EARLY BRITAIN #4

THIS  CHAPTER  ESPECIALLY  NEEDS  TO  BE  READ - Keith Hunt

Early Britain #4

Is not what most have been taught

 From the book "Celt, Druid

and Culdee"

by

 Isabel Hill Elder

THE ROMAN INVASION

AT the time of the Roman invasion evidence of prosperity and

culture existed in Britain to arouse the envy of the Romans, and

it is a matter of history that the inhabitants led a life as

separate as possible from them.

It was only after ten years incessant warfare that the Romans in

A.D.43 succeeded in effecting a footing in Britain. This is not

reconcilable with the view that the Romans were invading the

territory of untrained, undisciplined savages. The resistance of

Britain was, in reality, against the whole of the north of

Europe, and was highly creditable to the brave defenders of their

country. In the immortal words of SHAKESPEARE in his "Cymbeline,"

'CAESAR MADE NOT HERE HIS BOAST OF CAME AND 

SAW AND OVERCAME.' (1)   

To estimate aright the military abilities of the  British general, 

Caswallon, and the resources of the people at the period of the first 

collision of our Island  with the Continent, it should be borne in mind 

that they were engaged against, perhaps, the ablest general of antiquity. 

The DOUBLE REPULSION of the JULIAN expedition, 55 and 54 B.C., 

remains UNPARALLELED in British history.

In Britain there was one supreme Crown and three Coronets or

Princes' Crowns; there were numerous other 'kings' who never wore

crowns.

The sovereign who reigned in Britain at the time of the Claudian

invasion was Cunobelinus, or King Belinus, the CYMBELINE of

SHAKESPEARE. Cuno, Cun and Can have their equivalents in the

Saxon Cynig; in modern German, Konig, and in English, King.

Cunobelinus and his ancestors had much intercourse with the

Romans; he is said to have spent he greater part of his boyhood

at the Court of the Romans. (2)

The Roman invasion of his reign was met by Cunobelinus and his

sons with a stubbornness of defence and bravery which earned for

them admiration of the enemy and aroused the wonder of all Europe.

Cunobelinus, after a reign of thirty years, abdicated in favour

of his third son, Caradoc (Caractacus), who now became Arviragus

or high king and by this title is most frequently referred to in

the British Chronicles.

Tacitus (the Roman historian of the time - Keith Hunt) reluctantly

tells us that: 'In Britain after the capture of Caractacus

(Arviragus) the Romans were frequently defeated and put to rout

by the single state of the Silures alone.' (3) The Silures, the

inhabitants of south-west Britain were noted for their military

prowess and culture.

It is evident from the partial story furnished by the invaders

themselves that the resistance offered by the Britons to their

invaders was a surprise for which they were ill-prepared, for

this resistance came not from hordes of savages but from a nation

whose leaders were well versed in military tactics. The Britons

were determined to defend their ancient laws and institutions at

all costs. They evinced profound homage for the memory of their

forefathers, and from their inborn love of liberty sprang the

undaunted energy with which they met the mercenary and implacable

plunderers of the world. By no people was every inch of the

country contested with more bravery and surrendered more

stubbornly than by these Britons; on terms, indeed, which

rendered every victory for the Romans little better than 

defeat. (4) It is absurd to suppose that such a nation could be

barbarous.

If popular amusements are to be taken as the test the Romans were

themselves the MOST BARBAROUS of the nations of Europe. 

When the brutal sports of the gladiators were proposed to be 

introduced at Athens even the cynics cried out, 'We must first pull 

down the statue to mercy which our forefathers erected fifteen 

hundred years ago.'

A similar gulf separated the British from the Roman temper, and

the comparison of the latter people with regard to the former

should be received with the caution which we would exercise today

in receiving the accounts of hostile strangers.

