Caratacus Caratacus ( Brythonic " * Caratācos " , Middle Welsh " Caratawc " ; Welsh " Caradog " ; Greek " Καράτακος " ; variants Latin " Caractacus " , Greek " Καρτάκης " ) was a first - century British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe , who led the British resistance to the Roman conquest . Before the Roman invasion Caratacus is associated with the expansion of his tribe ' s territory . His apparent success led to Roman invasion , nominally in support of his defeated enemies . He resisted the Romans for almost a decade , mixing guerrilla warfare with set - piece battles , but was unsuccessful in the latter . After his final defeat he fled to the territory of Queen Cartimandua , who captured him and handed him over to the Romans . He was sentenced to death as a military prisoner , but made a speech before his execution that persuaded the Emperor Claudius to spare him . The legendary Welsh character Caradog ap Bran and the legendary British king Arvirargus may be based upon Caratacus . Caratacus ' s speech to Claudius has been a common subject in art . History . Claudian Invasion . Caratacus is named by Dio Cassius as a son of the Catuvellaunian king Cunobelinus . Based on coin distribution Caratacus appears to have been the protégé of his uncle Epaticcus , who expanded Catuvellaunian power westwards into the territory of the Atrebates . After Epaticcus died in about 35 A . D . , the Atrebates , under Verica , regained some of their territory , but it appears Caratacus completed the conquest , as Dio tells us Verica was ousted , fled to Rome and appealed to the emperor Claudius for help . This was the excuse used by Claudius to launch his invasion of Britain in the summer of 43 C . E . Cunobelinus had died some time before the invasion . Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus led the initial defence of the country against Aulus Plautius ' s four legions , thought to have been around 40 , 000 men , primarily using guerrilla tactics . They lost much of the south - east after being defeated in two crucial battles on the rivers Medway and Thames . Togodumnus was killed ( although John Hind argues that Dio was mistaken in reporting Togodumnus ' death , that he was defeated but survived , and was later appointed by the Romans as a friendly king over a number of territories , becoming the loyal king referred to by Tacitus as Cogidubnus or Togidubnus ) and the Catuvellauni ' s territories were conquered . Resistance to Rome . We next hear of Caratacus in Tacitus ' s " Annals " , leading the Silures and Ordovices of Wales against Plautius ' successor as governor , Publius Ostorius Scapula . Finally , in 51 , Scapula managed to defeat Caratacus in a set - piece battle somewhere in Ordovician territory ( see the Battle of Caer Caradoc ) , capturing Caratacus ' wife and daughter and receiving the surrender of his brothers . Caratacus himself escaped , and fled north to the lands of the Brigantes ( modern Yorkshire ) where the Brigantian queen , Cartimandua , handed him over to the Romans in chains . This was one of the factors that led to two Brigantian revolts against Cartimandua and her Roman allies , once later in the 50s and once in 69 , led by Venutius , who had once been Cartimandua ' s husband . With the capture of Caratacus , much of southern Britain from the Humber to the Severn was pacified and garrisoned throughout the 50s . Legend places Caratacus ' last stand at British Camp in the Malvern Hills , but the description of Tacitus makes this unlikely : Although the Severn is visible from British Camp , it is nowhere near it , so this battle must have taken place elsewhere . A number of locations have been suggested , including a site near Brampton Bryan . Bari Jones , in " Archaeology Today " in 1998 , identified Blodwel Rocks at Llanymynech in Powys as representing a close fit with Tacitus ' account . Captive in Rome . After his capture , Caratacus was sent to Rome as a war prize , presumably to be killed after a triumphal parade . Although a captive , he was allowed to speak to the Roman senate . Tacitus records a version of his speech in which he says that his stubborn resistance made Rome ' s glory in defeating him all the greater : He made such an impression that he was pardoned and allowed to live in peace in Rome . After his liberation , according to Dio Cassius , Caratacus was so impressed by the city of Rome that he said " And can you , then , who have got such possessions and so many of them , covet our poor tents ? " Caratacus ' name . Caratacus ' name appears as both " Caratacus " and " Caractacus " in manuscripts of Tacitus , and as " Καράτακος " and " Καρτάκης " in manuscripts of Dio . Older reference works tend to favour the spelling " Caractacus " , but modern scholars agree , based on historical linguistics and source criticism , that the original Brythonic form was " * Caratācos " , pronounced , which gives the attested names " Caradog " in Welsh , " Karadeg " in Breton and " Carthach " in Irish . Legend . Medieval Welsh traditions . Caratacus ' memory may have been preserved in medieval Welsh tradition . A genealogy in the Welsh Harleian MS 3859 ( ca . 