55 BC: How Julius Caesar Forced His Way Into Ancient Britain

It's 55 BC, Britain is an island nation, a mysterious country off the edge of the map and it doesn't know what's about to hit it. Everything is about to change with a threat that comes straight from that direction. Rome has its sights set on Britain. A huge invasion force is on its way, led by one of the greatest military leaders of all time. Julius Caesar. But he's going to face the challenge of a lifetime. This is the story of the Roman invasions. The island of Great Britain has been occupied by humans for almost a million years. During that time our ancestors developed from being nomadic hunter-gatherers to farmers living in settled communities and capable of building vast structures like this hillfort. By the first century BC Britain was at the height of its iron age. The country was a mosaic of different tribal kingdoms. They waged war with each other, they formed complex political alliances. Trading links had been established across the channel to Europe and Britain was developing an enviable reputation for its mineral wealth. Meanwhile an ambitious republic, one of the most powerful the world had yet seen, had seized control of much of Europe. This was Rome and one of the sons of Rome was getting closer. In Gaul, largely what we call France today, Julius Caesar was subduing the Gallic tribes. He was becoming very confident at his ability to cope with insurrection within the tribal communities of Gaul. It's only though when he starts to get to northern Gaul that this mysterious land across the ocean that was beyond the edge of the known world starts to fall within his compass. He thinks maybe I could go there, people are trading with this strange island. He starts to find out all he can about it and eventually hatches a plan to come and have a look for himself. It's hard to understand now just what a bold idea this was. To the Romans Britain was about as remote as you could get, at the very edge of the known world. So before setting off Caesar sent a scout across the English channel to look for possible landing spots. He also gathered in as many traders as he could to try and find out about Britain. It was this mysterious land across this stretch of water we call the channel but this was oceanus to the Romans, a terrifying piece of water and even to this day the currents are strong and quite unpredictable. It was interesting, the traders told him virtually nothing and the feeling that we're left with is that this was deliberate, they wanted to shelter and protect Britain from Roman influence. Caesar starts gathering a small fleet of ships on the French coast and sends an envoy ahead, Commius, the leader of a Belgic tribe friendly to the Romans. Caesar hopes that Commius could convince as many tribes as possible to submit to Rome without a fight but almost immediately his plan starts to go wrong. When Caesar departs Gaul he has a problem, his cavalry set off from a different point of deparcation and they missed the tide so they fail to rendezvous with him in the channel. Nevertheless he presses on and when he comes to Dover where I think he assumed he would land he looks up at the cliffs and finds hostile tribesmen giving him a very clear indication they intend to fight. This isn't what he anticipated, in fact his agent Commius has been captured and taken prisoner. The Britons are in no mood to welcome Caesar. The fact that Caesar thought this cliff-lined coast was a good landing point shows just how poor his information was. So things weren't going according to plan. I think this is the moment when you start to see Caesar at his best in some ways. He must have looked over the lee rail of his galley in search of his cavalry, no sign of them. Back on shore, hostile forces. He talks to his subordinate commanders and they come to a plan, they're going to go for it. They start to make their way further along the coastline looking for a place that they can land. We don't know the exact point at which Caesar invaded but the evidence points to somewhere along this coastline just north of Deir in Kent. What we do know is that the Britons are already there waiting for them. To find out what happened next I'm meeting Roman expert Simon Elliott. This in many ways actually in 55 BC Caesar's got the Romans most difficult invasion of Britain because it's against the defended shoreline. You've got Britons defending the shore as far as the eye can see. So the nobles in their chariots riding up and down shouting insults, throwing javelins, the foot warriors with the spears, the shields also throwing insults, all ready for the Romans to land. From his description it would seem that the British warriors are doing like I am. They've waded into the water and they're ready to receive the Romans. Well they're very much part of a martial culture so this is a sort of a machismo thing for the British warriors especially the nobility with all their retainers behind them. They've got to show that they're the main men. They're the guys that are going to kick the Romans back and there is this moment when the assault pauses. There's this moment when it can turn one way or the other. I think now we should go to Caesar because he gives us this incredible description of what happened. He says here, meanwhile our soldiers were hesitating, which is a rare criticism of soldiers by Caesar, chiefly because the sea was so deep. Then the man who carried the eagle