All the evidence supplied by Caesar refutes the notion of material 

barbarism. Agriculture was universal, corn everywhere abundant, 

pasturage a distinct branch of national wealth, and the population 

so numerous as to excite his astonishment - 'hominum, multitudo 

infinito' - the surest and most satisfactory proof of and social state 

and ample means of sustenance. (5)

Having effected a landing (and the testimony of their own

historians is that never was a country more dearly purchased nor

held with greater difficulty) the Romans proceeded with their

policy of destruction for which they had become notorious on the

continent of Europe.

One notable instance has come down to us of the Roman spirit of

cruel indifference to human feelings and sufferings. The immensely 

wealthy Prasutagus, King of the Iceni, apprehensive, in the event 

of his death, of the Roman brutality likely to be experienced by his 

queen, BOADICEA, and his two daughters, left one half of his fortune 

to the Emperor Nero, endeavouring thus to secure for them a measure 

of protection. When, however, his death took place in A.D.60, 

the Roman 'praefect,' Caius Decius, seized the royal hoard on the 

pretext that it came under the denomination of public property. 

Resistance being made, the legionaries stormed the palace and 

carried the treasures off to the Castra. (6) The story of the barbarous 

treatment meted out to its inmates need not be repeated here, nor of 

Boadicea, stung to frenzy by these atrocities, bravely taking to the 

field in defence of her family and her people, the Roman 'praefect'

having, in direct violation of the Claudian treaty, also confiscated 

the estates of the Icenic nobility.

Seneca, the usurious, millionaire philosopher, advanced to the

Iceni, on the security of their public buildings, a sum of money

-  about two million pounds sterling in modern currency, (Elder

was writing in 1973...so much more than 2 million in 2003 as I

present to you this chapter - Keith Hunt) at ruinous rate, (7) this

loan, suddenly and violently called in, was the indirect cause of

the Boadicean war. It was a disgrace for a Roman to lend to a

Roman for interest; they were permitted, however, to lend to a

foreigner. (sound like the Romans had an OT law that Israel was

given by God through Moses - Keith Hunt).

The territories of the Iceni were rich in lead-mines, some of

which were known to have been worked in times of even greater

antiquity; the Romans seized these mines soon after their arrival

in Britain, thus cutting off an important source of the wealth of

the Icenic people and obliging them to borrow money from Seneca

for the maintenance of their state. (8)

Boadicea, before leading her people and the tribe of the

Trinobantes who joined them, to war, to redress her wrongs,

ascended the 'generals' tribunal and addressed her army of

120,000 in these words:

"I rule not like Nitocris, over beasts of burden, as are the

effeminate nations of the East, nor, like Semiramis, over

tradesmen and traffickers, nor like the man-woman, Nero, 

over slaves and eunuchs - such is the precious knowledge such

foreigners introduced amongst us - but I rule over Britons, 

little versed, indeed, in craft and diplomacy, but born and

trained to the game of war; men who in the cause of liberty 

stake down their lives, the lives of their wives and children,

their lands and property - Queen of such a race, I implore your

aid for freedom, for victory over enemies infamous for the

wantonness of the wrong they inflict, for their perversion of

justice, for their insatiable greed; a people that revel in unmanly 

pleasures, whose affections are more to be dreaded and

abhorred than their enmity. Never let a foreigner bear rule 

over me or over my countrymen; never let slavery reign 

in this Island." (9)

(As I type and read these words, I have the hairs on the back of

my head stand up. They are words like a "Drake" or a "Nelson" or

a "Churchill" or even as George Bush the second, has used against

the Terrorists that took down the two Trade Towers in New York

city on September 11th 2001. No wonder the British have a

sculptured monument of Boadicea in her chariot to this very day

in London - Keith Hunt).

Boadicea's many SUCCESSFUL engagements with the Roman armies 

are RECORDED in our histories, and when her DEATH took place in

Flintshire, after her eventual defeat, the Romans were IMPRESSED

with her EXTRAORDINARY MAGNIFICENCE of her obsequies. 

According to Tacitus, (10) Boadicea died by poison; in the course of 

nature according to the Greek historian Dion Cassius. 

