- Cantiaci
Infobox Celts of England
Name = Cantiaci
fullname = Cantiaci
name = Cantiaci
capital = "Durovernum Cantiacorum " (Canterbury )
location =Kent
origin = ?The Cantiaci or Cantii were aCelt ic or Belgic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a "civitas " ofRoman Britain . They lived in the area then called Cantium, now calledKent , in south-eastern England, and spoke a Brythonic language - most likely a dialect of British with influence fromGaulish . Their capital was "Durovernum Cantiacorum ", nowCanterbury .Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and54 BC , the first Roman expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his "De Bello Gallico " v. 14::"Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt, quae regio est maritima omnis, neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine.":"Of all these (British tribes), by far the most civilised are they who dwell in Kent, which is entirely a maritime region, and who differ but little from the Gauls in their customs".
Rulers
Pre-Roman Iron Age
Caesar mentions four kings,
Segovax ,Carvilius , Cingetorix andTaximagulus , who held power in Cantium at the time of his second expedition in54 BC . The British leaderCassivellaunus , besieged in his stronghold north of the Thames, sent a message to these four kings to attack the Roman naval camp as a distraction. The attack failed, a chieftain calledLugotorix was captured, and Cassivellaunus was forced to seek terms.In the century between Caesar's expeditions and the conquest under
Claudius , kings in Britain began to issue coins stamped with their names. The following kings of the Cantiaci are known:*
Dubnovellaunus . May have been an ally or sub-king ofTasciovanus of theCatuvellauni , or a son ofAddedomarus of theTrinovantes . Presented himself as a supplicant to Augustus ca.7 BC .
*Vosenius , ruled until ca.15 BC .
*Eppillus , originally king of theAtrebates . Coins indicate he became king of the Cantiaci ca. 15 BC, at the same time as his brotherVerica became king of the Atrebates.
*Cunobelinus , king of the Catuvellauni who expanded his influence into Cantiaci territory.
*Adminius , son of Cunobelinus. Seems to have ruled on his father's behalf, beginning ca.30 AD. Suetonius tells us he was exiled by Cunobelinus ca.40 AD, leading toCaligula 's aborted invasion of Britain.ub-Roman period
According to
Nennius ,Gwrangon was King of Kent in the time ofVortigern , until Vortigern took away the kingdom and gave it toHengist ; but Nennius is regarded as an untrustworthy source, and “Gwrangon seems to have been transported by the story-teller into Kent from Gwent” and “is turned into an imaginary King of Kent, secretly disposed of his realm in favour of Hengist, whose daughter Vortigern wished to marry” (Wade-Evans 1938).References
*
Julius Caesar , "De Bello Gallico "
*Suetonius, "Lives of the Twelve Caesars"
*John Creighton (2000), "Coins and power in Late Iron Age Britain", Cambridge University Press
*Wade-Evans, A. W. (1938), "Nennius’s History of the Britons"ee also
List of Celtic tribes External links
* [http://www.roman-britain.org/tribes/cantiaci.htm Cantiaci] at [http://www.roman-britain.org Roman-Britain.org]
* [http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/clb_tribe_cantium.htm Cantium] at [http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/ Romans in Britain]
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