The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - November 22, 2024


PREVIEW： Epochs #186 ｜ Pompey & Caesar： Part XI

Hosted by
Callum Edmunds Carl Benjamin Connor Tomlinson Harry Robinson John Wheatley Joshua Ferme Edward McLaren Elizabeth Heverin
Mentioned
Britons Gaul Kent Gauls Gaius Trebonius Mandubracchius Cassiovolinus Commius Josh
Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1047 The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1049

Episode Stats


Length

20 minutes

Words per minute

183.68

Word count

3,761

Sentence count

182

Harmful content

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Continuing the story of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in the year 54 BC, I look at his second attempt to conquer the whole of the country. This time, I cover the invasion of the west coast of England, and the fall of the Roman Republic.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.080 Hello and welcome to this episode of Epochs where I shall be continuing my narrative of the decline and fall of the Roman Republic
00:00:05.700 and specifically the bit where Julius Caesar is in Gaul, which I'm doing in lots and lots of detail, which people seem to like, and I enjoy doing it.
00:00:13.120 As you'll notice, for technical and scheduling reasons, we're not in the second studio, in the first studio,
00:00:18.080 but we've got this old background that we put together and then never used at one point.
00:00:22.220 It serves us very well today, doesn't it?
00:00:23.620 Okay, so straight into the narrative, if you remember last time picked up, or left off rather, where Julius Caesar was just about to invade Britain for the second time in the year 54 BC.
00:00:35.780 So Caesar picks up his own story by saying this, quote,
00:00:38.720 Caesar then set sail, leaving Labinius on the continent with three legions and 2,000 cavalry, with orders to guard the ports, provide for a supply of corn, watch events in Gaul, and act as circumstances from time to time might require.
00:00:51.740 Caesar took with him five legions and the remaining 2,000 cavalry.
00:00:56.340 Five legions and 2,000 cavalry, that's quite a lot.
00:00:59.640 He wasn't taking it easy this time.
00:01:02.040 And putting out about sunset was at first carried on his way by a light southwesterly breeze.
00:01:08.160 But about midnight the wind dropped, with the result that he was driven far out of his course by the tidal current, and at daybreak saw Britain left behind on the port side.
00:01:17.180 When the set of the current changed, he went with it, and rode hard to make the part of the island where he had found the best landing places the year before.
00:01:25.160 The soldiers worked splendidly, and by a continuous rowing, enabled the heavily laden transports to keep up with the warships.
00:01:31.800 When the whole fleet reached Britain about midday, no enemy was to be seen.
00:01:35.760 So that really is a vast armada.
00:01:59.100 People have always argued to what extent Caesar, what Caesar really meant to achieve with this second invasion.
00:02:06.600 The first one was pretty clearly a reconnaissance in force, no more than that.
00:02:11.920 But this second one, people argue, did he mean, do you think he did want to try and actually subdue the whole island, or at least the majority of it, or not at this point?
00:02:20.980 You know, the amount of men and material and effort he's putting into it, I would be inclined to believe that he is trying to conquer the whole of Britannia.
00:02:29.280 Maybe not the whole of it, I mean, they didn't even know the extent, how far north it stretched, but to give it a bloody good crack.
00:02:35.840 Certainly.
00:02:36.900 The narrative goes on.
00:02:38.100 Caesar disembarked his army and chose a suitable spot for a camp.
00:02:41.540 On learning from prisoners where the enemy were posted, he left 10 cohorts and 300 cavalry on the coast to guard the fleet, and marched against the Britons shortly after midnight.
00:02:52.120 Feeling little anxiety about the ships, because he was leaving them anchored on an open shore and soft sand.
00:02:57.800 The fleet and his guard were put under the command of Quintus Atreus.
00:03:01.300 So now we get to the crux of it, the fighting starts.
00:03:04.340 Caesar jumps straight in, I mean, in this relatively small section of the whole story, his second invasion of Britain.
00:03:09.800 And it's quite quick.
00:03:12.500 Caesar doesn't spend a great deal of time and energy describing things in lots and lots of detail, so it's almost a montage, but he just jumps straight into the action.
00:03:21.160 There's no real preamble and not much politicking going on.
00:03:25.640 He tells us this, quote,
00:03:26.540 A night march of about 12 miles brought Caesar in sight of the enemy, who advanced to a river with their cavalry and chariots, and tried to bar his way by attacking from a position on higher ground.