Boadicea's kinsman, Caradoc, on meeting the invading Romans,

displayed a like spirit of bravery and courage; perhaps indeed no

warrior of ancient times succeeded in WINNING so much ADMIRATION from the enemy as this king of the south-western Britons, better known by his Latinized name of CARACTACUS.

The Welsh or Cymry, as the eldest tribe, held three

priorities. Priority as the first colonizers of Britain;

priority of government and priority in matters of learning and

culture. (11) From this premier tribe was to be elected the

Pendragon, or military dictator with absolute power for the time

being in the case of national danger or foreign invasion.

Caractacus, third son of Cunobelinus, had now succeeded his

father as Pendragon under the title Arviragus, or 'high king'.

This Pendragon was proudly referred to by his fellow countrymen

as 'The Praiseworthy Opposer'. Arviragus had yet another name,

Gueirydd (Justiciary), from his office of administrator of

justice, and by this name is mentioned in the Welsh Chronicles.

These three titles by which this ancient king of renown was known

have been a source of confusion in the minds of historical

students and others, which would not exist if the custom of the

ancient Britons, that of using titular designations, were better

known. The case under consideration is a good example of this

custom; in elucidation the following may be noted: in seven

genealogical charts setting forth his pedigree, Arviragus is

shown to be the son of Cunobelinus and grandsire of Lucius (in

whose reign Christianity was established as the national

religion); in the pedigree according to the classics, i.e. Julius

Caesar, Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion Cassius and Orosius, Caractacus

is shown to be the son of Cunobelinus; in Rome Caractacus was

known also by his title, Arviragus, and is so referred to by the

poet Juvenal. In the pedigree according to Tysilio and in the

Welsh Chronicles, Caractacus appears under his title Gueirdd

(Justiciary), son of Cunobelinus and grandsire of Lucius.

Further, in the Triads, and some of the Welsh genealogies,

Caractacus appears as the son of Bran and grandsire of Lucius.

Bran, a contraction of Brenhan, i.e. 'King', is mentioned in the

Triads as 'Bran the Blessed' (the Blessed King). This was the

designation of Cunobelinus following his acceptance of

Christianity and his resignation of the crown in favour of his

third son, Caractacus. Bran the Blessed became Archdruid of

Siluria in order to devote the remainder of his life to

Christianity into which Druidism was beginning to merge.

Caradoc (Caractacus) was no rude savage fighting out of mere

animal instinct or in ignorance of the might of his adversary.

Familiar with the Latin language, this king was a true

representative of the higher classes of the Britons,'among whom 

a as general taste for literature, a keen susceptibility to all

intellectual gratifications, a minute acquaintance with all the

principles and practice of their own national jurisprudence, and

a careful training in the schools of the rhetoricians, was very

generally diffused. Hence the rejoicing at Rome when this

military leader was BETRAYED and subsequently conducted 

through the capital, amidst the excitement of three MILLION 

inhabitants who thronged the line of procession to obtain a view 

of the formidable captive.' 

The Senate was convened; the famous  trial of Caradoc followed, 

In which before the tribunal of the  Emperor he delivered himself thus: 

"Had my government in Britain been directed solely with a view to the preservation my hereditary domains, or the aggrandizement of my own family, I might, long since, have entered this city anally, not a prisoner; nor would you have disdained for a friend, a prince, descended from illustrious ancestors, and the dictator of many nations. My present condition, stripped of its former majesty, is as adverse to myself as it is a cause of triumph to you. What then? I was lord of men, arms, horses, wealth. What wonder if at your dictation I refuse to resign them! Does it follow that because the Romans aspire to universal dominion every nation is to accept the vassalage they would impose? I am now in

your power, BETRAYED, NOT conquered. Had I, like others, yielded without resistance, where would have been the name of Caradoc [Caractacus]? Where your glory? Oblivion would have buried both in the same tomb. Bid me live. I shall survive for ever in history, one example at least of Roman clemency."

