Maximum extent of Briton settlement, ca. 50 BC.
The Britons were indigenous, pre-Roman, inhabitants of Great Britain. Little is known of these people. Brittania was apparently the prime center of the Druidical religion. Julius Caesar wrote, “Those who want to make a study of the subject generally go to Britain for the purpose.” Regarding the inhabitants themselves he wrote, “The population is exceedingly large, the ground thickly studded with homesteads…and the cattle very numerous…hares, fowl, and geese they think it unlawful to eat, but rear them for pleasure and amusement…Most of the tribes do not grow corn but live on milk and meat, and wear skins. All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long, and shave the whole of their bodies except the head and the upper lip.”
Rome invaded in 43 AD, and while they were initially successful, their occupation was hampered by resistance from an unlikely source. In 60 A.D., the Romans tried to subdue a tribe in what is now Norfolk in eastern England. Boudicca (Boadicea), the wife of the deceased chieftain, rose up against the Romans. She became the chieftain of the Celtic Britons in her region, and vanquished the Roman 9th Legion in battle. She marched on London and burned it.
The Romans eventually defeated Boudicca’s warriors, but not before (according to Tacitus) 70,000 Romans and allies had been killed. It is said that the Romans did take a milder policy towards the Britons after Boudicca.
Around 410 AD, with the Empire weakening and under threat, the Roman legions left Britain, opening the door to waves of invasion from expanding Germanic tribes.