00:03:37.060 Repulsed by his cavalry, they hid in the woods, where they occupied a well-fortified post of great natural strength, previously prepared, no doubt, for some war among themselves, since all the entrances were blocked by felled trees laid close together.
00:03:51.640 Scattered parties made skirmishing attacks out of the woods, trying to prevent the Romans from penetrating the defences.
00:03:57.480 But the soldiers of the 7th legion, locking their shields together over their heads and piling up the earth against the fortifications, captured the place and drove them out of the woods at the cost of only a few men wounded.
00:04:09.100 Caesar forbade them to pursue far, however, because he did not know the ground and because he wanted to devote the few remaining hours of the day to the fortification of his camp.
00:04:18.200 The next morning, he sent out a force of infantry and cavalry in three columns to pursue the fleeing enemy.
00:04:23.860 They had advanced some way and were in sight of the nearest fugitives, when dispatch riders brought up news from Atreus of a great storm in the night, by which nearly all the ships had been damaged or cast ashore.
00:04:34.660 The anchors and cables had not held, and the sailors and their captains could not cope with such a violent gale, so that many vessels were disabled by running foul of one another.
00:04:43.660 Another naval catastrophe for Caesar in the Channel.
00:04:47.180 Caesar at once ordered the legions and cavalry to be halted and recalled.
00:04:51.180 He himself went back to the beach, where with his own eyes he saw pretty much what the messengers and the dispatch had described.
00:04:57.440 About 40 ships were a total loss.
00:05:00.200 The rest looked as if they could be repaired at the cost of much trouble.
00:05:03.840 Accordingly, he called out all the skilled workmen from the legions, sent to the continent for more, and wrote to tell Labienus to build as many ships as possible with the troops under his command.
00:05:13.140 Further, although it was a task involving enormous labour, he decided that it would be best to have all the ships beached and enclosed together with the camp by one fortification.
00:05:23.140 This work, although it was continued day and night, took some ten days to complete.
00:05:28.220 As soon as the ships were hauled up and the camp strongly fortified, Caesar left the same units as before to guard them, and returned to the place from which he had come.
00:05:36.280 On arriving there, he found that the larger British forces had now been assembled from all sides by Cassiovolinus, to whom the chief command and direction of the campaign had been entrusted by common consent.
00:05:48.480 Cassiovolinus's territory is separated from the maritime tribes by a river called the Thames, and lies about 75 miles from the sea.
00:05:55.520 Previously, he had been continually at war with the other tribes, but the arrival of our army frightened them into appointing him their supreme commander.
00:06:03.340 So there's nothing like a deadly common enemy to draw people together.
00:06:08.280 Everyone recognised Caesar as the existential threat, of course.
00:06:12.820 Now at this point in the narrative, Caesar breaks off a bit from the action.
00:06:16.800 He was just about to have a battle with Cassiovolinus, but now he sort of breaks off his narrative just briefly to just talk about Britain in general terms.
00:06:24.580 So he says this, and these lines are gold dust, you know, just like the Germans and the Gauls. 0.98
00:06:31.000 There hasn't been a great deal of any real literary evidence before this, so it's some of the first details we get about Britons, in a literary sense anyway.
00:06:39.920 Caesar said this, quote,
00:06:40.940 The population is exceedingly large, the ground thickly studded with homesteads, closely resembling those of the Gauls, and the cattle very numerous.
00:07:06.360 For money, they use either bronze or gold coins, or iron ingots of fixed weights.
00:07:12.100 Tin is found inland, and small quantities of iron near the coast.
00:07:15.640 The copper that they use is imported.
00:07:17.740 There is timber of every kind, as in Gaul, except beech and fir.
00:07:21.620 Hairs, fowl and geese, they think is unlawful to eat, but rear them for pleasure and amusement.
00:07:26.860 The climate is more temperate than in Gaul, the cold being less severe, end quote.
00:07:31.320 Now, if anyone remembers, I have read that passage before when I did talk to Josh in the old studio quite a while ago, a couple of years ago now, about Roman Britain.
00:07:39.660 But it is a very, very famous paragraph, and if you hadn't noticed, there are a few odd things in there that they keep hares and fowl and geese just for fun.
00:07:48.260 I think it's unlawful to eat those things.
00:07:50.300 Very odd, isn't it?
00:07:51.180 And that Caesar said,
00:07:52.380 The cold is less severe in Britain than in France.
