Britain.

\h\h\h- [Narrator] 3rd century historian Dio.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- [Dio] The Barbarians took refuge

in the swamps and the forests,

\h\h\hhoping to wear out the invaders in fruitless effort.

They knew where the firm ground

\h\hand the easy passages in this region were to be found.

The Roman attempts to follow them were not so successful.

\h\h\h\h- If you were fighting the Romans,

\hit seems to me that the initial British strategy

was really quite a good one.

They allowed the Romans \h\h\hto land unopposed

and I guess the plan \hwas to draw them in

\h\h\hand then take them out when they were trapped further inland

and they couldn’t escape.

(dramatic music)

\h- [Narrator] When the British strike,

it is with guile and savagery.

\h(man exclaims) (soldiers shout)

(trees thump)

- The disciplined Roman soldier

is well known and well documented.

The fact that Roman soldiers \h\h\h\hcan stay disciplined

\heven in the midst of the worst battles is remarkable

\h\h\h\hand it certainly denotes a military skill

of leadership and of training

that establishes the Roman soldier

\has the finest soldier on Earth at that time,

perhaps in all of history.

(soldiers shouting)

\h\h- [Narrator] In one skirmish after another,

\h\hPlautius suffers humiliating defeats,

but he remains undaunted.

\h\h\h- The Roman army, above all, was patient.

There’s no question of decisive victory here.

This is going to be a campaign

and the campaign was \hgoing to take long.

\hAfter all, where did the Romans have to go?

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Back in Rome,

\hEmperor Claudius prunes and prepares

for his own invasion of Britain.

Soon, he will personally \h\hsee to her surrender.

For the first time in his life

\h\hhe tries on the garb of a warrior.

- He needed to establish his military credentials.

This was an essential part

of being in the public \heye in Ancient Rome,

was to be militarily efficient

\h\h\h\h\h\hand to have some achievement under your belt,

\h\hpreferably a victory over some foreign enemy.

(eerie music)

- [Narrator] Claudius plans to overwhelm the barbarians

with the most destructive \h\h\hand imposing weapon

of the classical world.

Battle elephants.

They will announce the grand \h\hentrance of the emperor.

Then Claudius will \hteach the Britons

to grovel before the almighty Roman Empire

and claim a piece of \hglory for himself.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] In 43 AD, Emperor \hClaudius prepares to conquer

the fabled island of Britannia.

He sends his seasoned general \h\hPlautius and four legions

to clear his way.

At first, the Romans are \houtfoxed by the druids,

lured ever deeper into \hunfriendly territory.

\h\h\hBut now Plautius sees an opportunity to turn the tables.

\hHe orders a special force of provincials

to launch a sneak attack across the River Thames.

- The Roman Army was composed

of more or less two kinds of soldiers.

\h\hThose whom they called legionaries,

who were Roman citizens,

and those whom they called auxiliaries,

who were recruited from \hsubject populations.

\h\h\h- So Plautius has these auxiliaries swim

across the Thames,

\h\h\hnot because the Roman soldiers couldn’t have swam

across the Thames,

it’s just if it’s \hmore dangerous,

\h\hif there’s the potential of losing

a large number of \hregular troops,

\h\hwhy not let the auxiliaries do it?

- [Narrator] Like all druids,

\hthe warlords Caratacus and Togodumnus hold water sacred,

believing the mighty \hriver protects them

from their enemies.

Not burdened by this belief,

\h\h\hthe Roman auxiliaries cross silently and unseen.

- They proved to be very good

\hat discerning what types of armies they were facing,

\hhow unified those types of armies they were facing were

and what their arms \h\hand armor were.

So they operated as scouts

and seemed to understand \h\h\ha little bit better

who they were encountering and what the numbers were.

\h\h\h\h- [Narrator] Having learned what they need to,

the auxiliaries kill the barbarian horses,

cutting off any possibility \h\h\h\hof a fast retreat.

(men shouting)

(horse neighs)

Only now does Plautius send in his full force

to attack the Catuvellauni.

