A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Their territory probably included the present counties of Middlesex and 

 Hertford and extended into Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire 

 and Northamptonshire. According to Ptolemy their chief towns were 

 Urolanium or Verulamium (near St. Albans in Hertfordshire) and Salinae.' 

 Besides these towns they had in Hertfordshire settlements at Welwyn, 

 Hitchin and Braughing, and it is probable that the county is richer in 

 remains of this race than is generally supposed. 



Caesar's first invasion in B.C. 55 did not affect the inland part of 

 Britain, but the second in the following year had more far-reaching 

 effects. The Belgic tribes in Britain, as was their custom, were constantly 

 engaged in internecine warfare, but appreciating the seriousness of the 

 Roman attack they determined to combine for the purpose of defence. 

 The chief men of the tribes met and gave to Cassivellaunus, Prince of the 

 Catuvellauni, the supreme command of the British forces.' We know little 

 of this prince. It has been suggested that he succeeded to the chief rule of 

 the Belgic tribes in Britain by hereditary right from Divitiacus,^ King 

 of the Suessiones, a tribe whose territory lay to the north-west of Paris. 

 Caesar states that Britain, by which possibly he meant that portion occupied 

 by the Belgic tribes and best known to the Gauls, was brought under the 

 rule of this Divitiacus at a period before his time." The fact, however, 

 mentioned by Caesar that Cassivellaunus was elected general seems to 

 dispose of the suggestion that he succeeded by inheritance to that office. 

 It is probable, however, that he was the most powerful king in Britain in 

 his time. He had apparently waged war on his neighbours the Trinovantes, 

 who inhabited what is now the county of Essex, and had slain their king " 

 Imanuentius. Mandubracius, son of Imanuentius, escaped to Gaul and 

 invited Caesar's aid probably before the first invasion of Britain. He 

 accompanied Caesar on his second invasion, when he evidently persuaded 

 the Trinovantes to submit, and was probably the means of securing the 

 submission of other tribes. In his second invasion Caesar landed near 

 Sandwich in July, B.C. 54." The route he took and the place at which he 

 crossed the Thames do not concern us with regard to Hertfordshire." The 

 Romans reached the Thames about a week after commencing their march, 

 and the Britons, having failed in preventing the Roman army from crossing 

 that river, seem to have lost heart." Cassivellaunus seeing no prospect of 

 success by a general engagement disbanded the greater part of his army, 

 retaining only some 4,000 charioteers.^' 



The laconic language of Caesar gives us no clue as to his route north of 

 the Thames. It was apparently along a recognized track, for he states 

 that Cassivellaunus moved a little way ex via and hid himself in impenetrable 

 woodland, so that with his intimate knowledge of the ground he might cut 

 off foragers and harass the Roman army. It would seem probable that the 



' The site of Salinae is unknown. Its identification with Sandy in Bedfordshire is uncertain. 

 6 De Bello Gallico, v, 11. 



' Guest, Origines Celticae, 394 ; see also T. Rice Holmes, Ancient Britain, 299, 300. 

 ^ De BeUo Gallico, ii, 4. 



' Ibid. V, II, 20. The provision by Caesar for the safety of Mandubracius and the Trinovantes from 

 molestation by Cassivellaunus (ibid. 22) implies that war had been waged between the tribes. 

 1" Ibid. V, 20, 21 ; T. Rice Holmes, op. cit. 333. 

 11 y.C.H. Surr. iv, 343 ; Proc. Soc. Jntij. xxiv, 137 et seq. 

 " De BeUo Gallico, v, 18. " Ibid. 19. 



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