of the 10th legion appealed to the gods, jump down soldiers unless you want to betray our eagle to the enemy. I at least should have done my duty to the republic and to my commander. He cried these words in a loud voice then flung himself away from the ship and began to carry the eagle towards the enemy. Then our men urged each other to prevent such a disgrace and all together jumped down from the ship and the battle was on. It's interesting there, remember the eagle has religious significance for the legion. Think of Rosemary Sutcliffe and the eagle of the night, it's a big deal. So the aquilifer is the senior standard bearer in the legion. It's a big deal and also this is legio ten equestris. Caesar's legion, special legion. So it's a really really big deal. So this is Caesar telling us how jeopardous this whole invasion was and yet the bravery of the Roman soldiers led by Caesar. Don't forget Caesar is also a great warrior as well as a general. This is Caesar and the Romans having to deploy effectively their A game to win a very very difficult. And it is a very difficult fight. Very difficult. I mean the Romans aren't good at telling you about where they made mistakes but we know this was a full-on fight to get on shore. And what happened? Well one of the interesting things that we can take from the primary sources is the Romans did play to their strengths. So they would have deployed some of their galleys at either side of the beach here and here and enfiladed the Britons behind us with ballistas, with slings and with bows and arrows. And then the legionaries had to literally fight their way ashore and the Britons tried to isolate clumps of them and try and overwhelm them. But the Roman discipline eventually shone through. Finally at the end of the day, took the entire day, the Romans won. Caesar had done it. His troops were on British soil. It's said that this is the only successful contested landing in British history. So how did the Romans manage it? Who were these soldiers who'd achieved such an extraordinary victory? To find out I'm meeting David Richardson, a Roman expert and re-enactor. Good morning David. Good morning. Caesar has crossed the English Channel, a piece of water with a fearsome reputation. Yes. He's landed on the soil of the edge of the known world. Yes. And instead of being welcomed he receives a hostile reception. What weaponry did he have with him that made him feel confident to come on land and take on all comers? Well let's have a look in fact at the weaponry of legionary from that period. Primarily the stabbing sword was a fearsome weapon when fighting against someone who used a long slashing sword. A long slashing sword has to be raised and brought down exposing the torso and that short brief time of very fast movement from a short stabbing sword will do the job. And from behind the shield. The shield itself is like a little fence. I mean that's a big shield. Perfect cover and the sword simply licks out from behind the shield and does all the damage. The Romans were taught to go for face body and in doing that in twist pull. I mean actually looking at you when you raise that shield it's a pretty formidable barrier. I mean that's a physical barrier. It is. And if they're coming forwards with that you know it's like a moving wall isn't it? It is and trying to get past those shields some Iron Age warriors with enormous bravery would throw themselves on the shields to try and pull them down. We have accounts of that. Throwing away their lives just to get past those shields which they found virtually an impenetrable wall. But before you ever got to that stage the pilum, the javelin, did a lot of damage. It doesn't matter how much armour you've got on. If you're stood in a line and you've literally got hundreds, thousands of people running towards you, screaming their heads off, waving their swords and shields. If they run into you they're going to literally knock people off their feet and they're in amongst them. To stop that charge, to slow it down, the javelin, the pilum, was thrown in volleys simply to stop that huge rush. Bring the front ranks, the second ranks down and those behind would be tripping, falling and everything starts to slow down. And the Romans didn't just wait, they just didn't stand there. During a battle they actually moved forward and they closed very quickly on the last few yards in a rush. So that reduces their opponent's thinking time? Yes. But you've got the front man with a pilum, man behind him with one? Yes. Did he hand it forward to the front man to throw it? You can go three rows back, you can get three out properly. So three men can throw quite easily. Were there men behind that? Yes there were. So they could hand their pilums forward? If necessary. Potentially multiple volleys? Yes and as I say, even if you didn't hit anybody, if they're stuck in the ground, you're going to fall over them. It's going to cause chaos. Everybody's falling over, trampling people and that's what the idea of it was. Well that's gone through all right, let's see. I mean if you were trying to hold that shield, I get your point. It's sticking in, it's falling. And it doesn't want to come out. It doesn't does it? It's harder to get out than I thought it would be. Too late, you're dead. Yes. Because that advancing shield wall is coming towards you. That's really interesting. Can I give that a go? Yes please do. Wow. You wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that. Not