(swords clanging)

- The troops are fighting \h\h\h\hout hand to hand.

It does become a big melee

where you’re just trying \h\h\hto use brute force

\hto overwhelm the enemy, to scare them, to frighten them,

\hto force them away and then pursue them.

(swords clanging)

\h- [Narrator] But on the second day,

the advantage tilts towards the Romans.

- The Roman Army would emerge hale and healthy

at the end of the day

and able to fight again,

where the other side was reeling

\h\h\h\h\hfrom the psychological, emotional, and otherwise effects

of the devastation the Romans reeked on them.

(swords clanging) \h(men shouting)

(horse neighs)

(man shouts)

- [Narrator] In the ensuing slaughter,

Togodumnus is mortally wounded.

Stricken, the survivors vanish into the swamps.

\h\h\h\hThe families of the druid leaders awaken to a new reality.

(people yelling)

Word of the catastrophe \h\h\htriggers a panic

and a scramble to escape.

\h\hCaratacus and his family must also flee

or face humiliation and slavery \h\hat the hands of the Romans.

\h\h(Caratacus speaks in foreign language)

\h\h\h- When the Romans won a significant military victory,

\h\h\hthe general was traditionally awarded

the right to hold what we think \h\hof as a ticker tape parade,

what they called a triumph.

If possible, the leader of the conquered forces

\h\h\h\h\hwas marched throughout the parade

to display in his or her person

the subjugation of the foreign people,

\hand traditionally that person was then executed

at the end of the parade

as an enemy of the Roman people.

(people shouting)

- [Narrator] Caratacus \h\h\hhas no intention

of being a Roman trophy.

\hSwearing revenge, he gathers his supporters

\hand leads them on a long journey west

to the rugged hill country

\hwhere the heart of the druid establishment lies.

\h\h\hCaratacus correctly assumes that the Romans will not follow.

Instead, they plant themselves \h\hon the banks of the Thames.

(gentle music)

3rd century historian Dio.

- Because of the troubles

he had encountered \h\hon the Thames,

Plautius became afraid.

Instead of advancing \h\h\h\hany further,

\hhe proceeded to guard what he had already won

and sent for Claudius.

- [Narrator] But is it really \h\hfear that stops Plautius,

or politics?

- I doubt a man of experience \h\h\hand ability of Plautius

\h\h\hwould have been daunted too much by a river like the Thames.

It seems more likely to me \hthat he was given orders

that at a suitable point,

once a certain beachhead \h\hhad been established,

\honce there was a certain hinterland

\hthat the Romans could operate in,

that the emperor be summoned,

that he should show up in person

\h\hto establish that military credibility

which he so badly needed.

(dramatic music)

\h- [Narrator] Emperor Claudius attempts to sail to Britannia.

His ship is nearly lost \hup the Spanish coast

\hand he must march instead through Gaul to Gesoriacum,

present day Boulogne,

\h\h\hbefore finally crossing the Channel.

\hIt is late in the campaigning season by the time he arrives.

(gentle music)

- We know that the emperor \h\h\h\hshowed up in style.

He came with cohorts of his personal bodyguard,

the so-called Praetorian Guard,

and he also came with elephants.

(elephant trumpets)

Which is something, obviously,

it’s not an animal \hnative to Britain

or anywhere in Western Europe,

so by showing up with elephants

\h\h\h\h\h\hhe was really announcing his presence.

And then he supervised,

probably from a safe distance in the rear,

the capture of various \h\h\htowns and cities.

- [Narrator] Claudius’ \h\hsurprising arrival,

coupled with Caratacus’ \h\hhumiliating defeat,

prompts many British warlords to submit rather than fight.

- We modern people have our own idea of freedom

that’s part of our makeup.

It’s not necessarily the makeup \hat all of the ancient world.

\h\hThe majority of people simply accustom themselves

to their new leadership.

The taxes they were paying to leader A

they would now pay to leader B,

and it didn’t matter much.

