Julius Caesar came, saw and conquered... an island in Kent?
HE was the Roman who, according to legend, liked to say he came, saw and conquered.
But exactly where Julius Caesar and his legions landed in Britain has been a mystery – until now.
It had been thought that he came ashore between Walmer and Deal on the East Kent coast, although there was no hard evidence to support this.
But archaeologists have now identified the landing area some ten miles to the north, at Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate, on the Isle of Thanet.
Roman defensive ditches have been uncovered half a mile inland in an area that would have been next to the coast in 55BC, when Caesar first attempted to land. That invasion failed after a few weeks, having established little more than a beachhead. But Caesar returned to Pegwell Bay the following summer, 54BC. This time his armies reached Hertfordshire.
Although Thanet is now joined to Kent, 2,000 years ago it was an island separated from the mainland by a narrow strait.
A large defensive ditch found at Pegwell Bay is very similar to defences used by the Romans at the time in France.
Iron weapons, including a javelin, and pottery dug up in the hamlet of Ebbsfleet, which overlooks the bay, suggest the Romans built a base there.
Around 50 acres in size, it would have been to protect Caesar’s fleet on the beach. The location matches Caesar’s own description – he wrote detailed accounts of his campaigns – as it was visible from the sea with a large open bay and was overlooked by higher ground on which his army built a fort.
Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Leicester University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, said: ‘The site at Ebbsfleet lies on a peninsula that projects from the south- eastern tip of the Isle of Thanet. Thanet has never been considered as a possible landing site before because it was separated from the mainland until the Middle Ages.
‘However, it is not known how big the channel that separated it from the mainland, the Wantsum Channel, was.
‘It was clearly not a significant barrier to people of Thanet during the Iron Age and it certainly would not have been a major challenge to the engineering capabilities of the Roman army.’
Dr Fitzpatrick, whose study will be featured on Digging For Britain, to be shown on BBC4 tonight, said: ‘Sailing from somewhere between Boulogne and Calais, Caesar says at sunrise they saw Britain far away on the left hand side.
As they set sail opposite the cliffs of Dover, Caesar can only be describing the white chalk cliffs around Ramsgate which were being illuminated by the rising sun. Caesar describes how the ships were left at anchor at an even and open shore and how they were damaged by a great storm.
‘This description is consistent with Pegwell Bay, which today is the largest bay on the East Kent coast and is open and flat.
‘Caesar also describes how the Britons had assembled to oppose the landing but, taken aback by the size of the fleet, they concealed themselves on the higher ground.
‘ This is consistent with the higher ground around Ramsgate. These three clues about the topography of the landing site; the presence of cliffs, the existence of a large open bay, and the presence of higher ground nearby, are consistent with the 54BC landing having been in Pegwell Bay.’
It has long been believed that because Caesar returned to France leaving no army of occupation, his invasions were failures had no lasting effect on ancient Britons and left few significant archaeological remains.
However, he did establish treaties with locals, paving the way for the full-scale invasion by Claudius almost a century later, in AD43. Principal investigator Professor Colin Haselgrove, also of Leicester University, said: ‘It seems likely the treaties set up by Caesar formed the basis for alliances between Rome and British royal families.
‘This eventually resulted in the leading rulers of south east England becoming client kings of Rome. Almost 100 years after Caesar, in 43AD the emperor Claudius invaded Britain.
‘The conquest of south- east England seems to have been rapid, probably because the kings in this region were already allied to Rome. This was the beginning of the permanent Roman occupation of Britain, which included Wales and some of Scotland, and lasted for almost 400 years, suggesting Claudius later exploited Caesar’s legacy.’
Contrary to popular myth, Caesar did not say ‘Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)’ about his invasion of Britain.
He used it later, around 47BC, after victory at the Battle of Zela, in present day Turkey.
‘It was not a major challenge’