Cassivellaunus biography of martin

Celtic chieftain

Cassivellaunus was a Celtic chieftain, who ruled the territory north of the River Thames, and led the native British tribes in opposition to Julius Caesar on his second expedition in 54 BC.

The character of Cassevellaunus appears in Celtic legend as Cassibelanus, and in Caesar's 'Commentarii de Bello Gallico' an account of the Gallic Wars, narrated in the third person.

Cassivellaunus biography of martin

Although Caesar omits to name Cassivellaunus's tribe in his account, their territory, stated to be north of the River Thames, corresponds with the area occupied by the Catuvellauni tribe at the time of the later Roman invasion under Emperor Claudius, which roughly consisted of the modern counties of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire east of the River Cherwell.

The Catuvellauni were the most powerful Belgic tribe in Iron Age Britain. Their name is said to derive from two Celtic words: 'cat', which means battle, and 'vel', wh