\h\hIf they could cut down on any violence

\h\h\hthat could be made against them by an army,

principally that army \h\hnot being allowed

to rape or pillage or destroy their lands,

by acquiescence they would.

(dramatic music)

\h\h- [Narrator] To resist the Romans or collaborate.

\h\h\hIn the northern kingdom of Brigantes,

\h\hthe decision looms like an ominous shadow.

The choice will be made

\hby their powerful queen, Cartimandua.

- The British were willing \hto stand up behind women

who must have been very powerful personalities,

who must have had powerful menfolk

\h\h\hthat they were attached to, I think,

who established their status.

And then they must have been able to,

by dent of force of personality,

charisma and so forth,

rally their people behind them.

\h\h- [Narrator] The queen’s husband Venutius has no doubt

\habout which way the Brigantes should go.

\hHe opposes the Romans with all of his heart.

(birds cawing)

In the area that will become known as Wales

there is no indecision either.

\h\h\hHere, Britain’s fiercest warlords cleave to the old ways

and vehemently reject imperial domination.

The druids call upon their gods

to drive the Romans from their shores.

In their hour of need,

they perform their \hgreatest mystery.

The sacrifice of a living man.

The exiled Caratacus becomes \h\h\htheir righteous agent.

His passion ignites \h\hthe resistance.

(dramatic music)

- He was able to combine

\h\h\h\hsome of these very desperate tribes of people

into an anti-Roman stance

by creating a common enemy.

This must have made him

\h\h\hthe most charismatic British person of the time,

because how could he go about

and convince so many individuals

to oppose a Roman war machine?

- [Narrator] Bound \hmy common hatred

and their ancient religion,

the Celts vow to fight \hon to the bloody end.

\hVictory in battle restores confidence

among the Roman rank and file.

They no longer fear the British.

Little do they know that the worst is yet to come.

- [Narrator] In 43 AD,

Emperor Claudius claims \hvictory in Britannia,

\heven as rebellion takes root on the outskirts of the island.

\h(swords clanging) (soldiers shouting)

He establishes a Roman province

with its capital at Camulodunum,

present day Colchester,

where he receives allegiance \h\h\hfrom a dozen kingdoms.

The support of these new allies against the rebels

\hprovides a buffer to the fledgling province.

(men cheer)

After only 16 days in Britain,

Claudius returns home.

In total, he has been gone just six months.

But in terms of status,

he is light years away from where he started.

He is a conqueror.

(people continue applauding)

\h- The propaganda value of such trip is extraordinary

and it gave him a bump in the political favor of the people

in a way that’s similar \hto a modern president

visiting his troops on the line

\h\heven if he never goes anywhere near the fight.

(men applaud)

\h\h\h- [Narrator] 3rd century historian Dio.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- The Senate gave him the title of Britannicus

\h\hand also voted that there should be an annual festival

to commemorate the conquest

\h\h\hand that triumphal arches should be erected.

\h- [Narrator] The stunning monuments

known as triumphal arches

stand as much as 70 feet tall.

- He gets a triumphal arch with inscription

commemorating his achievements \h\h\h\hin conquering Britain.

\hThat’s the second permanent monument in the city of Rome

with his name on it

that marks Claudius as a great general

and a great conqueror,

so the military honors \h\hare the whole point

of the reason of going \hto Britain, they are.

\hThat’s the purpose of it, first and foremost,

\h\hto give Claudius that degree of, as I’ve said,

military sort of credibility,

military standing that he had formally lacked.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] To Plautius,

whom the emperor leaves behind \h\h\has governor of Britannia,

\h\h\hthe celebration must seem premature.

\h\hAny time the Romans step outside their zone of safety,

\h\hthey become targets of well orchestrated guerrilla attacks

inspired by Caratacus, \h\h\hthe rebel leader.

(tense music)

- They would have communicated

by means of runners \h\hand messengers.

Again, knowing the \hlay of the land,

knowing what the quickest ways

\h\hbetween the various parts of Britain were,

they would have had an advantage

in getting information swiftly

\h\hbetween different parts of the island.