(Wow....I get goose-lumps reading this. So mighty a warier was

this man, so amazed were the Roman Empire generals, leaders, and

people, by his many battle wins over the Roman armies, that

INDEED the Roman senate granted him and his family their lives -

Keith Hunt)

The preservation of Caradoc forms a solitary EXCEPTION in the

long catalogue of victims merciless policy of Imperial Rome. His

life was spared on condition that he never again bore arms against Rome. 

After a residence of SEVEN years in FREE custody in Rome he was 

permitted to return to Britain.

The British prince, Caradoc, in maintaining his descent from

illustrious ancestors, could bring from the clan records evidence

of his pedigree; in those remote times genealogies were guarded

with extreme care and recorded with exactitude by the heral-bard

of each clan. (12)

On the public reception of a child, at the age of fifteen, into

the clan, his genealogy was proclaimed and challengers of it

commanded to come forward.

Pedigree and inheritance were so identified in the ancient

British code that an heir even in the ninth descent could redeem

at a valuation by jury any portion of an estate with which his

forefathers had been compelled to part. (13)

All the family of Caradoc were attached to literary pursuits;

copies of the best Greek and Roman authors were circulated in

Siluria and deposited in the chief centres of druidic  learning. (14)

Caradoc's daughter, Claudia, who with other members of her family

remained in Rome as hostages during her father's captivity there,

wrote several volumes of hymns and odes. (15) Her praises were

sung by the poet Martial: 

     "Our Claudia named Rufina, sprung we know 

     From blue-eyed Britons; yet behold, she lives

     In grace with all that Greece or Rome can show. 

     As bred and born beneath their glowing skies."

In a later epigram Martial writes:

     "For mountains, bridges, rivers, churches and fair women,

     Britain is past compare." (16) 

Caradoc's sister, 'Pomponia Grecina', received her cognomen

through her acquaintance with Greek literature, while her aunt,

Blonwen, daughter of Cunobelinus, is believed to be the Imogen of

Shakespeare in his "Cymbeline." The great poet immortalized this

ancient British king in the lines:

     "The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline personates thee." (17) 

The state of the country of the northern Britons is indicated by

the number of large cities beyond the Forth which Agricola

explored with his fleet. This could not mean cities which he had

erected, he having been only six years in the country, nor could

cities have arisen in that period, 'amplas civitates', as we learn from 

his biographer, Tacitus.

In a general account of Britain, Ptolemy, in A.D. 110, enumerates

fifty-six cities; later, Marcianus enumerated fifty-nine.

It was not until the reign of Hadrian A.D. 120, that Britain was

INCORPORATED BY TREATY, NOT CONQUEST, with the Roman

dominions, (18) the Britons retained their kings, land, laws and

rights, and accepted a Roman nucleus of the army for the defence

of the realm. These local kings and princes of Britain were

obliged to become lieutenants of the Roman Emperor, just as the

heads of our countries are now styled lieutenants of the

Sovereign. They were bound to permit the construction of a Roman

'castra' garrisoned by Roman legionaries, with their usual staff

of engineers, in their chief city. On the ruins of British buildings 

and monuments rose the Roman 'castras' and villas, the remains 

of which are treasured by many in this country who appear to be 

quite unaware of the earlier civilization. The buildings erected 

by the Romans were foreign to British ideas and never became 

an integral part of British life.

When Alaric and his Goths were engaged in the sack of Rome, the

Britons remembered their ancient independence and their brave

ancestors; and having armed themselves, they threw off the Roman

yoke, deposed the imperial magistrates and proclaimed their

insular independence. The Emperor Honorius sent letters addressed

to the civitates of Britain, clearing them from the responsibility of 

being any part of the Roman world. (19)    

The Romans came to a country which was in all its essentials

prosperous and free. They left it in many places devastated.