00:07:55.780 Again, practically everyone would disagree with that.
00:07:58.840 But there you go, maybe it was just a very, very nice summer, the summer of 54 BC.
00:08:04.020 Gave him the impression that it's warmer in Britain, even though it just simply isn't.
00:08:09.140 Okay, the story goes on here.
00:08:10.500 He said this.
00:08:11.420 The island is triangular, with one side facing Gaul.
00:08:14.780 One corner of this side, on the coast of Kent, is the landing place for nearly all the ships from Gaul, and points east.
00:08:21.500 The lower corner points south.
00:08:23.220 The length of this side is about 475 miles.
00:08:26.360 Another side faces west, towards Spain.
00:08:29.160 In this direction is Ireland, which is supposed to be half the size of Britain, and lies at the same distance from it as Gaul.
00:08:35.800 Midway across is the Isle of Man, and it is believed that there are also a number of smaller islands,
00:08:40.800 in which, according to some writers, there is a month of perpetual darkness at the winter solstice.
00:08:46.020 Our enquiries on this subject were always fruitless, but we found by accurate measurements, with a water clock, that the nights are shorter than on the continent.
00:08:55.380 This side of Britain, according to the natives' estimate, is 665 miles long.
00:09:00.240 The third side faces north.
00:09:02.480 No land lies opposite it.
00:09:04.160 But its eastern corner points roughly in the direction of Germany.
00:09:07.780 Its length is estimated at 760 miles.
00:09:11.100 Thus, the whole island is 1,900 miles in circumference.
00:09:14.000 By far the most civilised inhabitants are those living in Kent, a purely maritime district, whose way of life differs little from that of the Gauls.
00:09:22.720 Most of the tribes in the interior do not grow corn, but live on milk and meat, and wear skins.
00:09:28.740 All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and shave the whole of their bodies, except the head and the upper lip. 1.00
00:09:36.360 Wives are shared between groups of 10 or 12 men, especially between brothers, and between fathers and sons.
00:09:42.280 But the offspring of these unions are counted as the children of the men with whom a particular woman cohabited first.
00:09:49.100 Again, a few odd details there.
00:09:50.940 Interesting details.
00:09:51.840 Not a monogamous culture.
00:09:54.340 The British cavalry and charioteers had a fierce encounter with our cavalry on the march.
00:09:59.220 And that's all Caesar really says about it.
00:10:01.780 The next thing he cuts back to just talking about fighting and action.
00:10:06.380 But that little snapshot, two or three paragraphs, are sort of a vitally important bit of history.
00:10:13.480 And who knows to what degree Caesar had things accurate.
00:10:16.980 Had the reports he'd been given been accurate.
00:10:19.100 Had the things he'd seen with his own eyes.
00:10:21.020 Were they anomalies or were they commonplace?
00:10:24.400 Who really knows?
00:10:25.600 He continues back on with the action then.
00:10:27.480 He says this.
00:10:28.040 The British cavalry and charioteers had a fierce encounter with our cavalry on the march.
00:10:33.160 But our men had the best of it everywhere and drove them into the woods and hills, killing a good many, but also incurring some casualties themselves by a too eager pursuit.
00:10:42.480 The enemy waited for a time and then, while our soldiers were off their guard and busy fortifying the camp, suddenly dashed out of the woods, swooped upon the outpost on duty in front of the camp and started a violent battle.
00:10:55.300 Caesar sent two cohorts, the first of their respective legions, to the rescue.
00:10:59.660 And these took up a position close together.
00:11:02.080 But the men were unnerved by the unfamiliar tactics and the enemy very daringly broke through between them and got away unhurt.
00:11:09.060 That day, Quintus Liberius Duras, a military tribune, was killed.
00:11:14.540 The attack was eventually repulsed by throwing in some more cohorts.
00:11:18.060 You get the impression Caesar's fairly blasé about some of this stuff sometimes, knowing that if it's any sort of one-on-one combat or any sort of encounter where the numbers will have any sort of parity, Caesar's not worried.
00:11:31.400 He's completely confident that his men will overcome any sort of native resistance with ease if it's anywhere near close in numbers.
00:11:38.900 Throughout this particular combat, which was fought in front of the camp in full view of everyone, it was seen that our troops were too heavily weighted by their armour to deal with such an enemy.
00:11:49.360 They could not pursue them when they retreated and dared not yet separate from their standards.
00:11:54.380 The cavalry, too, found it very dangerous work fighting the charioteers, for the Britons would generally give ground on purpose and, after drawing them some distance from the legions, would jump down from their chariots and fight on foot with the odds in their favour.
