SOUTH-WEST OF BRITAIN BY VESPASIAN. 23 



ter), on the boundary between England and Wales. Why in 

 the world, you may say, did Claudius build a Roman temple for 

 Grweyrydd, a Briton of the Druidic faith ? Well, I suppose he 

 built it for his daughter, the wife of Gweyrydd, that she might 

 enjoy Romish worship here in Britain. Then some while after 

 Claudius had left Britain Q-weyrydd withheld the Roman tribute, 

 which very likely he could not readily get from his Britons, who 

 did not feel at all the happier for his homage to Claudius, and 

 therefore Claudius sent Vespasian against his Princedom. The 

 Brut says that Vespasian tried to land at Rutupia (Richborough), 

 and nothing can be more likely than that he would try to put in 

 there. He came from Germany, and to wage war against 

 Britons, and surely with a fleet of galleys, with a legion of 

 about three or four thousand Romans, and about as many 

 auxiliaries, he must have wished, ere he could launch into war- 

 fare, to fit his ships and to ship stores for his host of men, and 

 where could he look for his new outfit better than at the Roman 

 keyhaven to Britain ? as was Csesarea to Judea Rutupia or 

 Richborough. Then it is said that he was kept from landing 

 by a strong force led on by Q-weyrydd, then the Unben (head- 

 king) of Britain, and so, therefore, he made for Totness, where 

 he landed and immediately fell on Caer Penhuylcoet. It does 

 not say that Vespasian landed his men and that they fought at 

 Rutupia, and whether or not they withdrew from fear of the 

 Britons may be tried by the knowledge that comers and keepers, 

 as we have already said, make the best of their case, and the 

 Britons might have too readily believed that the Romans went 

 down the Channel from fear of them, though I do not believe 

 that Vespasian meant to bring war against the Britons of Kent, 

 with whom Claudius had no feud. Albeit Q-weyrdd was head 

 among the princes of Britain, " Primus inter pares," he had, 

 like each of the others, a princedom of his own, and while he 

 withheld the tribute for his own land, we may believe that he 

 left others, as the Kentish princes, to pay it as freely as they 

 would ; and if we can find where was his princedom, we can see 

 where Vespasian would go to strike his stroke of war. Now, as 



