The emperor’s expedition: from Ostia to Camulodunum, AD 43
Claudius’s expedition to Britain in AD 43: from Ostia through Massilia and Gaul to Gesoriacum, the Channel crossing, the capture of Camulodunum and the return to Rome.
Transcript
AD forty-three. Four Roman legions stand on the Thames, waiting for the emperor.
According to Suetonius, storms nearly wreck him twice.
So from Massilia he goes overland, across Gaul, to Gesoriacum.
He crosses the Channel and joins the army on the Thames.
Dio says he brings elephants on the campaign.
He takes Camulodunum, the Britons’ capital.
Dio writes of fighting, Suetonius of a surrender without a battle.
Six months after leaving, he returns to Rome.
In AD forty-four he holds his triumph.
He has coins struck: over the Britons.