(tense music)

(soldier shouts)

(soldiers shouting)

- Some of the greatest \h\hambushes in history

have come from logs \hbeing rolled down

\hor stones being rolled down onto soldiers below

from the mountain above.

So here’s the Roman.

He has his conventional spear,

he has his short sword,

he’s used to close fighting,

and suddenly he’s having \h\hrocks pelted on him,

he’s having spears \h\hthrown at him,

he’s having axes thrown at him,

\hhe’s having trees rolled down on him.

All of these things \htake their toll.

(logs tumbling)

(soldiers shouting)

- The British succeeded in outfoxing the Romans

because they knew the terrain.

And the local generals, \hthe British generals,

inspired their troops

\h\hby giving speeches in which they exhorted them

\hto fight off the invaders who wanted to enslave them,

that these were foreigners \hseeking to conquer them.

(soldiers shouting)

- Caratacus was very effective

at fighting I guess what we \hcall a guerrilla warfare.

The Romans probably called it \hterrorism or an insurgency,

\h\hbut he would have called it resistance.

And this was fairly effective.

- [Narrator] Too often the \h\h\hrebels melt away into

the forests after an attack.

Plautius must crush \h\hthe resistance

or watch it destroy \hhis new province.

\h- This meant that the officers on the ground

had to make decisions

that were not just straight wrote out

\hof whatever training manual that they’d been taught from,

\h\h\hthat they actually had to adapt themselves to the terrain

and also to the tactics,

we might call them guerrilla tactics,

of their opponents.

- [Narrator] In 45 AD he \hsends a surge of troops

from his headquarters \h\h\hin Camulodunum.

\h\hThree legions march south, west, and north.

\hThe 9th heads for the land of the Brigantes.

\hThe courageous Brigantes control the north country,

\h\han important buffer from other barbarians.

For the Roman ambassador,

the cooperation of Queen \h\h\hCartimandua is key.

- You’re trying to divide and conquer.

You’re trying to separate and \hisolate individual groups,

subdue them,

\h\h\hand having friends on the home field is a big advantage.

\h- [Narrator] Cartimandua accepts the imperial offer.

\h\h\hAfter all, with a legion on her doorstep,

her options are limited.

\h- What good are you doing for your people

\h\h\h\hif the choice is not between freedom and conquest

but between collaboration \h\h\h\h\hor destruction?

For somebody like Cartimandua,

collaborating with \hRome allowed her

\h\h\hto remain in a position of authority

and to risk a great deal \hless perhaps personally

\h\hthan she might have if she tried to fight.

- [Narrator] Venutius, \hthe queen’s consort,

vehemently opposes her decision,

and he is not alone.

\h- The Romans managed to have these arrangements.

\h\h\hNow the problem of course is that sometimes,

as with Cartimandua,

you get a split internally

\hwhere her husband turns against her.

(men shout)

\h\h\h- [Narrator] Venutius chafes on his short leash,

but for now he suffers \h\h\hthe queen’s will.

\h(Cartimandua speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Bitter but unbowed,

he waits for events to change.

\h\hThe Romans roll across the country,

subduing one village \h\h\hafter another.

- The main thing for \hthe Roman governor,

\h\hparticularly in a province that has just been established,

is maintaining stability.

He has to try to make links \hwith the local community.

So any kinds of Romanization,

making local people feel

comfortable with the Romans there,

is to their advantage.

\h\h- [Narrator] For those who cooperate,

the Roman hand is gentle.

\hFor those who resist, the vengeance is swift.

Soldiers hunt down insurgents

and teach them imperial justice \h\h\hat the point of a spear.

Every corner turns \hup troublemakers.

(woman grunts)

But the legionaries find \hpotential converts too.

Slowly but surely, they \hexpand Rome’s domain,

winning hearts and \hminds as they go.

(people cheer)

In the arena of Roman politics,

General Plautius is a hero.

Four years after the invasion,

a grateful Claudius \h\hcalls him home.