a volley of them, certainly not. Well done. Thanks to the equipment and the bravery of the Roman soldiers, they'd won their first battle against the Britons. I mean it was an amazing achievement for Caesar to get on shore. I mean to fight his way on shore, win a battle at such disadvantage, was astonishing. But from that point forward, things were not going to get better for him. For a start, he had no cavalry. His cavalry had missed the tide to join him and they never made it to shore because of the bad weather. That was a critical weakness because he had cavalry for two important purposes. One, to know the location of the enemy. They were his scouting troops. But secondly, and equally importantly, they were foragers. He had mounted foragers who would go and bring in food from the local villages. That wasn't available to him and he didn't bring rations with him. He'd come light, aiming to live from the land while he was here. He sends some of his troops out to scout the land but they're soon under attack from the Britons. Caesar realises the game is up and decides to head back to Gaul. His invasion is a failure. But I still admire him. Despite everything going wrong, he keeps a clear head. He maintains his presence of mind. He takes the time to have a look around here and look at this shore and I am certain that before he departed from British soil, he knew that he was coming back the next year and knew where he was going to come back to. 54 BC, Caesar leaves Gaul at sunset. The currents take him a little bit by surprise. When day breaks, he finds that he's gone further up the channel than he anticipated. He looks back over his left shoulder and there's Britain. He tells his men to pull on the oars and he takes his invasion fleet in to the beaches. Ships specially built for the purpose, landing craft if you like. The British tribes, well they're there and they look out but what they see is far too big for them to deal with because he's brought with him 800 ships. Whilst his first invasion force consisted of two legions, this time he's brought five and cavalry. This is going to be a completely different campaign. The vast Roman fleet is able to land unopposed and once ashore they make camp. Until recently, we had no archaeological evidence for this invasion but that has all changed. Simon, I am really excited to be here because this is the site of one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent years. Well, you're literally standing in the middle of one of the marching camps which was built during Caesar's second campaign. Right next to this noisy road, this was discovered as rescue archaeology. That's right, so about four or five years ago there was an investigation here just to make sure there was no archaeology in the immediate area when the road was built which is absolutely standard normal archaeological practice in the UK. It's part of the planning process, very very normal but something very abnormal happened. They found this astonishing archaeological feature, a beachhead invasion marching camp. It's like a sort of a temporary major fortification. It's there to last two, three, four days or a bit longer. Because they're so temporary they can be hard to find but the remains found here had all the hallmarks of a Roman camp. If you were to look at the footprint anywhere in the UK or the Roman world of an archaeological site which will be a marching camp, the thing that you look for are the ditches because they define it. They're almost playing card shapes and in the base of one of the ditches we found a Roman pilum head. It's a spear point and they also found bones. Absolutely yeah and it's from the bones which provide all the archaeological interpretations from which we can date this to probably Caesar's second campaign, not his first campaign. Human bones. There were human bones but the key thing about the bones was that they had evidence of trauma. Now from an archaeologist's point of view that's the key tell that they suffered wounds particularly because the trauma hadn't healed. They died of the trauma. They died of the trauma but then were chucked just like that into the bottom of the ditch. So maybe the bones of a British warrior. If it would have been a Roman soldier he'd have been given a formal burial but these weren't buried they were just thrown away. So was that a prisoner do you think? Could have been a prisoner that the Romans had executed, maybe tortured for information and executed. It could have been somebody that the Romans had found trying to break into the camp and killed trying to break into the camp. Although one thing to remember here is how amazingly defendable this particular location is because of the Watsom channel. Yeah because that was the waterway that stretched all through the low ground here but effectively this was an island cut off from mainland Kent. Yeah and I think here we're looking at evidence of Caesar having learned from his earlier invasion. That's what I think. You can't attack this camp with chariot. Well you can't because you've got to get across this huge waterway and again to my point if you look at this here it looks as though it's beautiful agricultural territory today but in the Roman period as far as I could see that way it was water. In the past 2,000 years the coastline of Kent has changed radically. The area we still call the Isle of Thanet was once a true island. The camp was located on