Roman policy is tersely summed up in the words of the Pictish

sovereign Galgacus, "To robbery, slaughter, plunder, the Romans

give the lying name of Empire; they make a solitude and call it 

peace." (20)

The Roman imperial system had its strong points, but it had many

weak ones - the two main weak points were WAR and SLAVERY. 

With the Romans war became the instrument of progress, but it was 

a system fatal to real progress and to the domestic virtues. To plough 

the soil and wait for the harvest seemed to them a spiritless method 

of acquiring that which might more easily be obtained, by conquest. 

Eloquence and the affairs of government as well as the exciting 

and barbarous sports of the arena, were esteemed and valued by 

Rome more than religion; hence her basilicas and her amphitheatres 

were far more spacious and magnificent than her temples. 

(One may wonder how a relatively small in height people, as the

Italians are, could conquer so much of the world. The answer is

given by Tacitus, the Roman historian of the first century A.D. -

the most part of the Roman army was made up of hired Germanic

fighters, who were from ancient times well known for fierce

fighting - Keith Hunt)

The temper of the Britons may be judged by the evidence of the

important part a non-idolatrous religion exercised in their daily

lives; it has been said that the history of Britain is written in

her churches. This truism is applicable from the most remote

times, and from the nature of ancient worship it is possible to

discover the source of the uprightness, the independence and the

tolerance which characterized the early Britons.

These characteristics were noted by the Romans without their

effecting the least check on unprincipled avarice and ambition.

Salvian, A.D.430, does not hesitate to say that the barbarians

(so-called)led better lives than the Romans even of those who

were orthodox. 'Their modesty,' he says. 'purifies the earth all

stained by Roman debauchery.' (21) Amid the calamities and

sufferings of the first invasion of Rome by our Gothic ancestors

in A.D. 402, St.Augustine of Hippo remarked upon the marvellous

forbearance of the soldiers of Alaric before the tombs of the

Christian martyrs; he even went so far as to speak of the mercy

and humility of these terrible victors.

To British genius alone we owe the foundation of our modern

civilization, including roads, laws, learning and a culture of

world-wide fame for more than two thousand years. From a more

accurate knowledge of British history we shall gain some notion

of that primeval liberty and self-government, common at first to

the early Britons and preserved today by the British people.

That the Britons adopted anything they thought good from the

romans is perfectly true; they did not, however, abandon any of

their old essential laws and customs and still less their

religion. 

(Actually, if the truth be known, Christianity entered

Britain during the 30s A.D. not long after Jesus had died and

rose again from the dead. This truth is attested to in the

recorded history of the Roman Catholic Church. Such proof will

need wait for another study on that matter specifically - hence

Britain would indeed NOT give up its religion even when Rome

occupied parts of the British soil in the first centuries of the

present Christian age - Keith Hunt).

But it is untrue to say that the Britons had no previous

civilization of their own as it is to pretend that Roman laws and

customs permanently established themselves in Britain and

remained AFTER the legions were withdrawn. there is sufficient

EVIDENCE to PROVE that the ancestors of the British, centuries

before the Romans gained a footing in these islands, were a

POLISHED and INTELLECTUAL people, skilled in ARMS as 

well as LEARNING, with a system of JURISPRUDENCE of their 

own SUPERIOR even to the laws of Rome. (22)

To these early Britons we owe what we prize most - FREEDOM,

KNOWLEDGE, and a HIGHER SENSE of RIGHT and WRONG. 

This goodly heritage comes to us NEITHER FROM the Roman 

conquest NOR through Roman influence.

MONTALEMBERT declares:

"It is in England that the nobility of man's nature has developed

all its splendour and attained its highest level. It is there that 

the generous passion of INDEPENDENCE, united with the genius

of ASSOCIATION and the constant practice of SELF-GOVERNMENT,

have produced those MIRACLES of fierce energy, of dauntless COURAGE

and obstinate HEROISM which have TRIUMPHED over seas and climate,

time and distance, nature and tyranny, exciting the perpetual envy of 

all nations, and among the English themselves a proud enthusiasm. 