00:12:08.040 In engaging their cavalry, our men were not much better off.
00:12:11.880 Their tactics were such that the danger was exactly the same for both pursuers and pursued.
00:12:16.840 A further difficulty was that they never fought in very close order, but in very open formation, and had reserves posted here and there.
00:12:24.000 In this way, the various groups covered one another's retreat, and fresh troops replaced those who were tired.
00:12:29.960 So, the different tactics of the charioteers causing a bit of a headache for Caesar.
00:12:34.180 But, if we know Caesar by now, he'll be able to think up some sort of countermeasures.
00:12:39.780 He continues his narrative saying this, quote,
00:12:41.480 Next day, the enemy took up a position on the hills at a distance from the camp.
00:12:45.720 They showed themselves now only in small parties, and harassed our cavalry with less vigour than the day before.
00:12:51.620 But at midday, when Caesar had sent three legions and all the cavalry on a foraging expedition under his general, Gaius Trebonius,
00:12:59.540 they suddenly sweeped down on them from all sides, pressing their attack right up to the standards of the legions.
00:13:05.300 The legionaries drove them off by a strong counterattack, and continued to pursue, until the cavalry, emboldened by the support of the legions, which they saw close behind them, made a charge that sent the natives flying headlong.
00:13:18.900 A great many were killed, and the rest were given no chance of rallying, or making a stand, or jumping from their chariots.
00:13:25.000 This rout caused the immediate dispersal of the forces that had assembled from various tribes to Cassiovolinus' aid, and the Britons never again joined the battle with their whole strength.
00:13:35.560 So it seems like Caesar made fairly short work of them, to be perfectly honest.
00:13:40.280 I mean, there's more to go yet, the story isn't over, but in that first sort of sharp engagement, sort of testing the waters, testing out each other's abilities and skills and numbers and things,
00:13:50.940 Caesar and the Romans were just completely unfazed, as usual. 0.95
00:13:55.000 And the native Britons just seem to have shrunk from the challenge. 1.00
00:13:59.560 The account goes on, quote,
00:14:00.940 On learning the enemy's plan of campaign, Caesar led his army to the Thames, in order to enter Cassiovolinus' territory.
00:14:07.820 The river is foldable at one point only, and even there with difficulty.
00:14:12.160 At this place, he found large enemy forces drawn up on the opposite bank.
00:14:16.160 The bank was also fenced by sharp stakes fixed along the edge, and he was told by prisoners and deserters that similar ones were concealed in the riverbed.
00:14:25.160 He sent the cavalry across first, and then at once ordered the infantry to follow, but the infantry went with such speed and impetuosity, although they had only their heads above the water, that they attacked at the same moment as the cavalry.
00:14:38.460 The enemy was overpowered and fled from the riverbank.
00:14:41.160 Cassiovolinus had now given up all hope of fighting a pitched battle.
00:14:45.180 Disbanding the greater part of his troops, he retained only some 4,000 charioteers, with whom he watched our line of march.
00:14:52.320 He would retire a short way from the route and hide in dense thickets, driving the inhabitants and cattle from the open country into the woods, wherever he knew we intended to pass.
00:15:02.180 If ever our cavalry incautiously ventured too far away in plundering and devastating the country, he would send all his charioteers out of the woods by well-known lanes and pathways, and deliver very formidable attacks, hoping by this means to make them afraid to go far afield.
00:15:18.560 Caesar was thus compelled to keep the cavalry in touch with the column of infantry, and to let the enemy off with such devastation and burning as could be done under the protection of the legionaries, tired as they often were with marching.
00:15:30.940 So just to reiterate, a lot of this is about murder and rapine and rape and completely wanton destruction, and there just would have been a swathe of misery and killing in the Romans' path, in the Romans' wake. 0.68
00:15:45.820 Caesar continues,
00:15:46.520 During this march, envoys arrived from the Trinovantes, about the strongest tribe in south-eastern Britain.
00:15:53.040 Mandubracius, a young man of his tribe, had gone over to the continent to put himself under Caesar's protection, having fled for his life when his father, the king of the Trinovantes, was killed by Cassiovolinus.
00:16:04.520 The envoys promised to surrender and obey Caesar's commands, and asked him to protect Mandubracius from Cassiovolinus, and send him home to rule his people as king.