He brings along his \hBritish prisoners

for the gladiator ring.

- Four years is pretty standard

for a person to be in command of a province

or of an army like that,

\hand then somebody else would come in.

You don’t want the person to \hbe in command for too long

in case the troops become too attached to their commander.

And if that happens,

they may get ideas that \hmaybe this commander

would make a good emperor.

(people cheer)

\h\h\h- [Narrator] 3rd century historian Dio.

- In the gladiatorial combats,

many persons took part,

including the British captives.

Plautius used up ever so many men

in this part of the spectacle

and took pride in the fact.

- [Narrator] The blood \hspurred in the arena

confirms the superiority \h\hof every Roman heart.

The barbarians are dust \h\hbeneath their feet.

(sword whooshes) \h(people cheer)

(hooves thump)

- [Narrator] In 47 AD,

the Romans claim much of the \h\hsouthern part of Britain.

\h\hSome leaders, like Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes,

come into the imperial \h\h\hfold voluntarily.

(swords clanging)

But many choose to fight,

like the rebel prince Caratacus.

\h\h\h\h\h- The work of pacifying a population

to the point where Roman armies

could be removed from a province

was an arduous process.

\h\h\hThe Romans must have taken a very longterm view

\h\h\h\hto the process of annexation and conquest.

- [Narrator] They must when facing

a charismatic opponent \h\h\h\hlike Caratacus.

(men shouting)

- Caratacus may have had

the most significant of these rebellions.

\h\hHe seems to have been able to combine

most of the British people,

and they’ve had successes.

(dramatic music)

\h\h\h- [Narrator] The Romanized villages reel

\hunder Caratacus’ audacious attacks.

\h\hHis surprising string of victories

makes him first among \hBritish chieftains.

(people shouting)

All look to him to push the invaders from their shores.

In November, when he learns \hthat a new Roman governor

is assigned to Britannia,

\h\hCaratacus launches his most virulent assault yet.

(ax swooshes)

The new governor, Scapula,

\h\h\h\hreceives a bloody welcome to his province.

\hBut things do not go as Caratacus predicts.

The Roman troops never waiver.

(swords clanging)

Scapula deals Caratacus

his first major defeat \h\hof the insurgency.

\h\h\hStill, the rebel leader remains defiant.

Caratacus retreats \hto southern Wales

and sparks an uprising \h\h\h\hthere instead.

\h\h\hAs it spreads north through the hill country,

\hScapula pulls the 9th Legion out of Brigantes

and heads west.

\hAll he finds are women and children.

\hThe rebels have vanished like smoke into the hills.

- The Welch rebellion flourished

as almost all rebellions \hin Wales would flourish

\hdown through the early modern period

simply because it’s hard \h\hto get to the rebels.

(dramatic music) (people shouting)

(soldier grunts)

Now they have to go into the mountains

and the woods in the island

to find where these rebels are

and then take them out.

\h- It’s actually not unlike the situation

that American soldiers \h\hfound themselves in

popular histories of Vietnam

\h\h\hwhere the Americans found themselves fighting

in jungle terrain

\h\hwhere the quality of their training elsewhere

\hdidn’t prepare them for the ability of the enemy

to melt into the background.

- [Narrator] Scapula’s solution

\h\his to obliterate their hiding places.

\h\h\hHe destroys every rebel village and presses forward.

\h\hBut behind him, treachery strikes,

threatening a second rebellion.

In the forest of the Brigantes, \h\h\hthe druids are gathering.

- The people of the Brigantes

\h\hsee the Romans heading into Wales,

\h\h\h\hwhich is very difficult territory,

\hand said, "Well, this is a good opportunity.

"When they’re busy over there,

\h\h\h"we can cause trouble in the rear

"and perhaps gain an advantage.

"Maybe if they’re caught \h\h\hbetween two forces,

"they’ll be destroyed."

- [Narrator] To make this \hsecond rebellion work,

one noble is vital.

\h\h\hVenutius, husband of the collaborator Queen Cartimandua.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Venutius, Cartimandua’s husband,

\h\hof course was a significant figure.