It is not however, for the British to pride themselves as a SUPERIOR 

race, but rather that they are a MINISTERING people, and that through 

them should FLOW THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE AND GOODWILL 

TO ALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD; LOVING FREEDOM 

FOR ITSELF, and loving nothing without FREEDOM.....Upon herself 

alone weighs the formidable responsibility of her history."(23)

     "Love thou thy land with love far brought 

     From out the storied Past, and used 

     Within the Present, but transfused

     Thro' future time by power and thought

     True love turned round on fix'd poles 

     Love, that endures not sordid ends

     For English natures, freemen, friends, 

     Thy brothers, and immortal souls."   

                                         Tennyson

1. Act. V, Sc. i. 

2. Ibid.

3. Annals, XII, 38,39.

4. Beale Post, Britannic Researches, p.74.

5. Rev. R.W.Morgan, St.Paul in Britain, p.79. 

6. Tacitus, Annals, XIV, 31.

7. Dion Cassius (Xiphilinus Excepta).

8. Beale Poste, Britannic Researches, P.411. 

9. Dion Cassius (Xiphilinus Excepta).

10.Annals, XIV,37.

11.Triads of the Cymry.

12.Anglica Hibernia, ed. Camden, p.890.

13.Richard of Cirencester, Bk. I, Chap. III, note. 

14.Rev. R.W.Morgan, St.Paul in Britain, p.104.

15.Collier's Eccl. History, Bk. I.

16. Martial, IV, 13; XI, 54.1

17.Cymbeline, Act 5, Sc. I. 

18.Spartian's Vita Hadrian, Chap. I.

19. Zosimus VI, pp.376,381. Also du Bos, Gibbon, Procopius

Gildas and Bede.

20.Tacitus, Vita Agricola, XXX.

21.On the government of God, Salvian.

22.John Pym Teatman, Early English History, p. 9. 

23.Monks of the West, Vol.II, pp.366,367.

                            ..................

END NOTE

The British and USA peoples are from the SAME STOCK, they are

BROTHERS of the same FAMILY. They speak the same language, 

have the same heritage. The USA started with mainly immigrants from

Britain. They started their new country with 13 states, called

"New England." The SAME inborn nature as related above to the

early Britons, are found still today in the English peoples of

the British Commonwealth and the United States of America. 

The world has INDEED been BLESSED in MANY ways by the 

British and American people. It is true that the British and American 

people have not been perfect in their dealing with some people over 

the centuries past, but they have nevertheless, BLESSED MANY 

nations of the world in so many way, and are still blessing them. 

As a people from the ancient days of Brutus and his people ARRIVING 

in the island kingdom of Britain and them Molmutius, and those who

came in waves of people into the island kingdom, the brother

peoples of Britain and the USA have never been held CAPTIVE, 

but have only experienced FREEDOM. This freedom we have tried 

to give to many other nations, and we still try to this very day. The

peoples of the English speaking Western world have not been power

hungry to conquer the world or rule it with dictatorial power of

military force, but they have only raised arms against evil done

to them, or in some cases (sometimes with not the best judgment)

have tried to help other nations in a military way when they were

being over-run with an evil power hungry force out to kill and

dominate.

The truth of who the Western world of the Anglo-Saxon-English-Celtic 

speaking people are, and from where they came so long ago, has been 

written by many, in numerous books, over the last 200 years. For the 

origin of the nations of this earth I recommend the following Website:

www.originofnations.org

AND the book “In Search of …. Origin of Nations” from Amazon.

Entered on Keith Hunt's Website, August 2003 

CARADIC  SHOULD  HAVE  HAD  A  MONUMENT  OF  HIM  IN  LONDON---- BOADICEA  WAS  GIVEN  ONE---- CARADOC  DESERVED  ONE  EVEN  MORE  THAN  THE  WARRIOR  QUEEN.  

Keith Hunt