a small promontory in the south of this island. Caesar had chosen his location well. It's really strange to be here on the ground and to know that this is where Caesar had his marching camp. He was a very thorough soldier. He may well have walked exactly where I'm standing here. He was a remarkable man. He had the ear of his soldiers. He could talk to them. He had the common touch. They believed him and by the time he gets here his soldiers have followed him through many victories in Gaul and many tight circumstances as well. They have belief in him but in a way that most politicians aren't today he had another quality. He was also a brilliant general. He was a very very good leader of men. A very good tactician and he learned on the job. For the British tribes that would face him they didn't realise that standing here in 54 BC was a real panther of the human species. Caesar leads his army inland and it's not long before they face a battle against the defended British stronghold and it's believed that that battle took place here. Archaeologist Steve Willis is going to show me the evidence. So Steve, we're on top of a hill but where exactly are we? Well we're in we're in East Kent. We're just to the west of Canterbury and we're at Bigbury Hill Fort. The Iron Age Hill Fort at Bigbury overlooking the River Stour to the west of us here. So it's an area that you would want to control if you want to have a sort of strategic command of the area. In terms of controlling trade, taxation or in a military sense? All of those sorts of ways I think. It's making this, if you've got a settlement here, if you've got a strong point here, you're controlling movement, you might be levying taxes, you're making a statement in the landscape, there might be, this may have been a traditional meeting space here. We're at the end of the natural ridge here that overlooks Canterbury and it's a natural sort of meeting point I think at the end of this spur. Is this an earthwork that we're standing on? Well actually yes, we're in front here of what we call the cross ridge dike and this would have cut off this spur of land that points towards Canterbury. So you've got a ditch, a bank, probably on top of that bank you're going to have hedging or probably something stronger than that like a palisade, like a stockade, continuous wood and wall here and that's kind of like defining this space and then what we think happens subsequently is the whole of the top here following the contour is enclosed with major earthworks. Hillforts like the one at Bigbury were built all over Britain during the Iron Age as part of the conflict between warring tribes, but now they were being put to use against the Romans. When Julius Caesar comes to Britain in 54 BC in his second raid, he attacks a hillfort, is this the hillfort? Well all the authorities, all the conventional publications and learned discussion suggests that Bigbury must be the location because there's no other candidate quite like it or it's in this area because we'd have a perhaps a sister or pair enclosure to the north of us here. It fits in with Caesar's description of the topography, of the distance involved, that his army makes a sort of night march from their landing point here and he tells us about the river and he tells us about what is actually found here. I mean it's an amazing description that he gives us, I mean he makes a night march but what interests me is that prior to that night march his scouts have found this location, they've gone out to find the enemy, they come back and now he marches it by night to surprise the tribesmen here. That's right, he marches with a very large force, he's got 2,000 cavalry with him when he lands, some of that are protecting the bridgehead, but he tells us essentially that 1,700 cavalry are coming and four legions to basically this spot here in East Kent and he's going to stamp Roman authority on Kent and Britain. Now he gives us a description of the battle that took place here. Yes. Have you found any evidence to support that? Well there's been a lot of searching for such evidence you know through the 20th century and more laterally of course and the answer is no. So this is the intriguing thing that is that we don't have the footprint of Caesar's army here even though the topography, the distance, the location here in East Kent works perfectly for his story, his account, there's no reason to doubt the details of his account, but this is a question that we have really with the archaeology of battlefields generally I think is that they're very difficult to locate archaeologically and you have to invest a lot of time and resource into finding those details. But although no objects linked to the battle have ever been found there is one intriguing detail of the attack described by Caesar which might have left behind a trace in the landscape. They create an earth rampart to break the siege and into the hill fort that's what we're told and they formed a sort of classic Roman defensive tortoiseshell that they're sort of protected from. Testudo, so the front ranks have their scutum, their shield up, others over the top coming forwards. That's right. And forcing, really forcing themselves onto the enemy. That's right and they're protecting the soldiers at the back as well yes and that's how they break in. And is there any evidence for the rampart? There is actually yes. With recent digital laser technology you can see that on the sort of