ABSTRACT
The only account we have of the actual invasion is in Dio (1x 19-20; Appendix 1), but it is difficult to make it into a coherent narrative without stretching the meaning and using a good deal of imagination, all of which would not be necessary had we had the lost books of Tacitus. Dio starts with the reason for the campaign; it was all due to persuasion by the exiled King Verica (who is almost certainly the Berikos in the text of Dio) on Claudius and this could have been the official political pretext given to justify the event. The army was reluctant to embark for fear of the Channel crossing. The terror of the superstitious troops brought face to face with the ocean is understandable, and also they knew that three or four years earlier, the invasion planned by Gaius (the mad Caligula) had been abandoned. This very strange story told by Suetonius1 must be accepted as a serious possibility because a lighthouse was built at Boulogne, an important step in setting up a permanent communication link across the Channel. Plautius was forced to accept a delay until ‘late in the season’, which suggests some months, and we learn also that the landing was unopposed because the Britons had tired of waiting and returned home. A delay is also noted by Suetonius (Galba 7) where he specifically stated that the expedition was delayed on account of a minor illness of Galba, but as argued above, this is more likely to refer to the departure of Claudius himself from Rome, when Galba was one of his comites. Perhaps the cautious Plautius wanted the British levies to disperse and used the soldiers’ reluctance to embark as an excuse. It seems strange that he was unable to exert his authority as supreme commander, and had to send to Rome for help and advice. Eventually, this came in the form of Narcissus, the powerful Secretary of State, and one of Claudius’ closest advisers. This wily Greek succeeded in cajoling the troops aboard, his appearance prompting the jibe recorded by Dio, referring to the freedman’s former slave status, which dissolved the soldiers into gales of hysterical laughter.2 One can only guess at the coarse ribaldry used by Narcissus to achieve this end, and to which the stiff Plautius was unlikely to descend.