00:16:15.460 Caesar demanded 40 hostages for his troops, and then allowed Mandubracius to go.
00:16:20.800 The Trinovantes promptly sent the required number of hostages and the grain. 1.00
00:16:25.060 When they saw that the Trinovantes had been protected against Cassiovolinus, and spared any injury on the part of the Roman troops, several other tribes, the Senimangi, Segontiaki, Ancolite, Bibrochi and Cassi, sent embassies and surrendered.
00:16:40.400 From them, Caesar learnt that he was not far from Cassiovolinus' stronghold, which was protected by forests and marshes, and had been filled with a large number of men and cattle.
00:16:49.880 The Britons apply the term strongholds to densely wooded spots fortified with a rampart and trench, to which they retire in order to escape the attacks of invaders.
00:16:59.200 He marched to the place with his legions, and found that it was of great natural strength, and excellently fortified.
00:17:05.980 Nevertheless, he proceeded to assault it on two sides.
00:17:09.140 After a short time, the enemy proved unable to resist the violent attack of the legions, and rushed out of the fortress on another side.
00:17:16.400 A quantity of cattle was found there, and many of the fugitives were captured or killed.
00:17:21.240 So again, from us who wish we had so much more detail, Caesar seems, feels a bit flippant there.
00:17:26.700 They had these great strongholds, but we just overawed them easily.
00:17:30.580 Anyway, next thing.
00:17:32.400 Really do, we really do wish we had more detail about all of this.
00:17:37.200 Still, there we are, that's the nature of ancient history.
00:17:39.820 While these operations were proceeding in this territory, Cassiovolinus sent envoys to Kent ordering the four kings of that region,
00:17:47.980 Syngeterix, Carvilius, Taximangulus, and Segovacs, to collect all their troops and make a surprise attack on the naval camp.
00:17:56.400 When these forces appeared, the Romans made a sortie, in which without suffering any loss, they killed a great many of them, 0.91
00:18:03.200 and captured Lugotocrix, a leader of noble birth.
00:18:06.400 On receiving news of this action, Cassiovolinus, alarmed by so many reverses, by devastation of his country,
00:18:14.100 and above all by the defection of his allies, sent envoys to Caesar to obtain terms of surrender,
00:18:19.820 employing Commius as an intermediary.
00:18:22.200 Caesar had decided to return to the continent for the winter, for fear any sudden rising should break out in Gaul.
00:18:28.320 The summer too was nearly over, and he knew that the Britons could easily hold out for the short time that remained.
00:18:33.980 Accordingly, he granted Cassiovolinus' request for terms, demanding hostages, fixing an annual tribute to be paid by the Britons to the Roman government,
00:18:43.960 and strictly forbading Cassiovolinus to molest Mandubracchius or the Trinovantes.
00:18:49.140 As soon as the hostages were delivered, he led the army back to the coast, where he found the ships repaired.
00:18:54.940 He had them launched, and as he had a large number of prisoners, and some of the ships had been destroyed by the storm,
00:19:00.220 decided to make the return voyage in two trips.
00:19:03.500 It happened that all of these large fleets which made so many voyages in this and the preceding war,
00:19:09.680 not a single ship with troops on board was lost, while very few of the vessels coming over empty from the continent,
00:19:15.440 i.e. those which had returned to Gaul after landing troops in Britain,
00:19:18.980 and sixty that Labinus had built after the start of the expedition, reached their destination,
00:19:24.500 nearly all the rest being forced back to land.
00:19:26.480 After waiting a long time for them in vain, Caesar was afraid of being prevented from sailing by the approaching season of the equinox,
00:19:34.000 and so had to pack the men more tightly than usual on the ships he had.
00:19:37.900 The sea becoming very calm, he set sail late in the evening, and brought all the fleets safely to land at dawn." 0.69
00:19:43.700 So that is the entirety of Caesar's account of his second incursion into Britain,
00:19:49.220 and at the considerable risk of sounding like a broken record,
00:19:52.320 we wish we had more on that, but that's all we've got, and he just moves on, and it's a shame.
00:19:58.500 There is, of course, all sorts of archaeology backing up this stuff.
00:20:02.560 Some people say they don't believe anything, or hardly anything, Caesar wrote in this account.
00:20:06.920 It's sort of all made up.
00:20:08.360 Well, it's not.
00:20:11.080 There may be exaggerations here or there, there may be quite a lot of exaggeration,
00:20:14.460 but things being made up entirely out of whole cloth.
00:20:17.240 No, the archaeology shows the Romans were there at that time.
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