1100 ) includes the generations " Caratauc map Cinbelin map Teuhant " , corresponding , via established processes of language change , to " Caratacus , son of Cunobelinus , son of Tasciovanus " , preserving the names of the three historical figures in correct relationship . Caratacus does not appear in Geoffrey of Monmouth ' s " History of the Kings of Britain " ( 1136 ) , although he appears to correspond to Arviragus , the younger son of Kymbelinus , who continues to resist the Roman invasion after the death of his older brother Guiderius . In Welsh versions his name is Gweirydd , son of Cynfelyn , and his brother is called Gwydyr ; the name Arviragus is taken from a poem by Juvenal . Caradog , son of Bran , who appears in medieval Welsh literature , has also been identified with Caratacus , although nothing in the medieval legend corresponds except his name . He appears in the Mabinogion as a son of Bran the Blessed , who is left in charge of Britain while his father makes war in Ireland , but is overthrown by Caswallawn ( the historical Cassivellaunus , who lived a century earlier than Caratacus ) . The Welsh Triads agree that he was Bran ' s son , and name two sons , Cawrdaf and Eudaf . Modern traditions . Caradog only began to be identified with Caratacus after the rediscovery of the works of Tacitus , and new material appeared based on this identification . An 18th - century tradition , popularised by the Welsh antiquarian and forger Iolo Morganwg , credits Caradog , on his return from imprisonment in Rome , with the introduction of Christianity to Britain . Iolo also makes the legendary king Coel Hen a son of Caradog ' s son Saint Cyllin . Richard Williams Morgan claimed that a reference to Cyllin as a son of Caratacus was found in the family records of Iestyn ab Gwrgant and used this as evidence of the early entry of Christianity to Britain : " Cyllin ab Caradog , a wise and just king . In his days many of the Cymry embraced the faith in Christ through the teaching of the saints of Cor - Eurgain , and many godly men from the countries of Greece and Rome were in Cambria . He first of the Cymry gave infants names ; for before , names were not given except to adults , and then from something characteristic in their bodies , minds , or manners . " Another tradition , which has remained popular among British Israelites and others , makes Caratacus already a Christian before he came to Rome , Christianity having been brought to Britain by either Joseph of Arimathea or St . Paul , and identifies a number of early Christians as his relatives . One is Pomponia Graecina , wife of Aulus Plautius , the conqueror of Britain , who as Tacitus relates , was accused of following a " foreign superstition " , generally considered to be Christianity . Tacitus describes her as the " wife of the Plautius who returned from Britain with an ovation " , which led John Lingard ( 1771 – 1851 ) to conclude , in his " History and Antiquities of the Anglo - Saxon Church " , that she was British ; however , this conclusion is a misinterpretation of what Tacitus wrote . An ovation was a military parade in honour of a victorious general , so the person who " returned from Britain with an ovation " is clearly Plautius , not Pomponia . This has not prevented the error being repeated and disseminated widely . Another is Claudia Rufina , a historical British woman known to the poet Martial . Martial describes Claudia ' s marriage to a man named Pudens , almost certainly Aulus Pudens , an Umbria n centurion and friend of the poet who appears regularly in his " Epigrams " . It has been argued since the 17th century that this pair may be the same as the Claudia and Pudens mentioned as members of the Roman Christian community in " 2 Timothy " in the New Testament . Some go further , claiming that Claudia was Caratacus ' daughter , and that the historical Pope Linus , who is described as the " brother of Claudia " in an early church document , was Caratacus ' son . Pudens is identified with St . Pudens , and it is claimed that the basilica of Santa Pudenziana in Rome , and with which St . Pudens is associated , was once called the " Palatium Britannicum " and was the home of Caratacus and his family . This theory was popularised in a 1961 book called " The Drama of the Lost Disciples " by George Jowett , but Jowett did not originate it . He cites renaissance historians such as Archbishop James Ussher , Caesar Baronius and John Hardyng , as well as classical writers like Caesar , Tacitus and Juvenal , although his classical cites at least are wildly inaccurate , many of his assertions are unsourced , and many of his identifications entirely speculative . He also regularly cites " St . Paul in Britain " , an 1860 book by R . W . Morgan , and advocates other tenets of British Israelism , in particular that the British are descended from the lost tribes of Israel .