south east side here there seems to be an unnatural slope heading straight up to the earthworks. This is really quite a discovery, quite sensational. We need to do more investigation of that. It's showing you know with this digital mapping that we're able to do now it's showing this feature so that's a matter for investigation. It's amazing to think that this feature could be the earth ramp built by Caesar in 54 BC, visible 2,000 years later. Roman engineering was a key part of their military success as I found out when Dave Richardson gave me a demo of Roman artillery. This is a ballista and it's a stone thrower. Here we have a typical ball and that's a quite a genuine one. This is a real one. So this might have actually killed somebody? Yes, could well have done. Wow, that's quite something isn't it? Well this is quite an impressive thing to look at but I guess this was the artillery of its day. Well yes, 60 pieces of these per Roman legion. They could also be mounted on ships and used at sea or landing on a beach and they had an artillery crew. The power for these though came from not the bow arms or the bow string, came from the bundles of rope that are twisted in opposite directions that hold the bow arm. Now the Romans used sinew and horse hair to make the ropes and as a second best we're told they sometimes used hemp which is what this machine has but so many of these machines are still experimental as to how they really did work, how powerful they were. But 60 of these per legion? 60 per legion. Wow, that's quite something isn't it? Did they just shoot the balls? No, you also had the catapulta which fired a one meter length bolt. Well I'd like to see it used. Right, it's a case of winding it up. Shall I take this out? Yes, we'd better remove that one. For safety we'll use onions. Right, if you'd like to take one of these. Yep. Now the slider has gone forward and the trigger mechanism has captured the cup that the onion will go in. So if we start, you'll hear. Oh yes, that would have been an ominous sound. Yes, one more. You can feel the tension in there. Let's get some range on it. Ready? Fire! That's took some legs out. Yeah, just let it go down. You really wouldn't want to receive one of those in the face would you? No, and remember you're firing into the mass ranks of an enemy, so you're going to hit something. It's truly terrifying. They were really quite something weren't they? Yes. Wow, I've got a much better appreciation of the Roman army that came here. Not only were the Britons facing fearsome technology, they were also dangerously divided. Britain was under the control of many warring tribes. However, faced with the threat of the Romans, many of the tribes had come together under the leadership of the Cat of Alorne, a tribe based around modern-day Hertfordshire. Following the defeat of the Britons at Bigbury Hillfort, Caesar didn't hang around. He made a beeline for the Cat of Alorne headquarters, and that meant crossing a mighty river that he called the Temesis. This is it. We know it as the River Thames. Now it's changed a lot in the intervening 2,000 years, but in 54 BC it was shallower, and there was a natural folding point that's probably just up there where that headland is. There is a traditional crossing point. At low tide, you could wade the river. Mind you, it wasn't easy. His men were neck deep in the water, and the far shore, the crossing point was defended with sharpened stakes, but they weren't going to stop Caesar. Once he was across the Thames, he made straight for the King Cassius Valonius. To defeat him, bring him to heel and subdue the Britons. The final stand of the Britons didn't amount to very much. In his account, Caesar devotes just a few words to the battle. The enemy, having remained only a short time, did not sustain the attack of our soldiers and hurried away. There's no certainty about where he met Cassius Valonius. There are various theories that they're expounded, but what we do know is that he'd made such an impressive display en route that the Britons realised the game was up, and they agreed to pay tribute to Rome from that point forwards, and they gave him hostages. But Caesar didn't linger here. He headed straight back to his fleet and back to Gaul before the weather closed in. Caesar would never set foot in Britain again. For him, it was job done. Britain was now within the compass of Roman influence, and the map of the known world had been extended. Back in Gaul, he would continue for a couple more years subduing the tribes there before returning to Rome with absolute triumph. He had done more than any general in Roman history prior to that point. This triumph would boost Julius Caesar's meteoric political rise that culminated in him becoming dictator of Rome. From a British perspective, they'd had a fight with this panther had come into the land and really bloodied their noses. But once he'd gone, things returned, I think, to a degree of normality. Trade between Britain and Rome increased, which benefited many of the southern tribes. But for the vast majority of Britons, Caesar's invasion would have made no difference at all to their lives. And in fact, things would carry on in just that way for nearly 100 years before Rome actually came to Britain with the intention of conquering this island. Next time, how the Emperor Claudius mounted an even more daring invasion, aiming to truly subjugate Britain and to change our history forever.