He didn’t hold a hereditary \hposition in his own right

but he was perhaps the most highly visible male leader

in the kingdom.

And as a such, his breaking \h\h\h\hranks with his wife

\hprovided a very significant focus

\h\h\h\hfor anybody with aspirations to rebellion.

- [Narrator] The rebellious nobles

discuss Venutius’ name and loyalty.

\h\hWho, after all, would benefit more

\h\h\hif his wife the queen is overthrown?

But they underestimate \hCartimandua’s reach.

(tense music)

She has spies everywhere.

\h\hWhen the names of the ringleaders are revealed

by her husband’s own manservant,

\h\hshe learns that her most valuable warriors

are in the plot.

Desperate, she turns to Rome.

- Clan kings and queens,

chieftains that support \h\h\h\h\h\hthe Romans

are supporting them because the Romans have worked out

some kind of arrangement.

\h\hIn other words, we will come to your aid.

\hAnd it’s kind of an ongoing arrangement.

- [Narrator] Through \h\hthe Roman envoi,

she sends word to Scapula.

\h\hHe must return to Brigantes immediately

\h\h\hand honor Rome’s pledge to protect her.

\hThe timing couldn’t be worse for Scapula.

He has no choice but to pull out of Wales

and march the 9th Legion back \heast to support the queen.

His departure creates an opening

for Caratacus and the Welsh rebels.

With the Romans withdrawing,

warriors rally to Caratacus \h\hfrom all over Britain.

\h\h\h\hThey bring their weapons, ancient beliefs,

and their families.

This time, the resistance \h\hwill not hit and run.

Caratacus orders his \h\htroops to dig in.

\h\hClassical court historian Tacitus.

- He selected a side

\hwhere numerous factors helped him and impeded us

\h\hand all defenses were strongly manned.

- An entrenched defense, \h\ha position like that

gives a huge advantage \h\h\hto the defender,

and he’d have every \hreason to believe

perhaps on this occasion,

given these circumstances,

that he had chosen the ground

and he had prepared the ground,

maybe the Romans would falter.

I think that Caratacus had \ha reasonable expectation

that he could win.

- [Narrator] The last chance \h\hfor British independence

hangs on that fragile hope.

- [Narrator] In the name of the emperor Claudius,

Rome enters the sixth year

\h\h\h\hof the bitter conquest of Britain.

- The Roman emperor \h\h\h\hwas imgined

and in fact functioned \hvery broadly speaking

as commander in chief of the Roman Empire.

The emperor was ultimately conceived to be responsible

for the success or failure

of virtually any enterprise \h\h\h\hby the Roman state.

- [Narrator] Continuing \h\h\hchaos in Britain

could cast a shadow on Claudius’ tenuous hold on the throne.

\h\h\hCartimandua, Rome’s clan queen in the north,

demands that the empire defend her

against her rebellious subjects.

She and her followers barricade themselves

in her stronghold,

waiting for Roman general \hScapula to rescue her.

In short order,

Scapula crushes her rebellious subjects

and brings her the head of its leader.

\h\hThe royal consort Venutius is outraged,

\h\h\hhis sympathy for the resistance grows stronger.

At last, Scapula marches to Wales

with the 9th Legion once more.

Desperate to finish \h\hoff Caratacus,

he doubles his troop compliment,

\hordering the 20th Legion out of Camulodunum as well.

(soldiers shouting)

In 50 AD, with the honor of the empire weighing on him,

Scapula leads thousands

\hof the most highly trained men on Earth

against the well-entrenched \h\h\hand determined enemy.

- It might have been possible \h\h\hfor a man like Scapula

to persuade Claudius

\hthat failure under the particular circumstances

would have been acceptable,

but basically what was at stake,

beyond, say, life and death,

\h\h\h\hwas his chance for a further post after this one.

(soldiers shouting)

- [Narrator] Failure \h\his not an option,

but victory will not be easy.

(soldier whimpers)

(soldier whimpers)

(soldier shouts)

Classical biographer Tacitus.

\h\h\h- Our soldiers reached the rampart,

but in an exchange of missiles

they came off worse in wounds and casualties.

(soldier shouts)

\h\h- [Narrator] The Romans simply regroup

and come on once more.

- Rome takes over.

Rome becomes Rome the war machine,

and there’s no future \hfor the rebellion.

\hAnd that’s precisely how history played out.

(soldiers shouting)

\h- So they really wanted to get to grips with the Britons

and finally end this thing,

\h\h\h\h\hand the vehemence and ferociousness of their assault

\h\h\h\hwas such that the Britons were overwhelmed.

(soldiers shouting) \h(swords clanging)

- [Narrator] The luckiest \h\hhave the good fortune

of a quick death.

The rest are soon captured.

Humiliation, slavery, and ritual murder await the captives.

To his horror,

\hCaratacus realizes his wife and children are among them.

Caratacus himself escapes.

Remarkably, he flees all the way

to the Kingdom of Brigantes,

\heven though their queen, Cartimandua,

is a Roman collaborator.

\h\h- Cartimandua’s husband Venutius is a known patriot

and opposed Cartimandua’s \h\h\h\h\hcollaborations

to policies with the Romans.

I would suggest that Caratacus \h\h\h\hfled not to Cartimandua

but to Venutius

in the hope of perhaps \h\hgaining his support

\h\h\h\hand maybe convincing Cartimandua to turn finally.

- [Narrator] Cartimandua \h\h\h\h\hdoes not bend.

She is Rome’s creature.

The queen trades Caratacus, the hero of the resistance,

to cement her position \has a friend of Rome.

The betrayal disgusts her husband Venutius.

Paraded through the \hstreets of Rome,

Caratacus and his family \h\hthrill the citizens.

\h\hClassical court historian Tacitus.

- The reputation of Caratacus

had spread beyond the islands

\h\h\hand through the neighboring provinces

to Italy itself.

\h\h\hThese people were curious to see the man

\h\h\hwho would defy our power for so many years.

\h\hEven at Rome, his name meant something.

- This was the symbol \h\hof their victory.

Here is the enemy chieftain

\hmarching through our streets in submission.

- What normally happened \h\h\hto enemies of Rome

\h\h\his that they were brought into the prison

\h\hand put into a pit and strangled.

But in this instance, \h\hit didn’t happen.

Instead, Caratacus was led to Claudius

sitting on a large raised \h\h\hsort of a tribunal,

and he gave a stirring speech.

And if we believe Tacitus,

the speech was about the need to resist domination

and that if he allows \h\hCaratacus to live

\h\hthat he would be a living symbol of Claudius’ clemency.

\h- [Narrator] To bestow mercy implies superiority

and above all else that is how Romans see themselves,

as superior.

(people shouting) \h(gentle music)

Moved by Caratacus’ speech,

Claudius grants his celebrity barbarian

and all of his family pardon.

\h- He was probably retired to a villa

\h\hsomewhere in the neighborhood of Rome

where he would have lived out his life in relative comfort,

but of course lacking \hfreedom. (chuckles)

A golden cage.

\h\h\h\h- [Narrator] The assimilation of Caratacus

is at last complete.

\h\h\hThe romanization of Britain is not so smooth.

Within a decade, the \hrebels rise again,

\h\h\h\hthis time with Venutius at their head.

Even a century later,

the northern border remains untameable.

- It never becomes \hfully Romanized.

It’s just too far away

\hand the Romans will eventually of course

have to build Hadrian’s Wall

to keep out invaders \h\h\hfrom the north.

It’s gonna be difficult to hold

and finally they’ll abandon it,

and, frankly, there \hisn’t a lot left

of Roman rule in Britain.

(soldiers shout)

- [Narrator] Conquered to shore \h\hup an emperor’s reputation,

the island drains men and resources for centuries.

And when Rome falls at last,

\hBritain will be the first to revert to its barbarian state.